One of the more popular questions we’re asked at Audio T Towers is: “What’s the appropriate amplifier and speaker combination for my room?”

Whilst my immediate thought is usually, “It depends,” that’s a trite and unsatisfactory answer to give without a fuller explanation travelling rapidly in its wake. So, here I attempt one…

a pair of Acoustic energy ae509s. you really can’t go wrong, although maybe there’s a ‘righter’?

The Hypothesis

our dem suite hi-fi cleverly captured reflected in an acoustic energy ae500’s shiny front baffle

Larger speakers have the advantage of producing music at scale. To use the old motor racing adage, there’s no replacement for displacement. There is, however, a trade-off, in that the larger cabinet’s surface area can add a colour all of its own, which may or may not be to the listener’s taste.

It usually manifests itself as a blooming; a less crisp sound that can be softer and warmer than its junior sibling in the same range. It will almost certainly produce deeper, more satisfying bass, though. This is a real boon if you enjoy live rock bands, electronica, full concert orchestras, or if you use the system for film, Netflix-and-chill, or sport. I particularly enjoy the sensation of a brim-full Cardiff Principality Stadium roaring as Wales score a flowing rugby try. Others may favour F1 engines howling around Spa.

We should consider room size too. Larger speakers are more efficient than the smaller models in the same range and have the ability to provide more weight to the sound, appearing to fill the space in a more satisfying manner. Our first-floor demonstration room here in Swansea is medium-sized by UK household standards, so it is ideal for the purpose of answering our question.

Method

We used some of our favourite marques: the Rega Elicit MK5 and Aethos amplifiers, alongside Acoustic Energy’s AE500 and AE509 loudspeakers.

Both combinations cost around £4,500*, which may raise an eyebrow when we pair a £1,050 pair of standmount speakers with a £3,460 amplifier. The Aethos doesn’t have a built-in phono stage, so we’re going to use a Heed Questar MM unit with our Rega Planar 3 RS turntable, giving us a £1,550 front end for both systems.

the rega aethos amplifier and rega planar 3 rs turntable. look how the curve of the amplifier’s heatsink matches that of a vinyl album. this blog isn’t just thrown together you know.

our cheeky little hungarian phono stage. £440 in this guise, but upgradable with a posher power supply…

Results

First up: the Rega Aethos and Acoustic Energy AE500.

This is just glorious. An effortless presentation, with instruments and vocals locked rock-solid in place, and a real sense of ease and unflappable control. Female vocals stand out, as they are rendered particularly attractively.

the lovely norah jones. ravi shankar’s daughter don’tcha you know

We opened with my favourite Melody Gardot album, My One and Only Thrill, and revelled in its immersive, smoky atmosphere, before following up with Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me. Ms Jones has rarely sounded quite so come-to-bed enticing. My goodness me!

The rasping blues/gospel vox of Beth Hart on her 2011 collaboration with Joe Bonamassa, Don’t Explain, is depicted with real vigour. All her tumultuous life experience is laid open with disarming honesty. Bonamassa’s guitar picking is rendered with super-clean insight, his technique plain to hear and rock-solid in a three-dimensional space.

the hart & bonamassa album ‘don’t explain’ it’s well worth a go.

Whilst swapping to the Rega Elicit and Acoustic Energy AE509 system, it is amusing how physically heavy the AE509s are and how light the Elicit feels in comparison with the Aethos/AE500 combination. Is this a harbinger?

We’re immediately struck by how much more scale is apparent with the Norah Jones album. Her piano sounds like a very large instrument now. There’s a sense of its physical size and weight, but there is also a subtle shading over her playing. The hammer-on-string strike isn’t quite as clean, and there is a little less texture to the shape of the note. Everything is a little bit softer.

a rega elict amplifier with our rega planar 3 rs turntable

Jones’ voice remains alluring and fluid, but a fine gauze shades her vocals a smidgen.

Playing the Hart and Bonamassa track Chocolate Jesus, the most obvious change is the drum kit, especially the bass drum and the large tom-tom. They’re afforded way more space here and sound realistically large. The runs are more meaty and believable, but the textures are a shade more nebulous.

Bonamassa’s guitar has a greater sense of being an electrically amplified instrument now that we have more of the bottom octave available to us. It sounds more “live”. This is very good stuff.

Hart’s vocals retain their shattering gospel/blues chops, but the definition isn’t quite as crisp. The detail of her mouth sounds is lessened, some of the heartache maybe isn’t quite there any more, and the projection is not as forthright as it once was.

It isn’t mediocre or uninvolving by any stretch of the imagination. It is thoroughly enjoyable, just not quite as dynamic, with that diaphanous gauze now in place.

That drum kit though!

rega’s planar3 rs turntable, a stone-cold bargain. (dust model’s own)

Conclusion

There’s more than one way to make an omelette.

The large amplifier/small speaker combination works beautifully in small to medium-sized spaces, where the control that a heavyweight amplifier brings to the party is very alluring. It gives the music a sense of ease, richness and command that is difficult not to enjoy.

For larger rooms, however, the listener will likely appreciate the greater scale that floorstanding speakers offer. If you want, or need, a larger sense of scale to better suit your room and musical tastes, then the Elicit/AE509 combination could be the very one for you.

If you’ve a good-sized room to fill, say 30m² or larger, then it would be wise to plump for the bigger-speaker Elicit/AE509 rig. It brings more weight, more physicality and a more convincing sense of scale, particularly with music that benefits from proper low-end presence.

If, however, your room is more modest in size and you value poise, control, delicacy and insight, then the Aethos/AE500 pairing is deeply persuasive. It may not move as much air, but what it does with texture, timing and sheer musical involvement is very hard to ignore.

You could always upgrade to the Aethos later…

Thank you for reading. Words by Adrian, images by Nic (mostly 😉)

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to contact us.

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