Quadral Aurum Set

It has been more than 30 years since a gifted tinkerer and a master of his discipleship began to build a superlative loudspeaker. In the 80s, large-sized telephones were nothing unusual. On the other hand, Helmut Schapers had a new creation, the Titan I was almost elegant – but not only the professional world was “basserstaunt” in the truest sense of the word

At the high-end trade fairs of these days, all the music lovers and technology enthusiasts frolled in the demonstration rooms of Quadral. It was considered the highest thing to get one of the coveted seats in a show and listen for half an hour to the dream of a loudspeaker.


What was so unusual about this speaker? It was not the first three-way box with handsome proportions. It was, however, the first to combine a transposed transmission line with a magnetostatic tweeter as bass principle. Helmut Schaper used chassis for each frequency range, which at the time were state of the art. If you wanted to build a three-way box, a classic cone was still the best mid-range driver.


Today, in the eighth generation of the Titan, this is no different. Only that the mid-range driver has now gone through a 30-year-old evolution and has significantly increased in terms of distortion and round-beam behavior. Even with the tweeter, the principle has remained faithful: a light film membrane at that time ensured the finest high-frequency resolution.


In the eighties, Schaper worked with the Japanese manufacturer Technics with a magnetostatic film converter, so a real ribbon works in the generation Titan VIII. In the bass range the developers have helped the efficiency to the jumps: One has abjured the transmissionline principle and for it a pressure chamber Bass reflex construction


Around Titan VIII, we have put together a set to guarantee maximum performance. What would be more than enough for many hi-fi fans for stereo playback, we put in the rear: the new Montan VIII as a surround speaker.


An adequate center is the Quadral Base Prestige VIII. We also added two subwoofers of the Orkus type for reasonable emphasis in the low frequency regions. The Orkus is a downfire bass with front reflex opening.


Front and rear speakers of the Aurum set may and should be operated in large mode. According to the motto "much helps a lot" the room resonances are less stimulated with eight bass chassis in the set. This not only increases the depth of detail in the depths but also the level potential.


What would we already be hearing. After all five loudspeakers had been aligned precisely because of the vertical directivity of the tweeters, the stereo mode was first on the schedule. The Titan pair played the voice of the Blues Company's Dark Day group with such an open, clear character that the singer was formally faced with the hearing.


The hissing of the basin and the fine ringing of the triangle were the first cream. The well-founded bass sector also played an impressive role. The bass was clean for tone. The Titan-Box made a balancing act between good readability and relatively large-scale imaging.


At Jose Carreras' Misa Criolla the chorus slowly built up and gave the recording room very nicely, while the tenor was almost palpable in the middle. The bottom line is the self-evidentity with which the speakers reproduce all the pitches that do not distract the listener from the musical performance.


Let's go to the home cinema. When the bank robbers in the movie The Dark Knight hurry with a wire rope act over the house sheds, an immense tension is built up by low-pitched pitches. With what force the set makes this is more than impressive. Or the parking garage scene: If the Batmobile breaks through the wall, then let go a few hefty bullets at the bad guys, then it usually crashes properly.


Not so if the sound comes from the Quadral Kombi: For the first time, the trousers legs of the spectators fluttered. The center integrated itself acoustically unobtrusively. The language intelligibility was faultless. All in all, the five loudspeakers harmonized well, which they showed above all in scenes with authentic room impression.