The album French Duets (FLAC rip from CD, Hyperion CDA68329), with pianists Steven Osborne and Paul Lewis, has been near the top of my most-played list since its 2021 release, because of the delightful music, the brilliance of the performances, and the clarity and balance of the recording. The performers are recorded up close, and the captured ambiance is not generous. With the AVAA traps in operation, the changes were not huge, but they were significant. First, the soundstage got wider, reaching beyond the left and right speakers, and also seemed a bit lower. Second, the bass was taut and corporeal. I heard this on all tracks, but the effect was especially tangible on the opening of the Poulenc Sonata, where four hands create some powerful chords. Typically, such sounds can only be played so loud in an average-sized domestic room before they begin to seem congested by the room modes they excite. With the AVAAs installed, the chords could be heard clearly as constructed of distinct notes, the lowest notes enhanced by the resonance of the instrument's wooden body. I could play this music as loud or as soft as I wanted to; the piano remained clean and realistic at all levels. There seemed to be no direct effect on the midrange or treble, but these ranges, too, benefited from cleaner bass and reduction of the masking effects of those modal resonances. The impact on the music was eminently satisfying.

I moved on to the pipe organ. I pulled out my old buddy, the Mendelssohn Organ Sonata in F, from Six Organ Sonatas, Op.65, performed by Thomas Murray on the E. & G.G. Hook instrument at the Hook Brothers' home church in Jamaica Plain and on the W.B.D. Simmons organ at the Most Holy Redeemer Church in East Boston (CD, Raven 390, originally from a Sheffield Town Hall LP, S-13). I remember hearing this music for the first time and being thrilled by the power of the bass lines. Some of that thrill was due to the quasi-immersive illusion created by resonances in my playback system and room. Now I can see every pedal tone via the JRiver frequency analyzer, including the lowest fundamental tone from the 16' Grand Open Diapason stop (32Hz) accompanied by a lot of correlated rumblings below. With the AVAAs I heard both unmistakably, regardless of listening level.

I'll end with a list of the consistent benefits. With the AVAA traps installed:

Bass below 200Hz was cleaner, with more detail.

Localization of bass instruments was sharper.

The ambiance of the recording venues captured was more characterful and distinctive.

The soundstage was wider and more consistent.

Link do recenzji: PSI Audio AVAA C214 – Stereophile

Bass management is not a subtle argument, but requires a profound approach, typically associated with enormous physical and financial undertakings.
For most music lovers and audiophiles, it is also a major aesthetic endeavor, as altering carefully designed listening spaces cannot simply be overtaken by reconstruction.

It was no easy task to design something so efectual and compact, with the ability to create such an effect. The C214 is more than just a technical device that analytically removes unwanted lower frequencies; it works in harmony with the rest of the system and the room, achieving harmonic integration without disrupting the music, which is a significant challenge for most bass management solutions.

Simply put, C214 brings order to reproduced music in the listening space by addressing fundamental sonic conflicts intrinsically related to physical laws and psychoacoustics, and it enhances the tactile experience while maintaining a harmonious relationship with timing. The latter is something that most software-based solutions fail to achieve, as they also struggle to address issues within the domains of timing and phase. There is no EQ correction; the AVAA does not process the audio signal. It works directly on the room’s acoustic field without altering the sonic behavior of the loudspeakers. 

The PSI Audio AVAA C214 Active Bass Trap is effective with any music, but here are some bass-heavy tracks and albums where the C214’s benefits are immediately apparent at peak performance.

In situ, the PSI Audio C214 effectively controls excessive bass energy, scales down the optimal ratio, preventing the room from reacting to unwanted low-frequency buildup.

The effect is unmistakable. In addition to addressing the most problematic low-frequency excesses, the music settles into a much better balance with noticeably improved accuracy.

The PSI AVAA enables the room to respond more naturally by absorbing unwanted low-frequency energy in a controlled, musically coherent manner.

Link do recenzji: PSI Audio AVAA C214 – Mono and Stereo

Listening to a wide variety of music, with special emphasis on bass test tracks, I again felt the AVAAs made an immediately noticeable difference. The more important point was that the difference was always an improvement. With the AVAAs, bass was better balanced and more natural. This naturalness shows up with bass sounding more open and detailed, with a more accurate sense of air and harmonic definition.  

I should characterize the magnitude of the improvement wrought by the AVAAs. First of all, the bass isn’t suddenly rendered perfect. The general shape of the frequency response, with the existence of peaks and dips, isn’t transformed. But the improvement is bigger than what you often hear between different good amplifiers. That is a rough comparison, because the AVAA does all its work at low frequencies and amplifiers can affect the full frequency spectrum. But amplifiers make easily identifiable differences that can be important to accuracy. So does the AVAA, but it doesn’t just make changes, it does something that appears beneficial in almost every system I can imagine that doesn’t already have bass traps. It also is outside of the basic circuit from source to speaker, so you can get the AVAA benefits without sacrificing any of the hard-earned goodness in the rest of your stereo.

I thought the AVAA C214s were impressively helpful. They are super easy to set up, very easy to hide, and probably do more than realistic numbers of passive treatments, albeit at a slightly higher cost. The big thing is that the bass sound quality with the AVAAs was noticeably improved in a way that may not be practical with any other technology.

Link do recenzji: PSI Audio AVAA C214 – The Absolute Sound

First of all, you will notice that the “veil” caused by the room-modes is gone. What is noticeable, however, is that it does not feel cold. The glow that the bass brings is just still there. The imaging and space that the bass brings – bass foundation is necessary for large imaging – is also just still there. In short: the AVAA does not take away qualities. It only removes a veil. A veil that shouldn’t be there.

The bass kicks are also a lot tighter. Very audible with music like Editors, Mumford and Sons…. But also with deep bass as in Massive Attack, we hear much more depth and detail. This is worth its weight in gold, of course, since this is incredibly difficult to achieve without substantial work on the room!

People who have experience with acoustics probably know this effect: if you address the bass, the mids and treble go with it. Not so much in tonality, but in accents. Our brains have to recalibrate, so to speak. So we were not surprised to hear differences in the mids and treble range. However, what we did not expect – which makes sense in hindsight – is that we perceive more refinement and resolution. The mids clear up and is more transparent, the treble gets more headroom. In a positive sense. A wonderful bonus. A kind of super-bonus!

However, the AVAAs make it possible to get quite a few more dBs out of your system. We can play so incredibly, obscenely loud because of the AVAAs without getting the idea that something is wriggling…. it’s almost frightening. Everything just remains completely controlled and stable. No hum, no compression, no harshness. Very impressive; and dangerous!

Link do recenzji: PSI Audio AVAA C214 – Alpha Audio

There are just a handful of audio products that invoke that “It’s magic!” impression for me. The AVAA C214 is one of these products. The digital controlled bass trap improves modal behavior of the room acoustics in a very effective way, with no side effects.

The AVAA is a no-brainer in almost every acoustic environment. In the studio, when used in combination with room correction, there is quick-win potential with less problems in the low frequencies at the mixing position. In a listening environment, its application is highly beneficial in any room.

I highly recommend the AVAAs. I never would have thought that removing modal bass energy with such a small device would be possible, and I am happy to report that this changed my mind. The only drawback I can think of is the price: EUR €3500/USD $3950 is not cheap. But when we factor in the cost of installing an equivalent amount of absorbers needed to achieve the same amount of improvement, this is a fair price. 

Link do recenzji: PSI Audio AVAA C214 – Audio Xpress

Neither do I understand exactly how this Swiss invention works. I’m merely confident that it does what it says on the tin. One target audience for these devices should be listeners whose exposure to premium head-fi has them now intolerant of or even allergic to fat bloomy bass that’s not recorded but generated by uncontrolled room resonances. Such listeners have a rather good notion of the recorded tonal consistency of their music. They instantly hear how all speaker systems in untreated rooms create response and time-domain aberrations which their headphone systems don’t. It’s this kind of listener in particular who will immediately appreciate the benefits of our compact active bass traps; and understand that DSP alone can’t get us there. For casual listeners used to fatty ringy bass and loving it because that’s all they know, making it leaner and drier could seem less important or counter-persuasive. And then there’ll be those who acknowledge the issue but find £6K out of the question to solve it. 

But the old ruse of blaming our significant other who won’t let us install professional room treatments just got cancelled. Purely from a cosmetic and footprint perspective, what audiophile other could forbid their music maniac a pair of AVAA C214 especially when it also cancels bass leakage into the adjoining room? Perhaps it’s finally time to bite the silver bullet and pursue this novel active if purely acoustic room treatment that’s now perfectly domesticated and even available in white? 

Link do recenzji: PSI Audio AVAA C214 – Dark Audio

Link: PSI Audio AVAA C214 – Mono and Stereo – Editors’ Choice Award 2025

Link: PSI Audio AVAA C214 – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2025

Link: PSI Audio AVAA C214 – Alpha Audio – 2023 Top 5

Link: PSI Audio AVAA C214 – Alpha Audio – Approved