Acoustic Energy AE100 Bookshelf speakers
The engineers of Acoustic Energy decided to release an absolutely new model range of loudspeakers under the same names for the company's 30th anniversary, having significantly changed their design. And I had the opportunity to test one of these speaker systems - AE100, the previous version of which was released in 1996, having won wide recognition among the professionals and ordinary listeners.
AE100 are available in several variants of the finish - vinyl coating with the imitation of walnut veneer, black matte and white matte enamel.
The designers managed to solve a very non-trivial task - to create with a minimum of visual elements attractive and recognizable model, whose corporate origin is read even at fleet and superficial glance. In many respects this is caused by paradoxical play of straight and rounded corners. I won't be surprised, if someone, looking at these small shelf monitors, wants to look again into price list: low price is seen only in the check, not in their appearance - there is no the smallest hint of cheapness.
On the front panel, just below the drivers, there is the company's logo, on the back - the niche of acoustic terminal with one pair of universal terminals and the slotted bass-reflex, which reduces the effect of turbulence and, consequently, the audibility of the air flow passing through it. By the way, if necessary the bass-reflex can be used as a convenient transport handle with a good grip.
The bodies are assembled of MDF-panels with the thickness of 18 mm. Acoustic Energy AE100 are equipped with a 110-mm MF/HF driver with a paper diffuser on a rubber suspension with a long stroke and a 28 mm tweeter with a textile dome, shaped in a small horn to improve dispersion.
The tweeter uses proprietary WDT technology (Wide Dispersion Technology) - advanced DXT (Diffraction Expansion Technology) - having been earlier available only in more expensive models of the company, referring to the Reference line. In general terms, its essence comes to a number of design features of the tweeter, allowing to expand the space of comfortable listening, affecting the shape of acoustic wave. Despite of relatively compact sizes, from the first seconds AE100 surprise you by unexpectedly powerful manner of the play, unordinary dynamics and pressure with quite a careful attitude to the original. It seems that the sound goes from more expensive loudspeakers, reliably hidden behind the drapery fabric of trellises.
When playing live recordings Acoustic Energy AE100 showed up big time. Almost any music material sounded openly and extremely neutral, without the slightest hint of any genre preferences. Acoustic reconstruction of space was quite convincing; the stage seemed to be wider than usually. Timbres of vocal and musical instruments were transferred quite well, but they seemed to have a slight lack of realism. The sound throughout the range left a positive impression - high frequencies did not make the ears tingle, mids were quite comfortable, bass also sounded acceptable.
Acoustic Energy AE100 cope with simple electronic music at the touch of a button. It is a real pleasure to listen to them. Rock sounds interesting, but vocal and powerful guitar passages sometimes have a lack of attack and relief. And at the playing of low frequency their accuracy leaves much to be desired, especially with increase of volume. I daresay that using the proprietary subwoofer, the most of mentioned above features will lose their relevance.
