Audire System Review

[thevortex]

To me these are very significant lines from Audire's reply:

A speaker with flat frequency response need not be good sounding, and as a corollary, a speaker with a not so flat response curve need not sound bad. Also, freq. resp. is highly dependent on the characteristics of the room!

This is a most educational discussion, although I, for one, do believe that listening to the speakers is the best way of evaluating. The specifications and numbers merely act as buttresses over and above the listening experience so that you may compare the speaker you have heard with speakers that you may not have heard to as yet. Personally I would not dream of comparing numbers and specifications alone without actually hearing the speakers perform.

 

[murali]

I am really sorry to have revived this discussion and hope this will be my last post, especially now that the main point turns out to be subjectivity vs objectivity. There is no clear-cut 'right or wrong' verdict between the two groups, if we take that objective usually means an evaluation based on repeatable scientific tests and subjective meaning an evaluation based solely on the emotional reaction of the reviewer.
Let us first consider, if it sounds good, it is good. No doubt, there is an element of truth here but does it mean there are not objective measurements to gauge fidelity and understand its significance? Let us remember that in the real world anyone can be a "expert" or "reviewer" or "designer" and unfortunately that is why no universally accepted objective standards exist. In modern world, all one needs is a website or forum and start the role of an expert. So as arj also has seconded, I believe the pragmatic approach is to combine the best elements of both objective and subjective evaluation and arrive at the most satisfactory conclusion.
Going purely by emotions may not be the right thing to do, in my humble opinion. I remember an old article written by Shane Buettner (who writes for Widescreen Review, The Audio Perfectionist etc) whose 'journey to enlightenment' started from a pair of bipolar speakers to time-and-phase-accuracy. He started with NHT, then Definitive Technology bipolar, next Aerial Acoustics, and finally to a pair of Vandersteen 3A Signatures which cost him $3500.
The last I heard from him, he uses a pair of Vandersteen 5A Signature and still believes that is the ultimate, at least for the time being.
Thanks everyone for the valuable and thoughtful contributions. Special thanks to venkatcr for his nice review and Audire for their patience and interest, that is where this all started.

> murali

 

[venkatcr]

There are just two points that I want to address here.

(1) 4" driver units: Are you saying this driver produces the entire frequency range mentioned? There is an old Chinese proverb which goes something like this: "A man chasing two rabbits simultaneously ends up with no meat for dinner."

(2) I presume all decent speaker manufacturers do these. One can source excellent drivers from Denmark, use computer programs in design of crossovers etc but these do not guarantee the speaker performance. Different tools are required to perform different jobs. Whereas a high-end speaker sacrifices sensitivity and high output capability for extended bandwidth and improved sound quality, a sound reinforcement speaker like in a P/A system does the reverse.

Audire uses drivers exclusively from Fostex and Feastrex. These are acknowledged as some of the best drivers on the world. They have also worked with engineers from these companies (who had come to India) to design and produce their products. And yes, I have heard the IOs produce the complete gamut of frequency without a sweat, and a with transparency that is quite astonishing.

There may be 100s of companies in the world using fast Fourier transform to produce loudspeakers in the world, but to see that done in India is something admirable, at least to me. I have worked extensively for over ten years with a gentleman who had designed and sold antennas for DRDO and ISRO. The complete low powered transmitters of AIR use his antennas across India for both rdio and TV. An ex-scientist from NASA and the Australian Space Commission, I have seen this gentleman use Fourier transform extensively in addition to other scientific calculations. I know this extensively as I have developed a number of programs for him using MATLAB. We were forced to use Fortran as we could not use any other language for calculating up to the 16th decimal place. We have also taken his antennas to a lab in DRDO in Bangalore where they have been tested to be better than the best in the world. If I remember right, it took us over three years to stabilise the calculations after extensive use and testing to simulate the brutalities of nature. It is a difficult and time consuming process which is usually done only by companies that have some commitment to their work and their products. Just to give you an idea, what we developed together are in use by the Indian Armed Forces for their own scientific use, and believe me, they were the most distrusting of people I have met, and rightly so as they are guarding our nation.

Anybody who uses advanced scientific methodologies in India has my deepest respect.

To answer what Cranky had said about anechoic chamber, yes the results will be different in a live room. But using an anechoic chamber to test the frequency response of a loudspeaker is an accepted methodology around the world. This is done to simply remove any external noise that may affect the measurements. That way you can be sure that the results reflect the behaviour of the speaker and nothing else.

As I said before, if you get a chance do listen to these speakers. You may like them, you may not like them. But that is a decision of your ears.

Cheers

 

[Sujit]

Edit: I tried for the third time, unsuccessfully, to call Audire. Now not only is the only number left on my call list unreachable for the last three days, the website no longer exists - the domain expired three days ago. Odd.

That's surprising (.. but linear!?!) .... My experience has been rather strange as well.

I did the first audition, and they said they will mail me the particulars including the price - got no mail. I went back after a couple of days and took another audition - This time even took a friend along to help me decide, (wrote about it here too!). Again they claimed they did not have their price list 'handy'; and they again offered to mail it to me - even reconfirmed my mail id... and its been more than three weeks since - I have not received it till date! I don't know.. perhaps I did not seem a 'serious' enough buyer!

I have a simple philosophy - the service experience will almost always be an exponential extension of the sales experience. My confidence has eroded!

They have good products - and evidently bad marketing skills. (which seems common place in the local Indian audio manufacturing scene!)

 

[sandeepnaird]

First of all we'd like to apologize to cranky and sujit for the difficulties they have had in accessing information from us.

Our website is being renovated and will be online in a few days time, perhaps, we might change our domain, since our current web provider is a little slower than desired. We will be uploading our new numbers online there.

Meanwhile, cranky, I have sent you a PM with our numbers, so that you can contact us without any problems.

Dear Sujit,

We have never considered and will never consider anyone with partiality. Perhaps our interest for showing you our products and getting your valuable comments was obvious when we showed you practically every product with us even though none of them were on demo. We consider you to a very valuable customer and we express our deepest apologize at the lapse of not having sent you the quotation. rest assured, you will have it in your email by tonight.

 

[marsilians]

Hi Venkat,

Good choice of auditions for testing the system.

Couple questions I have -

1. I see wood floors which are not very forgiving for the king of speakers that Audire builds. How did you treat them?

2. What about distortion at reference levels?

3. Do you have freq response curves for the speakers? I'd be interested to see them

4. What is their closest competitors (2 or 3 of them) and how do they match with them?

Sorry lots of questions but my mind is piqued now...

 

[sandeepnaird]

Our sincerest apologies to all those who havent been able to access our website for the past few days. We are under the process of renovation and might have a domain change depending upon whether our web provider assists us with the same. The older website will be back online today. Please do bear with us. We have an entire new lineup of products, almost about 200 new products will be released on the new website.

Meanwhile for anyone who would like to contact us by email please do so at the following addresses:

[email protected]
[email protected]

Or at our phones:

Sharath Chandran : +919003355444
Sandeep Nair: +919003344644
Dr. Chandranshekaran: +919894722600

 

[venkatcr]

1. I see wood floors which are not very forgiving for the king of speakers that Audire builds. How did you treat them?

Wooden floors are actually good for sound. Wood floor has more natural sound insulation and when installed properly the sound is minimal. As long as the wood tiles or laminates are fitted properly to the base, they generally provide good sound absorption.

2. What about distortion at reference levels?
Well, I did hear at the max my ears could take, and I did not hear any distortion. But as I said in my review, even at reasonable levels the clarity is excellent.

3. Do you have freq response curves for the speakers? I'd be interested to see them

It has already been posted above.

4. What is their closest competitors (2 or 3 of them) and how do they match with them?

I will not be able to answer this question truthfully. Though I have heard a number of high end speakers, all the auditioning was for very short time when I was travelling in Europe, Singapore, and the US.

The one serious audition I did was of the Nautilus 800 in a shop in London for some time. The shopkeeper was kind enough to let me sit and listen for about 2 hours. Similarly I had heard the same speaker range in an AV Max demo where I spent nearly 2 days.

One thing that hit me then was I felt the violinist was standing next to me, and that the sound was not coming from inside the speakers. Audire speakers give you the same feeling.

Cheers

 

[Nikhil]

Hey guys, why are we getting into this? We all buy music systems to enjoy music. No one buys a speaker or an amp because of its measurements. You listen to a speaker and if you like the sound you buy it. Obviously things like reliability and after sales service are looked at.

I agree with Murali no single driver speaker can reproduce the entire frequency range. Similarly no multi driver speaker can have the coherency of a single driver. ...

I guess in the end to each his poison

Prem, I agree with you on the first part. But after a while you have to ask why does a certain speaker or setup sound better. Thats where the engineering comes in - the measurements matter. But all of this has to be in context.

The basic concept of the single driver speakers is precisely that - they do cover the entire range (or almost the entire range) much better than multi-drive speakers. A single source of sound is much more coherent. The trick is to put it together in a package that works. Again this is where the measurements come in.

 

[jeevabobby26]

Tons of Thankz a lot venkat sir,

That was very good review about the Audire speakers from you, this review makes somany peoples the Audire fan and yours(may be before i said) offcourse.

BTW, your review helps here for some, who has your taste in music with out auditioning the speakers that they can go for Audire.
Since, i had the same experience as like cranky and sujit experienced from audire.

That was the first showcase public launch of the Audire brand in the AV MAX EXPO 2007 AT CHENNAI. They displayed and demostrated there product very good. But, at some level i think they had missed some (CSF) customer satisfactory factor. The factor at the end is to satisfy the customer buy giving him the proper demo as he wish, whether he is buying or not, and to be whole heartedly should know, that we gave a very good demo of our product, and should trust the customer, that he will buy the product from us oneday. As for myself, it would be an Audire dealer for chennai oneday.

when i first see the audire speakers, i really stunned for thier size, which almost will pack a honeymoon couple to any where in world. But, its very well built for years to come with good finishes. And when i had my oppurtunity to demo speakers like IO, OSIRIS, ECHELON, and the amps SOLARIS, ARGUS connected with marantz players. Its like your favourite songs/albums musicians playing thier instruments directly in front of in the room. I auditioned myself closing my eyes and deep opened my ears to fill the music for judging the speakers and amp. But its very short period given to all who ever getting in the demo room. But, still i wanted to listen them more enough to know, how music is handled by the speakers and amplifier. Next i went and again had demo. Audire was very good at producing music handled by a single driver concept without any cross over. Thanks for Audire team to provide such design concept to indian music lovers.

If any mistakes in this post please forgive, its purely is my opinion and not intended to discredit anybody else's hardwork, passion, opinion or choice.

cheers.

 

[moktan]

if it hasn't already been mentioned else where in the forum..new speakers from audire, information here...Audire Launches High Resolution Maia Loudspeakers | AV Max

 

[jenson]

my experience of travelling in coimbatore has been very different from what OP states. similarly with Audire, the response was very high handed, something like "we make very expensive speakers costing upto 45 lakhs, what is your budget" hmm. am i offended by it, not really, but i was hoping his language would've been better, it was a very cheap response, not fitting to what the company is trying to achieve.

 

[moktan]

with Audire, the response was very high handed, something like "we make very expensive speakers costing upto 45 lakhs, what is your budget" hmm. am i offended by it, not really, but i was hoping his language would've been better, it was a very cheap response, not fitting to what the company is trying to achieve.

i am quite surprised by that response. when i corresponded with them, they told me that they had moved out of the affordable audio segment but would see what they could do. this was when i was making inquiries about their amps.
i have corresponded with mr. sandeep nair, dr. chandran and also talked to them and they have been very accommodating, polite and helpful.
perhaps someone had a bad day at the office in audire?

 

[sivasarjun]

Yes I too am surprised.My experience with Sandeep and Sharath was very good.Although they knew I had no intention to buy from them they were very accomodating.Answered all my questions pqtiently and let me audition their system for close to two hours..

 

[jenson]

i am quite surprised by that response. when i corresponded with them, they told me that they had moved out of the affordable audio segment but would see what they could do. this was when i was making inquiries about their amps.
i have corresponded with mr. sandeep nair, dr. chandran and also talked to them and they have been very accommodating, polite and helpful.
perhaps someone had a bad day at the office in audire?

bad day at office, well quite possible. this was least 6 months back. to be quite honest, i didnt know they made speakers that expensive; really good, and all the more good that it's an indian company. but i felt i was in the "hifi snob zone"; happens.

i have sent them an email today, will await their response. this time i have clearly mentioned what i can afford.

 

[moktan]

bad day at office, well quite possible. this was least 6 months back. to be quite honest, i didnt know they made speakers that expensive; really good, and all the more good that it's an indian company. but i felt i was in the "hifi snob zone"; happens.

i have sent them an email today, will await their response. this time i have clearly mentioned what i can afford.

mr sandeep nair is here in this forum as sandeepnaird.

 

[jenson]

This time around i received a very good response. thanks all!

 

[Hari Iyer]

This time around i received a very good response. thanks all!

I am planning to visit Coimbatore this week and will be staying there for the next 10 days due to office work. Will be planning to visit their showroom on a Saturday evening or Sunday (Are they open on Sundays??). Will update after the audition of Audires.

Cheers,

 

[venkatcr]

Hari, Sharath is wedded to his business, but poor guy got married recently. Do NOT go for a demo without an appointment.

Cheers

 

[Hari Iyer]

Hari, Sharath is wedded to his business, but poor guy got married recently. Do NOT go for a demo without an appointment.

Cheers

Thanks Venkat for letting me know, i will be mailing him today and ask for an appointment on any of the weekday. Hope they are open till 8 to 9 PM as i will be busy in meetings till probably 7 PM on weekdays. Can make it only after that.

Regards, Hari.