ARIES CERAT SYMPHONIA HORN SPEAKERS REVIEW
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Aries Cerat Symphonia Review
- Thread starter Argonaut
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The surface of Jupiter crafted from Liquid Copper lacquer .... Glorious 
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Amazing i love it.
Thread title adjusted accordingly StavrosThat is the standard version,before the LE
Cheers
Stavros
Oh, nice to see there is a review of these beautiful (and wonderfully well made) speakers.
The result doesn't surprise me though. After a years-long odyssey, I visited Flyer in Belgium a few years ago and heard his Symphonias (among others). I had expected all sorts of things, but not that a horn speaker would sound so natural in every way. Wonderful speakers!!!
Oops - I looked in my listening room. There are no Symphonias there! I think I should change that ...
The result doesn't surprise me though. After a years-long odyssey, I visited Flyer in Belgium a few years ago and heard his Symphonias (among others). I had expected all sorts of things, but not that a horn speaker would sound so natural in every way. Wonderful speakers!!!
Oops - I looked in my listening room. There are no Symphonias there! I think I should change that ...
Only an entry level amp relative to other Aries Cerat… an absolute beast of an amp…
[please excuse my bad English]
Regarding the Aries Cerat Symphonia high efficiency horn speakers, I listened to the 1st version (non-LE, don't know the difference BTW).
That's why I wished to at least mentioned those speakers to @tima , here, as he prompted for suggestions.
But a member privately asked me to expand a little more on that listening experience with the Symphonia.
What I can say about them lies in the following few points:
- Brain reclockers... - Huh! I regularly attend classical concerts, sitting in the best seats, in the best concert halls. Preferably on the very first seats of elevated structures to even avoid the seat dip (suckout in the 300Hz region due to the energy absorption of bodies and seats). In general, I don't like horns (very dynamic and lifelike, but they shout, are uneven, non-linear, and sometimes/most-of-the-time they lack of body and naturalness). Needless to say that when I sat in front of the Symphonia, I had very strong prejudice. The music started, it was a Bach's choral. I was immediately 'shocked' by an extremely disturbing cognitive/psychological phenomenon: what my ear-brain obviously heard was a choir, singing live in front of me in a concert hall (without the faintest projection or harshness on the forte). But what my eye-brain saw were two motionless statues in a listening room. My brain just couldn't reconcile those two mutually-exclusive perceptions, and this produced a unique experience. I took me, say, 20 or 30 sec to, kind of, recover from that impressive destabilization. I have never, anywhere, on any system, had such an experience before. And yet, "ultra-high-end" systems, I've heard a lot. Simply put, I did not know that technology in 2020 could reach such a level of music reproduction accuracy. A genuine revelation.
Now, if you were chemist in another life, and are craving for an analysis, again, is that all lies in the un-analyzable first point. But if you really insist, then here we go (I will stay very superficial though):
- body and naturalness were perfect, also in the midrange. Hey, I am a Harbeth M30.2 Anniversary user (in a 2nd system, true; and Analysis user in the main one), and M40.x admirer. So you know Harbeth users, and their legendary worship of midrange-naturalness, right? Well, those horns fit the bill perfectly, and much more: world-class expressiveness and transparency which is second to none
- the treble is first-class, and wonderfully integrated to the midrange (at least subjectively; I haven't seen any measurements). The Raal ribbon tweeter used is the best in the world, specs-wise (I know it because it had been chosen by an Belgian acoustician engineer for a crazy project of a 120L 96dB Corian loudspeaker; it will stay a prototype, forever; but he chosed the tweeter with the best specifications he could find). But with the Symphonia, Aries Cerat goes probably beyond what the on-the-shelf specifications of the tweeter can deliver, by designing and manufacturing their own little 'horn' for the tweeter ! (amazing very short video of that manufacture process - picture of the final product).
- the bass is fast and taut, without preventing the cello from natural bloom.
The room was nevertheless a bit too short to let the bass fully expand naturally. So honestly, I cannot really say how deep the Symphonia will go in the bass (and as I don't suffer from scatological nevrotic obsession for ultra-deep bass, I do not really care - as long as cello is ok, I am happy). Anyway, every system today can happily be complemented with a very good actively and digitally room-EQ'd dedicated subwoofer, with digital correction in the bass only (DO NOT wreck the magnificent mid&treble of such a true high-end system by trying to full-range room-EQ it !! - that discussion seems to be now closed on the HUG, membership required, I'm afraid)
But enough analysis, because they sound like a big, orchestral or choral, instrument, as a whole. Incredibly realistic.
Set up?
Now, is it "easy" to make them sing? I have no idea, honestly.
It was a full Aries Cerat system, in a well designed room (though a bit too short, as said), with SMT diffusers on wall and ceiling.
So, is it necessary to have Aries Cerat gear from top to bottom to make them sing? No idea.
Is it essential to have a dedicated well-designed room to achieve that level of realism, or 'lifelikeness'? Again, no idea.
All I know is that this system (listening room-electronics-speakers) achieves what others can only aspire to approach. And experience shows that the latter are not the cheapest (!).
An additional category should be created to encompass such sonic achievements (this is not 'just' high-end, it is obviously something else).
Plato* divided the Universe into sub-lunar world (beneath the Moon's orbit, human world made of ephemeral imperfection) and supra-lunar world (beyond the Moon's orbit, world of Ideas, Gods and perfection). I don't know in which category I would classify this system, really.
*not sure that @tima will appreciate this dualism, because his avatar is a portrait of ... Emmanuel Kant, who precisely produced a synthesis of traditional Platonic dualism! ;-)
I'm sure he will offer us a better approach than mine...when he has listened to the Symphonia ;-)
Regarding the Aries Cerat Symphonia high efficiency horn speakers, I listened to the 1st version (non-LE, don't know the difference BTW).
That's why I wished to at least mentioned those speakers to @tima , here, as he prompted for suggestions.
But a member privately asked me to expand a little more on that listening experience with the Symphonia.
What I can say about them lies in the following few points:
- Brain reclockers... - Huh! I regularly attend classical concerts, sitting in the best seats, in the best concert halls. Preferably on the very first seats of elevated structures to even avoid the seat dip (suckout in the 300Hz region due to the energy absorption of bodies and seats). In general, I don't like horns (very dynamic and lifelike, but they shout, are uneven, non-linear, and sometimes/most-of-the-time they lack of body and naturalness). Needless to say that when I sat in front of the Symphonia, I had very strong prejudice. The music started, it was a Bach's choral. I was immediately 'shocked' by an extremely disturbing cognitive/psychological phenomenon: what my ear-brain obviously heard was a choir, singing live in front of me in a concert hall (without the faintest projection or harshness on the forte). But what my eye-brain saw were two motionless statues in a listening room. My brain just couldn't reconcile those two mutually-exclusive perceptions, and this produced a unique experience. I took me, say, 20 or 30 sec to, kind of, recover from that impressive destabilization. I have never, anywhere, on any system, had such an experience before. And yet, "ultra-high-end" systems, I've heard a lot. Simply put, I did not know that technology in 2020 could reach such a level of music reproduction accuracy. A genuine revelation.
Now, if you were chemist in another life, and are craving for an analysis, again, is that all lies in the un-analyzable first point. But if you really insist, then here we go (I will stay very superficial though):
- body and naturalness were perfect, also in the midrange. Hey, I am a Harbeth M30.2 Anniversary user (in a 2nd system, true; and Analysis user in the main one), and M40.x admirer. So you know Harbeth users, and their legendary worship of midrange-naturalness, right? Well, those horns fit the bill perfectly, and much more: world-class expressiveness and transparency which is second to none
- the treble is first-class, and wonderfully integrated to the midrange (at least subjectively; I haven't seen any measurements). The Raal ribbon tweeter used is the best in the world, specs-wise (I know it because it had been chosen by an Belgian acoustician engineer for a crazy project of a 120L 96dB Corian loudspeaker; it will stay a prototype, forever; but he chosed the tweeter with the best specifications he could find). But with the Symphonia, Aries Cerat goes probably beyond what the on-the-shelf specifications of the tweeter can deliver, by designing and manufacturing their own little 'horn' for the tweeter ! (amazing very short video of that manufacture process - picture of the final product).
- the bass is fast and taut, without preventing the cello from natural bloom.
The room was nevertheless a bit too short to let the bass fully expand naturally. So honestly, I cannot really say how deep the Symphonia will go in the bass (and as I don't suffer from scatological nevrotic obsession for ultra-deep bass, I do not really care - as long as cello is ok, I am happy). Anyway, every system today can happily be complemented with a very good actively and digitally room-EQ'd dedicated subwoofer, with digital correction in the bass only (DO NOT wreck the magnificent mid&treble of such a true high-end system by trying to full-range room-EQ it !! - that discussion seems to be now closed on the HUG, membership required, I'm afraid)
But enough analysis, because they sound like a big, orchestral or choral, instrument, as a whole. Incredibly realistic.
Set up?
Now, is it "easy" to make them sing? I have no idea, honestly.
It was a full Aries Cerat system, in a well designed room (though a bit too short, as said), with SMT diffusers on wall and ceiling.
So, is it necessary to have Aries Cerat gear from top to bottom to make them sing? No idea.
Is it essential to have a dedicated well-designed room to achieve that level of realism, or 'lifelikeness'? Again, no idea.
All I know is that this system (listening room-electronics-speakers) achieves what others can only aspire to approach. And experience shows that the latter are not the cheapest (!).
An additional category should be created to encompass such sonic achievements (this is not 'just' high-end, it is obviously something else).
Plato* divided the Universe into sub-lunar world (beneath the Moon's orbit, human world made of ephemeral imperfection) and supra-lunar world (beyond the Moon's orbit, world of Ideas, Gods and perfection). I don't know in which category I would classify this system, really.
*not sure that @tima will appreciate this dualism, because his avatar is a portrait of ... Emmanuel Kant, who precisely produced a synthesis of traditional Platonic dualism! ;-)
I'm sure he will offer us a better approach than mine...when he has listened to the Symphonia ;-)
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You took what I wrote a bit out of context...I said it was entry level RELATIVE to other Aries Cerat. This implies that I mean it is much more than entry level in the greater world of hifi.
Thank you!
That made me smile.
I cannot speak for the system itself, but a necessary condition of its product is serial ordination - music is governed by time, notes start and stop. Time is the formal condition a priori of all music but it is not obtained from experience or through reason. It is the form of our internal perspective. Music is a part of subjective reality and thus not noumenal, or in the vocabulary in which you cast that nut-job Plato, music is part of the sub-lunar world.
I remember well the Aries Cerat room we have at Munich in 2019, seems a long time ago now. It was an incredibly realistic sounding room, well the system was. The expo room was actually terribly designed for high end audio. But the Symphonias, bass horns and Legend amps broke through it. In fact, it sounded that good, people in the room were getting quite emotional.
I live in Spain and love going to live Flamenco, in small clubs with 3 guitarists, a drummer and a flamenco singer or 2. Anyone who has experienced full on flamenco from seasoned musicians will know how emotional it can be, tears welling down your face. I can say, the system at Munich, playing those flamenco tracks, it was just as good. Incredible. Beyond words.....
I live in Spain and love going to live Flamenco, in small clubs with 3 guitarists, a drummer and a flamenco singer or 2. Anyone who has experienced full on flamenco from seasoned musicians will know how emotional it can be, tears welling down your face. I can say, the system at Munich, playing those flamenco tracks, it was just as good. Incredible. Beyond words.....
I think that is a venue? I have also heard amazing performances in Almeria, and Roquetas de Mar, and Granada.
I always enjoy watching the Flamenco bar scene from Rick Steins long weekend in Cadiz... start at 51 mins in
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