Antti Louhivaara
Antti Louhivaara is one of the leading loudspeaker designers in Finland and his works has been highly praised in international audio community. Louhivaara has earlier designed loudspeakers manufactured by Amphion and ASL.
The vision of the designer
When I began to design Aurelia-speakers, I wanted to avoid mediocre solutions in every possible way. The first goal from the very start was to create a completely new series of loudspeakers with a totally new type of acoustical approach. The starting point of the design was to recognize the typical conditions where loudspeakers are most usually used. From that basis, the basic designing principles were defined.
Loudspeakers are aimed to be used in ordinary living conditions and, therefore, the most important criteria is their behavior in the most typical listening environment, namely the user’s own living room. In order to behave in the best possible way in these typical conditions, the basic designing principle has to have a smooth and coherent energy response, combined with a proper amount of directivity. When accompanied with liveliness and musicality, the result is a pleasant, exuberant listening experience.
The design principles should always be able to be distinctly justified in all conditions. The basic principles of the design should be kept as simple and as straightforward as possible, but not at any price however. Though simple is usually beautiful, beautiful is not necessarily simple. Matters are best kept under control when we are constantly conscious that the laws of physics remain valid even with loudspeaker designing issues.
A thoroughly made acoustical design covers 90 % of the outcome of the speaker. When the acoustic design has been performed carefully, the electrical design afterwards is a piece of cake. Although the loudspeakers should be measured as well, it should always be kept in mind that even a flawless measured performance doesn’t necessarily guarantee a successful result. In contrast, a poorly measured performance almost invariably guarantees a poor quality of sound. However, never forget that loudspeakers are made for listening, and not for measuring purposes.
Though my earlier designs have been emphatically praised throughout the whole audio community, it wasn’t until now, with the Aurelia- speakers, where the best qualities of this acoustic system are seriously materializing. In addition to being accurate and clean, the sound of these speakers is highly pleasant, lively and musical. With the Aurelia-speakers, musicality is more than just an empty slogan.
–Antti Louhivaara