Сабвуферы — Acoustic Energy AE SUB

The AE SUB is a compact powered subwoofer that Acoustic Energy designed as a partner for its 100 Series and 300 Series loudspeakers, although it also connects to speaker systems from other makers. It was introduced at GBP 699 in the United Kingdom and EUR 699 in Europe, with a US price of USD 799, which is below the GBP 899 launch price of the earlier AE308 from this British company. Two matte finishes are offered - black and white.

Key specs that matter

A single 12 inch (305 mm) long-excursion driver does all the work, its pulp-fibre cone doped and stiffened, with 250 W RMS supplied by a Class D module. Acoustic Energy states that the combination reaches 26 Hz at minus 6 dB, with an operating band of 26 Hz to 120 Hz at plus or minus 6 dB. The cabinet is a cube of 360 mm on each side, and the unit weighs 16.5 kg.

Engineering and use context

No port is cut into the sealed enclosure, and the maker says its internal volume was chosen specifically to suit this driver. The driver fires downward toward the floor, so the visible faces of the box carry no cone, which keeps the cube tidy when placed beside a rack or sofa. On the rear panel a rotary low-pass filter covers 40 Hz to 120 Hz, a switch inverts phase between 0 and 180 degrees, and a volume knob matches the subwoofer to the level of the satellites. An auto on/off circuit senses an incoming signal and wakes the amplifier, then returns it to standby when the signal stops, which removes any need for a manual power switch in daily use. Carpet-piercing spikes come in the box, together with fitted rubber caps that protect wooden or tiled floors, which lets the same subwoofer sit on either surface without extra feet.

Pairing

Three kinds of input make the AE SUB usable in both music and film systems. A stereo line-level RCA pair takes the preamp output of an integrated amplifier or a separate preamplifier, an LFE RCA socket takes the LFE channel from a surround receiver or processor, and two sets of high-level binding posts allow a connection to the loudspeaker outputs of amplifiers built without a pre-out, feeding the subwoofer at speaker level alongside the main pair. The adjustable filter lets the upper limit be set just where the bass output of the partnering speakers starts to fall away, whether that is a compact AE100 standmount or a larger floorstander from the 300 Series.

Alternatives

The Acoustic Energy AE308 uses a 500 W amplifier with Music, Movie and Impact DSP modes in a gloss or walnut cabinet of the same cube size.