Aerial 10t vs B&W 802

Thanks a lot to all who responded. Anyone also has experience with KEF reference Model 4? Shenzhi

Aeriels by far. I think that you should also consider Meadowlarks. The new Heron i is great, I understand that the Blue Heron will be in the same price range as the Ariels, and if it is better than the Heron i, will be pure heaven. I have owned both Ariels and Meadowlark and the Meadowlarks just have an ease and naturalness about them that make them stand out. While I liked the Aeriels, they just seemed to make make my amp work to drive them, even when I biamped two Classe 151s, at 500 watts each. The Herons just do everything well.

Since I'm an Aerial speaker lover, I've got to chime in. The 10Ts, which I have, are a different animal than B&Ws. I do not like the 801 with any electronics, including Levinson. I've got all Krell amps running my SS system, and I got the 10Ts because I listen to music about 80% of the time. George, the reason that 10Ts are associated with SS is because Aerial makes outstanding speakers for the setup, and the 10T is awesome for stereo. All who say that you need outstanding electronics, and I might add cables, with the 10Ts is because they are such a good transducer. When you look at the size of the bass cabinet, one shouldn't be surprised that the speaker loves a lot of juice. I find the speaker to offer everything I need for the music that I enjoy. But I will always say to go listen to speakers and find what you personally will enjoy. Ideally listen to them at home. I brought home the Aerial 5s, and was extremely pleased. So it wasn't hard for me to imagine how outstanding the somewhat heavier (heh heh) 10Ts would sound at home.

I had a terrible experience auditioning the Aerial 10t. May be the setup was not optimized, but the sound stage was muddy and unfocus. They were powered by Bryston mono blocks and Theta Digital front end. The N802 powered by Krell equipment, in my opinion, was a little better, however they still did not sound right. I ended up buying the Dynaudio Confidence 5 after auditioning more speakers including Hales, Thiel, and Wilson Audio (Too expensive)... Before buying your speakers, I recommend you audition the Dynaudio Confidence 5. Dynaudio dealers don't usually have the Confidence 5 in store for demo, but Dynaudio is more than willing to send a pair to a local dealer for you to audition. With a little more money (With the right deal), you can get a much better speakers in the Dynaudio C5.

I owned a pair of 10Ts for about 8 mos. in 1997. I don't know if they have changed since then. I liked the bass, but found the speaker someshat closed in and veiled like there was too much crossover or wire in the speaker. I also had a pair of Dynaudio Contour 1.8 Mk. IIs which I ended up preferring because they simply sounded more open and alive sounding. I was driving them with Bryston 7BSTs. Perhaps the amp was not right, but the Dynaudios sounded good with them. Of course the Dynaudios have their problems which led me to keep looking. I tried the Gallo Solo which was wonderfully transparent but tonally thin to my ears in the upper bass and lower midrange and then the Merlin VSM SE all the while thinking I needed to stay with a 2-way design to achieve the clarity and liveness I wanted. I played with subwoofers for the bass. The Merlin just is ment to be driven with tubes if the tonal balance is to be right and I didn't want to have a tube amp. I tried many amps, wires, cables and tweeks but ended up selling the Merlins. At the time I had a Joule Vamp amp and a Clayton S-40 amp. The Merlins sounded best with the Joule. I have a Joule LA 100 Mk,III preamp. This was the first of this year and my tech funds were doing well so I thought I would throw some money at my speaker situation. I was interested in the Vandersteen 5 speakers and the B&W 802s. I took a trip to Atlanta to hear the Vandys and was quite impressed with the clarity and particularly the bass. The best bass I have ever heard. I felt there was a sterility to the sound however which of course may not have had anything to do with the speakers, but the demo did not overwhelm me. I then went to a B&W dealer to listen to the 802s if I could. He had to rearrange things a bit and did rather a sloppy job setting them up but from the first thing I listened to I was blown away by the tonal beauty. Instruments sounded just right. I love big band music and Basie and Kenton reed sections were extremely convincing. Granted they were set up with Krell 250Ms and Krell CD player, but that was the sound I wanted. I came back home and went to my local B&W dealer who didn't have a pair of 802s to listen to, but did have 803s which I took home to try. I really liked them and almost bought them but in the end couldn't resist the 802s particularly when I found out that the tweeter and midrange drivers are not the same in the 803s and 802s. The 801s and 802s share the same drivers. I was sceptical that the 802s would sound better, but they didn't disappoint. I am thrilled with them. They Have the clarity and liveness of two ways with enormous loudness capability. I did not think the bass was lacking at all but since I had a REL StadiumII sub woofer I was using with the Merlins I put it in and found more and better bass. The REL is an amazing product.I didn't like the 802s with the Joule amp but I did with the Clayton although not nearly enough power. I tried the Plinius 100 Mk.III and that had great bass, but was really boring--just no life to the sound. I tried the new McCormak 225 which was good and very good in a vertical bi-amp configuration, but just didn't have the life and tonal verity of the Clayton. So I traded the Plinius and Clayton s-40 for a pair of Clayton M-100 monos. This is the best so far and where I am now wwith Analysis Plus silver speaker wire. I still know I am not getting everything the speaker is capable of. Maybe if the market comes back I will get into even more serious amplification. Sorry to bore you but high end audio is tricky and quite complex. Probably if you hear the two speakers you will immediately know which you prefer. Let me assure you that the 802 is a great speaker and you should hear it before you buy a 10T.