Thoughts on the Heco Aurora 300?

[Goldhamster916]

I don’t find much in forums and reviews about them but the few reviews seem very favourable. The information shortage might be because they don’t sell them Anywhere and it’s a German manufacturer.
I am considering them with a sub for movies, Mainly concerned with soundstage and imaging compared to the kef q150.
Did anyone try them and would share their experience?

 

[staticV3]

This test shows some pretty ugly in-room response and pronounced cabinet resonances: https://www.hifi-voice.com/testy-a-recenze/reprosoustavy-regalove/2967-heco-aurora-300#

Personally I'd rather stick to what's been Klippel'd (Link)

 

[3125b]

reviews about them but the few reviews seem very favourable

Ever seen a negative review in one of those publications?

I am considering them with a sub for movies, Mainly concerned with soundstage and imaging compared to the kef q150.

What bothers you about the KEF? What are you looking for?

These Heco sell for a similar price as the Elac DBR62 that are known good performers. I know what I'd go with ...

 

[Goldhamster916]

This test shows some pretty ugly in-room response and pronounced cabinet resonances: https://www.hifi-voice.com/testy-a-recenze/reprosoustavy-regalove/2967-heco-aurora-300#

Personally I'd rather stick to what's been Klippel'd (Link)

Nice you found some data. I guess rather kef it is then…

 

[tw 2022]

I don’t find much in forums and reviews about them but the few reviews seem very favourable. The information shortage might be because they don’t sell them Anywhere and it’s a German manufacturer.
I am considering them with a sub for movies, Mainly concerned with soundstage and imaging compared to the kef q150.
Did anyone try them and would share their experience?

i'd get the q150's...better yet if you can find emotiva b1's (or +'s) and do the Dennis Murphy mod you'll spend less and get much better results...

 

[jackdanyal]

This test shows some pretty ugly in-room response and pronounced cabinet resonances: https://www.hifi-voice.com/testy-a-recenze/reprosoustavy-regalove/2967-heco-aurora-300#

Personally I'd rather stick to what's been Klippel'd (Link)

smth wrong with his review. I own a pair of Aurora 300 for nearfield listening on my desktop. Never noticed any cabinet resonances or weir issues. they are built like a tank. the quality is on par with Wharfedale Evo 4.1

 

[jackdanyal]

This test shows some pretty ugly in-room response and pronounced cabinet resonances: https://www.hifi-voice.com/testy-a-recenze/reprosoustavy-regalove/2967-heco-aurora-300#

Personally I'd rather stick to what's been Klippel'd (Link)

and actually couldn't find anything related to the cabinet resonances in the review

 

[staticV3]

and actually couldn't find anything related to the cabinet resonances in the review

 

[Barry_Sound]

Hyped by the home shopping channels right now

 

[VintageFlanker]

Hyped by the home shopping channels right now

Wow, the bargain of the century, indeed !! ...

... Untill there's another speaker reviewed next week.

 

[napilopez]

Personally, I don't think I can make much sense of the Hi-Fi voice review data. Seems super influenced by in-room factors.

I've been interested in this brand as they have some on-wall speakers that may be convenient for my setup (the Ambient 22ff). Luckily Audioholics tested the Heco 300 with good ol quasi-anechoic data just a few days ago:

HECO Aurora 300 Bookshelf Loudspeaker Review

The Heco Aurora 300 bookshelves produced a nicely balanced sound that is uncommon for a loudspeaker of its price range. How did they do it and how do they compare to more expensive speakers? Read on.

www.audioholics.com

(I haven't read the full text yet, just seen the measurements)

Basically, looks like a solid 2 way with a very flat listening window and wide-ish directivity but the usual directivity mismatch you get when you don't have a large waveguide, in line with something like the Polk R600 or Focal Chora. The low end is smoothed by the quasi-anechoic method, but overall the measurement is at 1/24 octave smoothing and the listening window above 1000 hz looks excellent.

The dip in the midrange seems to be mostly from the dispersion, so soundstage performance should be solid.

Also keep in mind the polar graphs in Audioholics reviews look worse than Amir's because they only cover ±90 degrees as opposed to the full ±180

There seems to be a bit of a resonance resonance at 800 hz which I'd bet is from the port. Honestly, I'm more surprised when these resonances aren't there on bookshelf speakers at this point. That said it doesn't seem too bad in the off-axis data so I don't think it looks like a huge issue.

Frankly, to me this looks like excellent performance for a 6.5-inch speaker you can buy a pair new for just $315 $419 a pair (was $315 just a few days ago). The 5-inch model probably handles the crossover region a bit more smoothly.

Interestingly, the 3-way HECO 1000 tower measures even better horizontally, despite also using a 6.5-inch woofer for the midrange. Audioholics unfortunately didn't create a spinorama for the tower (which it reviewed last year), but horizontal directivity is clearly even smoother:

HECO Aurora 1000 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Review

The German made Heco Aurora 1000 floor-standing speakers ($799/ea) were put through the wringer with our in depth measurement testing and yielded surprising results. Are these the speakers to get?

www.audioholics.com

My on-wall unit arrives tomorrow. Maybe I can be bothered to measure it...

 

[thewas]

The Heco Aurora 700 seems also to be a good buy for them money, it measures well, I had listened to it a store and was positively surprised and also comes in a variety of nice colours:

Source of above measurements and full review in German language https://www.i-fidelity.net/testberichte/hifi/heco-aurora-700-colors/test.html

 

[napilopez]

Someone mentioned the ELAC DBR62 earlier and I thought the measurements looked quite similar. As it turns out, the DI curves are super similar and the the rest of the curves line up pretty closely too, though there's more upper-midrange in the HECO that you may or may not want to EQ away.

Unfortunately, it seems Audio Advice is considering discontinuing the brand, and they're the only distributor in the US. Many of the models are no longer in stock, and when I emailed them to ask why they said they're reassessing the HECO line up for 2024 and may or may not carry these speakers in the future. Rather inconvenient as so as I was considering an on-wall speaker setup and these seemed like the right price-performance ratio (assuming the wall-mounts hold up, but they seem really similar sans the bass). I'll

Really hope that's not the case -- it's nice to have a different contender around these parts.

 

[MarcT]

Personally, I don't think I can make much sense of the Hi-Fi voice review data. Seems super influenced by in-room factors.

I've been interested in this brand as they have some on-wall speakers that may be convenient for my setup (the Ambient 22ff). Luckily Audioholics tested the Heco 300 with good ol quasi-anechoic data just a few days ago:

HECO Aurora 300 Bookshelf Loudspeaker Review

The Heco Aurora 300 bookshelves produced a nicely balanced sound that is uncommon for a loudspeaker of its price range. How did they do it and how do they compare to more expensive speakers? Read on.

www.audioholics.com

(I haven't read the full text yet, just seen the measurements)

View attachment 345096
View attachment 345098
Basically, looks like a solid 2 way with a very flat listening window and wide-ish directivity but the usual directivity mismatch you get when you don't have a large waveguide, in line with something like the Polk R600 or Focal Chora. The low end is smoothed by the quasi-anechoic method, but overall the measurement is at 1/24 octave smoothing and the listening window above 1000 hz looks excellent.

The dip in the midrange seems to be mostly from the dispersion, so soundstage performance should be solid.

Also keep in mind the polar graphs in Audioholics reviews look worse than Amir's because they only cover ±90 degrees as opposed to the full ±180

There seems to be a bit of a resonance resonance at 800 hz which I'd bet is from the port. Honestly, I'm more surprised when these resonances aren't there on bookshelf speakers at this point. That said it doesn't seem too bad in the off-axis data so I don't think it looks like a huge issue.

Frankly, to me this looks like excellent performance for a 6.5-inch speaker you can buy a pair new for just $315 $419 a pair (was $315 just a few days ago). The 5-inch model probably handles the crossover region a bit more smoothly.

Interestingly, the 3-way HECO 1000 tower measures even better horizontally, despite also using a 6.5-inch woofer for the midrange. Audioholics unfortunately didn't create a spinorama for the tower (which it reviewed last year), but horizontal directivity is clearly even smoother:

HECO Aurora 1000 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Review

The German made Heco Aurora 1000 floor-standing speakers ($799/ea) were put through the wringer with our in depth measurement testing and yielded surprising results. Are these the speakers to get?

www.audioholics.com

View attachment 345100

My on-wall unit arrives tomorrow. Maybe I can be bothered to measure it...

Yes, Amazon(US) has the 1000's and there is a return period. They briefly had them available for $445 each in December. I'm thinking of picking up a set to compare to my Sonus Faber Lumina V's.

 

[MMahlke]

Someone mentioned the ELAC DBR62 earlier and I thought the measurements looked quite similar. As it turns out, the DI curves are super similar and the the rest of the curves line up pretty closely too, though there's more upper-midrange in the HECO that you may or may not want to EQ away.

Unfortunately, it seems Audio Advice is considering discontinuing the brand, and they're the only distributor in the US. Many of the models are no longer in stock, and when I emailed them to ask why they said they're reassessing the HECO line up for 2024 and may or may not carry these speakers in the future. Rather inconvenient as so as I was considering an on-wall speaker setup and these seemed like the right price-performance ratio (assuming the wall-mounts hold up, but they seem really similar sans the bass). I'll

Really hope that's not the case -- it's nice to have a different contender around these parts.

I went to Audio Advice we live close to Raleigh I called about SVS prime towers they said they had SVS ultra towers and would sell the floor models for 1/2 price 1000 a pair. We raced up and were not impressed. They had several tower speakers set up for demo and we began listening to them all. The Revel and Sonus Faber's were the best after that we liked the Heco aurora 700's. We listened to Paradigm, KEF, and B&W we preferred the 700's they were 1000 a pair and I hated not getting the SVS's but they were not impressive at all. He said the Aurora 1000's floor models could be bought for 589 a pair, he moved those into position for us to listen too. We thought we preferred the 700's. The 1000's had more bass (barely) but didn't seem as open and airy, imaging was better in the 700's. Salesman left the room came back and offered the floor model Hecos for 489, done deal and we love them. He mentioned they were not likely going to be a dealer anymore. I suspect Voxx who owns, Heco and Klipsch is looking for a bigger presence than just Audio Advice for Heco. They have a Klipsch room but no speakers in it so it could be they are splitting from Voxx they have an Onkyo amp but is seems leftover where it is placed in the store. I know if I was Heco (Voxx) I would want a bigger presence in the market. I fear we might end up with retailers being strictly Harman(Samsung), or Voxx brands or Massimo brands. I believe Yamaha and Mcintosh are still independent, Sony too. That is simply a guess

 

[sound67]

This test shows some pretty ugly in-room response and pronounced cabinet resonances: https://www.hifi-voice.com/testy-a-recenze/reprosoustavy-regalove/2967-heco-aurora-300#

Personally I'd rather stick to what's been Klippel'd (Link)

Sorry, but I trust some reviewers (like Randy e.g.) more than a random, anonymous yokel on the internet.

 

[Ze Frog]

Wow, the bargain of the century, indeed !! ...

... Untill there's another speaker reviewed next week.

Yeah, it's kind of tragic when to start with he was actually kind of about more honesty and consumer friendly, at least that was the impression. Poor bloke sold himself out pretty rapidly and became just another typical influencer type. I know there's likely money in it, but I'd rather be poor and have honour and dignity, a trait deeply lacking these days sadly.

 

[Ze Frog]

Sorry, but I trust some reviewers (like Randy e.g.) more than a random, anonymous yokel on the internet.

Hmmm... the 'anonymous yokel' as you put it though has nothing to gain, an odd decision there especially when the information has been provided beyond words.

 

[tw 2022]

Yeah, it's kind of tragic when to start with he was actually kind of about more honesty and consumer friendly, at least that was the impression. Poor bloke sold himself out pretty rapidly and became just another typical influencer type. I know there's likely money in it, but I'd rather be poor and have honour and dignity, a trait deeply lacking these days sadly.

agreed , Randy (forgive my familiarity) *IS* unfortunately just another on line, youtube shill ... another version of Zeos... that being said , i enjoy his reviews , but hardly take him seriously.. i don't mind helping his financial cause , as he *is* entertaining and at first blush,mostly sincere....