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Aperion N5T Speaker Review

Rate this speaker:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 12 5.0%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 108 45.4%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 113 47.5%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 5 2.1%

  • Total voters
    238

abdo123

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The Klipsch doesn't have additionally to the on-axis presence dip also that large directivity mismatch of the Aperion so it can more rescued by EQ.
Honestly the only thing that could have ''rescued'' this speaker is if the crossover was designed as a 2.5 way.
 

Brian6751

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I have owned many speakers and subs from Aperion Audio over the years. They make great products and their customer service seriously set a new standard for me. Its over the top good. 30 day in home trial with free shipping both ways.

Im not affiliated with them; just a plug for a great company for those who are not familiar with them
 

beagleman

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Not well engineered with its unnecessarily big vertical driver spacing (also due to the marketing tweeter faceplate) and even worse the resulting directivity peak coinciding with an on-axis dip around 2 kHz making the sound power even more recessed in that region.

I hate to mention this, but I owned a pair of speakers with that exact same dip, and while not technically "Perfect" (I measured them) they were by far one of the most "Listenable" speakers I have ever owned.

I get FLAT is ideal of course, but I think a lot of Pop/Rock is not flat in the 2-3 khz region intentionally to give it a more forward sound.
 

beagleman

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This looks quiet good on measurements, but what an ugly speaker in white. I'm not fond of white speakers in general, but this looks extremely bad. The black version looks a lot better, only by the colour change...

N5T31000X1000MBP_363x@3x.progressive.jpg


But the measurements are good, and the price is also reasonable. If the listening test is also good it would be a good option for people who like this kind of narrow tall towers (i'm not among them).

Drivers are clearly generic Peerless by Tymphany OEM models. The way they are designed is very typical for them. But that is not a bad thing as they make great drivers for small budgets, and it's a sign the speaker designer knows at least a bit how to design with a budget in mind. No need for special snake oil blablabla, just use what is needed and don't try to reinvent the wheel...
I immediately saw the SDS series woofers, (Maybe?) the ones that are about 20 bucks a pop right?
The cones look different though............


The tweeter, I am not sure what it is.
But those budget Peerless/Tymphany midwoofers actually measure and account for themselves quite well for their price!
 
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thewas

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I hate to mention this, but I owned a pair of speakers with that exact same dip, and while not technically "Perfect" (I measured them) they were by far one of the most "Listenable" speakers I have ever owned.

I get FLAT is ideal of course, but I think a lot of Pop/Rock is not flat in the 2-3 khz region intentionally to give it a more forward sound.
Personally I also don't really dislike the sound of loudspeakers with a presence dip, but it this case it is quite extreme as it is a result of corresponding both on-axis and radiation dips.
 

Waxx

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I immediately saw the SDS series woofers, (Maybe?) the ones that are about 20 bucks a pop right?
The cones look different though............


The tweeter, I am not sure what it is.
But those budget Peerless/Tymphany midwoofers actually measure and account for themselves quite well for their price!
It's probally not of the shelf, as the frame is also slightly different than most peerless designs of today. I saw OEM drivers like that that were called FSB aand some series of numbers that i don't remember in a design that i can't talk about yet (still in dev by someone i know). It's probally not exact the same as used here, as the OEM build from that guy is custom. Custom OEM drivers is the main bussiness of Peerless (and a lot of driver manufacturers), the diy part is mostly advertisment that also gains money for most. Very few driver manufacturers work only for the diy market.

The tweeter looks like a OX20SC02-08 in a custom housing with grille, or at least something similar.

And yes, that SDS is incredible value for money, just like most peerless drivers. It's only hard to find as the company sells them only in big numbers to distributors, and most distributors don't sell enough to diy people to justify such big orders.
 

fpitas

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Honestly the only thing that could have ''rescued'' this speaker is if the crossover was designed as a 2.5 way.
True, although I question having to rescue a $700 speaker. $200? Sure.
 

anphex

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Why the tower design when the design doesn't use the benefits of higher volume? If I hadn't seen the image of the speakers I would have thought that this was some small 200 $ speaker.
 

NiagaraPete

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Reminds me of the Linn Ninka.
 

fpitas

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Why the tower design when the design doesn't use the benefits of higher volume? If I hadn't seen the image of the speakers I would have thought that this was some small 200 $ speaker.
Maybe so you don't need a stand to get the tweeter to a good height? Just a guess.
 

sarumbear

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Nice. Directivity in D’Appolito drivers configuration is always a bit tricky.
Joe's design is MTM, not WTW. That is because the distance between two equal drivers must be small and only a mid-range driver can be used. The basic 'Appolito driver spacing rule requires two drivers playing the same frequency to be placed at most within a wavelength apart over the range they share frequencies, i.e. the crossover frequency to the tweeter. This speaker seem to have a crossover at around 2,500Hz = 14cm. That required them to touch each other at minimum, hence leaving no place to put the tweeter.
 

thewas

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Joe's design is MTM, not WTW. That is because the distance between two equal drivers must be small and only a mid-range driver can be used. The basic 'Appolito driver spacing rule requires two drivers playing the same frequency to be placed at most within a wavelength apart over the range they share frequencies, i.e. the crossover frequency to the tweeter. This speaker seem to have a crossover at around 2,500Hz = 14cm. That required them to touch each other at minimum, hence leaving no place to put the tweeter.
The original recommendation of Joe was even the distance to be only two thirds of the wavelength (which made it even more difficult to fulfil - even on his own projects) and using odd order crossover (typically 3rd).
 

sarumbear

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The original recommendation of Joe was even the distance to be only two thirds of the wavelength (which made it even more difficult to fulfil - even on his own projects) and using odd order crossover (typically 3rd).
True but I think later on he decided a 4th order LR can be used within a wavelength but I can’t recall exactly.
 

fpitas

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True but I think later on he decided a 4th order LR can be used within a wavelength but I can’t recall exactly.
He decided he likes the power dip at the crossover point from LR4. The BW3 was aligned in phase quadrature, and had a wide (tall?) vertical polar pattern, and no power dip.

I've tried both, and fwiw prefer LR4. I think it has a more believable image. And fwiw, Jeff Bagby often said he liked the LR4 power dip with MTM.
 
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Robbo99999

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I voted it Not Terrible, I didn't like the directivity and the frequency response wasn't that much better, although I'd be curious how good the bass works in room because it is a gradual rolloff albeit it starts quite high, so the bass performance in room might be a pleasant surprise. Better options available for the price I think.
 

thewas

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By the way the bookshelf reviewed by Stereophile measured quite nicer
and their new home cinema series could also have more continuous directivities with the waveguides and the small mid domes
 
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Ron Texas

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My point of view is that the EQ is not really useful in this case. You lose 5dB of max SPL which is a lot. If you have a good room, possibly the dip at 2k (visible in the PIR) is audible but dips are always harder to hear.

There is a lot of wisdom in that statement. Peaks are easy to take out, a narrow suck out is usually inaudible, but a broad dip really can't be fixed.
 

Ron Texas

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@amirm thank you for another thorough and informative review. Hopefully, speaker manufacturers are adopting the Klippel.
 

Biagiod

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Why the tower design when the design doesn't use the benefits of higher volume? If I hadn't seen the image of the speakers I would have thought that this was some small 200 $ speaker.

Mah... As Amir says you have 50hz at 0 db, 40 hz at -5 db and 32 hz at - 10... all at very low distortion and/or high SPL. Just plainly impossible to get them with a small speaker.
 
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