Western lights – The Aurora system by the UK's iFi is a €1'499 all-in-one wired/wireless system in bamboo suspended in a pyramidal aluminum frame based on a design concept by Julien Haziza. Eight drive units including two passive radiators are controlled by a hybrid 6N3P tube/class D amplifier of 320 watts whose 1.5MHz switching is sync'd with the 32/192 ESS Sabre D/A converter's master clock. Touch-sensitive controls and an Oled display add a modern interface. 4 x 12cm active widebanders fire out two in front and two to the sides augmented by one 28mm silk-dome tweeter per side. Two rectangular auxiliary bass radiators fire downward. The lot's interaction with your setup is measured with ultrasound via six built-in microphones to auto-adapt purely analog compensation for best response linearity without any DSP or feedback. Aside from WiFi and Bluetooth, Toslink, coax, USB and Ethernet cater to hardwired digital sources, a 3.5mm stereo to analog and a micro slot to SDHC cards. It all turns Aurora into a very hi-tech table-top proposition. Multiple units can even be linked for multi-room distribution. These are northern lights you can see from anywhere on the globe…
