Cambridge Audio Aero 6 Review (Part 1)

Cambridge Audio Aero 6 Review (Part 1)

Back in the November 2013, we reviewed the $570 Cambridge Audio Aero 2 standmount loudspeaker. The Aero 6 is a larger, floorstanding version of the same design, deploying identical drive units with the far larger cabinet volume that comes from having a big box that sits securely on terra firma!

Cambridge Audio Aero 6 (Black)

Many will expect the Aero 6 to be better, then; after all, it’s nearly twice the price and has far more air inside its capacious cabinet. Trouble is, in doing a floorstanding version of a smaller standmount speaker, you open yourself up to a problem that’s never easily solved, especially in budget designs, which is how to keep the cabinet under control. The thing is, that bigger box might let the bass driver move air easier, but there’s also the worry that it will also move the cabinet. This is the nub of the problem for any larger loudspeaker – how to keep those expanses of timber from flexing and resonating in time to the music, sullying the sound.

On a small box like the Aero 2, this isn’t such a big problem, as there’s less of it. But the Aero 6 sports two 165mm bass units producing a lot more energy than the 2’s single, identically sized driver, and has a whopping great (in relative terms) box to keep in line. The performance of the bigger box is a real issue that will ultimately determine the success or failure of the speaker.

Sound is as close to big three-way speaker as you’ll get for $1.632

Cambridge Audio’s Aero series does something very smart that confers it a significant advantage in terms of sound – it uses a single 46mm BMR driver to take care of treble and midband frequencies. The aforementioned device works from 250Hz all the way up to 22kHz, and it gives the Aero a theoretical edge – namely that the crossover point of the loudspeaker is a good long way from where the ear is most sensitive, in the 1 to 2kHz region. This is precisely where most other two-way speakers cross over, so by shunting the crossover point down the frequency band, the sticky bit where the bass driver kicks in is nowhere near as subjectively problematic. And cleverly, the BMR handles mid and treble frequencies, leaving the most hard working part of the package – the woofer(s) – to get on with playing the bass, without having to worry about the midband as well.

And that’s before you even consider how the BMR works; its excellent natural dispersion pattern comes from the fact that it creates much of its sound from surface vibration, in addition to conventional in-out pistonic motion. This means it diffuses around the room more easily and doesn’t have any sort of obvious ‘sweet spot’ like conventional tweeters. I found it worked exceptionally nicely in the Aero 2; not only is it well integrated with the bass driver, but it is the latest version of the BMR, which no other manufacturer is currently using.

Cambridge Audio Aero 6 (Walnut)

Those twin bass units both feature paper cones. Having experimented for years with cone materials, designer Dominic Baker is now a fan of certain types of paper pulp in speaker cones; he says these have a great combination of stiffness and lightness that other materials can’t match. A single large reflex port lets the twin woofers breathe, fi ring forward into the room. The MDF cabinet has a choice of black or dark walnut finishes, and you won’t find bi-wirable binding posts round the back because Dominic doesn’t think they offer an acceptable cost/benefit.