Acoustic Energy AE1

Audio Systems
1

For those of us in the UK, these speakers were really important.

They punched way above their weight, and were at the heart of many a great system. Sounded stellar with classic early Naim gear and Valves alike.

I had a pair with the Exposure Amps I had in the mid 90s - terrific, with an energetic and deeply musical sound… I remember the required stands (Partington Dreadnauts? …really scraping the memory bank there) cost nearly as much as the speakers!

I remember hearing them back to back with a pair of KEF 104/2 - the AE1s had a REL Studio Subwoofer in line - the AE1 and REL combo absolutely destroyed what were very highly regarded full range speakers.

The 40th anniversary set just released look nice - but don’t have the extreme Macassar Ebony finish (probably not that great for the rainforest in hindsight!) that I had and looked so amazing. I may still be tempted to get myself a pair.

Can imagine a great little second or third system with a Naim Nait 50, a pair of these and a Rega P3 :ok_hand:t2: …although they’d definitely grace much more serious systems.

Hoping AE find a market for these great little speakers :+1:t2:

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2

I had a pair of the ebony ones that i used with a tube technology unisis integrated amp, and very good it was too.:grin:

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Such great sound - and I do think very compatible with tube amps - never heard midrange like it.

…they’re etched into my brain!

I think AE lost the plot a bit when they tried to scale them up, just didn’t work nearly as well - but these are a classic. A nice pair of 1987 originals - with stands - on eBay :thinking:

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