Aperion Intimus 533-VAC

Reviewed on 2/14/06    Release date: 6/15/05    The Aperion Intimus 533-VAC is the dedicated center-channel speaker for the company's mix-and-match Intimus line. It incorporates the new HD-X3 impedance-leveling crossover technology, which is designed to produce better sound, greater efficiency, and an easier load for amplifiers than the crossovers used in previous generations of Aperion speakers such as its predecessor, the 522D-VAC. It's available on the company's Web site for $280.

Like the other speakers in the Intimus line, the 533-VAC won't be mistaken for a petite lifestyle speaker. This full-figured model is 19 inches wide, 7.2 high, and 8 deep. Pick up the 533-VAC and the first thing you'll notice is that it's a lot heavier than you thought it would be--it weighs 20 pounds. Here's why: Instead of commonplace 0.5- or 0.75-inch-thick medium-density fiberboard (MDF), Aperion cabinets are constructed from 1-inch-thick high-density fiberboard (HDF). The heavily braced cabinet minimizes resonance to produce more accurate sound. And unlike the cheesy, vinyl-wrapped surfaces that are the norm for a lot of speakers these days, all of Aperion's models sport your choice of real cherrywood or high-gloss piano-black finishes. Connectivity is similarly luxurious, with gold-plated, five-way binding posts that accept single or dual banana plugs, spades, pins, or bare wire.

Two-way center speakers typically use a woofer-tweeter-woofer array but sound best only for listeners seated directly in front of the speaker. The 533-VAC is a three-way design featuring a vertical array--look closely and you'll see the speaker's tweeter is positioned directly above the midrange driver. That arrangement, along with the active/passive woofer design, promotes wider horizontal dispersion--everyone on your couch will hear the same sound quality. The three-way design boasts two 5.25-inch woofers, a 4-inch midrange driver, and a 1-inch dome tweeter. So far, so good, but Aperion engineers came up with an interesting twist on the design--one of the 5.25-inch woofers is passive, and the other one is active. In other words, the active woofer is connected to your receiver, and the passive driver is not; it's driven by the pressure that the active woofer creates within the cabinet.

Aperion's extrathick foam packing materials and blue velour "socks" protect the speakers on the way to you. And to top things off, if you buy the 533-VAC with a multichannel speaker package (such as Aperion's System E bundle), Aperion will include a high-quality sound-pressure meter to help you get the best sound from your system. Aperion is so confident you'll love the 533-VAC that the company sells it with a 30-day, money-back return policy. UPS Ground shipping is free (ditto the return shipping if you're not satisfied) in the continental United States. The speaker is sold with a 10-year warranty.

To assess the vertical array's wide-dispersion capabilities, we played test discs' "pink noise" tracks and determined that yes, the Aperion Intimus 533-VAC's performance claims were valid. The speaker's tonal balance was unaffected by our position on our couch. The rated 80Hz bass response is more full range than typical center speakers, ensuring that dialogue is always full bodied and natural. Two-way center speakers can sometimes sound boxy or closed in, but the 533-VAC's sound was fully open. Best of all, the well-endowed speaker proved itself a synergistic match with even the largest Aperion speakers that we had on hand, namely the 633-T towers, and still mated well with the smaller 632-LR bookshelf speakers. It's truly an exceptional design.

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• 10/10 Perfect

  April 23, 2007

  by msb1410 (see profile)

  "Simply Amazing!!! You will not find a better built Speaker!" Read more >>

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