CES 2009

Aerial Antics

John Atkinson  |  Jan 14, 2009

One of the most impressive speakers I have auditioned in the past few years was the three-way Aerial 20T, which was reviewed by Michael Fremer in April 2004. I spoke to Aerial's Michael Kelly a while back about getting a pair for a Follow-Up review, but he declined, saying that he was working on an improved version.

That version, the 20Tv2 ($32,000/pair) made its debut at the 2009 CES. It retains the earlier version's ribbon tweeter and midrange unit, but features two new 7" woofers, these using a cone constructed from layers of carbon-fiber, Rohacell, and glass-fiber, and said to offer a huge linear excursion. The crossover had to be redesigned around the new woofers, of course. The new speaker sounded pretty damn good at CES, driven by Boulder amplification and the impressive new Boulder 1021 CD player, and, as Wes Phillips reported earlier in this report, it also worked surprisingly well with the inexpensive Peachtree Nova amplifier.

COMMENTS
John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson (not verified) on January 15, 2009 - 4:29am

Our error, Jim. My apologies.

Jim Spainhour / Peachtree Audio's picture
Submitted by Jim Spainhour /... (not verified) on January 14, 2009 - 7:39pm

Thanks, John The 20Tv2's sounded great! I need to clear up one point. We were using the Peachtree Audio Nova's DAC section only with David's laptop and an Apple TV in the demo. We routed the signal from the Nova's line output to the outstanding Boulder Pre and Power amps. As much as we love the Nova there's no way it could drive The big Aerials like that. Boulder is in a class by themselves when it comes to that kind of refined power. If we gave you the impression during the demo that the Nova amplifier was driving the 20Tv2's we apologize.

Andrew Clark's picture
Submitted by Andrew Clark (not verified) on January 15, 2009 - 2:13pm

One minor technical correction. The 20T woofers are 9 inches - not 7. They are the same size as the Model 20T Version 1 woofers, but constructed using the new materials as noted.

Stephen Scharf's picture
Submitted by Stephen Scharf (not verified) on January 15, 2009 - 11:46pm

Guess that speaks volumes about how good the DAC in the Peachtree Nova is. I would have loved to have heard it driving the Aerials using the Preamp section and the Boulder amps. Signal Path has a winner on it's hands with the Nova, is my guess.It gets my vote as the most innovative and best-value providing product launched at CES.

tom collins's picture
Submitted by tom collins (not verified) on January 16, 2009 - 6:42am

i love aerial speakers and own a diminutive pair of 6's that make an amazing sound for their size. i would really like to see the magazine review a pair of their smaller models, especially the model 9's as i am looking in that direction. i heard version 1 of the 20t's recently powered by an audio research front end. it boggles the mind to think that the version 2 could actually be better. thanks guys.

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