Напольная акустика — Apertura Audio FORTé

The FORTé is a French two-way tower by Apertura Audio, first put on display in Munich at the 2023 High End exhibition, on 18 May. It pairs two 18 cm mid-woofers made by Seas in Norway with a fabric dome tweeter and aims to combine high sensitivity with extended low-frequency reach in a cabinet a little over one metre tall.

Key specs that matter

Apertura quotes a frequency range of 32 Hz to 28 kHz within 3 dB, sensitivity of 93 dB for 2.83 V at 1 m, and a nominal impedance of 4 ohm, with the crossover set at 3.1 kHz. The body is 230 mm wide, 334 mm deep and 1110 mm high, and with its stands the footprint becomes 328 x 334 x 1149 mm. Each speaker weighs 28 kg.

Engineering and use context

Both mid-woofers use light paper cones loaded with reed fibres and long voice coils that allow high linear excursion. The 29 mm tweeter belongs to the Ring Radiator family and runs on a neodymium magnet circuit. As with every Apertura model, the passive filter is based on the patented DRIM principle, which mixes three filter types with slopes of 6, 12 and 24 dB per octave. Parts come from Jantzen, including heavy gauge baked inductors and polypropylene capacitors, alongside air-core inductors and wire-wound resistors. The filter is assembled by hand on a 140 micron copper circuit board, and internal wiring uses high-purity oxygen-free copper. Each drive unit is measured individually and the crossover values are adjusted to match. The cabinet keeps the house shape with two curved sides of unequal length, so no front and back panels run parallel. Its laminar pressure-moulded walls are built from many thin layers, which breaks up resonant modes and limits the spread of vibration, and no MDF panel is thinner than 25 mm. Inside, a multi-cavity frame with four heavy bracing panels is lined with three different damping materials, and a mechanical grounding cone sits on the axis of the centre of gravity. A large diameter port exits on the rear panel, so Apertura advises leaving 50 to 60 cm to the wall behind, and the company rates the model for rooms of at least 25 to 30 m2. Finishes are satin American walnut, high-gloss white and high-gloss piano black.

Pairing

Single-wire terminals take either spade or banana plugs. This impedance rating asks for an amplifier at ease with lower impedance loads, while Apertura points out that the high sensitivity suits owners of class A and valve amplifiers.

Alternatives

For a bigger step up, the ENIGMA mkII from Apertura is a floorstander built using twin 22 cm mid-woofers and a ribbon tweeter.