If you have been to the ShengHe Audio-Visual Exhibition Hall at the Shanghai exhibition in October, you must remember the pair of "Big Macs" statically displayed at the entrance - Sonus Faber's Aida (Aida) II. When I visited The Lotus Avian local distributor LeSong Fang last week, I found that they had acquired Aida II and built an audiovisual room in the opposite door shop. In Shanghai's old town, which is full of land, it is definitely a high standard of "marrying" posture!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > in addition to maintaining the shape as it is as possible The Aida II is a new flagship</h1>
Since it is called Aida II, there must be an original Aida. It was Sonus Faber's second flagship launched in 2011, and it was the Sonus Faber, which was once known as Fenice. The latter is now only custom-made, and the Aida II is a natural addition to its production flagship.
The two generations of Aida, the appearance is not much different, but the interior has undergone earth-shaking evolution. The most significant change is the upgrade on the unit. On the front, at the top is a 28mm caliber soft hemispherical treble (H28XTR-04) with a Sonus Faber's signature Damped Apex Dome design to suppress excessive vibration of the diaphragm. Immediately next to it is the 180mm caliber midrange unit (M18 XTR-04). The frame is made of a single space aluminum/gun steel mixture and cut by a CNC machine tool to eliminate subtle vibrations on the frame. Not only that, but the treble and midrange are locked onto a separate panel at the same time to ensure that the vibration environment in which the unit is located is consistent. The diaphragm material is mainly pulp, adding natural fiber components such as kapok and red hemp, and the surface is covered with transparent viscous substances, which plays a role in enhancing damping.
The next two 2 20mm caliber woofers (W22 XTR-12) also use pulp diaphragms: two layers of pulp inside and outside, with a lightweight hard foam in the middle. This is not only to maintain material consistency with the midrange, but also to fully take into account the actual needs of power bearing. Each of the two woofers has its own independent sound cavity and a patented Steel Ultraflex invisible bass reflection hole on the back, which reduces total harmonic distortion and extends the mid-low frequency spread.
Inside the Aida II's cabinet, a 320mm subwoofer (SW32XTR-08) with a downward sound is also hidden. The same sandwich structure, in addition to the lightweight hard foam material, the inner and outer layers are replaced by nanocarbon tubes, and the design is long stroke.
On the back of the cabinet there are three horn units called Sound FieldShaper, which are upgraded in number and configuration from the original Aida. The treble is the 29mm diameter DAD 29XTR2, and the midrange is the 80mm caliber M8XTR, which is located on a certain slope as a whole, which can assist the front unit to create a sense of soundstage and space.
Not only the unit configuration upgrade, Sonus Faber also spent a lot of time in the cabinet production, and not only for the sake of aesthetic design, but also for the vibration suppression design is also quite exquisite. The irregular cabinet is only the first step, and the Bow Spring Suspension design, commonly known as the "high heels" at the bottom, and the metal panel with the top slope, are part of the tight ring of the ring. The original factory released a video for this purpose, which can be glimpsed in it.
The Aida II is frontally 28mm treble, 180mm midrange and two 220mm basses each
Sound Field Shaper 3 horn unit, adjustment knob and Steam Ultraflex bass reflection hole
The high-heeled shoe-shaped base diffuses the low frequencies transmitted by the 220mm subwoofer
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > flagship speaker worth playing with is a good sound for all types of music replays</h1>
On the same day, at Lesongfang, a full set of McIntosh products was used to match.
Turntable: MCD350 SACD/CD player
Decoding: D1100 digital pre-stage/decoder (this collocation is for decoding purposes only)
Pre-stage: C1100C+T flagship split bile duct pre-stage
Post-stage: MC901 gallstone mixed dual mono post-stage
Mr. Leson Fang Zhuo said that they chose the LASound (Silver Sound) Olympia series sterling silver horn line, which uses 999.9/1000 sterling silver (certified 4N) products, with very low resistance (3.4mΩ/m), 4mm2 section, combined with high-quality insulation materials and assembly patterns, to achieve unparalleled instantaneous response. LA Sound has also cooperated with the Metallurgical Department of the University of Vicenza vicenza to develop technology to "restore" all sounds as much as possible, and the style of transparency and freshness without lack of density and power is impressive.
The Aida II was only on for two days, and there was still room for perfect positioning and debugging, and we tried to switch the knobs on the back for sound tuning. Adjust the high volume sensation in front of the high switch to MAX (large) gear, high-frequency impact will be more obvious, especially when playing pop music, if you switch back to MED (medium), the sound will become smoother. LowDamp for subwoofers is temporarily centered in the MED position, as either MAX or LOW (low) will cause low frequencies to rush forward or backward. Adjust the rear unit volume of The Depth (1 to 4 gears), only added a gear, if you continue to adjust upwards, the high-frequency condensation sense will become weaker, the sound is easy to drift. Of course, in the future, after the speaker is cooked or the positioning is fine-tuned, there may still be changes. The interesting thing about Hi-end is that it's such a repetitive play.
Personal speculation is that the current performance of the Aida II may only play out 70% or 80% of its potential. The audition for half a day, mixed with adjustment and communication, seems hurried. With a large symphony, Aida II does have a flagship style from the openness of the soundstage, the sense of presence and the layered positioning. The grandeur of the big scene and the aura as stable as Taishan and the vivid sound performance are addictive. I tried many music clips on the day, from classical, jazz to pop, sometimes light and jumpy, sometimes dense and exciting, Aida II has been faithfully restored.
A full set of McIntosh equipment for matching
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > summary</h1>
Many people who see Sonus Faber for the first time will be captivated by its shape - beauty. Then after seeing the Aida II, you may reflect that it is not only a good shape, but also a speaker that is equally "obsessed with death" in terms of timbre and sound quality performance. Of course, you have to have enough space to accommodate it and a budget of over a million. I think this is the so-called "charm of the flagship".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > basic technical parameters</h1>
● System: 3 2/3 way
●Crossover point: 55Hz/150Hz/200Hz/3000Hz
●Frequency response: 18Hz ~ 35kHz, including invisible reflection ™
●Sensitivity: 92dB SPL (2.83V/1m)
●Rated impedance: 4Ω
●Size: H1725×W482×D780mm
●Net weight: 165kg/pcs