Aperion Audio

Intimus 422/S-8 Compact Home Theater System

	Photo ©: AudioReview.com

By Eric LoBue
Date: April, 2005

I’ve been looking to get surround sound back into my house for a while. I’m quite happy with the performance of my Klipsch Cornwalls for music; but for movies, television, radio, and more casual music listening, tubes and horns are overkill. Not only that, I'm also missing out on all the fun that surround sound movies have to offer. It was time. I needed a surround sound system.

With the monolithic old Cornwalls already taking up outrageous chunks of real estate in my small townhouse AND competing with my girlfriend for my affections, another set of full size speakers, let alone five of them, was not an option. I needed something small, but didn’t want to compromise on sound quality. Next thing I know, I’ve got an email from Aperion Audio. They had a new mini-system, and could I review it? HAHA! Did I ever mention that I love my job?

The Aperion Audio Intimus 422/S-8 Compact Home Theater System is, besides a mouthful, just that. It’s your classic 5.1 surround sound speaker package; five small satellites and an eight-inch powered subwoofer. This set retails for a very reasonable $799 direct from Aperion Audio's website.

The system came in three boxes. One for the subwoofer; one for the five satellites; and a third, smaller box for the warranty and directions, white gloves to handle your fine new speakers, and a sound pressure level meter to set up your system. Yes, you read that correctly, this little system comes with an SPL meter included to help to optimize your system. Nice touch. Not only that, but to protect from scuffing, the sub and each satellite were lovingly packed in purple cloth bags (just like the Crown Royal Whisky bags I kept my marbles in as a kid). The message is clear: They’re not screwing around.

Pulling the satellites out of their protective sacks, you find a very solid little speaker. They’re attractive, well constructed and quite substantial for such a little speaker. They're much nicer than the typical mini-satellites out there, giving you the feeling of a high-end mini monitor rather than an inexpensive home theater satellite.

Setting up the speakers themselves was painless. It’s always the receiver that’s tricky. Dolby Digital receivers have all kinds of geeky features that must be set up correctly to get the sound right: crossover settings, equalizers, speaker distances, etc. Eventually I got everything dialed in; I set the receivers' cross over to 100Hz, adjusted the speaker distances, sub level, etc.

The subwoofer is fairly straightforward, with line-level inputs, a line-level pass-through, crossover frequency dial, and a volume control. I set the subwoofer crossover to 120Hz and the volume to about one-third per setup instructions.

I let the set break in for a few weeks using movies, music, and television for a few weeks before listening critically. I used a Panasonic SA-XR50 receiver to power them, with a Denon DVD-2200 DVD Player, TV, radio and an Apple Airport Express as sources.

These are very impressive little speakers. They’re musical and fun with plenty of detail. They sound a LOT bigger than they are, and they disappear very well. They throw a great soundstage, and you can crank them quite a bit without breaking up. Wonderful high frequencies, but can sometimes sound a bit over emphasized. Generally I found equal satisfaction with movies and music. Whether it be Pixar’s latest animated adventure "The Incredibles", the 1949 film noir classic "The Third Man", raw rock music from The White Stripes, or Stan Getz’s smooth tenor sax, it was all fun listening with the Aperions.

Surround effects were subtle yet enveloping, and dialog from the center channel was clear and crisp. They did a great job of conveying atmosphere, whether it be with music or movies. With music it was quite easy to get a sense of the recording environment. With every recording you felt like you were in the venue with musicians, whether it be a studio, small concert hall, or large arena.

I am a bit less enamored with the subwoofer. It did well with the low frequency effects of movies and music at low listening levels, but when I played loud or bass heavy music, it wasn't able to keep up musically. It felt constricted and lacking in tone. I experimented with placement, volume control, crossover settings, but finally just had to settle with less bass. With such a small sub, however, this is to be expected. You will not be able to shake the rafters with this one. That said, I think this sub will satisfy anyone who is not a bass freak. Let me qualify this paragraph with the next..

To be fair, I am spoiled in the bass department: My current sub is a VMPS Larger Original passive subwoofer. It’s an absolute beast of a sub, employing a 15 and 18 inch woofer, and another 15 inch passive radiator. It is powered by a 170 watt Yamaha MX-830 power amp. Not only does it produce prodigious amounts of bass, it is very musical and fast. It is a gigantic black box about eight times the size of the Aperion sub, and it weighs nearly 200 pounds. In short, it’s not a fair fight for me to compare the Aperion sub to the VMPS. Not only that, your significant other will NEVER let you put something like the VMPS in your living room, while the Aperion is small and attractive and easily hidden, if needed. It's performance is on par with its size.

Using the VMPS Sub with the satellites, however, spoke to just how good the Aperions really are. This combo is awesome. They complemented each other quite well. I could play them as loud as I liked and the Aperions just sounded better and better. Effortless, dynamic and fun, very tuneful with absolutely zero strain. They never became irritating, or lost detail. It left me wondering why I needed those gigantic Cornwalls at all, other than to hold up my lamp and the philodendron.

Summary:

This is a great little system at a great little price. You get excellent performance in a very attractive package. The bass isn't what I am used to, but frankly, if I wasn't accustomed the behemoth VMPS, I would be quite happy with the sub too. I can't think of a good reason why I wouldn't buy these speakers.

This is an excellent system for those wanting to add a good looking, high quality surround setup without sacfricing the living room to a phalanx of giant speakers. It appears to me that Aperion is aiming for that segment of the market where HE wants a great surround sound system but SHE gets a veto when it comes to décor. With the Aperions, everyone can be happy - very happy.

Caveat is that I had no surround systems on hand to compare directly the Aperions, or any other surround amplifier.