The Aurum acoustics system combines simplicity and musicality
by Listening Panel

Aurum Acoustics has been in the consumer electronics business since 2005. Its founder, system designer and president Derrick Moss holds an engineering degree and a masters in business. As a young man, he became an enthusiastic audiophile, which inspired him to focus on the issue of synergy, assemble the necessary components and create an audio system that works on good-old-fashioned principles integrated with innovative ideas.

Appearance
It's important to note that, although these components are meant to be used as a system to accomplish synergy, they can be used individually. All told, the system consists of a pair of loudspeakers with active crossovers; a dual mono amplifier (the Integris Active 300B amp and dedicated speaker combo are US$30,000) that is accommodated on a rather large chassis; a CD player that doubles as a preamplifier (Integris CDP, US$12,000); and a stand (Integris, US$3,000) that supports the two components. Finally, it's all connected with the Integris two metre power cords priced at US$800 each.

The Sound
It is difficult to describe the performance of a single electronic component as it interacts with associated equipment, and an evaluation must take the entire system into account. Reviewing a system such as the Aurum Acoustics precludes all assumptions since the only element of significance is its musical performance. In this light, not only does the system rate very highly, it truly challenges the very way we do evaluations.

First of all, let us describe how engaging the overall sound is; it is effortless, intimately musical and involves the listener with the very texture of the music, its instruments and/or vocalists. We rarely mention the program material used for evaluations as we feel that choosing listening material should be left to the end-user. However, this time around we will document some listening material as we'd like our readers to know a bit more about how we came to our conclusions. One of our standard auditioning CDs is the Adagio d'Albinoni performed by Gary Kaar on an classic Amati contrabass built in the 1700s. The instrument's amazing range, its timbre, and overall tonal property is unique and the system clearly revealed its distinctive elements. On many good systems, the sound is stunning, but few actually capture the spirit and soul of this instrument as well as the Aurum Acoustics set-up. For another wonderful and revealing listening test we used the Todo Sobre Di Madre CD (Spanish Universal 626208-2) This full orchestral work contains big bass drums, electronic music, violins, trumpet and the kitchen sink; it's a workout for any and all audio components. The AA system handled the material effortlessly and with a perspicuity that allows literally hearing into the performance; this translates into transparency and sound that is never strained or synthetic.

We love the sound of Hammond B3s (see Notes From The Editor's Desk, in the last issue) and, as a further test, played back some of our older recordings made with the original B3 and some newer discs that feature the new Hammond/Suzuki B3. On most systems the two different B3s cannot be distinguished, but on the Aurum Acoustics system, the instruments' slight dissimilarities came through loud and clear. We feel that the system's strength is its ability to extract and render lower midrange and upper bass harmonics. This enhances the listening experience at very low volume levels. Additionally, the system maintains a remarkable tonal counterbalance in the upper frequencies which, again, assists low-level listening. However, at low volumes, pure midrange is slightly subdued and not as clear as it hypothetically could be. At high gain (volume), however, this simply is not at all noticeable.

Some of our panelists took to the system's sound like butterflies to flowers and had no beef at all. Others, however, stated that while they liked upper and lower midrange (the range from about 150Hz to about 1,400Hz) they thought the bass was a bit lush and the highs were a touch too energetic. The Editor's take on these comments is that some folks will opine in favour of their own system, their standard and their bias.

Nevertheless, the Aurum Acoustics system is a sophisticated assembly of rather expensive components, arranged to perform in a musically pleasing manner that will appeal to almost all who can recognize good sound when they hear it.