Acoustic Energy AE105 + AESub 2.1 Speaker Pack Black

This Acoustic Energy 2.1 speaker pack brings together two AE105 on-wall loudspeakers in black and one AE Sub active subwoofer in matte black. It is intended as a compact, discreet system for improving the sound from your television and for listening to music, without floorstanding speakers taking up living space: the two AE105s fix flat to the wall either side of the screen and handle the stereo image, while the AE Sub sits out of the way on the floor and takes care of the low frequencies. Buying the three components together as a pack costs less than purchasing them individually.

AE105 On-Wall Loudspeakers

The AE105 is the on-wall model in Acoustic Energy's 100 Series. It is primarily designed for wall mounting but is equally suited to a bookcase or shelf position. A two-way design, it uses Acoustic Energy's 25mm soft dome tweeter with Wide Dispersion Technology (WDT) waveguide alongside two 130mm paper cone drivers, one of which acts as a passive radiator to improve bass performance. The manufacturer quotes a frequency range of 55Hz to 26kHz, 91dB sensitivity, a 6 ohm impedance and 120W power handling, with the crossover set at 3kHz. Each cabinet measures 450 x 200 x 120mm (H x W x D) and weighs 4.7kg. The black vinyl veneer finish is supplied with two slim magnetic cloth grilles per speaker, one black and one light grey, for easy integration with the room. The AE105 is optimised for vertical mounting with the listening position at or below the tweeter axis, and because it is designed to serve as a front, centre or surround speaker, the pack can later be expanded into a multichannel home cinema system.

AE Sub Active Subwoofer

The AE Sub is Acoustic Energy's subwoofer for the 100 and 300 Series and is designed for both hi-fi and home cinema installations. It uses a sealed cabinet with a downward-firing 12 inch high-excursion driver, whose doped and stiffened paper cone is powered by a 250W RMS Class D amplifier. Acoustic Energy specifies a frequency response of 26Hz to 120Hz (+/-6dB), so the AE Sub extends the low frequencies well below what a compact on-wall speaker can reach on its own. The cabinet is a 360mm cube weighing 16.5kg, finished in matte black to sit alongside the black AE105s, and it is supplied with carpet-piercing spikes and fitted with rubber caps for use on hard floors.

Setup and Integration

Each AE105 is supplied with a rear mounting plate, a mounting template and wall spacers, so fixing the speakers to the wall is straightforward and the template takes the guesswork out of marking the fixing points. The AE Sub offers low-level stereo RCA inputs, a dedicated LFE RCA input and high-level stereo binding posts, which means it can be fed from an AV receiver's LFE output, from a stereo amplifier's pre-out, or from the amplifier's speaker terminals where no subwoofer output exists. A rotary crossover control adjustable between 40Hz and 180Hz and a 0/180 degree phase switch allow the sub to be blended with the AE105s, and an auto power function holds the AE Sub in standby until a signal is detected. The mains input is switchable between 115V and 240V.