Categories
Reviews

MUSICAL MAESTRO’S – PRECIDE HEIL AMT AULOS BOOKSHELF SPEAKERS

  • WRITTEN BY DENOM

Few book shelves have the capability to keep one engrossed in the music than the Heil AMT Aulos. An unassuming to look at speaker with the famed AMT doing duties in place of a run of the mill dome tweeter.  AMT was invented by Oskar Heil, an eminent physicist who has had a major hand in developing a magnetron and also conceiving the idea of field effect transistors back in 1970s. It was while working on these super technologies, that Oskar Heil came across this phenomenon of AMT, which later developed into a tweeter technology that is radically different from moving coil, magnetic, ribbon or even electrostatic. AMT uses a folded sheet made out of polyester that is structured around an arrangement of aluminium bars that are placed in high intensity magnetic field.

The objectibity of a tweeter is that it should be extremely light and, at the same time, very strong. The AMT is observed to have both of these desired qualities to the maximum possible extent and hence Heil claims it to be the best tweeter technology. Equal attention has been devoted to the mids and bass requirements of the speaker, to complete the whole frequency spectrum. The midbass drive unit is 6.3 inches and the cone made of composite material.

Appearance: The Cabinets appear to be well made using quality wooden materials. The unit on demo had none of the branding of Heil AMT, which was quite surprising to say the least. The speakers had 2 sets of speaker wire binding posts, so that they can be bi-wired. The walnut finish that we had on demo were quite sober and pleasing to look at. Do they look like expensive speakers, not really to be honest!

Absolute Sound, the distributor for these speakers were kind enough to send a very well made pair of speaker stands to do justice to the speakers. The stands were made by their sister concern called “Emotion & Kraft”

Performance: We had the Aulos for a very short period of time but we tried to hear them with a couple of electronics pairings in order to get a fair idea of what they are all about.

Electronics Paired:

BelCanto DAC2.7 BelCanto REFLink USB Converter

BelCanto REF600M – MonoBlock Amplifiers

Accustic Arts Power ES Integrated Amplifier

Accustic Arts Player ES CD Player

Naim Nait 5Si

Naim Nait CD5Si

Cabling:

Transparent Audio XL 110Ohm AES/EBU Digital Cable

Transparent Audio Reference MM@ & Reference Power Cords

Transparent Audio Ultra Speaker Cables

VDH – The Source Interconnects

Audio Quest Type – 4 Speaker Cables

AMT Aulos Bookshelf are one of those compact speakers, which can make you sit up at the first play itself. The trait that hits one head on is how can such relatively compact book shelf speaker have so much to offer? The highs thanks to the AMT are spectacular in extension, feel and quality. A faster, more precise and powerful bass is never easy to go with such unique tweeters and certainly not for compact speakers. That the Mid bass driver is able to keep up with the AMT to ensure seamless transition is a wonder in itself. Mids and lows are well defined, articulate and give one a very satisfying experience across the frequency range. Play any type of music, the Aulos just shine and delight in reproducing it in a very special way. The speakers are rather unfussy to a very large extent in setting up as well, with just a hint of a toe-in to give you the kind of soundstage that bigger speakers sometimes cannot do justice to. Our preference was pairing them with the Accustic Arts Electronics as they just made the music sound sublime. The Heil Aulos stretch the laws of physics to their limits – Chapeau Time!

Verdict:  A small speaker with the character of a big one. The midrange and treble this speaker has special qualities, beautiful sound timbre with transparency, good sound staging and an equally good depth.The bass is powerful and precise. At a price point of 2.75Lacs, they are pricey and certainly more options in this price range do become more attractive keeping their rather DIY type of finish and appearance in mind, but we urge the audience to definitely give them a listen as they deserve that at the very least.

Heil Precide Heil