Acoustic Energy AE300 Series Arrives At Audio T Cardiff

With a gap in our shelves we set out on the hunt for a new pair of speakers to fill out our repertoire…

After reading and hearing glowing reviews of Acoustic Energy loudspeakers, we thought we’d have a listen to their AE309s that they kindly brought down for demonstration. The design is elegant, simple and most importantly sounds great, we were sold from a single listening session and had them on order immediately. The delivery times were brilliant and we had them on our hands right away, a pair of AE309s and AE300s both in walnut.

As metal domed speakers go I am usually a skeptic but Acoustic Energy now have me convinced that it can be done right with their aluminum domed tweeters.

There was still some of the sibilance that I attributed to the metal cones but as they wore in and when I replaced the NACA5 speaker cable with Chord it disappeared and became incredibly musical. What worries I had were simply washed away with the depth of bass and clarity of treble, I find myself quite literally hearing detail I have never before heard. I have to sometimes remind myself that these are a £1100 speaker and to stop comparing them to others way above their price range!

They have a forward sound much like Bowers & Wilkins, so if that doesn’t appeal to you then I would suggest listening to Dali or Spendor as an alternative. In comparing them to other metal dome loudspeakers in a similar price range, I’m surprised to find that I prefer the AE309s in many ways, they are great value for money for their size and are far less fussy about placement.

The Acoustic Energy 300 series have a few quirks that make them interesting, a rectangular rear port which reduces the affect of the rear wall (we had our placed about 30cm away), opposing rounded edges to reduce the number of veneer sheets used and a bottom weighted cabinet to improve stability and cabinet resonance. The 300s come paired with their own stands with a stylistic walnut stripe down the front and a solid design.

If any of my waffle resonates with you then feel free to come down to our Cardiff store and try them for yourself! They are a very refreshing take on the ‘modern’ speaker sound that might convince even the most old school of Hi-Fi enthusiasts.

Thanks for reading, Hefin, Nick and Kerrin.

Acoustic Energy loudspeakers are available from the following branches of Audio T: Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Online, Oxford, Portsmouth, Reading, Swansea, Swindon

Acoustic Energy AE300 Series. Great Sound. Great Look. Great Price!

Over the past week we have been playing with some new speakers from Acoustic Energy. The AE300 stand mount and the AE309 floor standing loudspeakers. They are available in three high standard finishes a Black or White Gloss finish and a Satin real wood Walnut veneer. There is also a centre speaker available, the AE307 for home cinema use.

The new 300 series offers some big upgrades from the entry level 100 series in both performance and aesthetics. The new mid bass drive units have been designed together to achieve a seamless tonal balance and the aluminium dome tweeter features wide dispersion technology which provides a greater sweet spot in your room making placement within a room easier.

Internal bracing inside the cabinet improves rigidity and reduces colouration of sound, and in the case of the AE309 (Gloss Finish and £1099 for walnut) they come mass filled which greatly improves stability and gives solidity allowing for a cleaner and more open performance. There is also a slot shaped port at the rear as found in the 100 series which allows for greater bass control and the ability to position them closer to a wall than most rear ported loudspeaker designs.

We thought we would use the same electronics for both speakers to keep a level playing field and we opted for the Rega Planar 3 with the Rega Elex-R integrated amp. Of course the AE300 at £599 for the Gloss finishes and £649 for the walnut are not strictly the right speakers within that system but we wanted to see just what they could do so we put them on the Custom Design FS104 stands mass filled and dug out a record. We kicked of with the second album from London Grammar, ‘‘Truth Is A Beautiful Thing’’ and played it all the way through side one. Impressed… they handled Hannahs powerful vocals and the some time ridiculous bass London Grammar like to employ. They sounded very present in the room without being forced and still allowing plenty of space around the vocal, giving loads of depth to the soundstage an offering a really enjoyable listen. I have a feeling that the AE300’s will work really well with anything within reason.

Next of course we moved up to the AE309. The extra drive unit and cabinet provided far greater bass extension and presence. In some cases when a stand mounted speaker sounds so good the first floor stander in a range can sound a little bloated, uncontrolled and can lose clarity. Not a bit of it. The AE309 just sounded bigger, as you might expect, all the improvements you would hope for when moving up in a range were apparent. We have since had them running in the foyer of the shop, a far bigger area, and they do not shy away.

In short they are hugely versatile and fun to listen to, We really cannot fault them at their price point and we look forward to playing with them in the future.

Remember, if you would like to borrow them for a home demonstration we can arrange that or simply get in touch with us and we will set them up in store for you.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Nick Joe and James - Audio T Portsmouth

Acoustic Energy loudspeakers are available from the following branches of Audio T:

Brentwood, Bristol, Cheltenham, Online, Portsmouth, Preston, Reading, Swindon

New Acoustic Energy 309 Floor Standing Speakers Punch Well Above Their Weight

Acoustic Energy have been purveyors of top quality loudspeakers for over thirty years now and have got pretty good at the dark art of making pretty boxes that will make your music sound wonderful and lovely! The latest 300 series builds on the fabness that is the 100 series and the floor standing AE309 raises the performance bar for a £1000 speaker by a significant margin.

The Acoustic Energy AE309 build quality is up there with the best. With mass loading in the cabinet making a very heavy and inert cabinet which is just perfect for housing a 28mm aluminium dome tweeter featuring what AE have trademarked Wide Dispersion Technology or WDT for short. The bass/mid driver is a new design too and uses a ceramic aluminium sandwich cone and long throw motor system. The cabinet itself is seamless (so you cannot see the joins) and boasts a very chunky 18mm thick high density MDF material designed to control cabinet vibrations and reduce colouration in the music.

Before listening properly to the AE309's we ran them in for about a hundred hours and yes this really does make a big difference. For the purposes of this blog we listened to them on the very lovely new Arcam CDS50 SACD/CD streamer and SA20 integrated amplifier (see last blog from the Swindon store for more info). The results are quite simply astonishing. Rarely have I heard a system costing this little sound this good! It is a real giant killer!

They sounded sooooooo good that I decided to put them through their paces good and proper! I brought in my CD copy of Natural Selection by Land's End. Now to say this is nicely recorded is a bit of an understatement. It is quite possibly the best recording of a rock band (of the progressive variety) that there has ever been! Plenty of so called top quality recording studios and their engineers and producers should be made to sit down and listen to this .... they would be thoroughly ashamed of their miserable efforts! Why does the word Oasis spring to mind here I wonder(wall)! None of that compression rubbish on this one and it's all the more lovely for it! 

Anyway ...... rant over ...... back to the task in hand. I started track five which is called My Home and was immediately struck by how accurate Acoustic Energy's marketing blurb was! Wide dispersion is bang on the button here. The soundstage created on the AE309's was huge. There was a real and tangible sense of width depth and height with the guitar on left coming from so far out of the box I had to open my eyes to see if he was actually there!! Then a drum rolls across the back all the way to the opposite side and a synthesiser explodes in the background - it is just WOW!! 

In fact whatever this system was given to play always sounded clean open and superbly detailed. You get a proper insight into the mix and it becomes totally absorbing and engaging. They produce a sound that I don't believe I have ever heard from a floorstanding loudspeaker at this price before. I think that they could become a bit of a Hi-Fi classic. Leave them off your shortlist of speakers to demo at your peril 

To sum up .... I have heard systems costing way more than this sound a fraction this good. The Acoustic Energy AE309's are game changers and if you would like to arrange a no obligation demonstration to hear for yourself we would be more than happy for you to bring in some of your own favourite music we can supply the tea coffee and biscuits! 

Acoustic Energy loudspeakers are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brentwood, Bristol, Cheltenham, Online, Portsmouth, Preston, Reading, Swindon