Напольная акустика — Audes Llc. Excellence 3 AMT

Audes builds the Excellence 3 AMT as a three-way tower. The company is an Estonian loudspeaker manufacturer that designs and builds its own woofers. The model is the more compact of two in the Excellence AMT line, below the Excellence 5 AMT, and Audes intends it for smaller rooms. Its layout combines a side-firing woofer, a front midrange driver and an AMT tweeter.

Key specs that matter

The bass comes from an 8 inch paper-cone woofer, designed and made by Audes, firing to the side in a ported enclosure. The midrange is a 5 inch SEAS Excel paper-cone driver, and high frequencies are handled by an AMT tweeter. Crossover points are 150 Hz and 4,000 Hz. Nominal impedance is 4 ohm, sensitivity is 88 dB at 2.83 V and 1 m, and frequency response is 35 Hz to 30 kHz ±2 dB. Audes recommends amplifiers of 30 to 250 W. The speaker is 1,160 mm high, 209 mm wide and 433 mm deep, stands on a base of 291 x 460 mm and weighs 35 kg. The standard finish is black piano lacquer with Makassar ebony veneer side panels, and other finishes are available on request.

Engineering and use context

Placing the woofer on the side panel allows a large woofer in a narrow cabinet, keeping the front baffle narrow for the midrange and tweeter. Because the woofer works only below the lower crossover point, where sound spreads in all directions, its side-facing position does not change how the speaker radiates towards the listener. The SEAS Excel midrange handles everything from the woofer handover up to the tweeter, which contains most voices and instruments, without a crossover point in the middle of it. An AMT, or air motion transformer, has a pleated diaphragm whose folds press air outward, moving air faster than the diaphragm itself moves. The cabinet walls are 50 mm thick, with complex internal bracing and few parallel surfaces, which limits standing waves inside the enclosure and reduces wall vibration. A rear knob adjusts the level of the AMT tweeter, and Audes states that this adjustment does not affect phase. The wide base stabilises the tall, narrow and heavy cabinet.

Pairing

Given its average efficiency and 4-ohm-class load, the Excellence 3 AMT pairs with amplifiers in Audes' recommended power range that are stable into low-impedance loads. The slim cabinet fits rooms of about 20 m2, in line with Audes' intention for smaller spaces.

Alternatives

The Audes Excellence 5 AMT is the bigger of the two Excellence AMT floorstanders, intended for larger rooms.