Elegantly styled, superbly screwed together and with a strong
all-round sound, what’s not to like?
Last year this magazine was most impressed by the affordable
new AE 301 stand mounting speaker. Well, allow us to introduce its bigger
brother – which adds a pair of 110mm spun aluminum low-frequency drivers to a
similar 110mm unit performing midrange duties. Up at the top of the angled
front baffle is a 28mm fabric dome tweeter, and this makes for a largish
three-way speaker system with a healthy claimed sensitivity of 90dB. This means
the 305 is able to go fairly loud even with moderately power amplifiers, which
will be of interest to valve amp users whose equipment often struggles to muster
20W or so!
Acoustic Energy AE
305
The cabinet is beautifully finished like its baby brother
and is available in a choice of piano black or white gloss lacquer finishes.
It’s certainly a substantial unit, although not the heaviest here. Still, a rap
of the knuckles shows this to be a well damped cabinet, one that’s hewn from
18mm MDF and then exotically painted and lacquered. There’s a single, rather
novel looking ‘slot’ port right at the bottom of the front baffle; be warned
that confused family members might start posting letters into it! These
loudspeakers don’t appear to be too fussy as far as positioning is concerned;
they work surprisingly well close to a back wall (but benefit from moving out
by about 30cm) and like a small amount of toe-in. They sound best with their
neat magnetic grilles removed.
Sound quality
Here’s a clean, crisp, even sounding sort of speaker that
does an awful lot well, without showing any particular strong points or obvious
failings. The High Llamas track Birdies Singes great fun to listen to, with a
large, spacious presentation – the AEs are well able to throw sound out of the
box and hang images far back. The track’s beautiful, Beach Boys-like harmonies
are smooth and melodic, the lead vocal clean and rich and the guitar parts
crisp and well defined – even the cranked-up guitar solo, which can sometimes
grate, comes over smoothly. Tonally then, the 305 is well balanced, which
should make it easy to match to most systems.
Here’s a clean,
crisp, even sounding sort of speaker that does an awful lot well, without
showing any particular strong points or obvious failings.
The pattern continues with New Order’s Vanishing Point,
which proves a most enjoyable experience. The AEs set up a thick, strong bass
line which underpins the track beautifully, without overpowering the mix. The
chiming eighties digital synths are clearly rendered without grating (as can
happen with less couth speakers); there is a wealth of detail sparkling out of
the mix, yet the music never sounds forced or in-your-face. The 305s are well
able to carry the weight and impact of Peter Hook’s epic bass guitar work, and
vocalist Barney Summers sounds just right.
Although not the most revealing sounding design here, the
305s gave the listener a lot to work with; transient performance is good and it
isn’t frightened to convey the subtle accenting of instruments. Still, in
absolute terms, there is a little plumpness from the cabinets audible – careful
placement helps, but the slight bass overhang never quite leaves; the small,
stand mounting 301 sounds a good deal quicker in this respect. Beethoven’s 5th
Symphony shows a lack of very low-level detail; this is down to a tweeter
that’s not the most spacious sounding here. Still, no complaints about the
general nature of the treble; it is smooth, nicely etched and never piercing
with the reference system. Overall, I like these Acoustic Energy floor standers
very much; they’re very effective performers at the price.
Overall, this
makes the 305 a very challenging amplifier load.
One test
Acoustic Energy claims 90dB sensitivity for the 305, which
is about 2dB optimistic according to our measured pink noise figure of 87.8dB,
250Hz-20kHz. Minimum impedance modulus was 2.2 ohms at 3.5kHz – a figure that
would be too low to justify 4 ohms nominal impedance, let alone the 8 ohms
specified. Impedance phase angles are also quite high near where the modulus is
lowest, resulting in a scary minimum EPDR of 1.0 ohms at 3.1kHz. There is also
a dip to 1.8 ohms at 98Hz. Overall, this makes the 305 a very challenging
amplifier load. But on-axis frequency response was remarkably flat at ±2.1dB
and ±2.8dB respectively and the cumulative spectral decay waterfall shows fast
initial energy decay across the spectrum, albeit with some resonances visible
at low levels. Bass extension was disappointing at 69Hz, roll-off being fast
below a 3dB peak at 104Hz.
Our verdict
·
Sound quality: 4/5
·
Value for money: 4.5/5
·
Build quality: 5/5
·
Ease of drive: 4.5/5
·
Like: Smooth, musical sound; easy to drive and position; fine
finish
·
Dislike: Slight bass overhang; nothing else at the price
·
We say: This is a strong all-round compact floor stander.
·
Overall: 4/5
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Technical
specs
·
Product: Acoustic Energy AE 305
·
Origin: UK/China
·
Type: Floor standing loudspeaker
·
Weight: 17kg
·
Dimensions (W x H x D): 900 x 185 x 300mm
·
Features: Three-way, reflex ported loudspeaker; 28mm tweeter,
3x 110mm mid/bass units; Claimed sensitivity: 90dB/1W/1m
·
Distributor: Acoustic Energy Ltd
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