Anyone have experience with Aerial Acoustics 6Ts?


I have an opportunity to get a pair of Aerial Acoustics 6T tower speakers for cheap or possibly even for free.
I currently have a pair of Aerial Acoustics 7B towers as my primary speakers. They are driven by a single Madrigal Proceed HPA2 (Mark Levinson) 250 watt amp. It is my understanding that the 7Bs need that sort of power. And they do sound exceptional with 250.

The 6Ts would be a secondary system in my living room. The SQ demands will not be high as they will mostly be used for background and casual listening. My question is, what will I need as a minimum to drive them? The specs say 25 watts but > 50 is recommended. Does anyone have experience with these speakers? Recommendations for real world minimum wattage?
I may be able to get the components that are currently driving these speakers but I do not know what they are. I am pretty sure it is home theater system which I am not interested in particularly. Whatever goes in the living room is going to have to be discrete and as invisible as possible. I'm having a hard enough time convincing my wife to let me put the 6Ts in there.
Alternately there is also a pair a 5Ts that are part of the same system. Their specs say 25-200 watts. Any experience or advice with these would be greatly appreciated as well.
Not sure if this will all come together but would like to know the minimum I can get away with spending on components for this living room set up as it will not get used all that much.
Thanks,
George
n80
Got a lotta time on my hands and reviewing old posts.

n80, have you pulled the trigger, yet, on your speaker quest?

I should have mentioned that the  Aerial Acoustics, although relatively efficient, are a 4 ohm design.  They sounded very nice with the MAC MA5200 but a lot better with that MAC stack I mentioned.  That's because 4 ohm nominal load speakers, even relatively efficient ones, sound a heck of a lot better with more current.  That's the juice these babies need.  Current; not more watts, per se.
I think I gave an update in another thread but I did get the 6Ts. I was able to audition then with the Bryston 5 channel 140 watt amp they were originally paired with. Obviously they sounded amazing. But the Bryston required a pre-amp etc and that was simply a no-go for that room. And that’s not just a concession to my wife. I don’t want a big pile of audio gear in that room either. I also compared that set-up to an old 75 watt integrated and that too sounded quite good but it was also a massive chunk of equipment.

This will probably horrify the serious audiophiles here but I settled on the new Sonos Amp. 200 watts into 4 ohms. Class D. I was prepared to be disappointed but I was not. Quite pleasantly surprised in fact and compared well with the Bryston though obviously not the same.

This achieved a number of things: 1. The Sonos Amp is tiny. It sits under a side table on a little stand is essentially invisible from most positions in the room. 2. Nothing has to be switched on or activated. In other words, I don’t need to put my hands on it. 3. It integrates with the whole house Sonos system for absolute ease of use. 4. Because of that ease and integration my wife can and does use it. 5. We are now spending more time in that room listening to music. 6. It did not break the bank at around $700.

I do not have golden ears but I have a well matched high end system in my listening room and this setup compares favorably with it too. Very different of course but not so much of better vs worse. Just different.

With the Sonos’ "loudness’ feature these sound quite good even at low volume. Certain room compromises in terms of positioning were inevitable but they are well away from side walls and the sound stage is dead center and pleasing.

I know that many will scoff at a $700 amp driving $6000 4 ohm speakers. I would have been one of them if I had not tried it. Very happy with this arrangement.


I use a couple Sonos Amps, one in my Living Room and another in my three season porch.  I too was surprised how well they performed in place of well regarded “audiophile” grade amplifiers.  They integrate well with my main analog system in the basement via the tape outputs on the preamp which allows me to listen to vinyl in the above two room as well.