As an Aon 3 owner and having used them now for several weeks as my L/R mains, I can tell you they are great speakers. As I've said here before, they are the first "bookshelf" speaker I could live with indefinitely. I think the primary difference between the Aons is that the 2s may be a little more transparent and have slightly better imaging while the 3s are a little more dynamic and have better bass. It's your call on what is more important and the differences are very subtle.

I chose the 3s because my ultimate goal is to use them as surrounds in an Atmos system. The dynamics and bass response in this application were more important to me than pinpoint imaging. Your application and preferences may be different. The best advise is to listen to both and decide for yourself which one is better to you.

Regarding the ForceField subs, go with the best your budget will allow. Better to have more than you need than not enough. A better sub also gives you room to grow in the future. No matter what you decide, it's going to sound great. My guess is that a pair of Aon 2s with a FF4 will sound very similar to a pair of Aon 3s with a FF5 and if you listened to them weeks apart, the differences may be so minor that you could not tell the difference. Good luck and happy hunting! Please keep us posted on your findings and selection.

Cheers,

T Cobe

Dark wrote: Hey Mod,

I was wondering if you could elaborate and explain why the Aon 2 + FF5 combo is the option you'd choose.

Thanks!

All the response here have been right on, the main point being the extra bass output of the Aon 3 will not be a factor when a sub is added, so better to spend the money on the sub and not the speaker (hence the Aon 2 and ForceField 5 rec).

As an audiophile it is worth noting that the smaller mid/bass driver and the smaller cabinet are huge pluses in overall audiophile performance. There's a reason why the Aon 2 is a Stereophile recommended component (and runner up for speaker of the year last year, with speakers costing $40,000/pair being the winner). Add a couple ForceField 5's and it is really an amazingly affordable high-end music and/or movie system. Properly setup, I'd say only Triton Ones could better it.