5.1 Shootout: RBH Sound, Aperion Audio

Introduction to the RBH Sound CT-5.1 Speaker System

RBH Sound has been a favorite of Audioholics for some time due to their excellent value and performance levels. For the most part, however, we have stuck to reviewing their Signature Series models as well as the Status Acoustics line. For this review, we decided to see how well this Utah-based company could perform with smaller cabinets, driver systems and budgets. The RBH Sound CT-5.1 comes in white or black and features 4 matched main and surround speakers (MM-4), plus a dedicated center channel (C-4) and an 8” front and floor-firing subwoofer (MS-8.1). The satellite speakers possess a 4” aluminum woofer (most RBH Sound speakers use aluminum drivers) and a 1” soft dome tweeter. They come in a fairly heavy enclosure (4 lbs each) and are protected by a metal grill cover that cannot be removed. If you want a durable speaker system – let’s just say that I could hand the MM-4’s to my one-year-old and not have to worry about a thing.

All satellites feature 5-way binding posts that come with removable plastic caps over the banana terminals due to European safety standard regulations (banana plugs rather conveniently fit into European mains sockets, making for a potential disaster). Simply remove them if you want to utilize banana connectors as I did.

The RBH Sound MS-8.1 subwoofer sports dual 8” aluminum drivers – one front-firing, the other down-firing for better kinetic energy transfer to the floor. Both drivers fire in phase and are powered by a single 200W amplifier in an MDF, ported enclosure. The sub sits elevated on hard plastic feet to give the bottom-firing driver some room to breathe.

I set the crossover for these speakers to 100Hz using the bass management of the furnished Denon AVR-3805 receiver. Even though the MM-4 low extension point is a stated 100Hz, I found that raising the crossover point to 120Hz produced too much overfill in that frequency range. It was obvious the MM-4’s had a nice gentle roll-off at their bottom end.

† 1 year parts and labor on subwoofer amplifier.

Introduction to the Aperion Audio Intimus 5.1 Speaker System

Aperion Audio’s Intimus 5.1 System was impressive in both its looks and craftsmanship. The speakers came double-boxed from the factory, and were packaged securely. Opening the inner carton revealed that each speaker was wrapped in a velvety purple drawstring bag. Just as with the Intimus Powered Towers , prior to delivery I received a “Love-Your-Speakers” Care Kit that included cloth gloves, a cleaning cloth and instructions for polishing and maintaining the speakers.

The small Aperion bookshelf speakers were actually the largest of the tested models and feature a 5 1/4” woofer and 1” fabric dome tweeter, allowing them to extend a bit lower than the other contenders and helping the S-8APR subwoofer to blend more seamlessly. Four of the five bookshelf speakers are identical, with the 522D-C center channel speaker simply being a tweaked 522D-LR laid on its side with 90-degree rotated terminals and a more appropriately centered grill. After trying several settings, I set the Denon AVR-3805’s crossover to 80Hz for this system which did a nice job of blending the main speakers into the 8” Intimus sub (these speakers begin to roll off around 100Hz, however setting the crossover above 80Hz yields a noticeable and undesirable bump in the low frequency response.)

The Aperion Audio S-8APR subwoofer uses a single 8” front-firing driver, powered by a 150W amplifier. It also features two passive radiators, one on each side of the 1” thick HDF cabinet. The intent was to design a cabinet that allowed for a low tuning frequency while minimizing or eliminating the port chuff associated with ported designs. One disadvantage of Aperion’s design, however is that their passive radiators can easily cantilever, or pivot from side to side, causing cancellation of its inherent benefits during complex passages.

† 1 year parts and labor on subwoofer amplifier.