Напольная акустика — AER Pnoe

The Pnoe is a floorstanding horn loudspeaker in the AER Loudspeakers range, built around one full-range driver with no crossover network in the signal path. It combines a back-loaded horn for the low frequencies with a front-loaded AER Excenter horn for the rest of the band. The body is made of fiberglass and is offered in white (ivory) or black (charcoal) with a high-gloss surface, while the Excenter horn itself is made of clear material.

Key specs that matter

All output comes from the AER BD4, a full-range high-performance unit. AER quotes a sound pressure level of 116 dB for 1 W at 1 m and a nominal impedance of 6 ohm. The published frequency range runs from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Power handling is listed as 100 W nominal and 300 W peak. The cabinet stands 220 cm tall, 100 cm wide and 90 cm deep, and each speaker weighs 52 kg, a moderate mass for such a large form thanks to the fiberglass shell.

Engineering and use context

A single-driver horn avoids the phase shifts and component losses that a passive crossover adds between amplifier and drivers, because the one BD4 unit covers the whole band on its own. The front Excenter horn is extremely flat and expands continuously, and its throat is placed off centre on the driver, an arrangement AER uses to reduce harmonic distortion. The rear horn collects energy radiated rearward by the cone and guides the low frequencies through a long expanding path, which lets the driver reach far lower than it could in a closed or ported box of normal size. AER builds its range from spherical horns, open baffles and point-source drivers, and the Pnoe applies those principles in a very large cabinet. Anyone placing the pair should plan for a footprint of about one metre by almost one metre per side and for generous ceiling clearance.

Pairing

High efficiency means the Pnoe needs only a few watts to reach normal listening levels, so an amplifier of modest output, including a single-ended triode, is a natural match. The amplifier should be stable into the nominal load, and output transformers with a matching tap are the better choice for valve amplifiers. Very quiet electronics are useful, since any hiss from the amplifier is also reproduced with the same efficiency.

Alternatives

The AER The Jazz is a far smaller floorstanding horn at 106 cm tall and 11 kg, using the BD2B full-range driver with a 16 ohm load.