Напольная акустика — Göbel High End Epoque Aeon Baforce (Active)

The Epoque Aeon Baforce (Active) is a powered subwoofer tower from Göbel High End of Germany, part of the Epoque Aeon Baforce series that is offered in active and passive versions so owners can use built-in or external amplification. It stands 216 cm tall on a base of 52.5 x 65.5 cm and is meant to sit beside Göbel loudspeakers to cover the lowest octaves.

Key specs that matter

Sixteen custom Göbel Aeon 9-inch long-throw sub-bass drivers with aluminium cones sit in a closed-chamber array, each driver in its own sealed volume. Together they present more than 3,600 cm2 of cone area, with linear excursion beyond 2 cm. The maker quotes an operating range of 15 Hz to 80 Hz. In this version each driver has a dedicated 250 W Class H amplifier, giving 4,000 W in total at 1% THD. The active tower weighs 355 kg, or 405 kg in its flight case, against 335 kg for the passive model, which presents a 4 ohm load.

Engineering and use context

Göbel places the drivers in symmetrical rows on the left and right flanks of the enclosure, and they are impulse compensated, a layout Göbel says cuts harmonic distortion and material resonance to about one tenth. Glass fibre voice coils, low-loss spiders and gaskets, extensive venting and stiff aluminium membranes aim at fast impulse behaviour. The housing combines a multilayer composite with a special aluminium alloy and uses the brand's bending wave know-how to damp panel vibration. Amplifiers are direct coupled with low output impedance for a high damping factor. The power supply is heavily oversized and can briefly deliver four times the peak current the amplifiers need at full level, and it sits in its own shielded chamber, apart from the analogue circuitry, under microcontroller monitoring. The foot is machined out of one piece of aluminium alloy for control of EMI, crosstalk and heat, with stainless steel plates top and bottom. Finishes are piano lacquer in white with natural silver anodising or black with dark space grey.

Pairing

Göbel builds a separate Epoque Aeon Baforce Controller for the system, a fully analogue balanced crossover with two outputs for up to two subwoofers. It sets the lower cutoff between 15 and 35 Hz with adjustable Q, the upper cutoff between 50 and 100 Hz, phase at 0 or 180 degrees, and a linear, 50 Hz or 80 Hz high-pass for the main speakers.

Alternatives

The Epoque Aeon Baforce Petite (Active) uses eight of the same drivers with 2,000 W in a 119 cm tall cabinet weighing 200 kg.