ACOUSTIC ENERGY AE500 Review

Representatives of the flagship 500 series stand out from the rest of the company’s products with a special approach to the design of the drivers and their own philosophy of sound, which we tried to comprehend during the test listening.

British two-way bookshelf speakers in a special listening room appeared in a “wooden” version with a natural walnut veneer covering, which, in my opinion, looks the most classic, noble and simply beautiful. Fans of a more modern neutral approach, I think, will appreciate the finishes in black or white piano lacquer. In any case, the manufacturer lets us know that the impression of “meeting by clothes” promises an equally serious approach to sound.

The weighty 8-kg case is made using the new damping Resonance Suppression Composite (RSC) technology, and the wall thickness is 18 mm — and for these speakers this is even with a margin. I go from the rear to examine the phase inverter — and at first glance it is simply not there. But then I remember that, while studying the materiel the day before, I almost missed the remark about the slotted execution of his port — here it is, at the very top of the rear wall. This solution allows the speakers to be placed quite close to the wall without much damage to the sound, although we did not need this for listening.

And now I will once again note: the speakers look much more impressive without protective black grills (by the way, very stylish), but this is a special case — after all, both speakers, including the tweeter, are made of black carbon fabric. To begin with, it just looks great. And for sound, the carbon fiber cones weigh almost half the weight of traditional proprietary aluminum drivers — while still being rigid enough to avoid unwanted distortion and resonance. Read more at Subwoofer mania