Aurai Z 165 Loudspeaker

A Must Listen For Lovers Of Music

Tweek Geek is the distributor and listening studio for Aurai Loudspeakers in the US. Our Dripping Springs studio has  the Z 215 and Z165 loudspeakers available for audition. We encourage you to schedule an appointment to listen if you are seriously considering these wonderful loudspeakers. By scheduling an appointment, you will have private, uninterrupted listening time outside of regular store hours.

We love these speakers. So much so that we make only a small commission for each sale. Half of a typical dealer mark up, but to our ears, the sound of these speakers goes beyond a commercial endeavor, to a labor of love. We have partnered with Aurai to allow US based audiophiles an opportunity to hear these without having to travel to France. Make an appointment to listen to either the 165 or 215, and if you decide to purchase you will order your speakers through Aurai with us helping facilitate your order choices. You NEED to hear these if you are looking for loudspeakers. Everyone who comes to our studio and hears them is amazed at the sound and value the Aurai speakers represent. We simply want to share our discovery with fellow music lovers. We could make a lot more profit selling another brand, but our hearts wouldn’t be in it.

About Aurai

Alain Pratali has been designing loudspeakers and audio components for over 35 years.  He is a music lover, who loves recreating the soul of the event. He has invented a unique, polymer membrane high frequency driver with a mass of less than .12g. It has a unique floating system that minimizes mass by avoiding glue and screws. The custom machined Acetal wave guide (with 1 micron tolerances) around the HF driver ensures even dispersion without lobing.

The enclosures are made of 24mm Finnish Birch ply which greatly reduces resonances. Bespoke crossover parts come from Jupiter Condenser, Janzen and Mundorf. Finishes are satin or gloss walnut, cherry, or palisander rosewood veneers. Custom finishes are also available.

Sixmoons “discovered” Aurai loudspeakers and I learned about them through Srajan’s rave reviews. I have been on a years long search for speakers that were ultimately musical, efficient, in some cases dipole designs. The Z series from Aurai fits that bill, and has exceeded my expectations of what a mid-priced loudspeaker can sonically accomplish.

The Z series speakers are time-aligned, with bespoke drivers, and relatively high efficiency. Their unique high frequency driver is mated in this case to a 165mm (6.5″) Customized driver with a rubber surround, paper cone, ferrite magnet and Supravox chassis. The Z165 forgoes the tapered quarter wave tube loading for a slotted port in the rear. This helps the speaker reach lower into the bass frequencies, but a subwoofer is still recommended for larger rooms. Which leads us to another point. Why subwoofer dependent designs?

Why Subwoofer Dependent Designs?

The answer has many reasons: First, it allows for the main drivers to be higher efficiency. There are tradeoffs with every speakers design. With higher efficiency designs, one usually trades bass response for efficiency. Ever notice how most micro monitor speakers have efficiency ratings of 83 to 86 dB per watt? They are lowering efficiency to get their micro-sized woofers to operate into lower frequency ranges. This, along with enclosure tuning help the small designs to not sound anemic on their own.

Second, limiting the bandwidth of the midbass driver helps to lower distortion. Just like 2 way vs. 3 way designs. Adding that woofer and making the midbass driver more of a midrange driver takes a load off of the midbass driver. Less cone excursion means less modulation distortion. Aurai does this with intention, and by doing so makes their loudspeakers easier to mate with a high quality, sealed subwoofer.

Third, optimal placement for woofers vs. midrange/high frequencies. If you’ve taken the time to optimize speaker placement on a full-range loudspeaker, you understand that there is a compromise between the position for best imaging and soundstage, and best bass performance. More often than not, the location for best imaging, and soundstage is not the optimal position for even bass reproduction. So a compromise is made for a more even frequency response in the room over most holographic imaging and soundstage.

By creating a speaker whose bass roloff is easier to mate with a fast, sealed box sub capable of keeping up with the lightning fast Aurai speakers, one can place the subwoofer (s) optimally for the deepest, smoothest bass response and also place the speakers in a location where midbass, midrange and high frequencies are the most holographic. Lose the notion of being able to locate the subwoofers in your room. Today’s high end sealed subwoofer designs are capable of disappearing sonically in one’s room if one takes the time to place them optimally, tune the crossover and output properly.

Custom Paper Cone Midbass

The 6.5″ midbass driver is custom made in house with parts from Supravox and AAC of France. It uses a basket and ferrite motor from Supravox, 16mm Nomex coil, paper cone and rubber suspension from AAC France. Alain states that this is his finest driver yet.

On an extended playlist of well-recorded and musically gourmet tracks, I routinely noticed an effect I’ll call beam forming. Solo vocals or instruments seemed so materialized that I felt physically singed as though by sunlight through a magnifying glass. Hence beam forming. The sensation was that these virtual center images (not the two speakers!) projected radiation so focused that I felt it on my skin. I’d previously and only rarely encountered this extra intensity with large Single-driver widebanders. Granted, it took premium recordings to come off again. Nonetheless, my spontaneous reaction was “what a fantastic midrange”. – Srajan Ebaen, Sixmoons.com

Birch Plywood Enclosure

The enclosure for the midbass driver is 1.25″ birch ply. This was chosen for it’s stiffness, and the alternating grain direction of each layer of plywood helps to disperse energy in a more optimal way.

Reviews

• Sixmoons