Stillpoints Aperture II Acoustic Panels

The Aperture II Acoustic Panels from Stillpoints are effectively 3 different room treatments in one – they are an absorber, diffusor and a resonator.

They measure 56.5cm square and are 8cm deep and they can be easily fitted to a wall or can be freestanding as well. Stillpoints make a floorstand for them as well to make them even more portable if you stack them.

Essentially with any hi-fi the room is what holds back the system, I’ve come across so many different scenarios in room, even with very similar systems, no bass in the listening position or too much muddy bass masking everything the system is trying to do. The bigger a speaker is the more energy it produces and to hear that speaker perform accurately and correctly the room will typically have to be addressed in one form or another.

First and secondary reflections, room modes and standing waves occur in every room and they all have a detrimental effect on your system.

Many room treatments often fix one problem but create more issues in other areas, too much absorption can make a room dead and lifeless especially at low volumes. The Aperture II’s utilises a mixture of absorption material and acoustics chambers to capture acoustic energy The diffusion aspect of the Aperture breaks up the wave forms which will aid mid to high frequency absorption and reduction. The resonator aspect of the Stillpoints Aperture offers control of the lower frequencies only when it’s needed.

The Stillpoints Aperture is the only acoustical product that will give you both absorption and diffusion at the first reflection points of a system. And you want both!

There is no right or wrong way to use an Aperture panel in a room, it depends on the room, the system and how it all sounds essentially.

They can work in the corners of the room and behind the loudspeakers themselves (often in the corners anyway), they can also work very well with a pair stacked in-between the loudspeakers, in the first reflection points and directly behind the listening position, in many rooms certain position will be off limits to window and door locations and other aspects (WAF anyone!), less so in a dedicated room obviously.

Apertures II can effectively make your wall boundaries disappear making your room sound larger, they will increase the width, depth and height of your soundstage whilst keeping things in perspective with the speakers and the other thing to point out is the soundstage become really solid and is locked in place.

They can increase clarity and bass extension and really clean up a system/room. They also make the quieter parts of the music eerily quiet so the finer details are much more obvious. If you have a small to medium size room they are very, very effective.

The Apertures are available in walnut, black, cherry and oak frames with either black or cream cloth.

Instead of spending money upgrading your amplifier or speakers (and often giving yourself potentially more issues due to the room) a number of Aperture panels could be a relatively cost effective upgrade, that could easily be as significant as change a piece of hardware and then any future upgrades you make will be all the more obvious as the room will not be holding things back.