Chario Aviator Amelia speakers
Readers will often see the term ‘musical’ used to describe a product—surely, every hi-fi component should produce music? This beautiful speaker from the Italian brand Chario could perhaps be the ideal foil with which to demonstrate this term. It is not a speaker that grabs your attention and impresses at the first listen; its talents run far deeper and are more subtle. If the sound of your ideal speaker resembles what you might hear in a club or cinema, then you are unlikely to fall in love with the Amelia, if you desire a speaker that transfixes like few others and proves the ideal long term companion, then read on.
It is fair to say that Chario is not a household name, but it is a name that will be familiar to keen audiophiles. The Milanese brand was formed nearly fifty years ago by research scientists Carlo Vicenzetto, now owned by Michele Nebel, the company is better known across mainland Europe, the USA and even Asia than in the UK. As is often the case, this has been more down to representation than product quality, which has always been well-regarded.
I often see the same drive unit ranges used in speakers that I review, but Chario’s are all bespoke and produced locally. Impressively, the company has its own in-house CNC cabinet workshop, which primarily works with walnut, again locally sourced. Once cut into stave form, the walnut is left to dry for a minimum of six months before its metamorphosis into a speaker cabinet.
Another thing that distinguishes Chario from most brands is their attention to psychoacoustics, which perhaps helps explain why this speaker is so communicative. Indeed, its presentation differs from any other speaker that I have spent time with. When the distributor told me of the designer’s intention of creating a speaker to enjoy listening to, it went over my head as another marketing claim, but this time, the performance suggests that this might well be true.
Design and build
Without doing Chario the disservice of making comparisons to obvious compatriots, their design is unmistakably Italian. The Amelia is the smallest floorstander in the Aviator range of speakers. As you go up the range cabinet and driver sizes increase, as does the sensitivity, bass extension and maximum SPL. At just over a metre high they proved an ideal fit for my listening room, and their attractive design drew many compliments from visitors. The Amelias sit on four tall rubber feet, which are removable. However, as one of the four drivers is on the base of the cabinet, they should only be removed to assist in attaching the dedicated bases, which, as you will read, are an essential addition.
The 130mm drive unit on the underside of the Aviator Amelia is referred to as a subwoofer and is central to what Chario calls NRS (Near Reflective Surface) technology. This refers to reflective waves between the drive unit, nearby reflex port, and the surface below; hence, the bases should be considered an essential purchase. A second 130mm woofer is positioned at the rear of the speaker, above the terminals, which is said to help reduce listener fatigue by assisting the subwoofer. The third 130mm unit looks identical to the two lower ones but is, this time, described as a midrange driver and placed at the top of the speaker above the 38mm tweeter. Each of the three 130mm drivers is referred to as a Rohacell NeFeB unit. The tweeter is a soft-dome type, which Chario call the T38 Waveguide. This design is said to allow for the less than perfect listening environment of many of our listening rooms. We often read extravagant claims from hi-fi manufacturers, but these speakers sound remarkably coherent and glare-free, so they may be on to something here. For best results the midrange driver should be at ear level.
Fans of bi-amping, and indeed cable manufacturers, may not appreciate the Amelia’s single-input terminals but I do. In addition to being a neater solution, it removes the question of what type of links to use, therefore reducing costs. If you are keen to bi-amp, you will need to look at the two-box Aviator Aria or, indeed, a model from the Academy range, which sits above the Aviator series.
Walnut panels adorn the sides of these speakers, and an HDF (high-density fibreboard) wraparound forms the front, top, and rear, giving the speaker a stylish individuality. Initially, I was surprised at the lack of acoustic damping material in the Aviator Amelia, but it made sense when I considered the down-firing port. Still, it takes a rigid and well-designed cabinet to produce a speaker which works well without help from damping.
Seductive performer
Helpfully, I still had the FLS1/FLS4 amplifier from Rome-based Audia Flight here, which I reviewed in October. This amplifier proved a great partner for the Milanese Chario Aviator Amelia. Tunes were supplied by a Japanese/Canadian combo via the resident Melco N1 server and Moon 780 DAC. Cables from Townshend Audio were used for all analogue connections, Titan Audio for mains and Network Acoustics for digital. The Aviator Amelia proved pretty simple to find the ideal position for, in my room at least. I found toe-in to be the key element, with the soundstage snapping into focus once I got it right.
As revealed at the beginning of this review, the designer’s goal with the Aviator Amelia was to prioritise musical enjoyment. These are speakers to tell you about the music and the skills of the performers rather than necessarily informing you of the decisions made at the mixing desk. Having said that, detail levels are high, but these speakers are the antithesis of the hyper-focused, etched sound you often get. Their midrange is very natural, open and articulate, with the top end slightly softer in focus than is often the case with other speakers in this sector. This leads to a little less definition of leading edges, which softens the sins of the worst recordings and helps produce relaxing and unfatiguing music. The resolution is such that they are still satisfyingly transparent and allow you to hear well into the soundstage, but you have to make a conscious effort to pick out such details rather than them being placed before you.
The low frequencies are well-defined in timbre, detail and texture. With most types of music, the bass proves satisfyingly deep and full, but it does not plumb the depths of the lowest octaves; the quoted low-frequency roll-off is 48Hz at -3db is likely accurate. Whilst rear reinforcement and, indeed, the optional bases can help here, EDM lovers may wish to look further up the range. It is almost frivolous to discuss each aspect of the speaker, as coherence is its trump card; despite being a three-way speaker with four drive units, the Chario Aviator Amelia does a remarkably good impression of a fine single-driver speaker—in all the best ways. Timing is a strong point, right across the frequency range. As with other aspects of the music, timing information is not thrown at you or emphasised, though; the music just sounds temporally correct.
Dead Can Dance’s The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove (SACD rip) demonstrates this well; the bongos are well integrated within the soundstage and flow with the rest of the music rather than jumping out to the front in an unnatural manner, yet their rhythmic qualities are intact. The Aviator Amelia also manages to preserve the correct timbre, lesser speakers and systems can make them sound rather processed, but not here. Moving through this album (Into the Labyrinth), the two acapella tracks, The Wind That Shakes the Barley and Emmeleia, proved an intimate and engaging experience and demonstrated these speakers’ skills at revealing the recorded acoustic, which sounded natural rather than hyper-focused. Swapping out the Townshend Audio interconnect and speaker cables to a loom from Montaudio brightened up the sonic balance, although not unpleasantly so. This increased focus and highlighted the recorded acoustic, although at the expense of low-frequency power, fullness and weight. On balance, the Townshend loom proved the better match and these Charios easily resolved the changes.
Agnes Obel’s Myopia (24/44) demonstrated the Aviator Amelia’s ability to produce a wide and expansive soundstage. However, speakers such as my reference Totem Forest Signatures or, indeed, the Kerr K320 or Piega 611, which I have also hosted recently, can perhaps throw it wider still and produce a deeper image. This does not detract from the music and is more than made up for by the level of intimacy and expression here, which kept me in my seat for the entire album. Agnes’s piano sounded natural and well-rounded, which prompted me to listen to some more naturally recorded music, such as Dvořàk’s The Complete Piano Trios by Boris Giltburg (Qobuz 24/96). Listening to this album helped me appreciate the Aviator Amelia’s fine tonality and cohesiveness with the genre whilst reproducing the piano’s delicacy, body, resonance and dynamic clues as well as I have heard with any speaker. Sticking with classical music but this time from Italian Composer Vivaldi, from Anne-Sophie Mutter’s release Bach, Bologne, Previn, Vivaldi, Williams (Qobuz 24/96), track 2, Andante sounded gorgeous, the lower notes of the cello to the right of the soundstage had just the right amount of weight, yet with a delicious texture. I could hear right into the hall’s ambience, which added to the realism of the performance.
Keeping with the Italian theme, I moved over to Italian/Belgian singer Melanie De Biasio’s No Deal Album. The bassline on her cover of I’m Gonna Leave You, which Nina Simone made famous, sounded slightly less full and punchy than I have heard from the best comparable floorstanding speakers, but again, the piano sounded gorgeous. The Aviator Amelia’s rhythmic skills meant the drumkit kept my attention throughout this track despite the instrument being less than ideally recorded. I then played some more bass-heavy tracks, including Girlfriend from Christine and The Queens’s album Chris (16/44 download). Here, the bass was as full, controlled and weighty as I could wish for. Interestingly, the electronic bassline on the Melanie De Biasio track is particularly deep, so it probably reveals the gentle rolling off of the low-frequencies suggested by the specifications.
Odetta’s Hit Or Miss from her album Odetta Sings (16/44) Qobuz proved an extremely satisfying listen; the Charios handled the bass line perfectly here, sounding dexterous, resonant and tight. So I feel it is only going to be people who listen to a lot of electronic or, indeed, organ works who may feel the need to venture further up the Chario range in search of the lowest bass frequencies, assuming they have the required space.
The Aviator Amelia can certainly rock, however. I am listening to my SACD rip of Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and it is full of dynamic energy and power. I can hear that the recorded balance is somewhat overly bright, but these Charios make the best of it and are showing me why it is considered to be one of Bowie’s best albums. From the same period, the latest Analogue Productions release of Genesis classic The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway on SACD, ripped and streamed via the Melco server, sounded wonderfully insightful. The early CD release of this album, although dynamic, was somewhat murky in balance. Whilst the remasters sound brighter, they can be brittle and dynamically squashed. Thankfully this latest release sounds fantastic, especially for a fifty-year-old multitrack recording. The Charios threw a large soundstage and kept each element of this complex recording clean enough for me to follow each instrument and sound effect. I picked out bass guitar effects on the track In The Cage, which I had not previously noticed. Swapping back to the ’94 CD version showed it was there all along, so this revelation is due to the Aviator Amelia’s resolving powers rather than studio emphasis.
Conclusion
During my time with the Chario Aviator Amelia I have fallen for both its pleasing aesthetics and its musical presentation. It is easy to drive and its undemanding nature means it should slot in well to many systems and living spaces. As you will have gathered, it draws the listener into the music rather than showing off with audio pyrotechnics. To reference my opening paragraph of this review, the Aviator Amelia puts the music, rather than the hi-fi niceties, first. If you want to impress your friends with a big loudspeaker, which draws attention to itself, then look elsewhere. The Chario Aviator Amelia is all about producing convincing musical performances, and to that end, it represents one of the finest speakers available at its price point.