WOW Aerial 10T vs. B&W 801II/III

Michael Kelly from Aerial wanted to make a statement when he introduced the 10T's and all of the reviewers agreed. They were voted Stereophile joint speaker of the year in 1996 sharing the honor with the $ 20,000.00 plus Dunlavy's I am very happy with my used pair. They have great bass, astonishing detailed midrange and smooth as silk highs . I think its called the "New England Sound" Smooth but not too bright. I have heard the 801's and have to say they are also great ... but in the USA they cost considerable more than the 10T's . Probably because they are imported. I think the 801's are less forgiving for all but the best associated components. My Aerial's head up my all tube system powered by the VTL ST-150 which is a great match ! One attempt to lift the Aerials and you can see that they are the real thing . Enjoy There is lots of value in high end audio if you know where to look and the Aerial 10T's lead the way !

I have patiently been waiting for my Aerial 10T's to arrive. I bought a one year old pair 7 days ago along with a CC3B center. I have heard these speakers many times with Krell gear, Theta, but no tube set up as of yet. These are fine speakers for a variety of musical tastes. I plan on running them with a 5 channel EAD amp for now. I should expect the speakers on Tuesday and when this subject came up I had to put in my 2 cents.

I do like the B&W speakers in question, but they are certainly more pricey new and used. I really never got into them nor has any of my fellow audiophile friends. They just feel there are other avenues to take for the $$.

Happy listening.

Thanks for the responses! I actually think the bottom end of the 10T is greater, more defined, deeper than that of the 801II. Is this possible? I just purchased the CC3B and will now be set for Music/Theater. One thing I left off, the 10T's look so much better than the 801s!

Thanks!

Dan

Very interesting and encouraging that Weiserb is using the VTL S-150 to drive his 10T's. I have a pair of ARC VT-150's, (160 watt tube monos) which have massive power-supply capacitance. I love the 10T's, but I have heard that the 10T's require large SS amps for best results. Any advice or experiences in hearing the 10T's with both tube and SS amps? Thanks!

Dem -

I am currently using a pair of SS Citation Audio 7.1, a Madrigal production amplifier. A very high current amp, 70 ampers, this amp is rated at 150x4 into 8 or 240x4 into 4, or the way I have it set, 2x450 into 8. I am running TWO of these amps, biamping each Aerial 10T so basically, running 450x2 into 8 to each speaker! PLENTY of power, actually much warmer than one would expect from SS. This week I am going to attempt to run them with a very powerful tube amp. The amp has both, 8 ohms and a 4 ohm option. I had used it before with the 801II into 8 ohms, so I will change it to 4 and see if it can push the 10Ts.

I will check in later...................

Dan