New Flagship Acoustic Energy AE500 Series Loudspeakers At Audio T Bristol

This is not some "Holier than thou" new composite Unobtanium, forged in Mordor creation. This is a speaker that elevates performances in a really engaging way.

Based in Cirencester in the Cotswolds, Acoustic Energy have been around for over 30 years and are highly respected in the professional music industry, producing the highly regarded AE 1 Active and renowned by the Hi-Fi press for the original AE 100. They always seem to make a speaker that punches above it’s weight, puts a smile on your face and yet looks and feels very unstated.

The new AE500 series continues the tradition, currently comprises two models, AE500 standmount and the AE509 floor-stander. Both feature the brand new 25mm dome tweeter and 125mm mid/bass drivers with carbon fibre cone.

Until the end of December Acoustic Energy are offering 25% OFF a new pair of AE 100 / 300 or 500 series when you trade in your old loudspeakers.

Everything from the ground up has been redesigned to work with the new carbon fibre cones - beautiful woven to be stronger, lighter and faster responding to acoustic load than aluminium or paper. The lens surround of all the drivers has been redesigned and are closer together to cast a 170 degree even sound dispersion, most noticeable on the tweeter lens, softly embedded in the cabinet.

Talking of cabinets, the finish comes in Piano Gloss White, Piano Gloss Black and American Walnut veneer with three of the twelve edges with a bevelled curved edge. Personally, I prefer the rustic feel of the walnut wood, which also suits the slim cabinet design . Acoustically, this is the same cabinet construction as their reference series using new Resonance Suppression Composite to reduce cabinet acoustic sound radiation.

The rear firing bass slot, I found is a lot faster, direct sounding with low frequencies being less breathy. The slot design seems to be less sensitive to wall proximity, which increases the speakers placement possibilities.

The internal tuning of the floorstanders is a whittling craft of baffle placement and internally machined port. Lots of loudspeaker manufacturers prefer to handle issues of internal cabinet resonance by manipulating crossover frequencies. AE prefers to keep the crossover neutral at around 4kHz. The standing wave frequency resonances are handled by a hole in the mid-placed horizontal baffle that is tuned by altering the diameter, micrometre by micrometre until a standing wave cancels out the cabinet resonance.

The floorstanders come with these elegantly machined plates with spikes making fine adjustments to positioning easier than the usual mounting underneath. This also means that the speaker has a lower centre of gravity and feels better grounded for its slim design.

For testing, we connected the 500s to Naim's new Supernait 3 using Naim's NDX5 for streaming Qobuz (Audio T Bristol playlistl) content. I suspected that this combination would sound overly bright with squeaky clean dynamics - a clinical examination resulting in a Coroner’s report that the Music died of unnatural causes!

I couldn’t have been more wrong. These speakers are exquisite sounding. Regardless of genre, this series has an uncanny ability of producing a clean, dynamic sound, effortless stereo sound stage and an engaging listen without being overly detailed or fatiguing. Female vocals soar, orchestral classical pieces a new level of detail and very involving performance.

Head to Audio T Bristol and audition the AE500 or AE509. Until the end of December Acoustic Energy are offering 25% OFF a new pair of AE 100 / 300 or 500 series when you trade in your old loudspeakers.

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

System Synergy! Creating A Great Sounding Home Hi-Fi System Using Naim, Rega & Acoustic Energy

According to Wikipedia, Synergy, is the creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. At Audio T we have a wealth of knowledge and experience gained from working over many years, with a multitude of different Hi-Fi manufacturers and their products. This collective knowledge means we can suggest and created great value, balanced and musically satisfying home audio systems. We also know that partnering a series of 5 star award winning products doesn’t always make for a great sounding Hi-Fi system!

So, with that in mind, we thought it would put together a complete mid-level Hi-Fi system for small to medium sized rooms, that would cope equally well with reproducing vinyl, but also introduce the option of entering the world of high quality music streaming. We wanted to put together something that would straight away get to the heart of the music and the artists performance, in a thoroughly enjoyable way.

To meet our brief, we have put together some new outstanding products with an old but good favourite. So what have we lined up?

·      Naim Nait XS3 amplifier

·      Naim ND5XS2 streamer

·      Rega Planar 6 with Exact moving magnet cartridge

·      Acoustic Energy AE500 bookshelf speakers

The talented individuals - but do they excel as a team?

Naim Nait XS3

The new Naim Nait XS3 amplifier makes a simple, elegant and powerful music playing solution. The amplifier is all analogue, with a wide and flexible range of inputs; the moving magnet phono stage is a new introduction for this model to reflect the resurgence of vinyl. It makes a great low-box pairing with the matching ND5 XS 2 streamer

Sideways glance..

Naim ND5XS2

The ND5XS2 uses the latest innovative new streaming platform from Naim with an expanded feature set. This is a versatile player giving access to a full range of streaming options including Tidal, Spotify, Internet radio etc. Naturally you can additionally install a server should you wish to stream local files; ripped CDs, Hi-Res downloads etc. It’s also Blutooth and Chromecast enabled. The Naim software can be operated from a mobile phone or tablet. The ND5XS2 can form part of a multi-room setup with other Naim streaming products too. The quality and versatility of the Naim streaming app is very good indeed.

Rega Planar 6 and Exact MM

The Planar 6 benefits from the trickle-down technology derived from ongoing research at Rega. It follows the Rega design ethic of a low mass but rigid structure, to minimise unnecessary distortion. It comes with an advanced anti-vibration motor circuit powered by a separate NEO power supply, tuned to each individual deck. Regas’ attention to rigidity is further enhanced by a double brace between the tonearm and the hub pillars to further accuracy in playback. It is clear that a lot of thought and engineering detail had gone into this simple but elegant package.

Planar 6, Exact and Aswad!

Acoustic Energy AE 500

The AE500 is a new compact stand-mount loudspeaker from the flagship AE 500 Series. It features a newly developed carbon fibre tweeter and mid/bass drivers, to enhance musical power and accuracy, but with improved self-damping for a smoother, more transparent sound. It is an attractive speaker, well put together and surprisingly heavy, given its size!

Showing the carbon drivers

Well, the important bit is how does the system sound?

It sounds very balanced and dynamic, able to easily convey the depth, richness and dynamics available from vinyl. The voicing and phono stage of the XS3 amplifier and the Rega combine to provide a very convincing and immersive sound.

The ND5 XS2 benefits from classic Naim engineering and fastidious attention to detail ensuring that it delivers natural, engaging sound quality from all streamed digital sources. Its musical and technical performance is highly satisfying and informative.

Throughout all this the XS3 provides a solid, powerful and musically coherent, tonally accurate foundation, to allow the system to really breathe and unleash the music.

The AE 500’s more than hold up their end of the bargain being rich, dynamic, insightful and faithful to the intensity of the performance. Given their size they cannot defy the laws of physics and produce prodigious bass, but they nonetheless give a very solid foundation to the music.

Together, it is a great system that makes you forget what kit you are listening to and instead become immersed in the musical performance. Everything works well together to produce an exceptional result. That is true Synergy.

If you are looking for a system built around compact speakers, you need to have a listen to this!

All items are available for demonstration at Audio T Reading.

Rob - Sales Consultant.

Naim Hi-Fi products are available from all branches of Audio T.

Rega Hi-Fi products are available from all branches of Audio T.

Acoustic Energy HI-Fi products are available from the following branches of Audio T: Bristol, Cheltenham, Enfield, Online, Portsmouth, Preston, Reading, Swindon

UK Exclusive......Acoustic Energy Do It Again With Their New AE 500 Standmount Loudspeakers

Acoustic Energy have been very busy of late and the latest fruits of their labour come in the guise of the brand new 500 series loudspeakers. And here in Cheltenham we have a UK exclusive as we are the only store in the whole country to have these in stock and ready to listen to until September!

The ones I have the pleasure of blogging about here are the AE 500’s which are a compact stand mount featuring some rather clever newly developed carbon fibre drive units designed to offer unparalleled levels of performance, quality and value. Acoustic Energy say that their aim is to make the speaker sound smoother and more transparent. Shall we see if they have succeeded?

I connected the AE500’s up to a Rega Brio amplifier and Apollo CD player using a Rega Couple interconnect and Chord Company Odyssey speaker cable then sat down with a cup of tea and a pile of my usual favourite demo CD’s.

The first thing that struck me about these little marvels was how open and detailed they sounded and how they managed to image from way left and right of the speaker cabinets. This is something quite rare in a speaker at this price!

I played the title track of the album Starfire by Jaga Jazzist and about half way through it gets all complicated and very proggy and throughout the little AE500’s it sound fully controlled and powerful. No one part of the music was being coloured by any of the rest making it so easy to hear and follow everything all at the same time! This piece of music is always a good test and the AE500’s made it sound totally engaging.

Next into the Rega Apollo CD player was the totally gorgeous piece of musical loveliness that is Angelina by Marillion from the equally marvellous album Marbles. The AE500’s again opened the sound-stage up. I closed my eyes and the speakers totally disappeared leaving the music just hanging in the air in front of me. This piece has a very deep bass line throughout and a soaring guitar motif and is recorded in such a way that puts the music in a huge acoustic space. This comes over convincingly on the AE 500’s. This is one album you must own if you have even just a casual interest in rock music of the prog variety. A majestic masterpiece from a band at the peak of their powers! Just make sure you get the double CD version!

Now a sizeable chunk of this magic comes from the carbon fibre drive units. Their very rigid but lightweight nature ensuring great mid-range definition and increased transient speed and clarity. Acoustic Energy have succeeded in their goal to make a smooth sounding loudspeaker, which is a great thing in this age where most companies make their speakers sound way too bright. This makes the AE500’s the type of loudspeaker that you can listen to for hours as they are not at all fatiguing.

The cabinet construction is rather special too using Acoustic Energy’s new 18mm Resonance Suppression Composite or RSC for short. This is basically a method of putting one cabinet inside another with a damping layer between them thus greatly reducing cabinet resonances which would otherwise colour the sound.

These speakers are a must listen if you are interested in a really high quality but still small solution to put on speaker stands (preferably) or bookshelves (at a pinch). If you have a yearning for owning a pair of those classic Acoustic Energy AE1 from the old days then look no further these little marvels will put a grin on your face a mile wide!

Finished in a choice of Piano Gloss Black, Piano Gloss White or American Walnut wood veneer finishes the AE 500’s will look great with any home decor. Come in to the Cheltenham store for a demo and a cup of tea or coffee …… we might even have biscuits! Let your ears be the judge, but we’re sure you will be very pleasantly surprised.

Acoustic Energy Hi-Fi products are available at the following branches of Audio T: Brentwood, Bristol, Cheltenham, Online, Portsmouth, Preston, Reading, Swindon.