Active speaker test in latest issue

[Anonymous]

I was suprised that the Ae's were not in aswell! I would love to read about a 5.1 active system, I would buy the other speakers to make mine 5.1 in a flash(wife permiting).

 

[AEJim]

Nick21:I was suprised that the Ae's were not in aswell! I would love to read about a 5.1 active system, I would buy the other speakers to make mine 5.1 in a flash(wife permiting).

Well I'll find out from Simon tomorrow if they're intending to review the 5.1 or not, it's an interesting system with the usual mix of positives and negatives.

Technically it's our 5.1 "Pro" system for small studio surround mixing (and has been used on a couple of big films already!) - the "active sound" definitely has plenty going for it, but (and it's a big BUT) for home use it does have limitations. That's 6 mains leads and sockets required plus a load of long interconnects - also it's not the prettiest set up being based on the AE22 style, hardly "wife friendly". I'd say it's not for everyone but for an enthusiast with dedicated cinema room, especially with a projector, this kind of system can be stunning. Now it'll just need us manufacturers to package it all a bit more neatly and come up with some cabling/processing solutions before it can really even approach becoming mainstream.

Stereo active systems are only really now starting to get on the radar after all, and that's probably largely due to the iPod & co changing the way many listen to their music. Active speakers are a better solution than passive without doubt, from a design point of view they just work better. They've been overlooked for too long really (by us manufacturers as well as the end-user).

 

[the record spot]

James, I was really impressed with the design of the AE22 - bold and imaginative I thought; from a design perspective, I thought it would work well in many a contemporary home design. Sound-wise they got some good reviews from memory and I was well into hearing them, but no dealers locally alas. Unlikely I could justify to Mrs. R_S the spend and with two two year olds running around, this would be £1000 (if you budget in stands) down the drain in no time!

But, wow, nice boxes! The only speaker beyond the Q Acoustics marque (for different reasons) I've sat up and noticed from the word go in the last ten to fifteen years.

 

[AEJim]

the record spot:James, I was really impressed with the design of the AE22 - bold and imaginative I thought; from a design perspective, I thought it would work well in many a contemporary home design. Sound-wise they got some good reviews from memory and I was well into hearing them, but no dealers locally alas. Unlikely I could justify to Mrs. R_S the spend and with two two year olds running around, this would be £1000 (if you budget in stands) down the drain in no time!But, wow, nice boxes! The only speaker beyond the Q Acoustics marque (for different reasons) I've sat up and noticed from the word go in the last ten to fifteen years.

Thanks R_S!

Visual design is such a subjective matter it's very hard to get "right", we're working harder on it now than ever but you never please everyone. On our new Reference speakers we've had a running internal argument about the grille cloth! We've ended up going with the standard matt charcoal but personally I wanted a much blacker, but higher gloss cloth we'd come across - the negative being that it did shine in certain lights with a stocking-esque quality (my point was that this was very hard to reproduce under normal speaker positioning). Then we get on to number of screws, if it's worth making a trim ring to cover said screws, then the colour of screws, logo treatment... Sometimes performance is a factor, then there's cost, then personal taste - I wish we had Apple's design team to deal with that side of things if I'm honest!

Hopefully if you like the styling of the AE22's you'll like the 5.1, it's a much smaller sub/sat system using 5" drivers rather than the 8" because the sub is integral to the balance - with that said I've had two of the sats playing Pink Floyd from my iPhone via dock behind my desk and the results are pretty darn impressive given the size... We'll hopefully work out better distribution for the Pro products to get into the retail market as currently we use a specialist Pro distributor, much like the original AE1, if there's a demand we'll supply!

 

[the record spot]

Sounds like another winner methinks...!

By the bye, if you ever need to send out another review set of AE22 Actives....er, you know the rest!

Were you, while you're here, thinking of going down the AVI route and throwing in a DAC with a later version of the AE22s? I'm not a big 5.1 user (family reasons, space, wires everywhere, etc) but my "other" hifi is the HP laptop, Apple Airport Express setup and the space saving and added functionality makes this an appealing alternative to more boxes. Actives appeal, but cost-wise is off the radar for now.

 

[Anonymous]

James I would like an Avi 5.1 system(sorry) as I have a pair allready! looks wise I also prefer the traditional style of the 9.1's. We live in a cottage so could well hide the extra wires along some of the beams and chase out the walls to hide the downward runs!As R-S says any thoughts on adding a Dac it could open the market even more for you.

 

[AEJim]

Nick21:James I would like an Avi 5.1 system(sorry) as I have a pair allready! looks wise I also prefer the traditional style of the 9.1's. We live in a cottage so could well hide the extra wires along some of the beams and chase out the walls to hide the downward runs!As R-S says any thoughts on adding a Dac it could open the market even more for you.

Hey, I've got no problems with the AVI's, they make some great gear! I use the Lab Series CD (slightly modded by Ashley ) and Amp at home. People always presume us manufacturers have an innate dislike for any of the competition when most of us are Hi-Fi enthusiasts at the end of the day and appreciate ANY good kit. I happily recommend other manufacturers speakers when I think they're good, but at the same time there are plenty of very popular ones where I just don't get what the hype is about (we do try the competition out in development) but political correctness would stop me saying which ones)

With regard to DAC's and docks, it's a problem area for us as we don't employ anyone specialising in electronics - while we would love to be able to supply our own we inevitably end up having to buy such items in, or arrange partnership deals with other companies. We have been discussing doing just this recently with regard to a future small speaker and a possible active variant. For the active to be saleable we'd like to market it with a DAC/dock and leads in one package so there may be something a way down the line... If we made our own DAC's they would not likely be taken seriously coming from a speaker manufacturer (I think I remember a Wharfedale TV some time back!).

 

[Anonymous]

James I lookforward to your new products being developed and brought to the market.I have read other posts by you and think you are very honest with your opinions I had noticed you do recommend different speakers to your own. Well done!

 

[stevenjonas]

Unfortunately, I did not become a subscriber until after there was an issue about them. Is there a hyperlink that would take me there?. I have passive ATC SCM20s coupled with AVI power amps. AVI pre-amp, AVI tuner & AVI CD player. I like my system enormously. We also have an old CRT TV, which we have decided to replace (probably with a Panasonic TX-P42GT30 which will be connected to the internet & my workstation). It occured to me that if I had some active speakers (like the active ATC SCM20s) connected to my TV & my workstation, I wouldn't need any of my power amps. pre-amp, tuner or CD player? I could listed to various sources of radio from the TV, the internet or my workstation & I could listen to my CDs from my workstation. At worst, I could connect my laptop to the speakers & play my CDs directly from that? I wouldn't then need a pre-amp, nor DAC. Or is all that just too simplistic?

:help:

 

[The_Lhc]

Unfortunately, I did not become a subscriber until after there was an issue about them. Is there a hyperlink that would take me there?. I have passive ATC SCM20s coupled with AVI power amps. AVI pre-amp, AVI tuner & AVI CD player. I like my system enormously. We also have an old CRT TV, which we have decided to replace (probably with a Panasonic TX-P42GT30 which will be connected to the internet & my workstation). It occured to me that if I had some active speakers (like the active ATC SCM20s) connected to my TV & my workstation, I wouldn't need any of my power amps. pre-amp, tuner or CD player? I could listed to various sources of radio from the TV, the internet or my workstation & I could listen to my CDs from my workstation. At worst, I could connect my laptop to the speakers & play my CDs directly from that? I wouldn't then need a pre-amp, nor DAC. Or is all that just too simplistic?

I don't see why that wouldn't work, but you'd do better to rip your CDs to the workstation or laptop and play the rips, PC CD drives don't generally perform that well when used as audio CD players and it's much more flexible to have your whole music collection available at the touch of a button.

 

[stevenjonas]

Many thanks.

For many months now, it may even be years, I've intended to start transferring all my CDs on to a hard drive. I just haven't got around to it yet!

I'm sure you are right though & that's the future.