HECO Aleva GT 202

Rational update

Stylish, with high-quality sound and at a good price — it is precisely such a flattering characteristic that is most often found in reviews of the updated Aleva line from Heco. And all because the German engineers Heco rationally approached the update, using high-quality materials and developments from the flagship lines, but at the same time kept the price at $400 per pair.

Elegant heaviness

The updated Aleva combines elegance and heaviness at the same time — the speakers are covered with a dense layer of glossy varnish (the white version looks especially good), but they surprise with the power of construction. The speaker cabinet is made of massive MDF boards 25 mm thick, which you rarely see in acoustics with a price tag 2-3 times higher, and an impressive system of spacers is installed inside the cabinet to combat parasitic resonances.

Resonance minimum

A plastic phase inverter is mounted behind the case, so the speakers are not very suitable for installation close to the wall. Where it would be better to put them on a specialized stand. The GT 202 woofer is made from the proven craft paper reinforced with wood fibres. The logic of Heco engineers is quite simple — the paper has a high degree of rigidity, but at the same time it weighs little and, accordingly, weakly resonates.

Extended frequency range

Together with the proprietary voice coil cooling system, this system improves the impulse response of the system. If for most bookshelf acoustics in this class the lower bass threshold rests at 45 – 50 Hz, then GT 202 reproduce frequencies at the level of up to 36 Hz. The frequency extension also applies to the silk tweeter, which reproduces the upper range up to 42 kHz, instead of the usual 30 – 35 kHz. The power reserve is also higher than the “room temperature” and is 80 watts per speaker.

Airy sound with powerful bass

All this together gives the sound a certain airiness and transparency, without harshness and sandy overtones. The character of the sound is transparent and accentuated throughout the entire range with a slight rise from above. Thanks to the extended frequency range, the speakers play back voluminous and elastic bass, with German attention to the dynamics and structure of low frequencies. I am glad that the speakers do not have a “favorite volume” — the sound quality is kept at the same high level, no matter how much you unscrew the receiver knob. The only weakness of the Aleva GT 202 is the excessive severity of hissing overtones in speech on recordings of poor quality, which can annoy the owners of sensitive hearing.