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Interview with Aerial Acoustics' Michael Kelly
Angelo Jasparro, Michael Kelly, Luca Righetti
AA: The first time I heard about Aerial Acoustics was when I read on Stereophile the review of the 10T loudspeakers and I think that was the first of your models and your production. There is a big technical difference between the 10T and the 7T that we reviewed HERE.
I'd like to know why did you change? MK: Well, the successor to the 10T was the 20T which we had in the line for several years, we have a new speaker above the 7T and below the 20T, called the 12T coming in the first part of next year. This will have 2 cabinets, we are studying two different constructions between the cabinets, and this will be more like the 10T. The 7T actually has better performance than the 10T even if it looks completely different but you probably remember the 10T and ask this question over and over and so this tells us that we need to do some models above the 7T so you'll see things coming that will remind you of the 10T. AA: Will you use the ribbon tweeter or not anymore? MK: Unfortunately not any more. That is a wonderful tweeter, the best high frequency sound, so delicate and pure. The speaker we have coming, the 12T, will use a new beryllium tweeter and this is very very good. The ribbon tweeter of the 20T is the best tweeter I have ever heard and it is no longer possible to make this tweeter. It had no problems and this new beryllium tweeter we are using will be almost as good. AA: What about the market? Which are the best markets in the world for your products? A: Well we do very well in the US our home market and this is very important. We do very well in Asia and I think this is true for most manufacturers; South Korea is a very strong market. We want to make Europe a stronger market and we fell that we have missed getting distribution strong enough in Europe. Now we are starting again in Italy, with Luca. Brad O'Toole, Marketing Manager, was present and added: I can say something about the market. One of the things I have found in promoting and working with Aerial Acoustics is that it is a music lover speaker so where we do well is with music loving Countries and that isn't always true. You know, a lot of people here listen to gear, they do not listen to music. So actually having that connection with live music and understanding it, well those are the customers that understand Aerial. It's been very interesting for me. AA: I wrote something like that in my review ... BoT: Unfortunately I haven't read the whole review yet but you understood that, yes. AA: I used to be a drummer when I was young, I was a musician … BoT: Musicians understand Aerial … yes … very nice. This is what I wanted to add about the marketing part of it, we have to find the right connection with the right distributors to understand music … this is what we do in HI-FI, it is very important. |
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