Acoustic Energy Pro Sat & Pro Sub Monitor Review
Is this new active setup really AE’s most accurate compact monitor system to date? Huw Price gets energized.
Price: £1,635.00
Manufacturer: Acoustic Energy
Website: http://www.acoustic-energy.co.uk
Pro Sat & Pro Sub
Manufacturer Acoustic Energy
Price £1,635
Contact Acoustic Energy 01285 654432
Web www.acoustic-energy.co.uk
T he bottom end is crucial to the sound of contemporary music, and low frequency effects drive many soundtracks, but it’s often the hardest part of any mix to get right. Part of the problem is that many of us work in small studios or programming rooms where there simply isn’t enough space for large soffet-mounted or transmission line speakers that are capable of reproducing frequencies down to 20Hz or even 30Hz.
You can’t cheat the laws of physics, and the bass response of any speaker is inevitably related to the internal volume of the cabinet. So, as many of us will have discovered, for optimum bass for space ratio a monitoring system that incorporates a subwoofer is probably the best way to go. Manufacturers are well aware of this market trend, and even heritage companies like Audio Energy have embraced the new technology in recent times.
The AE Pro Sat-Sub system is extremely space efficient. It’s fully active and the components can be configured for 2.0 and 2.1 stereo, or as a 5.1 system for the multi-channel market. The Pro Sat monitors in particular are nicely compact, yet the way they look suggests that they mean business. Despite accommodating 75 Watts of on board amplification (50 Watts for the low frequencies and 25 Watts for the high frequencies), the sealed cabinets of these active monitors have an internal volume of just six litres.
Better by design
The drivers can trace their heritage back to the legendary AE1, and the Pro Sat features AE’s signature alloy-cone bass/mid driver with a highly linear ring radiator tweeter. In another nod to the real world, the Pro Sat is voiced to reproduce its most faithful response when positioned on a monitoring desk or on a mount close to a wall. The connectivity options are pretty all-encompassing. You get one of those clever Cannon/quarter-inch jack combination sockets for balanced and unbalanced inputs, and an unbalanced RCA input is thrown in for good measure, too.
The perennial issue of rear panel power switches continues to annoy, but in this instance it’s the rear-mounted power indication light that really incurs our wrath. After all, if these speakers have been designed for mounting close to a wall, how is anybody expected to be able to see the damn thing lurking under the IEC socket? On the positive side an array of dip switches does allow you to tweak the Pro Sats to taste and work with a variety of digital interfaces and desktop controllers. Rather than fit individual input level controls, AE has opted for a three-way sensitivity switch. You can set this flat or select –3dB and –6dB increments. High frequency adjustment gives you three options – flat and + 2dB – and the low frequencies can be extended from a 90Hz cutoff to 75Hz if a subwoofer isn’t being used.
Big bottom
This brings us neatly around to the Pro Sub, which is really the core of this system. Once again AE has elected to use a sealed cabinet for this compact 35cm square subwoofer. The onboard 200 Watt RMS amplifier drives twin 250mm aluminium cone bass drivers that are mounted in opposing planes and wired in-phase. The twin drivers have long throw magnets that are effectively force-cancelling. This is designed to reduce cabinet vibration and room interaction, which in turn makes the Pro Sub less fussy about placement. Obviously this is good news if your studio space is restricted. AE inform us that the Pro Sub extends down to 25Hz, which is pretty impressive for the cabinet/driver size.
This time there are two dip switches and first up is the upper frequency cutoff selector. For use with the Pro Sats AE recommends the 100Hz setting, but a 70Hz option is included for use with larger monitors like the AE22. The second switch is simply a 180 degree phase flip and there’s a screwdriver-adjustable volume control to achieve the best level for integration into your system as a whole.
It has to be said that this was one of the easiest setups we’ve ever experienced with a 2.1 system. Usually there’s a bit of faffing about to get a sub to integrate seamlessly, but the Pro Sub seemed to glide right in there.
The best accolade we can give it is that every now and again we had to check it was actually switched on. This wasn’t because there was any lack of bass – far from it – it’s just that the Pro Bud didn’t display any of the hyped and slightly detached qualities of lesser systems. Setting the phase was very simple, too, because the bottom of our test tracks seemed to disappear when the switch was in the wrong position. But the most remarkable thing about the Pro Sub-Sat system is its ‘larger than life’ sound quality. Because the sub disappears (so to speak) you’re left wondering how such a solid and epic soundstage can be generated by such tiny enclosures. We have a moderate amount of absorbent acoustic treatment in our studio, so we did feel the need to engage the high frequency boost, but even then the tweeters sounded ultra sweet, refined and natural.
This system is also extremely transparent without being overly bright, so it excels at conveying the room ambience of acoustic recordings and imaging is razor-sharp. It’s equally adept with heavy electronic music, where it manages to track even the lowest frequencies with lightning speed, for unusually tight and well-defined kick drums and bass lines. Compared to our usual IPL transmission line monitors with ribbon tweeters, the AE system wasn’t quite as open in the high frequencies, but it’s possibly more representative of most domestic hifis or car stereo systems. Our only reservation was a sense that the mids were very slightly thickened up and boxy, but we quickly cured that by raising the Pro Sats higher above our work surface to reduce reflection interference.
WHY BUY
Fatigue-free treble
Transparent midrange
Deep, well-defined bass
Excellent imaging
Flexible connectivity options
EQ control
Magnetically shielded
WALK ON BY
Power switch at rear
Power indicator at rear
No auto standby
VERDICT
An extremely high quality, full range monitoring system that sounds bigger than it looks, at a competitive price.
★★★★★★★★ (8/10)
SEE ALSO
Monitor Reviews
Choosing & Using Monitors (Feature)
Score: 8
This review first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 77
Filed under
Acoustic Energy Monitor Reviews,
Reviews,
Studio Monitors
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