REPRODUCED FROM HIFICRITIC
Anotheracoustic guitaristand singer losttoo young wasJohn M artyn,who pas ed away back in 2009.Again a rip ofa3CD retrospective ofhiswork drew m e into the heartofhism usic, highlighting his dazling fretboard skilsaswelasextraordinary song-writing.Through the AE320s I had a personal recital from this ec entricgenius. Let’srock – Texas-style Switching to the rockier end ofthe m usicalspectrum ,ZZ Top’severgreen La Grange,from theirTres Hom bres album ,had arealbite to it.From Bily F Gibbon’s growling vocals through Frank Beard’s thunderous drum break,the AE320sencouraged m e to crank up the volum e to levels which would have broughta rapid rebuke had I not been hom e alone. If anybody asks you why we listen to “old” m usic,play them this track on your system – no words should be needed. M oving to vinyl replay, the Linn Ekstatik cartridge fited to the Ekos SE arm on the Klim axLP12 hasbeen a revelation,digging outdetailsfrom m y colection which had previously pas ed m eby,and withalevelofbas quality which Ihave neverpreviously enjoyed from vinyl replay in m y system . Through the AE320s this signal was presented beautifuly, leading to m any extended listening periods. I played rock, blues, jaz , pop,clas icaland choralm usic,and the AE320s never failed to engage and delight. We listen to television through our twochannelsystem ,and here too he AE320sdid an adm irable job with a wide range of content. The three dim ensionalsoundstage worked very wel with film soundtracks as wel as with m ore sober news and curent afairs content. Similarly, when I oc asionaly stream ed BBC Radio 4, spoken-word program m es cam e to life through thissystem . Afterseveralweeksofhappylistening to the AE320s with the Lyngdorf amplifier in its Bypas mode, I decided to run the Lyngdorf
chance to ‘run in’which boded wel for the com ing weeks. In the initialphase howeverthetightnes ofthecom ponents was apparent and I resisted the tem ptation to turn up the volum e untilI feltthatthe sound had opened enough forthatto bedonewithoutover-stres ing the com ponents. Audible im provem ent O nce the firstweek had gone by there was an audible im provem ent,and Ifelt that it was now tim e to learn the real capabilties these loudspeakers.Ibegan bylistening to ripped FLAC filesfrom the Leem a Sirius. It was Decem ber so I thought I would start with Handel’s M es iah, perform ed by The Sixteen under Hary Christophers, ripped from the Coro CD. Christophers takes this work at a brisk pace and the m usic poured forth from the AE320 with a terificsense ofa veryclearand detailed soundstage, within which every instrum entalsection and everyvoice had itsownspace,yetarived atm yearsasan enveloping musical experience. An im pres ive start. From there Iplayed m usic from a large num ber ofalbum s stored on the Sirius hard drive,and al exhibited the sam e m usicality, the sam e evenhandednes , acros the frequencyspectrum ,with bas digging deep. The speakers claim extension down to 35Hz,butsom e organ pieceswhich Iplayed feltasiftheywent even deeper than that. The m id and upper registers sounded very natural, with justthe rightam ountof‘air’around thetop end notes,and no edgines inthe higher frequencies: as a result the AE320s are a very relaxing listen even over extended periods. This has not always been my experience with metal-domed tweeters, but the designersatAcoustic Energy have done a fine job in blending the whole frequencyspectrum seam les ly. The intim ate em otionalwork ofthe late Nick Drake was covered extrem ely wel, drawing me into the singer’s world com pletely.Ihave his three album s in a Japanese SHM -CD boxset,and the FLAC files on the Sirius cam e through with greatrealism ,rem inding m eagainwhata tragic los we sufered when he losthis life in Novem ber1974.
Room Perfect software. This is a very straightforward procedure, with a m easurem ent taken at the listening position using the supplied high sensitivity microphone, folowed by several m ore with the m icrophone stationed at random positions and heights.W ith that done,Iswitched to listening with Room Perfect engaged. The diference was m inim al, which indicated to m e thatthe AE320sare very wel deigned and had very few audible vices.For the rest of the review Ileft Room Perfect switched on but it realy wasn’tdoing anything Icould hear. Iratherwish Ihad a m ore m ainstream amplifier on hand as wel as the Lyngdorf:Ithinkthe AE320swould realy shine through som ething like the Naim Supernait3,whichIreviewed acoupleof years ago, delivering the legendary Naim atributes of pace, rhythm and tim ing with the appropriate verve. It transpires thatAcoustic Energy is m ore than justa brand nam e – itisa m is ion statem ent.
40 MUSICATHOME+
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