Heco Aurora Speaker Series Overview

Created back in 1949 in Germany, all of their speakers are completely designed and engineered in Deutschland with the Heco Aurora models made in Asia. They create speakers that last for decades while providing a sound that is pleasing to the ear over the long term. Another important aspect of their design is that all of the speakers in the Aurora series are very easy to push with a modest home theater receiver, meaning you can put more of your investment into great speakers. 

If you are reading this from the US, you may have never even heard of Heco speakers. They have just recently been launched in the US market, but have been one of Europe's most popular speaker brands for decades. 

Some of the Aurora models have been heralded by independent US-based reviewers as offering extraordinary value for their price. We thought it would be fun to take a deeper look at the Aurora series to dive into the tech that makes up these exceptional speakers.

So just what does it take to make a speaker truly great? We can tell you for sure, it is not just one thing but a fusion of many aspects that come together to deliver considerably better sound than the competition. In the affordable price ranges of the Aurora models, you pretty much have to manufacture a speaker like this in Asia, but what helps set Heco apart is their 70+ years of speaker engineering experience that go into the design of every speaker.

When most people talk about speakers, they usually look at the speaker drivers themselves, which are certainly an extremely important part of an outstanding speaker, but the best drivers in the world do you no good if the cabinet you put them in is lackluster.

The Heco engineers came up with one of the most brilliant ideas we have seen in years for the cabinet. One way to damp vibrations is to bond different types of materials to each other that when connected together cancel out vibrations. Heco does this in two ways with their Aurora speakers, one you can see and one you can not. First, they created a resin material that is shaped into what looks like an L. This attaches to the front and top of the speaker cabinet. The cabinet itself is already made from almost 1” thick MDF which is really good by itself, but this additional resin piece really dampens things down. Plus it just looks flat-out beautiful.

Most floor-standing speakers these days come with spikes to keep them from rocking on the carpet, but with the Heco models being pretty large, they added an additional outrigger base for them. This not only looks really cool and adds far more stability than spikes under the cabinet, but it is also super simple to get them perfectly level and locked in.

These phenomenal cabinets house some impressive driver technology Heco has invented over the years. 

At Audio Advice, we are big believers in speakers that are easy to drive and have a higher sensitivity rating, which usually makes the speaker more dynamic. One big limiting factor on the dynamic limitations of a speaker is the tweeter, which is the small part that reproduces the high-frequency sounds. Heco has been perfecting their Fluktus tweeter for many years. It has the desired dynamic properties of a horn-type driver with a very linear dispersion pattern across the range it covers. Heco designed a tweeter flange with multiple small horns to accomplish this. These great tweeters also extend way out beyond human hearing to 42,500 Hz which gives them a very open and effortless character. You can see in the cutaway below how much goes into the Fluktus tweeter. 

The cones used for the bass and midrange drivers have another great story behind them. Just after the turn of the last midcentury was a golden age for speaker development. The early and late ’60s had some remarkable designs for their time. When Heco went back and studied these, they discovered all the most highly regarded models used a similar type of paper cone.

Their engineers were determined to blend this old technology with the latest speaker science and came up with a creative idea. They take German-made wool fibers along with a special chemical blend they develop and run this with the paper pulp through a special machine that stretches the fibers out and imbeds them into the paper cone, greatly increasing its stiffness. We also like the fact they source their paper pulp from renewable forests in Canada and Europe. Heco calls this their Kraft Paper Cone. 

Now, you may think they reserve all of this great technology we just went over for the top-of-the-line models. This is what is so amazing about the Aurora models. Every single one of them uses this technology. For home theater enthusiasts, this means a 5.1 system from Heco will be perfectly timbre-matched as the drivers used are identical in design, and the tweeters in every single one are exactly the same! What is not to like about that?!

We spent a lot of time doing listening tests to the different Heco models and concluded the specs do not lie! All of them have a far more deep bass impact than you would expect for their size, they are all very easy to drive with a modest amp, and they are extremely well matched.

Heco Aurora 300 Bookshelf Speakers

The Aurora 300 is a midsized 2-way bookshelf speaker. We recommend you set these up on a speaker stand about 24” tall or place them on top of a deep cabinet. With their rear-firing port, you want to have them at least 12” off the back wall. If you spend a little time setting them up, they can produce a great three-dimensional image. Coupled up with the Heco Sub 30A will get you even deeper bass if tower speakers are not possible in your room. They also work great as rears in a complete Heco 5.1 theater and will perfectly blend with the rest of the channels.

Heco Aurora 700 vs Aurora 1000 Tower Speakers

Heco Aurora 30 Center Channel

With the exact same tweeter and the same Kraft Paper Cone midrange/woofers, the Aurora 30 center channel is the perfect match for the 300, 700, or 1000. It uses dual 5 ½” drivers with the Fluktus tweeter. Like the other models, it is dynamic so you can hear all the subtle emotions of the performers' voices. It also has a very deep bass response for a center channel which means you will want to decouple it from the cabinet it is sitting on using rubber feet or speaker isolation pods so it does not excite your TV cabinet. Having that deep bass reach also means it blends really well with even the 1000 for very consistent sound across the front.

Performance

Our Heco 5.1 home theater consisted of a pair of the 700’s in the front, the 30 center channel, and a pair of Ambient 11 wall mounted Heco speakers for the rears, all coupled up with one 30A subwoofer. This complete system when we tested it came to just slightly over $2,500 for all of the speakers. Add in a receiver and, while it is more than many soundbars, it gives you one of the most well-matched home theater systems we have heard. 

When we tried the new version of Midway, you could literally feel the impact of the aircraft guns, yet on The Greatest Showman, you could hear every whisper of emotion in the voices of the performers. Baby Driver probably impressed us the most as this has a lot of music in the surround channels. With perfectly timbre-matched speakers all around, the sense of immersiveness was amazing.

Overall Recommendation

Whether you are looking to upgrade your stereo system with better speakers or thinking about moving from a sound bar to separate components, we highly recommend you take a look at the Heco Aurora lineup. Be sure to check out our free 3D home theater designer where you can design your system, see lots of videos of installations like this one, as well as browse our inspiration gallery and how-to videos. At Audio Advice, we've been designing and installing high-performance home theaters & smart home systems for our customers for decades. In fact, we've delivered more custom theaters than anyone in the Southeast! We are now offering Home Theater Design no matter where you live in the United States. If you have any questions about the Heco lineup or are interested in a custom home theater, give us a call at 888.899.8776, chat with us, or stop by one of our award-winning showrooms. We can't wait to help you build your ultimate home theater!

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