High Efficiency Speaker Asylum

Need speakers that can rock with just one watt? You found da place.

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Posted by RGA on June 21, 2011 at 17:03:07:
I am a bit surprised - usually it takes a few listens and they kind of grow on people. I remember way back when I first had a short audition the AN E did absolutely nothing for me whatsoever. Just ho-hum.

It was actually the K/spe small standmount in a shootout I was doing that really got me remembering the brand. A follow-up session with the AN-E and a Meishu integrated where I just sat down and listened - basically changed my entire view of audio reproduction. It was a kind of BLIND listening session since this was my first real listen to a SET amplifier (but I didn't know it was a tube amp since the Meishu looks like a giant Krell. I sat in amazement at the bass and piano reproduction that I never got from any speaker the 20 years prior.

Then after several albums I asked about the power - assuming it had to be a kilowatt beast of an amp. The dealer smiled and said "8 watts" and that it was a SET. But wait - SETs are that old out of date rubbish technology with lots of second order distortion and it should sound fuzzy and rolled off. Guess reading forums was a big waste of time since most on forums regurgitate false information with no actual experience.

Since then I have heard a lot of good systems but the AN E/SPE HE IMO is the best speaker that I have heard for this money. Some speakers do certain things very well but as all-rounders they it's a tough speaker to beat.

Why? The AN E (and J to a lesser extent) are sensitive enough to play very loud with low watt amps. So they're not super sensitive but in most rooms they can pound on 5-10 watts. They're efficient in that they present an easy load to amps - though not to the degree of big horns.

But that trade-off is met since I have yet to hear any horn speaker match the E(J) on the timbre tone front. Many horns sound shouty and uneven and when they get it right it usually costs many times the price. For instance I prefer the E to any of the Klipsch, Altec, Avantguarde speakers I have heard. What these speakers do though is utilize the very low powered SETs and they do have a "live scale" thwack that the E doesn't quite get. The AN's sound a little more diplomatic. Still most music isn't "big" music and the AN's still do a terrific job but just don't get the "massive" scale thing down like a Khorn. That tradeoff is met with the subtle tones and overtones and goosebump factor of smaller scale music - singer with a piano kind of music where the basic E and J are as good as any speakers I have heard from anyone. They're as close to a single driver speaker as a two way can get while beating the single drivers in the frequency envelope (read - better treble and much better bass). The Teresonic Ingenium is pretty good here too but the E and J does have a fuller landscape and more dynamic headroom at considerably less dollars.

But one factor not often mentioned is size. I really don't want a speaker to take up the whole damn room - especially if it really isn't offering an advantage doing it. I auditioned a Wilson Sophia and it's a physically big speaker compared to the AN J or E. Yet both AN speakers have deeper and IMO better bass response. Plus it sounds cohesive while the Wilson did not. The Sophia sounded good but not as good and it costs 3 times the retail price of the AN J. It makes no sense. I assume people buy with their eyes and assume because the driver is bigger or the box is gigantic that it must be better. But stick a speaker in the corners and it frees up huge amounts of your living space. The walls act as an extension of the speaker cabinet.

But housing designers for some dumb reason waste a lot of living space by creating oddly shaped rooms. Argh!