NEWS and reviews

Italian audio design has rarely failed to impress, as much in the visual as the aural, and Ars Aures (arsaures.com), a relative newcomer to these shores, continues strongly in that tradition. A lengthy audition of its Midi Sensorial speakers ($19,000) was a very good investment of time. Powered by Art Audio amps that were custom painted by Ars Aures in a Ferrari blue to match the speakers on display, the sound was nothing short of jaw-dropping, particularly considering the low end was produced by two woofers of a mere four and one-half inches in diameter. A recording of Ray Brown and his legendary stand-up was absolutely spot-on and musically involving, the bass going down to unbelievable depths. Musicality is not easily achieved, even by speakers many times the price of these Midis, and they forked it over in spades, creating a credible sense of real music.

LINKS TO SIXMOONS.COM

http://www.6moons.com/showcase/landesimports/landes.html

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/crystal2/micro.html

H.E. Stereophile Show New York 2005

OFFICIAL SHOW AWARDS

http://www.audiofederation.com/hifiing/2005/HE2005NYC/winners-and-losers/

Best Sound in a Hotel Room

· GTT Audio - Kharma 3.2E speakers, Kharma amps, dCS digital room
· Artisitic Audio Imports - *Acapella Fidelio 2, Einstein, IsoClean room
· Brinkmann Audio / Sound Advice - *Marten Design, *Brinkmann, *EMMlabs, Audience room
· Ars Aures room
· Hyperion room
· Almarro room
· EPOS, Creek, Music Hall room

· Speaker Companies to Keep an Eye On
· Ars Aures

Six Moons Srajan Ebaen

http://www.sixmoons.com/industryfeatures/he2005/3.html

My favorite sound of the show goes to Ars Aures of Italy, imported by Lee Landesberg of Landes Imports. These speakers have no crossover on their twin 4.5" mid/woofers and a simple 1st-order network on the tweeter. Fit'n'finish and cosmetics are of Ferrari quality, with the lacquers in fact originating from that very factory. The Mini Sensorial [$9,400/pr] is a d'Appolito two-way of 89dB sensitivity, claimed response of 60-30,000Hz and a nominal 4-ohm impedance. Ken Micallef is scheduled to do the review honors. The Midi Sensorial [$19,000/pr] adds an internal 11" band-pass woofer and, hands-down, produced the best bass in the Hilton's 9th and 10th floor rooms. While everyone with less than stellar bass blamed the room for boom and lack of articulation, these gents remained mum, with designer Maurizio's halting English the perfectly gentlemain excuse to instead smile mysteriously as to why this room lacked boom and blur altogether.

The indefatigable Joe Fratus of Art Audio provided valved push-pull electronics by way of his Adagio and Quartet monos respectively, the latter finished in the same royal Ferrari blue as the speakers [Fratus & Landesberg above].

Besides looking like a million buckaroo banzais, this room -- fronted by a Yamaha hard-disk server -- had it all: Dynamics and full-range splendor demonstrated via the Wilhelm Tell Overture; a unique combination of ethereal float and well-grounded heft; and an overall mien that can only be described as ravishing, elegant and sensual. When the Midi Sensorial becomes available, I'll do the review honors. Life's tuff sometimes

Gill Audio's new Alana replaces the motor-driven pot with a digital numerical display while KR Audio's mighty T100 triodes graced Fratus' high-power Adagio, with the speakers' designer looking on pleased that high voltages aren't part of his professional liabilities.

OFFICIAL REVIEW from audiofederation.com

http://www.audiofederation.com/hifiing/2005/HE2005NYC/day3/track10/index.htm

I found this system a little hard to pin down. I remember leaving and thinking that I liked it a lot better than the Merlin system - the speakers remind me of the Merlin speakers for some reason - and if the speakers were $10K - $15K, that they would be putting some real pressure on the sales of their competitors.
But now I find that they are $26K or so. Or not. 6moons says they are the Midi Sensorial at $19K. We only heard the big boys pictured here. In either case the Dollar / Euro imbalance just ain't doin' us any good when it comes to buying equipment from overseas.
Who knows, maybe the speakers are good enough to compete against the Wilson Watt / Puppy 7 and the Kharma 3.2E and the Acapella LaCampanella and the Avalon Vision (i.e. Eidolon mkII)... all in the same price range... but that is some pretty stiff competition.

ENJOY THE MUSIC Steve Rochlin

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/hifi2005/sunday/page2.htm

Ars Aures Midi Sensorial floorstanders ($19,500) with Art Audio's new push-pull Quartet amplifiers ($13,000) sounded like a match made in heaven. Fast and clean with impressive dynamic capabilities. Designers take note as the loudspeakers are available in nearly all wood types or painted coloring that Ferrari cars are offered. Seen here is Ferrari blue for both the loudspeaker and amplifier.

HE 2005 SIX MOONS Paul Candy

http://www.sixmoons.com/industryfeatures/he2005paul/1.html

"…These two rooms were among my favorites of the show…"

Sonically, two other rooms off my price beat stood out for me. One was the Ars Aures/Art Audio/Gill Audio room. Here was a fine example of a perfect marriage between art and performance. Both amps and speakers are available in a number of matched Ferrari colors. Unlike many rooms, there was no bass boom or bloat here. I suspect the Real Traps positioned in all four corners had much to do with the sound in this room. Highwater Sound's room also impressed with their Sound Engineering SE-1 turntable, DaVinci arm, 47 Labs digital, Tron amps and Horning Perikles loudspeaker. These two rooms were among my favorites of the show regardless of price

HE 2005 SIX MOONS Marja and Henk

http://www.sixmoons.com/industryfeatures/he2005mh/2.html

Lee Landesberg imports the Sicilian Ars Aures loudspeakers. We auditioned these alien-looking Mini Sensorials on several prior occasions with KR Audio amplification and, just as here in New York, with Art Audio. Every time they conveyed musicality and ease. Bass is not ground-shaking but sufficient for many hours of joy. Lee used a very under-appreciated Yamaha MCX 1000 music server as source. This server is a steal for its quality.

HE 2005 POSITIVE AUDIO

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue19/he05nack.htm
ARS aures
ARS aures Midi Sensorial speakers ($19,000), Art Audio Adagio Tube Mono amps ($20,000), Art Audio Quartet Mono amps ($13,000 in Ferrari Blue finish), Yamaha Musicast MCX1000 server/transport ($2,200), Gill Audio Elise Tube DAC ($6,000), Gill Audio Alana Tube Line Stage ($4500), DAXX interconnects, Dynamic Design power cords and prototype Art Audio "The Bridge" speaker cable ($3,000/8' pair).

On my first visit, the Art Audio Adagio SET mono amps were driving the Midi Sensorial speakers from Italy. The sound caught my attention. However, the room was packed, so I let it go. When I came back early the next day I found the ART Audio Quartet push-pull monos in place of the Adagio monos. Tenor Ian Bostridge singing French art songs, with various instrumentation including string quartet, double bass and piano (French Melodies, EMI 5 57609 2) was surprisingly intimate and relaxed with the push-pull Quartet amps. His voice was big-the speakers were overpowering the little room-and there was some shouting on peaks. Still, even if it was less full-bodied and less luscious than the day before with the Adagio SET amps, the sound was engaging and a standout. The new Gill Audio components looked and sounded full of potential.

A LETTER TO SIX MOONS

http://www.6moons.com/lettersfeedback/lettersfeedback.html

Dear Srajan-

First of all, thank you for your wonderful periodical! You and your all-star team of writers have enhanced both my knowledge and pleasure of this wacky hobby on many levels.I couldn't agree more with what you had to say about both the Ars Aures/Art Audio room and the Horning/Tron rooms at the recent Home Entertainment show. Amazingly, I think they were my two favorite rooms of the show as well.
I have always taken great pleasure in reading your reviews but had never had the opportunity to actually listen to any of the equipment that you were commenting on. Therefore, although you are more descriptive than most, I was never able to truly know if the equipment you were describing would lead me to the same conclusions had I actually heard it for myself. Now, I feel that not only can I enjoy your reviews, but, seemingly our tastes in audio systems are similar enough that your reviews have taken on added weight and significance. How lucky for me!

A million thanks!

Jay Bass

AUDIOGON - HE 2005 Show Reports Thread

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ymisc&1114788843&read&keyw&zzars+aures

OK, I'll start it and you all can chime in with your impressions:

Here's the best rooms that I heard and some other impressions and goodies:

Big Rooms
Singer had one of the big rooms with 2 sets of VTL electronics, DCS digital and Peak speakers. The big rig (3 piece DCS and $70,000 speakers) had a buzz in the left channel and sounded a bit hi-fi to me. The smaller rig, with the new DCS one piece unit, wins my best of show vote. Definitely listen to this if you can. But I bet they'll be trying to demo the big rig mostly.

The JM Labs - Pathos room also sounds nice. I really like the sound of these medium sized JM Labs speakers with tubes driving them.

9th and 10th floor Small Rooms

ARS Aures Audio had some very fine sounding speakers poweres by a low powered SET amp. These speakers souond good, but look like a cross between Darth Vader and Alien.

MBL sounded very fine, as usual, with smaller speakers in a small room. Some boom was evident though.

Brinkman w/ Martin speakers gets my second vote. EMM digital was prevalent at the show, but the difference between the EMM and the Brinkman vinyl (recent Stereophile review by Fremer) was minimal. Very good sound.

Sonic Spirits (of NY Audio Rave fame here at the circle) sounded fine, both demoing during the show and in the after hours system for the club meeting. Good job Phil.

Von Schweikert VR4-SR and VAC electronicvs were good, as expected.

Kharma Ceramique also was well worth a visit. Funny, I didn't like these too much at the last show 2 years ago, but they were good this time round.

Butler Audio was showing off a new 100W 300B hybrid amp that they claim is very SET like. SET with 100W of power, with almost no heat thrown off and only 1 tube. Patents on this one. Nice for the techies but it didn't sound SET like to these ears. Perhaps the speakers were to blame? Who knows.

Those are the one's I liked.

ENjoy,
Bob

_______________________________________________________________

MONTREAL SHOW 2005

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/montreal2005/phil1

T.H.E. Show LAS VEGAS 2005

Michael Wright

http://www.stereotimes.com/Showreport05CESpage4.shtm

http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/ces05/ces_2.html

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/theexpo2005/saturday/

CES LAS VEGAS 2003

Room KR-LINDEMANN-ARS AURES AUDIO: Favorite Sound CES 2003 (Quantum.A)

http://www.audioasylum.com/AUDIO/GENERAL/MESSAGES/253069.HTML

My overall favorite sound of the show was the KR/Lindemann/HMS/Ars Aures room, though I wouldn't say absolutely this was the best sound since I didn't listen long enough or critically enough in most rooms to make that kind of judgment, and certainly not as critically as I listened to the speakers in NY at HE2002.

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/general/messages/250147.html

JEFF DAY "I really enjoyed talking with Dr. Eunice Kron in the KR Audio Electronics (http://kraudio.com) room. Eunice is really a neat lady, a veterinarian by education, but no longer in practice, choosing instead to pursue the audio industry with her husband Ricardo. Eunice was nearly in tears when talking about her husband and the vision they shared for vacuum tube audio, and who sadly passed away only a short time ago. Eunice is adamant about carrying on the company and the vision they shared for cutting edge vacuum state electronics. The big 1610 tube (and I do mean BIG) – 2 per side - Kronzilla monoblocks ($25K) were driving the 92 dB efficient ARS Aures Audio Sol speakers (www.arsaures.com) at $15K to excellent effect. A Lindemann D680 SACD player spun the disks (www.lindemann-audiotechnik.de). This combination is really, really, good. They also have a stereo version of the Kronzilla for $13.5K. Did I say the music playing ability of this combination of speakers and amps is really, really, good? It is."

VAD SHOW 2004

http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/vad/vad_2.html

http://audiovideo.info/allesover.php?id=1665

http://www.hear.nl/hifi/vad2004/pagina1.html

TOP AUDIO MILAN 2004
http://www.videohifi.com/12_TAV_2004_audio5.htm
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/he04.pl?arsauresaudio&&manumatrix&&&&&&&IT04&

CES 2004 LAS VEGAS

Audiogon

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/ces.pl?arsauresaudio&&ManuView

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/ces.pl?qsd&&ManuView

Positive audio

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue11/ces04i.htm

The ARS Aures Audio, AYDN, and KR Audio room was not only fun audibly, but fun visually. Along with the biggest tubes of the show and speakers that were imposing in their ability to "stare-down" at the listener like some alien creature, the sound was quite good.

six moons

http://www.sixmoons.com/industryfeatures/ces04/ces04_9.html
http://www.sixmoons.com/industryfeatures/ces04/ces04_3.html

As part of the AYDN/KR Audio exhibit, Ars Aures from Italy romanced the cosmopolitan eye with stunning fit'n'finsih and a designer palette of automotive lacquers. Their flagship Sensorial [$14,500/pr with stand] is a dual 5-inch d'Appolito two-way with Revelator softdome tweeter and 89dB sensitivity that was shown in extravagant royal blue chassis with natural Beechwood cheeks and powered by Eunice Kron's mighty Kronzilla monoblocks [more pix in the KR Audio chapter].

The smaller Ars Aures Do 5-inch 2-way was clad in Mercedes Gold lacquer and perched atop a Carrera White marble stand in the adjacent room, with a massive shelfless EquaRack decoupling the electronics on custom ball bearings that were directly attached to the super structure's cross braces which, themselves, are fully modular to accommodate any conceivably sized component - more on this new component support system in EquaRack's own listing.

Room 1352: KR Kronzilla DM+Ars Aures Sensorial

standard Ars Aures high gloss colors

Ars Aures DO high gloss champagne+KR Antares VA 320

Sensorial

Sensorial

http://www.videohifi.com/5_tav_2003_zero_eng.htm

9 - Ars Aures, Cantina Sperimentale, Sensorial Design
A really nice match. A room which an average gal/guy might actively want, electronic products which look very well finished and not "experimental" (Sperimentale) in the least, and a speaker system which seems to be a mature product, a pleasant and relaxing sound. I think the future of "audiophile" homes is here, in these acoustically correct(ive) furniture. I hope prices get lower, as 15000 Euro for the shelf/drawer wall system is a lot - the furniture is very well crafted and finished, but it might be difficult to convince your non audiophile partner to prefer it to normal furniture.

http://www.apaf.it/2003_Foto_PianoTerra.htm

High End Show FRANKFURT 2003

SOUNDSTAGE

ENJOY THE MUSIC

LAS VEGAS CES 2002

TNT AUDIO INTERNET REVIEW

"Ars Aures Audio, an Italian manufacturer of high-end loudspeakers, presented their finely-crafted line. The speakers on hand ranged from the Do model, a two-way bookshelf model available in wood, MDF, or Italian marble to the very impressive, floorstanding Sol, which was rated from 25Hz to 30KHz with a sensitivity of 92dB."

Link a TNT-AUDIO

hifi.nl

K.R. Enterprise heeft een ruimte samen met ARS Aures. Ook op de vorige show was dat eveneens zo en wederom maken de voornamelijk van Focal units voorziene speakers, in perfecte pianolak gespoten, grote indruk. De afmetingen van de kasten liegen er niet om en ik zie ze nog niet in mijn huiskamer terecht komen. Deze Italiaanse transmissie lijn kasten zouden in Nederland hoge ogen kunnen gooien.

http://test.hifi.nl/allesover2.php?id=1408

TOP AUDIO 2002

Ken Kessler

AURES DO
Interesting new small two-way from Ars Aures, the Do, with 1in inverted dome titanium tweeter.

http://www.apaf.it/Ken.htm
TOP AUDIO&VIDEO SHOW 2002: THE PHOTOS
ARS AURES showed a line of small two-way speakers, including the oddly-named Do (as in Do-Re-Mi?), with a cabinet with a marble finish; Steinway-grade gloss is also available. http://www.apaf.it/Ken.htm

Frankfurt High End Show 2002

haute.fidelite.com

L'assez forte délégation italienne brille une nouvelle fois par ses esthétiques et ses finitions. Outre Graaf, Sonus faber et telle ou telle marque déjà bien connue à l'étranger, j'admire les superbes Ars Aures, à qui monsieur Kron confie cette année le soin de faire chanter ses triodes.

http://haute.fidelite.com.online.fr/Francfort-2002/francfort-2002.html

We receive from Riccardo Kron, Owner of KR AUDIO ELECTRONICS:

Praha, 15/02/02

It was in Las Vegas at CES, that I had the pleasure to meet the staff from Ars Aures, there I saw the great potential of this new company in the High-End business. After a business dinner held in Vegas it was decided for me to visit the Plant in Castelvetrano, Italy. My goal was to see their facility and to do further testing on their speakers. I sent in for the testing one of my small amplifier, dual mono model: ANTARES KRK88, with two class A valves ( one per channel) with a 17 watts RMS per channel and the related solid state preamp,model: KRP150.

My first impression of the ARS Aures speakers was the highest level of the aesthetics and the elegant finishing, definetely a well represented product of the Made In Italy. The pleasant surprises were to begin for me , using the small Antares I was expecting a normal sound reproduction and never had thought that the combination of the entry level amplifier and the Ars Aures speakers would deliver an incredible prestation more like to come from an upgraded system.

The dinamics, timbre, control, a complete lack of itermodulation and phases rotation, lack of clipping and a sound stage of exceptional proportions that gave us the impression of being in front of a real orchestra.

Not really being convinced of what we had experienced, we invited some of the local audiophiles to do an independent testing, to our great satisfaction, they confirmed our earlier findings.

Ars Aures is a start up business but has the right ideas and passion on building the best loudspeakers, and I have to say that during my long life in the audio world I have had the occasion to listen to some exclusive speakers, but the folks at Ars Aures have surpassed the threshold, they are one of the best in the HIGH-END, with capital letters.

I have been manufacturing the best valves and amplifiers and finally I have found the right speakers to match my components to deliver the best synergy to show how the sound should be reproduced. The above valuations were made not in a moment of isolated enthusiasm, but with a very long personal experience in knowing the real exceptional sound reproduction quality.

Kron Riccardo - KR AUDIO ELECTRONICS

REVIEW OF ARS AURES-SENSORIAL LOUDSPEAKER

ACOUSTIC SPACES: Acoustical and Technical Design
4804 River Road, Martindale, TX 78655
genfan@acousticspaces.com

www.acousticspaces.com

February, 2005

Some loudspeakers are exceptional because of what they don't have-the Sensorial is among the very few that introduce no fatigue, present no distortion artifacts, and speak with an ease that is simply astounding. Our first impressions were that this speaker is almost "electrostatic-like" ----giving an experience, placing music in your environment with no barriers.

Listening to these speakers is also an experience in warmth and envelopment. Imaging and endless frequency response are immediate. The extended frequency response of the system to 30khz is apparent, and as many studies have shown, even if we can't directly hear that high, the brain perceives the extra range---my 49 year old ears can tell the difference. The designers of the Sensorial must have searched far and wide in choosing components, because there is a synergy in the product---a result of combining drivers, crossovers, and cabinet.

That cabinetry is of course, the first impression you will get from these speakers. I was first introduced to this company by way of their acoustic walls---striking wood panels and chambers of engineered shapes and sizes that are built together to form an acoustically optimized front wall for a critical listening environment. You either like modern Italian architecture or you don't-and the Sensorial is designed with the same intent. Aside from the geometry of the speaker cabinet itself, and the meticulous craftsmanship to put it together, the sheer density and inertness has to impact the sound and performance. These speakers are heavy, and the accompanying stands are equally as heavy and massive. While the ability to adjust stand height is nice, these stands are fixed and it would be worth designing your listening room around these speakers----instead of the usual, which is to compromise on height or rig speakers on less than perfect stands just to accommodate your living room aesthetics.

Technically, these speakers have most of the "right stuff" and easily qualify as high-end audiophile. The blend of the three drivers is seamless and the result uncompromisingly musical-the phrase "beautiful sound" is apt. The down-firing ports are obviously to get the most bass from the cabinet and speakers, and it works quite well. The actual bass response is of course dependent greatly on your particular room, but in any case low end will be more than ample. This aspect, and the entire voicing of the speaker system will be perfect in an audiophile's room and in a home theater. We would comment that this enhanced low end response makes the speaker somewhat less than perfect in a studio or environment where absolute accuracy is necessary. This is only true in the lowest frequencies----there is nothing inaccurate from the highest registers, and perhaps only a small voicing bump in the upper mid-range-part, we expect, of what makes these speakers sound so beautiful.

We have not yet performed measurements on the Sensorial-only many pleasant hours of enjoyable listening. This is a speaker that pulls you in and makes the music fun and alive---these are the highest assets of the speaker. We have auditioned and tested many of the world's best and highest grade speaker systems, large and small, and we say unequivocally that the Sensorial is among the best. We'd like to see this company design more speakers and products, because it is obvious that they are on to something very special.

Our listening chain and environment at Acoustic Spaces:

Denon DVD 2900 multi-format player
High resolution (24 bit; 192 khz) files direct from a recording workstation
Audible Illusions tube preamp
EMM Labs Switchman Mark 2---multichannel source switcher
ProAc Studio 100 and ProAc CC2 loudspeakers
Customized subwoofers-with TAD components
BSS Soundweb DSP-customized programming and processing
CHORD; Classe; McCormack; AB International amplification
extensive RPG Diffusors and custom built acoustic materials and devices

We receive from Joe Fratus, owner of ART Audio

We would like to thank you (and your fine company) for a wonderful cooporation at T.H.E. Show '05 in Las Vegas. We are expieriencing great press and inquires because of the combination of our vacuum tube electronics and your speaker systems. Lee at Landes Audio deserves most of the credit for getting our gear to work so perfectly together. Although we premiered our new push-pull mono blocks, the "Quartets" at the show, we manufacture some of the best single ended designed amplifiers in the world, which we will use one of those products (with your speakers), at the Stereophile Show in NY this spring. I've attached a brochure of the " Adagio" mono block amplifiers which will be one of the products that we will take to the NY Show. We build products both in the UK as well as in the USA. The GILL AUDIO DESIGN (an Art Audio USA company) "Alana" pre amplifiers and "Elise" D to A converters are built here in the US and shipped worldwide. These two products are what we used in Las Vegas and will demonstrate at future shows as well. The phono amplifiers and power amplifiers are built in both locations. The Ars Aures speaker systems are a perfect combination and are one of the very few in the world, that can reproduce music as accurate, dynamic and detailed as it should be done. In other words, 'they tell the truth'. We will also introduce a new speaker cable named "The Bridge" which Lee says works excellent with the combination of our amplifiers and your speaker systems.

Cordiali Saluti,
Joe Fratus

Art Audio USA
34 Briarwood Road
Cranston, R.I. 02920
USA
www.artaudio.com
vze572mh@verizon.net

THE SHOW Las Vegas 2007

NJ TUBESHOW 2006NYC

TOP AUDIO 2003 VIDEOHIFI on line REVIEW

http://www.videohifi.com/5_tav_2003_zero_eng.htm

TOP AUDIO 2003

VIDEOHIFI on line REVIEW