Сабвуферы — Göbel High End Epoque Aeon Baforce Petite (Passive)

The Epoque Aeon Baforce Petite (Passive) is the compact member of the Baforce subwoofer pair from Göbel High End, a German firm that makes loudspeakers and cables. It takes the column format of the full-height Baforce and cuts it roughly in half, keeping the same footprint and driver type. Göbel builds the Petite in two forms, one with onboard amplifiers and this passive one, which relies on an outboard power amplifier chosen by the owner.

Key specs that matter

Eight Göbel Aeon long-throw bass units of 9 inch size, each with an aluminium diaphragm, form the driver complement. Göbel gives the usable range as 15 Hz to 80 Hz. As a passive design, the Petite has a nominal impedance of 4 ohm. Its base occupies 52.5 cm in width and 65.5 cm in depth, and the overall height is 119 cm. Weight is 190 kg for the bare cabinet and 230 kg once packed in its flight case. For comparison, the powered Petite uses eight 250 W amplifier channels, one per driver, for 2,000 W in total and is correspondingly heavier.

Engineering and use context

Göbel mounts the drivers symmetrically, four facing out from each side panel, and gives every unit a closed chamber of its own. The mirrored placement makes the array impulse compensated, which Göbel credits with cutting harmonic distortion to around a tenth. For the drivers, Göbel uses what it calls lossless designs with glass-fibre voice coils, rigid aluminium cones and an optimised motor giving a more linear magnetic field. The enclosure walls are a proprietary layered composite combined with a special aluminium alloy, chosen to stop resonances from building up in the panels. Shielded internal chambers are meant to keep EMI out of the signal path. Standard finishes are gloss lacquer in white or black with anodised aluminium trim in natural silver or space grey, and other finishes can be ordered at extra cost.

Pairing

There is no internal crossover, so the Petite is used together with the Epoque Aeon Baforce Controller from Göbel, whose analogue crossover lives in a separate housing and splits the low bass from the signal feeding the main speakers. After the controller, a power amplifier happy with a low-impedance cabinet and able to deliver current down to the lowest frequencies drives the passive cabinet. Given so much mass on a small base, floor loading should be checked before installation.

Alternatives

Göbel also makes the Epoque Aeon Baforce (Passive), a taller subwoofer with 16 drivers in a 216 cm column weighing 335 kg.