One of the best things about the audiophile hobby is the diversity of designers and equipment manufacturers. Having owned a major home theater publication in my somewhat recent past, I can tell you that only a few companies make a good AV preamp, a commendable high-performance AV receiver, or even a suitable 4K UHD TV. In the audiophile world, there are many great companies making kickass gear, ranging from cheap yet powerful Chi-Fi electronics to Swiss-made cost-no-object gear and everything in between. One of my favorite brands that has risen to more and more prominence in the audiophile world is Estelon. They make sexy-as-hell audiophile speakers in Estonia, and they’ve married gorgeous looks with powerful sonics.
The Estelon AURA is their entry-level floorstanding audiophile loudspeaker. Priced at $19,900 (a little more for some more fancy, or custom, paint options), these speakers come in at a pretty significant cost, but haven’t left the world of financial reality, as you will see with others in the very high-end audio floorstanding speaker world. The Estelon AURA speakers use drivers from some of the most respected makers of transducers or raw speaker drivers. The AURA loudspeaker is also loaded with a 10-inch driver in the bottom of the sealed-box design, which allows very respectable bass from a thin, elegant and modern form factor. Having had comparably-priced speakers from Stenheim, as well as Bowers & Wilkins, the question begs to be asked: Are the Estelon AURA speakers just a pretty face, or can they hang with the best of the best? That’s what we are here to explore.
What Makes the Estelon AURA Loudspeakers So Special?
- Few audiophile speakers have the elegance in terms of form factor that the Estelon AURAs deliver. They are slim, graceful and tall, but not too tall for most listening environments. The AURAs deliver real bass without being too wide or too bulky in a room. While they are modern in terms of aesthetics, they aren’t so physically out there (think: Vivid Audio speakers from South Africa) that they get sent home when your wife sees them parked in your living room. These are simply stunning-looking speakers with an industrial design that is second to none in the audiophile space right now.
- A sealed-box design makes the Estelon AURA speakers super-easy to place. If you’ve ever tried to get rear-ported loudspeakers to sound right in a listening room, you know that placement relative to the back wall is essential to your overall success. Wilson Audio speakers, which I have had the pleasure to own five pairs of over the years, can be very placement-specific depending on the model. The Estelon AURA speakers, by design, are beyond easy to successfully place in your room and voice. Literally, any music lover or audio enthusiast can make these speakers sound great with perhaps five minutes of fine-tuning.
- The drivers used in the Estelon AURA are not proprietary, but they are from some of the best speaker manufacturers, like Scanspeak and others. Some companies are really good at making exotic drivers that are specific to their own speaker designs. Estelon uses other people’s high-performance and exotic drivers, such as papyrus coned midrange drivers. Fancy.
- At 88 dB, the Estelon AURA loudspeakers aren’t very hard to drive. Do they like quality power? Every speaker does, including the ones that I just bought from a guy in a white van who said that he had a few extra speakers after installing a system at a nearby nightclub. Those speakers like a Class-A Nelson Pass-designed amp like my Pass Labs XA-25, too, it turns out.
- The Estelon AURA speakers come in a number of designer colors. Some come with a modest up-charge, and others are included at the $19,999 price per pair. By all means at this stage of lifestyle-grade audiophile systems, Estelon can do a custom paint color for you. This comes with a more significant additional cost, but gets you your exact match color choice. I saw the stock deep blue color at the recent audiophile show in Orange County, and they were stunners.
- The Estelon AURA speakers are physically stable. They are well-spiked and designed in a way to be narrower and taller, but with a lower part of the speaker that houses the rear-firing 10-inch driver from the bottom. European standards for tip-over are higher than those here in the United States. In my world, this is a big deal, in that I’ve got a toddler at home, as well as a geological subduction zone under my house, as we all do in California. Right now, my Bowers & Wilkins 802 D4s are literally strapped/bolted to the wall despite their feet, plinth and outriggers. I wrote about how to baby-proof your audiophile system if you want to see how far I have taken this topic at my home.
Why Should Your Care About the Estelon AURA Loudspeakers?
These speakers would be just at home in a Roche Bobois showroom as they would be in an audiophile salon. They are ultra-high-performance loudspeakers, while also delivering a sleek, sexy yet mindful form factor to the music playback portion of your home.
The person who buys an Estelon AURA is possibly looking for one part Wilson Audio and another part B&O from their speakers. These speakers are equally comfortable in a dedicated listening room as they are in a designer finished living room, which is a rarity in this hobby.
Some Things You Might Not Like About the Estelon AURA Speakers
- The bass goes low on the Estelon AURAs, but what they output is not earthshaking. Larger Estelon speakers have bigger bass drivers, as well as more volume in the cabinet, thus output more low frequencies, but they of course come with a bigger price tag. Adding a modest to large subwoofer won’t cost you one-tenth of the price of a pair of speakers like the Estelon AURAs. My SVS SB-4000 can go subsonic and it is barely $2,000, thus this is an easy fix for those who need that bump for his or her EDM or pipe organ music.
- The speaker binding posts worked fantastically for my bare wire speaker cables, but for others with other types of connectors, there could be issues, as the binding posts aren’t your typical variety.
Listening to the Estelon AURA Speakers …
This summer, I was able to share my first track with Ricky and the guys at McIntosh’s awesome (and you are invited – just ask your dealer) House of Sound experience in Lower Manhattan. They played me a Rhianna track, and I then had them spool up my new favorite audiophile track, which is Beyoncé’s “Blackbird” (a Beatles cover, ambitious, right?) from her Cowboy Carter record.Queen B is the female voice of our generation. The songwriting of Lennon and McCartney is as good as it gets and, when paired with a cost-no-object recording budget – you’ve got one wonderful audiophile experience that I am encouraging you to stream into your system during your next listening session. This track really sounded great when played back on the Estelon AURA speakers. The percussive tapping (time-keeping by the guitar player) popped into the front of the soundstage. As the Beyoncé version of the song develops, the rich vocal overdubs sound engaging and ultra-smooth. This isn’t a long track, but it also doesn’t take long to realize that this is one the best-sounding new songs that you will hear come out of any audiophile speakers. The low end isn’t crazy deep, but the Estelon AURAs handled the bass admirably. The vocals image like no tomorrow on the AURAs. If I sold these speakers at a stereo store, nearly everybody would hear this track first to set an impressive standard.
Another modern track that I’ve been using a lot in my reviews is from the latest Peter Gabriel record i/o that came out last November. The band isn’t quite as fantastic as some of his past lineups, but the recording is spectacular. “The Court (Bright-side Mix)” has more to listen to and more dynamics than the Beyoncé track. What struck me sonically was how well this sealed speaker that is so easy to place in your room delivered the dynamic moments of this recording. The bass dives deeper, and the AURAs are good to go. The percussive elements are tight but not bright. The snare has a dry sound to it, but the dynamic energy is addictive to listen to. This is part of the sound that I love so much when I get the chance to hear the more expensive Estelon speakers at shows. Make no mistake, the somewhat more affordable speakers deliver in the same way.
Going back to the musical soundtrack of my college years “Interstate Love Song” by Stone Temple Pilots offers a good balance between a grungy pop/rock sound and a pretty three-dimensional acoustical guitar introduction that serves as a welcome to a little more edgy rock song. The transition from acoustic to a more energetic main verse was no challenge for the Estelon AURA speakers. They presented the Scott Weiland vocals front and present, with an engagingly twangy sound on the lead guitars. When pushed at higher volumes, the Estelon AURAs stayed coherent. They aren’t power pigs, but they do like having an amp with some respectable amount of current powering them. My Pass Labs XA-25 isn’t a big power amp, but it does have a good amount of current, and it could drive these $19,999 speakers as a $5,150 power amp without a hiccup.
Will the Estelon AURA Speakers Hold Their Value?
Estelon is a somewhat new brand name to the world of very high-end speakers. They’ve quickly built themselves a strong reputation and there is a good amount of demand for their product on the used market. Calling them blue chip is a bit premature, but I would go so far as to call them A-list in the audiophile speaker world today.
Used Estelons sell very quickly and rarely come onto the market. You might be able to do five or 10 percent better with a speaker like a Bowers & Wilkins or a Wilson Audio transducer, but I don’t think that you will get hurt whatsoever on these speakers in terms of value.
What is the Competition for the Estelon AURA Loudspeakers?
This is where things get serious for anybody looking to buy a pair of Estelon AURA speakers. At $20,000, you are going to find a lot of really serious loudspeakers for your consideration. They all have their advantages and disadvantages, but make no mistake, at this price point, the competition is fierce.
Bowers & Wilkins 803 D4 $20,000 per pair (read my review) are a good comp for the Estelon AURA speakers. With the Bowers & Wilkins 803 D4, you get a studio-grade speaker used in places like Abbey Road Studio and Skywalker Ranch. The advances that they’ve made in the tweeter in V4 of the 800 Series is major, as it is less etched and analytical and more open-sounding. The Estelon AURAs sound a bit more rolled-off in the mids and perhaps a bit smoother overall, which I can see many consumers loving. The Bowers speakers are thinner than the Bowers & Wilkins 802 D4s or the even wider 800 D4s. The 804s sound like the bass output is roughly in the same range as the Estelons. Neither needs a subwoofer, but both tend to benefit from one.
A few months ago, I got to spend some time with another newcomer in the high-end floorstanding speaker world with the Stenheim Alumine Two.Five (read my review) at about $23,500 per pair.These Bauhaus-inspired boxy speakers are very rectangular, but don’t sound boxy whatsoever. In fact, they had a stunningly open midrange and lots of dynamics. Their cabinets are much more traditional in form, but result in great dynamics. This pair of speakers were notably shorter than the Estelon AURAs, which is perfect for some rooms, as the Estelon AURAs benefit from being narrower. Both Estelon and Stenheim weren’t household audiophile speaker brands 10 years ago, but they both belong in the conversation today.
Wilson Audio’s Sabrina X comes in at about the same price (in the $20,000 ballpark, depending on finish and configuration) and is a worthy competitor. Wilson built their reputation more than 30 years ago with their WATT PUPPY speakers, which were uniquely painted and delivered dynamic sound from a very compact form factor. Today, as the prices of Wilson Audio speakers have increased far faster than inflation, they have had to launch more speakers to meet key price points. The Sabrina X is the one many audiophiles will consider first. They are wider than the Estelon AURAs, but then again, most audiophile speakers can say that. They both have a very inert cabinet. The Wilson speakers are normally much more placement-sensitive, which is part of the fun of setting them up, but it takes hours to get a pair of Wilson speakers sounding their best in an audiophile listening room. The Estelons are far less tricky to get sounding good, quickly.
Final Thoughts on the Estelon AURA Loudspeakers …
The logistics of getting the Estelon AURA speakers to my home were well worth it, in that I had nothing but a blast listening to them. I’ve waxed poetically about their form factor, but the key point is that they are so good-looking that they present themselves in a way that few audiophile speakers do. Simply put, the Estelon AURA speakers look like they belong in a gorgeous listening space, be it a dedicated listening room or a multi-use living room.
Sonically, the blend of exotic drivers, a sealed box and a down-firing woofer makes for a speaker that has impressive dynamics, and an open and wide soundstage, as well as great imaging. They aren’t hard to drive and they don’t need a subwoofer, unless you want to go really low and, even then, a sub to match with a pair of Estelon AURA speakers likely won’t cost you above $2,000, and you are loaded for bear.
Consider the speakers that I am comparing the Estelon AURAs to, and you can figure out that they deserve to be in the conversation with the most lauded brands. There’s isn’t much not to like about these high-performance and luxurious audiophile speakers. Yes, they are relatively expensive, but right at about where all of the best floorstanding audiophile speakers start offering their really good products. Estelon’s distribution network is respectable and getting better by the month. Is it worth your time to find a showing dealer for Estelon AURAs? If you are in the market for a gorgeous-looking and even better-sounding speaker that both your interior designer and life partner will love as much as you do as an audiophile – then consider that an enthusiastic … yes.
