Summary:
It was love at first sight! My babies have a beautiful Rose Walnut finish. I connected them to my Plinius 8200 Amp, popped Diana Krall into my CAL Icon II CD player, and suddenly I was emotionally touched like no other speaker had done before. The musical instruments were magically layered, and Diana's voice sounded so intimately real. I sat there for hours listening to my older CD's, realizing what I had missed before. These speakers are pure enjoyment. Worth every penny.

Strengths:
Looks beautiful, sounds so intimate, very seductive

Weaknesses:
Very Heavy Speakers 120 pounds each (but very slim and sexy)

Similar Products Used:
B&W Matrix 801 S3

Price Paid:  $5500.00 from The Sound Lab

Summary:
I have the 8B model and think it is more open and does have tighter bass than the model 8 to a small degree but would'nt think twice if I owned the 8's about wanting to get the newer version. I only listened to the 8's to make my decision as the B version was just comming out. I'm very glad that they are so close because I liked the 8's just the way they were. I don't think the bass is slow or muddy at all (as I have read about) if positioned well. One last trick to try if bass is not tight on these is to reverse the speakers so the bass drivers are facing inwards (if the drivers are close to the side walls and facing out, it can sound bad as I have experienced). The amp is a very big part of the quality of bass one is able to achive along with the room and acoustics-so I will end with saying that for me,in my system the bass is world class. I have two subs and was going to buy more for the LFE channel but have found that I don't need the 8B's augmented at all for the type of music I listen to (mostly female vocals and pop) so they have become my LFE subs. I love the Martin Logans and Magepans and thought mostly about buying them until direct commparisons changed my mind. I preferred the solid stable and pin point image achived with the Aerial's over the large but vegue sound stage of the other two. When listning to voices I get a realistic projection of where the performers are in front of me with the 8's. With the plannar's the singers seem to have 10 foot wide mouths on a very shallow stage. This sounds great at first but is not realistic at all - especially for video where you loose a lot of directional ques if immaging is not precise. In home theater reguards, I believe Aerial kills B&W,Vienna,Sonus Faber etc... they cannot come close to the dynamics and impact of Aerial period. For music they are all great! Hope I have added something new and usefull-

Strengths:
build quality,precise soundstadge that is stable and large. Overall balance and did I say build quality.

Weaknesses:
none for my taste

Similar Products Used:
Magnepan 3.6,Martin Logan Prodigy

Summary:
The best lesson I've learned during the whole stereo build thing is to audition everything possible. It's rare that any one place is going to have everything you want to test. After reading the reviews of the ProAc 2.5 in magazines as well as on this site, I have to say that I was really disappointed when I heard them. For what it's worth here are my opinions:

ProAc 2.5: Dark sounding, muddy in the low range. Images well, but not great definition. Played with Krell KRC, KAV 300cd, and Marsh amp, MIT 330 S3 all around.

ProAc 1.5: Brighter than the 2.5, but still sounded compressed to me. Auditioned with Classe - don't know models.

Magnepan 1.6: Images very well, open airy sound. Definitely worth the money. Felt it was a little weak in the midrange area. Bass was ok. Played with Acurus/Aragon equipment and Transparent cables.

Aerial 6: Weak all around. Not worth the money, especially considering you have to pay more for stands and any other color aside from black. Relaxed sounding speaker, so-so articulation. Played with Plinius components.

B&W 804: This was my second choice, but I felt the 8's blew them away in every category. The speakers sounded open, fast, a little on the clinical side. Good for rock&roll. The weakness I felt was separation of instruments at louder levels. Played with McIntosh integrated and Classe CD. MIT and Straightwire cables.

What I liked about the 8's was that they sounded open without being too harsh. Sweet in the midrange and highs. Good punch in the bass, albeit a little loose. And the definition was superior to all the other speakers I auditioned. The most incredible setup I've ever auditioned was the JM Labs Utopia (big ones) with the Krell sub-woofer, Krell master series cd player/preamp and amps. Although the 8's can't compare, they definitely came closer to that experience than the other speakers.

Associated equipment:
Krell KAV 250a
Krell KAV 250cd
Krell KRC 3
Quicksilver phono preamp
Well-Tempered Record Player/Benz Micro
MIT 330 shotgun

I only value the 8's a five star because of the price/performance ratio vs other speakers. My wallet thinks all good stereo components are just way too expensive!

Strengths:
Styling, build, clarity

Weaknesses:
Price structure for different options like finishes and stands.

Similar Products Used:
ProAc 2.5, ProAc 1.5, Magnepan 1.6, Aerial 6, B&W Nautilus 804

Summary:
I AM 52 YEARS OLD, I HAVE LEARNED THE HARD WAY OVER THE YEARS ABOUT SPEAKER HYPE. I GOT TALKED AND HYPED INTO BUYING THE DYN SPEAKER LINE, ALTHOUGH A NICE SPEAKER I FOUND THEM TO BE WAY OVERPRICED AND OVERHYPED, SO I TOOK A LOSS AND SOLD THEM, AFTER A LONG SEARCH I FOUND THE AERIAL 8, IT WAS EVERYTHING I HAD BEEN LOOKING FOR, SWEET HIGHS WITHOUT BEING HARSH, GREAT MIDS AND SLAMMING BASE. THESE SPEAKERS JUST OOZE CLASS, ALONG WITH STUNNING LOOKS, SO MY ADVICE IS LISTEN BEFORE YOU BUY, DON'T FALL FOR SPEAKER OF THE MONTH HYPE,

Strengths:
LOOKS,BUILD,SOUND

Weaknesses:
WEBSIGHT

Similar Products Used:
DYN 3.0

Summary:
These are truly great speakers. I spent about 3 months listening to every speaker I could get to hear from $2k to $10k. My short list came down to Dynaudio Contour 3.3, Audio Physic Virgos, and Aerial 8's. Any of these three would have made me happy. I tossed out the Dyne's due to price,about $1500 more than the others and it's bass was a touch sloppy but it had a terrific midrange. I would have bought the Aerial or the Virgo based on the best discount I could find, but I noticed one small difference. The Virgo's have no grill cloth. My wife and I have three cats and I got this mental image of the little pricks clawing up a cone. Believe it or not that was the deciding factor that the Aerial had cloth covers so the cats could only damage some material not the cones themselves. At any rate the Aerial 8's now have center stage in our living room. I've been listening for 3 months now and just last week completed the system. The Aerials(driven by a great combo) put out a beautiful 3d soundstage. With quality recordings (Diana Krall) and most Phillips/Deutsch Grammaphone classical LP"S the system puts the performer in my room. In addition to the deep open soundstage they have the punch that you can't get from panal speakers
I couldn't be happier with my system choices. I highly recommend them to anyone. The sound is superb and the cabinets are a thing of beauty (I got the cherry). They love being biwired and a high current amp.


For those who get off on this sort of thing, this is my system.

Aerial Acoustic 8 speakers w/stands
Cinepro 1k2se/xc power amp
Cary Lab SLP94 tube preamp
Cal Audio Delta CD transport
Cal Audio Alpha tube DAC
Micro Seiki DDX-1000 TT
Grado Platinum Cart
Cary Lab interconnects
Harmonic Technology Pro 9 Biwire speaker cable
Stand Design rack