Intimus 6T-DB Hybrid Overview and Build Quality

We're no strangers to Aperion Audio, having reviewed their products in one form or another since 2005. We've experienced the gamut of products - from their earliest Intimus 5.1 system to the 522D-PT Powered Towers, to their latest Intimus Harmony 4B Harmony SD package. In each case we've found them to be an exceptional value with incredible build quality that surpasses most of their peers in the marketplace. This latest review takes the very best 5.1 system they have to offer - their Intimus 6T-DB Hybrid XD (whose 6T tower won our 2008 Consumer Excellence Award) and drives it hard to see if it can stand up under fire.

Build Quality & Features

One of the first things anyone will notice about Aperion Audio speakers is their weight. They are heavy. Made from 1-inch thick HDF (high-density fiberboard), these speakers pass the "knock test" with flying colors and are incredibly inert. This new series has rounded edges and we received a pair with the new "high gloss" (piano) black finish. The gloss was so perfect it was a veritable black mirror in our listening room, making the speakers out to be more pieces of furniture than audio instruments. Spouses everywhere will rejoice and should be more apt to allow these in their living rooms as a result.

In addition the recent cabinet redesign, the drivers have also been completely redone. The crossover is no longer their "HD-X3" version which has been around for several years now (since the x32 and x33 series at least). The new configuration looks to be a custom 2nd order crossover for the woofer and a 3rd order on the tweeter, which part ways at 2400Hz. For the drivers, they are now made from woven fiberglass (all around) instead of a composite or poly vinyl acetate (PVA) material as with older models. The notable exception, of course, is the Intimus subwoofer, whose dual 10-inch drivers are aluminum. Those are some of the global changes, but let's look at each speaker individually:

Intimus 6T Towers

The 6T Tower Speakers are simply delicious to look at. With curved corners and an ultra-shiny piano black finish (Aperion calls it simply "High Gloss Black") this speaker looks more like a piece of furniture than a speaker. Normally I request Cherry, but I had already seen that finish with the Intimus 4B Harmony SD system we reviewed last year. Unboxing the 6T Towers was almost a sexual experience. I say this not because of anything deviant, but simply because the speakers come in a felt covering that is tied loosely at the top of the cabinet. Once we had the speaker unboxed we untied the top and the velvet paused for a second, then slid down the speaker like a silk dress. A friend and I stood there with our mouths hanging open both thinking the same thing as we watched it fall. Then we both laughed and continued on.

The towers stand about 41.5" tall and come with a permanently attached beveled base that extends out about 1-3/8" around the cabinet. The base is finished in the identical high gloss black and provides a bit more stability to the speaker, though not nearly as much as a good pair of outriggers. They weigh 70 pounds each, thanks to the 1" thick HDF (high density fiberboard) which makes up the cabinet. Aperion includes height-adjustable carpet spikes that can be affixed to the bottom of the base to anchor the speaker to the floor and provide stability on carpet. If you have wood floors or tile you can opt to not use the spikes at all, or use the provided footers.

The tower is front-ported and the two-way system is driven by a pair of 6.5" woven fiberglass woofers and a 1" silk-dome tweeter. The drivers are all new for Aperion and everything has been redesigned. The new tweeter, for example, features rear chamber venting that uses multiple rear vents outside the neodymium magnet. In the past, Aperion used a more traditional design with a single vent that went through the magnet’s center. The new tweeter maintains the integrity of the magnet and gives it a stronger motor structure that delivers a lower resonant frequency. The idea was that the tweeter could have a lower free-air resonance so that it could play lower and better blend with the mids. This is a huge improvement over Aperion's past products and results in more accurate midrange performance.

There was ample polyfil inside of the cabinet and the port, which is flared on the front only., This allowed us to see that it extended all the way down the rear of the speaker. The speaker has what I would refer to as a medium sensitivity rating of 91dB SPL at 1W/1m. This means that it can play reasonably loud with even entry-level amplification, provided your room isn't big enough to host a circus.

Intimus 5DB Dipole/Bipole Surrounds

There are numerous reasons to use dipole surrounds for movies. We won't go into that here (except for a quick Editorial note reminder below) but Aperion Audio gives you the benefits of dipole with the added advantage of adjustable bipole mode. What that means is that movie lovers will be able to have a speaker that simulates a speaker array, but music lovers can flip them into bipole mode and enjoy more direct sound for multi-channel albums.

Editor's Note: To reduce confusion, try to remember that Dipole speakers Diffuse the sound by firing the speakers Differently (one goes out while the other goes in; this is called firing "out of phase"). With Bipole speakers Both drivers fire at the same time.

We performed all of our music listening tests in Bipole mode and listened to movies in Dipole mode. There is a switch between the tweeter and woofer on each surround that flips the circuitry inside to properly invert the drivers' phase. These speakers have the same woven fiberglass drivers, though 5.25" in size as opposed to the 6T's 6.5" woofers. The silk-dome tweeters are mounted vertically, which gave the speaker a more directional dispersion. We found this to be better for music and not terribly detrimental for movies when the speakers were correctly placed at either the sides or behind the listening position at just above ear level. The 5DB speakers are about 7dB less efficient than the 6T towers, which may result in some higher surround channel levels needing to be set in your receiver's settings. This didn't seem to affect the sound in the least, but we thought it interesting to note.

The rear of these speakers features the familiar Aperion design, with raceways for allowing cabling a place to go when mounting these 17 lb speakers directly to the wall. Instead of keyhole mounts, the 5DBs come with a bracket that gets fastened flush to the wall. Be sure to locate a stud if possible for at least one of the mounting points. If you can't do that, we recommend self-tapping drywall anchors. The mounting system isn't the easiest to use, but it should work well and allows a nice finished appearance. As with all of the speakers we tested, the 5DBs come with high-quality gold-plated 5-way binding posts that can handle any kind of connection imaginable.

Intimus 6C Center Channel

Aperion's flagship center channel has always been a fascinating design to me. If you step back, you'll see it as a well-designed two-way speaker that is vertically-aligned, closely matching the dispersion of the left and right towers. Additionally, Aperion adds a couple of 6.5-inch woofers to round out the bass response. So it’s a three-way speaker that is a timbre-matched design with correct dispersion and extended low-end response to get a better blend with the subwoofer. The 6C has the same 1" HDF construction but is a sealed design (there's no port). The nice thing about a sealed Center channel design is that those who are required to put it into cabinetry or alcoves will be able to do so without fear of blocking a rear port. And of course with a Center channel, you don't want to waste valuable front-side real estate on a port either. It's a decent design and one that resulted in a natural presentation with a surprisingly low frequency extension (we believe it got down to every bit of its stated 55Hz response, far below the 80Hz crossover frequency we set for the system.