Description
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
TWEETER
Our 500 Series tweeter features a brand new 1″ carbon fiber dome. Carbon fiber is much lighter and better damped than other typical hard dome materials and provides a lightning fast, natural sound which will surprise the listener with its neutrality. The new cast aluminum WDT waveguide on the high frequency driver is positioned close to the mid/bass driver for optimum dispersion and is extremely stiff to reduce vibration being passed to the tweeter, ensuring sweet, clear and natural highs.
DRIVERS
The 125mm mid/bass driver includes a new oversized 1.4″ voice coils for low thermal compression and very high motor force factor, to provide a highly dynamic yet controlled bass response. The woofer has an optimized motor and suspension system for maximum linearity and lowest distortion ensuring mid-range definition, whilst the lightweight nature of the carbon fiber cone material increases transient speed and clarity.
CROSSOVER
The crossovers use high voltage polypropylene film wound capacitors and air core inductors at critical locations for optimum dispersion through a smaller acoustic source size within the crossover region.
The AE509 is a Mid Tweeter Mid/Bass (MTM) driver layout and both models use a 2 way crossover, while the AE520 utilizes a 3 way design.
CABINET
These unique drivers are housed in the nearly 3/4″ thick Resonance Suppression Composite (RSC) cabinets, evolved from the prestigious Reference Series and featuring the same constrained layer composite to greatly reduce cabinet acoustic radiation, which would otherwise color the sound. The gap is filled with bitumen for superior damping of cabinet resonance and vibration, revealing an cabinet with no coloration.
StereoNet Magazine, Dec 2020 –
“Selling for $4990 a pair, the Acoustic Energy AE520 is a large floor stander that sits in no man’s land between budget and mid-price – and gives the best of both worlds. It sports the company’s beloved carbon fiber drivers – including the dome tweeter – and these give a smooth, tidy but wonderfully insightful sound. The AE520 brings a big cabinet to the party, allowing it to deliver thunderous, subterranean bass. We declare it the Best Floor Standing Speaker in 2020”. StereoNet Magazine, Dec 2020
Noel Keywood, Hi Fi World, Dec 2020 –
“…I stumbled away from them a bit shaken… I was quite literally shaken by tracks like Safri Duo’s Samb Alegro where the pounding synth ‘kick drum’ was moving my body and the setee upon which I sat. But they sounded supremely relaxed, totally unfazed. The Acoustic Energy AE520 has peculiarly wide bandwidth, one of the widest and flattest of ANY loudspeaker.
Verdict? A coolly accurate sound with very deep bass and great sound staging. Impressive.” Noel Keywood, Hi Fi World, Dec 2020
Simon Lucas, Hi Fi + Magazine, March 2021 –
“With a 180g reissue of Four Tet’s There is Love In You [Domino] spinning, what’s initially most impressive about the AE520 is not their out-and-out low-frequency presence (although that’s undoubtedly one of their stronger suits). It’s how deft and light on their feet they are. There’s a tremendous sense of purpose to the way the AE520 go about creating music. If you want information about the variation in a drummer’s strike of a snare, or the variation in a pianist’s key releases, these speakers are unambiguous. When a pair of loudspeakers has a comfort zone as expansive as the AE520s do, it proves extremely tricky to goad them out of it.
They don’t get shouty or coarse when you turn the wick up – they simply get louder.” Simon Lucas, Hi Fi + Magazine, March 2021
David Price, Hi Fi Choice, Oct 2020 –
“Overall this is the most impressive new flagship floorstander. It’s an excellent all-rounder with no obvious vices and a lot to be proud of. Tonally it’s lovely; it has richness that you don’t often hear from modern speakers. The AE520 is not one of those weedy, anemic-sounding floor standers that have you wondering why you didn’t buy the stand mount version at half the price. Instead, you get a large, muscular and full-range sound that has weight, grunt and go.” David Price, Hi Fi Choice, Oct 2020