Acoustic Energy AE1 MkIII

nicnic

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Anyone know of any reviews or have any personal experience of these speakers? I currently own a pair of Nautilus 805's (not signiture).

I do like the 805's but not sure they have enough bass for me.. I've read two reviews on the AE1 MkIII's but that's all I can find! The reviews seem to hint towards extended bass.

I run the 805's off an arcam a90/p90 and also hooked up through a Allen&Heath XONE 32 dj mixer (pre amp) as I've got a pair of decks. I frequently find myself cracking the bass to full on the pre amp as well as the arcam amp!

Perhaps the amps aren't powerful enough to drive the Nautilus'?

I also absolutely love the look of the AE1 MKIII and even if they are no better or worse than the 805's I'm strongly concidering changing to them!

Any thoughts would be greatly received before I make another impulsive purchase!!

Thanks.
 
Anyone?
 
I casually had a chat with one of the Sevenoaks Watford staff while I was instore to pick up my evos. I asked him what's his favourite speakers in the shop. Don't quote me on this, but as I remember it...

He pointed the AE1 MKIII's out to me straight away. He advised you can stick a £1000 source & amp with them and they sound great, double up money on source and amp and gets even better.

He said they keep getting better no matter what he's put connected to them, it's not been the weak point yet.

Sorry couldn't give much more info. I haven't heard them myself.

If you're considering, I'm sure that any place worth it's salt would give you a decent demo if you're in the market for speakers at this price bracket.

Pretty sure I remember him saying he thought they coupled up very well with Cyrus too.

Dan.
 
ta for the reply =) I'm not really in a position to get a demo as it's an eBay auction! Think I might buy them, try them and if not happy resell them.. By the sounds of it they are better than the 805's but will still need a sub (like the 805's), but perhaps have a bit more bottom end grunt..

Then of course I'll have to get rid of the pre/power arcam combo as they are not biampable..
 
nicnic said:
ta for the reply =) I'm not really in a position to get a demo as it's an eBay auction! Think I might buy them, try them and if not happy resell them.. By the sounds of it they are better than the 805's but will still need a sub (like the 805's), but perhaps have a bit more bottom end grunt..

Then of course I'll have to get rid of the pre/power arcam combo as they are not biampable..

All things I've heard about them is that they're good quality and impressive.

Spec show they go down to 38Hz, very impressive for a speaker of this size. My evo 3's go down that far and they're floorstanders.

Dan.
 
I'm not too hot on specs, are you saying they have the same amount of kick as your pair of floorstanders!


Dankeech said:
All things I've heard about them is that they're good quality and impressive.

Spec show they go down to 38Hz, very impressive for a speaker of this size. My evo 3's go down that far and they're floorstanders.

Dan.
 
Not quite, from what I've heard these can kick.

The lower down the frequency range (lowest Hz spec, in this case 38Hz) the more into the bass ranges the speakers can produce. Many speakers the size of these AE1 MKIII's only go down to say 70hz, which say for instance is the thud sound in a bass-drum, but 38Hz is very respectable even for a floorstander.

See how you get on if you win them. I don't use a sub and think mine (Evo's (much lower model)) go down to 38Hz or so too.
 
Ok cheers so the specs are..

AE1 MK111
Frequency Response: 55Hz – 20kHz, +/-2.5dB
Frequency Range: 38Hx – 30kHz -6dB

B&W Nautilus 805
Frequency response: 56 Hz - 20 kHz +/- 2 dB on reference axis
Frequency range: ??

Doesn't make much sense to me?! Do the AE1's go much lower than the 805's?!
 
Oh, I stand corrected. Sorry.

Full specs from Acoustic Energy website:

HF Unit


Doped fabric diaphragm. Central clamp and phase corrector. Metal chassis, directly interfaced with Reference One alloy plate baffle for low vibration. Shielded neodymium cup magnet system. Low fundamental resonance for lowest coloration and improved linearity



Bass Mid Unit


100mm diameter, magnesium die cast chassis. Open low reflection frame design. High performance closed field neodymium magnet system. Low stray field. Vented rear suspension. Air pumped cooling. Low loss outer suspension. Non-conductive glass fibre voice coil former. Precision 32mm power voice coil. 105mm Pure Piston hyperbolic aluminium alloy cone, depth anodised to traditional AE practice.

Crossover


Delivers octave by octave equilisation for maximum monitor grade tonal accuracy.

3rd order acoustic, phase corrected; drivers are wired in phase electrically. Crossover elements 11, close tolerance components [+/-2% typical].

Vibration inhibited platform, low colouration power film resistors on alumina substrate. Selected high current audiophile grade laminated core low loss inductors plus air core for high frequency section. Selected audiophile grade polypropylene capacitors.

Power Handling
75 W Peak programme
Amplifier compatibility: 50 – 200 Watts into 8 Ohms

Frequency Response
55Hz – 20kHz, +/-2.5dB

Frequency Range


38Hz – 30kHz -6dB

Sensitivity 87dB

Impedance
Nominal 8 ohms (mean value 10 ohms, minimum 5.8 ohms)

Terminals
Single-wire, heavy duty gold plated WBT terminals for wire, spade, and 4mm connection. Fully insulated. Internal wiring: single strand silver ptfe insulated.



Enclosure


10mm thick alloy plate baffle for essentially zero flexure. Duo-wall MDF/steel plate panel construction with tensioned steel cross bolts, screwed in baffle and rear panel. High mass for low distortion launch of dynamic transients and superior resolution of low level detail

Dimensions WxHxD 185mm x 310mm x 250mm

Weight (exc packaging)11kg each




They go down to 55Hz then. Has kick-bass, but if you want sub-bass you'd need to get a sub.

These speakers should still sound excellent, even on their own.

Hope this helps.

Dan.
 
ight cheers, well think i'll grab them, shouldn't loose anything if i sell them on! will let ya know.
 
Checked the auction out, these I'm guessing will probably go at around £900-£1100 or so from memory of prev auctions.
Best of luck.

What would they be connected to as in Source/Amp/Cabling etc?
 
yea there are two on there, one buy it now 950 and one no reserve but with a slight scratch.. id not pay more than a grand..

Not sure what I'd pair them with yet. Like I said above i've got an arcam a90/p90 with a dv89, ipod, dj pre amp and 2 x technic 1210 decks.. all sorts!

Since they are not bi-amp able I'd probably be selling my arcams and try and find a suitable integrated amp.. cabling is a bit crappy at the moment.. never been convinced that spending fortunes on cables makes a difference!
 
with speakers like these I'd make sure you've got some decent needles running on the 1210's.

Friend of mine upgraded to ?Concorde Carl Cox's? and difference from his entry level stantons was a big leap in sound quality.

Dan.
 
I've got a pair of Concorde Ortofon DJS (the blue ones), makes a huge difference to the sound! Obviously the techs are not renound for their quality, but they sound cracking to me!

Just researching these speakers some more (not much to do at work as per usual!) and found someone on the board with this set up:

Cyrus Pre X Silver
Cyrus Mono X Silver
Cyrus Mono X Silver

Acoustic Energy AE1 mk2 black

If the AE1's are not biampable I don't get how he has done it??
 
nicnic said:
I've got a pair of Concorde Ortofon DJS (the blue ones), makes a huge difference to the sound! Obviously the techs are not renound for their quality, but they sound cracking to me!

Just researching these speakers some more (not much to do at work as per usual!) and found someone on the board with this set up:

Cyrus Pre X Silver
Cyrus Mono X Silver
Cyrus Mono X Silver

Acoustic Energy AE1 mk2 black

If the AE1's are not biampable I don't get how he has done it??

I don't know Cyrus equipment, but sounds like he has a Stereo Pre-amp with Left output into one cyrus mono and right channel into another ?

just sounds logical, and also checked the Cyrus website.

No doubt that user has one Mono X per Ae1

Note on a useful forum tool:
If you weren't aware, you can click on the name of that person who has the Cyrus/Ae1 combo and it will give you an option to private-message. May be worth dropping a message that way to them. It'll pop up as soon as they login and most people reply quickly in my experience.

Dan.
 
sounds interesting and expensive!! can u do that with most manufactures? i.e. one pre amp connected to a power per speaker?
 
Went to the Bristol Sound & Vision show the other week.

Living Voice had a nice setup:

One Valve stereo pre-amp, connected to a seperate mono valve-amp per speaker.

They really were high end too.

Whole system was in excess of £100k! (cart was £10k on the turntable).

Guessing this type of setup is a good thing, but not sure of the benefits.

I'm off home now.

Probably be posting at some point tonight tho.

Best of luck on the bidding!

Post a message f any more questions though.

Dan.
 
Not sure about the Cyrus/AE1 combo.

I have aways found cyrus electronics to have a very distinctive sound, that being quite analytical and lots of top/mid detail, not great for Bass in the systems I have heard.

The AE1's will work well with Naim amps which have a nicely balanced sound, pick up a naim pre and a pair of opwer amps and you will have a great sounding system.

I must admit I was tempted by the AE1 classic atthe bristol show. Great sounding little speakers.

The living voice room was great wasn't it :)
 
Cheers for the advice Conkerman. I can only see one mono power amp by Naim - the NAPV 145? I'm assuming all the others are stereo and so using them as mono blocks would be a waste of money? Only probablem is that I'm only in the second hand market and I bet picking up two NAPV 145's is nigh on impossible!!

There's a NAIM NAC 112x Preamp on eBay at the moment for 500 quid..
 
The NAPV 145's are nearly 2 grand each! Out of my budget big style!!

Budget: £2500

£1000 on the AE1 MKIII
£1500 on amplification

Is what I'm thinking..

Hey ho.. must win the auction first off!! There's me getting all carried away as usual!
 
Hi,

I am a prevous owner of the AE1 Mk3s. They are very nice speakers that are suited to small rooms. They do produce a surprising amount of low bass for a small speaker but are still limited overall by their small size. What I mean is they can go low but do not go very loud, particularly if the material playing is quite bass heavy, the drive units just run out of excursion. Within their limits though they are fabulous sounding speakers.

On the subject of amplification, they need LOTS of it and I mean lots. For £1500 you best bet is something like the Musical Fidleity A5 integrated amp which at 250 Watts into 8 ohms is just about enough to get them going, I'm not kidding. I used them for a few years with a Musical Fidelity A5 power amp which is similar in power output to the integrated but has twice the current delivery and they sounded great in the end of that. Hi-Fi News or Hi-Fi Choice is about to feature them in one of their 'Great System' features along with the Musical Fidelity KW SACD Player and the KW500 Integrated amplifier and the system got a great write up.

I recently (about 3 weeks ago) sold my AE1s as I wanted something with a bit more headroom, but i really enjoyed them while I had them.

If you need any more advice on these speakers then please do not hesitate to contact me.

PS: If you need stands for these speakers then let me know as I still have mine. You can see them pictured in my gallery link below.
 
Glad that an AE1 owner (or prev owner) is on this thread. Was giving 2nd party opinion here simply from what I'd heard from others.

Good to know you're getting 1st hand info now.:smashin:

Best of luck with the auction, and be aware that last few second bids are likely to knock the price up by a large chunk.

Just won an interconnect that went from about £25 to £40 in last minute.

Personal suggestion is open a seperate window with auction in when gets to 1 min, bid and add your final willing price to pay in it and Don't confirm that bid til the last 10 seconds (on a nice fast connection)

Keep refreshing the first window with the auction listing on it to see accurate time left and click the 2nd window when have over 10 seconds left and confirm that bid. Just how I do it, prefectly ebay-legal.

Dan.
 
conkerman said:
Not sure about the Cyrus/AE1 combo.

The living voice room was great wasn't it :)

I was only in there for 2 minutes. Didn't feel the sound jumped out or was obvious in any particular way.

As friend and I sat down for 2 mins. We realised it took a while to appreciate just how warm and natural the sound was.

Didn't grab us by the throat and say it's amazing, but after 2 mins we were really starting to get the enjoyment. Shame we were in a hurry:suicide:

Dan.
 
Cheers guys =)

Crustyloafer when you say "What I mean is they can go low but do not go very loud", how loud is loud! Obviously not very quanitifyable over the internet, but are they load enough to rock at a party or please me during a dj sesh? Compared with the B&W's are they gonna be mute?!

Regarding your set up you mention a A5 power amp - didn't you use two plus a pre?

Really not sure what configuration options I would have available!

How about adding another p90? So I'd have an a90 + p90 + p90? Or is that daft?

Oh and Dankeech yea I usually open about 5 or 6 windows during the last 2 minutes of an auction, my hand to mouse to keyboard skills are second to non!
 
nicnic said:
Cheers guys =)

Crustyloafer when you say "What I mean is they can go low but do not go very loud", how loud is loud! Obviously not very quanitifyable over the internet, but are they load enough to rock at a party or please me during a dj sesh? Compared with the B&W's are they gonna be mute?!

Regarding your set up you mention a A5 power amp - didn't you use two plus a pre?

Really not sure what configuration options I would have available!

How about adding another p90? So I'd have an a90 + p90 + p90? Or is that daft?

Oh and Dankeech yea I usually open about 5 or 6 windows during the last 2 minutes of an auction, my hand to mouse to keyboard skills are second to non!


hehe. Black-belt mouse & shortcut key user here too.

Dan.
 

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