adsasdsadsad

ith its twin custom-designed carbon fibre mid/bass units working together with a bespoke carbon fibre tweeter, the AE509 enjoys several immediate and important benefits. Because the material is half the weight of the company’s former aluminium cones, it offers better transient speed and is less powerhungry. Also, because all the drivers use the same carbon fibre weave, they integrate better in the time domain. Finally, because they share the same material, there’s tonal consistency to all frequencies. This cohesion is aided and abetted by the natural self-damping that the material has, claims the manufacturer. This 25mm dome tweeter replaces the heavier aluminium dome used on the AE509’s predecessor. It partners This floorstander sounds great with every track and music type I play two 125mm drivers with cast aluminium baskets, metal dust caps and a new 35mm voice coil. The speaker is a two-way configuration, but with a midrange-tweeter-mid/ bass (MTM) driver layout, with high voltage polypropylene film-wound capacitors and air core inductors used in critical locations in the crossover. The business is done at 560Hz and 3.1kHz, meaning the tweeter handles unusually low frequencies for a design such as this. The cabinet is 18mm MDF with the company’s Resonance Suppression Composite (RSC) damping. Four aluminium spiked feet fit into the base, providing greater stability. There’s a choice of white or black piano gloss finishes, and American walnut wood veneer as shown. Acoustic Energy claims a frequency range of 32Hz to 28kHz (+/-6dB), which is wider than you might expect for this size of speaker. Nominal impedance is bohm and 175W peak power handling is quoted. It’s a bass-reflex design, but due to the clever working of the company’s slot port — mounted almost at the top of the rear baffle — it doesn’t put out too much rearward energy so you can run the speaker surprisingly close to a boundary wall. Sound quality Compared with its price rivals, the AE509 actually sounds a little dull. But that’s not dull as in masked, veiled and opaque — but rather it isn’t as bright or shrill. There’s an almost tonal absence of sheen or ‘clang’ to the sound. Instead, you get to listen into the instruments in the recording, rather than being assaulted by them. It’s an eerie sensation that’s quite a thing to behold, and very conspicuous. Manix’s Head In The Clouds can be seriously forward via some speakers. Yet those super-fast hi-hat cymbal runs and rim shots come over as rather silky. There is certainly no crash-bang-wallop. The keyboard sound proves rich and sonorous, but doesn’t dazzle and the female vocal samples are smooth and defined yet never shrill. Move to some high-paced pop with Blondie’s Hanging On The Telephone, and I’m taken aback by the speed of the music; it comes out at you at dizzying velocity. There’s a vim and brio that makes listening quite an event. It’s this curious conjunction of tonal grace and transient pace that sets the AE509 apart from the fray. Put on 4hero’s Give In and the speaker shows its impressive handling of low frequencies. It goes lower than I expect for a floorstander of this size and tracks right down into the bottom octaves. Yet bass is never overblown or bulbous; it is taut and tight, but slightly understated. A further thumbs up goes to the cabinet and bass port, neither of which are audible; there’s no sense of it honking away behind the drive units in an unruly way.