Auratone (or “Horrortone”) speakers have a limited frequency range which make them useful for mixing. If your mixes sound good on an Auratone 5c speaker, chances are it should translate nicely to other speakers because it means that you have enough frequency information from your key instruments. For example, if you can hear the top end of your bass in an Auratone, you are all good. If you can’t, then you could either add in a top bass or saturation to the existing bass to create extra harmonics that will enter the speaker’s range. They are also meant to be useful because of the excellent stereo imaging response.
After looking into the history of the Auratone 5c speakers – I thought this would be a superb avenue to explore. With a long history of use in the music industry, they do indeed to appear to be a hidden gem. Used by the legendary Quincy Jones and Martin Hannett (Joy Division), it is a speaker within a current decent second hand price range that could play an important part in checking that tracks translate from sound system to sound system.
After looking on eBay, it became evident that there are multiple variations of the 5C and I became confused about a future purchase. This led to a bit of gear research which I have added here in case anyone else is interested in the Auratone 5c.
Sound On Sound have superb articles about the modern incaration of the Auratone and Avantone. Each article contains interesting information about the originals with comparions between the two. These articles can be found here:
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/auratone-5c-super-sound-cube
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/avantone-active-mixcube
The articles provides really interesting information about the changing nature of the Auratone 5C Super Sound Cube over the years, there have been many different incarnations. The article states that the latest Auratone 5c equivalents follows an emulation of a 1985 circa model with improved hifi fidelity. However, I suspect this misses the point of the Auratone 5c speakers since the harsh sound response (which gave it the nickname “Horrortone”) appears to be one of it’s most useful features.
This led me to my next question, which model Auratone would be a good purchase?
I decided to try and track the date changes and visual appearance through a combination of cross referencing information from listings posted second hand gear websites and comments from a variety of musician forums. As a result, it is impossible to say for certain if the following information I found is correct but please feel free to add to the comments section and this article will be updated. In general, the Auratones can be dated by looked at the shaped of the cabinet speaker hole, foam and cone colour, grill trim, logo location, connectors at the back and in combination with the serial number.
So, from the research:
Very Early Auratones
Very early Auratones can be identified by a cabinet speaker hole that looks more square shaped. They have screw type connecters and contain speakers that have square magnets at the back. They are not magnetically shielded. They come in brown and blue.
[Photos of Auratone]
Late 70s, very early 80s models
Found on the Auratone advertisments staring legenadary producer Quincy Jones and containing a distinctive golden front grill trim.
Used on the 1982 Thriller album, these speakers have a fantastic history. Underneath the foam covers, most of the speakers I have seen of this era seem to have shiny foam speaker rings. My friend has a pair of these Auratone speakers and it gave me a good feel for their overall appearance. The speaker ring holding the cone in place looked wet but was dry to the touch. The connectors at the back contain a plastic connector which can be unscrewed to reveal a hole. The speaker cable can be threaded into the hole and the plastic cab screwed back in place. By cross referencing sales listings, it looks like these versions have square magnets and are not magnetically shielded.
Early 80s
From my research, the speakers from the early 80s are characterised by brown trims and brown speakers. Same connectors. I found a really interesting advert on eBay for a set of Auratones owned by the legendary producer Martin Hannett, used in Strawberry Studios and for producing work by artists including Buzzocks, Happy Mondays, Joy Division, Magazine, New Order (early), Stone Roses and U2 (early). After looking at the photos, they start with serial number starting 2,330,XXX – I managed to track down a similar pair (imported from an auction house sale in American following a restaurant liquidation based in Delano Minnasota). As a result, I will include some pretty detailed photos of these Auratone 5c speakers. These versions have a different connecter at the back.
Mide 80s and beyond
Following the information from Sound On Sound and by looking at the Auratone 5c speakers used by difference producers, the research ends at this point. There are plenty more variations though with the next genaration up retaining a similar design but with more modern speaker connectors.