# They're back, but WHAT was that price again?



## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Auratone 5C Passive Super Sound Cube Monitor (Pair) [60383] - C $519.00 : Steve's Music Store, Guitars, Drums, Keyboards, Recording, PA, etc...

Folks who have followed the recording industry for several decades will be familiar with the Auratone cubes. These were little fit-in-the-palm-of-your-hand speaker cabs that virtually every studio had, in addition to their big Tannoy monitors (or insert the brand name of your choice here). These were used to provide a sense of how the final mix would sound on smaller consumer-grade speakers in the car, kitchen, or dorm room. If it sounded good on the Auratones, it would sound fabulous on better speakers.
5c super sound cube AURATONE HiFi-Do McIntosh/JBL/audio-technica/Jeff Rowland/Accuphase 10-52685-74252-00









The Auratones used a single 5-1/2" full-range speaker (75hz-15khz) and a passive internal EQ network to make the lows and highs stick out a bit more by taming the lower mids. The speaker was essentially the exact same driver used in the Bose 901 (except that speaker used 9 of them), and back in the day could be easily bought from places like MCM, or Parts Express, for under $10 each. These days you can find rough equivalents for just a little more ( Visaton 5 Inch 15W 4 Ohm Slim Full Range Speaker | 2060 | Visaton ) Electronics and hi-fi mags had construction projects to make your own for peanuts. 

I have a recollection that the original speaker drivers were made in Czechoslovakia, but I may be wrong, or confusing them with a different mini-speaker. The Auratones were made in California.

But that said, it was a little jarring to see them advertised for over $500 a pair.


----------



## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

They were a good idea (multiway is ok for main speakers in the far field, but in the near field, point source makes so much difference), but poorly executed. Much better drive units existed, and a perfect cube is the absolute worst shape for a speaker (or a studio room). Tannoy did it better with their concentric tweeters, but then you're still dealing with crossovers in the delicate midrange causing phase and time domain problems that were not compensated for.

Auratones also failed at being a good reference for low end systems because they did not have a crossover and multiway drivers, while, by the end of the 70s at least, all but the crappiest consumer products/systems did. What they were good for was making sure your midrange was good, and that what you were mixing to was not the product of crossover artifacts from your main monitors; in this way they did help with translation to other systems.

I definately would not pay $500 for them - you could DIY them for less than half of that, using nicer drivers. I have used 3.5" alnico Fosters (precursor to Fostex and the venerable FE103 fullrange unit) as well as a modern Tang Band 4" fullrange with neo magnet. I use transmission line cabinets (vs the sealed cube) to maximise bass response and minimise backwave effects. The result is remarkably clear and detailed; the trade off is a bit of response at both extremes (nothing you'd really miss for pop or rock based music; the TL loading can produce a lot of usable bass). Love them for mixing.


----------



## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

__________


----------

