Geneva AeroSphère Review

Bored of boxes? Look no further...

by Ed Selley
Hi-Fi Review

1

Recommended
Geneva AeroSphère Review
MSRP: £650.00

What is the AeroSphère?

One of the more enduring design concepts of the last few decades has been retrofuturism. The idea of taking older design cues and mixing it with those from the present- or a stylised perception of the future- is a popular one. Whether it stems from a disappointment that we aren't zipping around in flying cars consuming meals in pill form (although this particular element of futuristic thinking has always seemed strikingly unappealing to me), there has been a particularly strong movement towards it in recent design practices.

Audio is not immune from this. Whether it is something like the Aedle VK-1 headphone which has strong undertones of Fritz Lang or the Elipson Planet which takes sound acoustic reasons to be the shape it is but then adds touches that lend the design a sort of 'home of the future as viewed from 1968' flavour. Where there is the option to do something funky thanks to the form factor of the design, manufacturers have seized the opportunity to do so. This does mean that electronics have been a harder category to apply these sort of design tenets to.

That makes the AeroSphère from Geneva something of a rarity. The Swiss company has shown a fairly indifferent attitude to making 'normal' shaped audio equipment but has generally plumped toward box shaped items. The AeroSphère completely ignores this and goes for something rather bolder. Furthermore, the spec is impressively comprehensive as well. Is this the solution to bring beautiful audio to your stylish pad?

AeroSphère- Design

Geneva AeroSphère
The Geneva is a product that will realistically have you either looking at the photos and going 'that's brilliant' or 'that's stupid.' In the time it has been here, there has been no middle ground in terms of positions towards it. This is the larger of the two models and this means that you need to have the space to accommodate an object 40cm wide and 40cm deep (although as the AeroSphère isn't actually a sphere, a mere 32cm high). The bulk of the design is made of the 'sphere' section that comes in the trademark Geneva black, white or red. Underneath this section is a stainless steel base that features a Geneva logo that glows different colours depending on what the AeroSphère is being asked to do at the time.

The AeroSphère is fitted with rubber feet for mounting on shelves or desktops but is designed to work best when mounted on the optional floorstand. When so fitted, the Geneva is equivalent in terms of space required to a large light fitting. The stand- like pretty much every piece of custom furniture from any manufacturer is not cheap- Geneva wants £149 for it- but this has to be measured against the specialised nature of the stand and the fact you can't really do anything else with it.

On a personal level, I think the Geneva looks fantastic. It subscribes to the idea that audio equipment shouldn't be an unobtrusive box but a piece of design and furniture in its own right. The AeroSphère is the sort of thing you just imagine playing Jean Michelle Jarre's Oxygene all the time. My own view is that if you are going for one, it really ought to be in red so you have a real talking point in the room. This being said, in this finish, it will have more than a passing resemblance to a Super Mushroom from the Mario universe- a tie in that could be magnificent if anyone from either company happens to be reading this.

AeroSphère- Specification

Geneva AeroSphère
The Geneva is an all in one system that uses wireless functionality to perform the majority of its functions. To this end, it supports a variety of streaming services including Spotify, Deezer, Wimp and- the first time I have seen this- Apple Music. Additionally, the AeroSphère has AirPlay, Apt-x bluetooth and supports third party DNLA streaming- more of which later.

Geneva has been fairly savvy about how this all works. There is a control App that allows for volume control, bass and treble adjustment and allows you to update the software as and when required. If you select a streaming service, you leave the App and move straight to the service in question and use their App for control. You have to have that service installed for it work (although if you are paying for the service, why wouldn't you?). This means that Geneva doesn't need to try and double up the control functions on their App.

The App also doubles up as the means of connecting the AeroSphère to your network and this also works painlessly. Provided that your device is on the correct network, it will locate the Geneva and get you up and running. Having done so, you can then select AirPlay (via iOS) and use the App.
Geneva AeroSphère
This functionality is then made available to five drivers- two tweeters, two midrange units and a 6.5in 'sub.' Each speaker has its own Class D amplifier and while power output is unspecified, there seems to be well and truly enough on tap to be capable of filling a 4x5m lounge without having to go anywhere near the halfway point. While the Geneva is a single point source, it is a stereo speaker and ensuring that the required dispersion is achieved is one of the reasons why it assumed the shape that it does. In keeping with some other premium all in one systems, the AeroSphère has EQ options that can be selected depending on its proximity to a wall or corner. This makes it easy to accommodate in most spaces.

If you need more functionality than you get by buying the normal AeroSphère, Geneva offers a device called the AeroSphère Base. This is a small piece of electronics that connects wirelessly to the AeroSphère and adds CD, DAB and FM to the list of inputs. The £449 asking price of the Base looks a little on the high side but if you go 'all in' on AeroSphères you can send the information from one Base to four units over wireless so the cost is reduced if you 'commit' to Geneva. The communication via wireless is handy as the Base doesn't need to be anywhere near the AeroSphère to work. For the purposes of the review, the Base wasn't supplied so no testing with DAB, FM or CD was undertaking.

The AeroSphère is also DNLA compatible but the process of making it work in this manner is a little more involved. Like the supported streaming services, the Geneva App does not perform any streaming control so you will need to use a third party control App to make it work. With Bubble UPnP, you can select the AeroSphère as your renderer and then send material to it via this method. Geneva doesn't list the supported formats or whether playback is native or downconverted but the AeroSphère played files up to 24/192kHz without stuttering or breaking up.

AeroSphère- Positives

If we leave the looks as a subjective area, you'll either be on board with or not, the AeroSphère is well built and well specified for the price. These lifestyle audio items are something of a growth area and Geneva has gone about the design of the AeroSphère with their customary attention to detail. The feature set is pretty comprehensive as a standalone audio system and the fit and finish is excellent. Mention must also be made of the rather lovely remote that Geneva supplies- unusual on App driven products. While I have little need for the functions that the Base adds, having them available is useful too.
The AeroSphère is the sort of thing you just imagine playing Jean Michelle Jarre's Oxygene all the time.

AeroSphère- Negatives

With the stand, the Geneva is within £100 of the Naim Mu-so which is another tremendous piece of industrial design and also ranks as the most effortlessly capable of the systems of this type that I've tested. There is no question that the AeroSphère is a fairly expensive piece of kit- you are paying a fair amount for the design.

With this in mind there are some gaps in the spec that need to be taken into account. The AeroSphère has no optical input so it won't double up as a soundbar. There is also the slight peculiarity that the Geneva supports WiMP who are Tidal but the WiMP App works and the Tidal one doesn't (and Tidal members can't use their login on WiMP). The third party nature of the streaming also isn't ideal. While Bubble is a very clever App, it lacks the slickness of the Mu-so's control interface and leaves the Geneva at a disadvantage for anyone using it to access their network audio from the AeroSphère.

AeroSphère- Testing

The Geneva was tested as a standalone device accessing Spotify via the Connect function and Tidal and TuneIn radio via AirPlay from an iPad 3. Apt-X testing was carried out with a Google/LG Nexus 5 also accessing Tidal. The AeroSphère was also asked to connect to my backup Western Digital MyBook NAS drive on my home network and access a variety of FLAC, ALAC and AIFF files in both lossless and high resolution.

AeroSphère- Sound quality

Geneva AeroSphère
Having performed the painless setup and updated the software of the AeroSphère (something that is recommended as the test unit was definitely slicker and happier once I had done so), the Geneva does a great deal right. With the 'close to wall' setting engaged but bass and treble left '0' (neither cut or boosted), some defining traits of the AeroSphère appear from the off. There is definitely a house sound to the Geneva brand and this manifests itself in a very clear but smooth performance- very similar to the Model Cinema Wireless sound plinth that appeared a few months back. The top end of the AeroSphère is extremely well controlled and virtually impossible to provoke. Even a very spirited rendition of Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero stays surprisingly civilised.

There is also rather more of a stereo image to the Geneva than you might appreciate from a single point source. The AeroSphère is never going to replicate a stereo pair of speakers but neither is a single beam of sound to the listening position. It manages to fill a space in a convincing way and there is a definite sense of stereo to the way it sounds. Neither does this seem to be down to on board processing of the unit but the placement of the drivers themselves.

The low end of the AeroSphère is less assured than the upper registers but far from poor. I found that when placed on my Quadraspire rack, there was no shortage of extension but the bass itself lacks a little detail and can be overly boomy. Trimming the bass using the App improves this but then leaves the AeroSphère sounding a little lean. If you place the Geneva atop the floorstand, the low suddenly makes a lot more sense. The detail improves and that slightly 'thuddy' nature pretty much vanishes. This suggests that the AeroSphère was voiced on the stand which is all well and good but it does mean that desktop and tabletop users won't experience the same level of performance to those that go free standing. Interestingly, sticking the AeroSphère on an isolation platform I normally use for turntables sorted this out almost entirely but I can't see many owners having such an object lying around.
Geneva AeroSphère
This minor quibble aside, the more time you spend listening to the AeroSphère, the more it makes sense. When I reviewed the Naim Mu-so, I noted it was constantly striving to gain your attention. Putting the Naim on in the background isn't really a practical proposition as it draws you away from what you might be trying to do. The Geneva is different. Sit and physically listen to it and you are treated to a refined and airy presentation. Pop it on in the background and attend to a task like- writing a review of it for example- and the Geneva is a rather lovely thing. Your attention will be temporarily piqued by something it plays before you return to the task in hand.

If this sounds like damning with faint praise, I think it is important to consider what the AeroSphère is trying to do and who it is aimed at. I know plenty of people that are big music fans but the amount of time they want to sit at home giving it their undivided attention simply isn't that high. They want music to augment their lives not take it over and here the Geneva is rather brilliant. A room with an AeroSphère in it has a visual talking point and a source of rich, room filling sound you can listen to all day without the slightest sense of fatigue. We already have the Naim for more visceral music lovers, we don't really need a clone of it.

One final note is that the Geneva does respond positively to quality feeds. Spotify is more than listenable but Tidal via AirPlay and Apt-X is comfortably better and while the UPnP interface is a bit fiddly, the Geneva responded extremely well to decent recordings and high res. This does mean that compressed internet radio stations are not an especially happy hunting ground for the Geneva and while the BBC network and other reasonable bitrate material is OK, I'd recommend against using it for stuff at the wacky end of the dial.
Geneva AeroSphère
A room with an AeroSphère in it has a visual talking point and a source of rich, room filling sound you can listen to all day without the slightest sense of fatigue

Conclusion

Pros

  • Smooth and involving sound
  • Striking looks
  • Solid build

Cons

  • Inteface lacks a little slickness
  • Sounds best on its stand
  • Stand is fairly pricey

Geneva AeroSphère Review

As befits a review on AVForums, it is necessary to objectively separate the way it looks from the way it performs. At £800 to use the AeroSphère in the way that the manufacturer intended, this is a fairly expensive solution. The Geneva has a decent feature set but it lacks the cohesiveness that some rivals offer. Against this, the Geneva boasts excellent build quality and a truly impressive ability to fill even large spaces with a refined and fulfilling sound. It also responds brilliantly to good quality material.

More than half the joy of the AeroSphère is the appearance though. The Geneva will divide opinion but as far as I'm concerned this is a fantastic piece of industrial design and something that is more than just another piece of electronics. If you are like me and appreciate a little retrofuturism in your life, the sheer presence of the AeroSphère is the icing on an already tempting cake.

Scores

Build Quality

.
.
8

Connectivity

.
.
8

Ease of Use

.
.
8

Sound Quality

.
9

Features

.
.
8

Value for Money

.
.
8

Verdict

.
.
8
8
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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