Acoustic Energy AE1

[AndrewT]

Hi,
one of my AE1s has gone kaput.
The mid/bass voice coil is rubbing, well more accurate to say, almost locked solid.
It must have overheated and on cooling became distorted.

Does anyone know of a replacement driver that fits the cornered rebate and is a good substitute for the T/S parameters of the original?

The last time I replaced a driver, Acoustic Energy took £75 off me for an exchange unit and that was about 12years ago. I don't even want to ask their price for one now.

[pinkmouse]

Are they the little plastic ones? I have a pair that have been sitting around in the loft for ages, redundant to needs, and I'll sell you the pair for £75 + postage

[AndrewT]

Hi,
the AE1s are fitted with a 130mm pressed steel basket, aluminium cone and centre cap, rubber half roll surround, 134mm PCD mountings.
They have an aluminium voice coil former (it may be in one piece with the centre cap) about 30mm diam and supposedly 150W power handling through the passive crossover.

[kvholio]

awww i feel your pain Andrew.
Are they these ?
http://www.stereophile.com/standloud...526/index.html

From what i know these have a cast metal chassis, foam surround .
edit: i see there were several versions, yours might be different.

Using something else will essentially mean you're ditching the original designs , these are true little marvels.
Auditioned them against my ae-509's , except for the low-end extension they were better in all other areas.

With kind regards,

Klaas

[AndrewT]

Hi Kv,
not the rosewood, just the cheaper black ones , Mk1 from 1990.
I do keep things a while.
The Tannoys they replaced have just had new surrounds and will soon be back performing in stereo.

The AE1s are for surround sound and a missing corner speaker will kind of unbalance the effect!

[kvholio]

I do keep things a while.

Yeah me too, have the ae-509's for about ten years now, still happy with them.

If the ones Pinkmouse is referring to aren't what you are looking for, you could have a look at Monacor. They might have something that fits and provide good build-quality for the money.
=> http://www.monacor.de

With kind regards,

Klaas

[sreten]

Originally posted by AndrewT

The AE1s are for surround sound and a missing corner speaker will kind of unbalance the effect!

Hmmm...... extremely inaccurate comment.

The original AE1s are full range standmounters, and use a complex
crossover (5th ? order acoustic) at a relatively low crossover point.



Substituting an alternative bass driver is a non-starter.

Redesigning completely with the original cabinets and
tweeters is a possibility, i.e. new bass drivers and crossover.

/sreten.

[AndrewT]

Hi Sreten,
yes, I realise that a poor match will ruin the speaker.
That's why I am looking for a good match of T/S parameters.
It's just possible someone has done this before.

What was inaccurate about the comment? Four speakers spread around the four quadrants and then removing one! Agh, don't bother with an answer.

[kvholio]

Getting 2 decent-quality woofers and new cross-overs will easily cost you more than 75 pounds.

If they're built like my 509's the entire crossover is in epoxy-resin, so you won't be able to use a single existing part of the lf cross-overs.

With kind regards,

Klaas

[sreten]

Originally posted by AndrewT

What was inaccurate about the comment? Four speakers spread around the four quadrants and then removing one! Agh, don't bother with an answer.

Hi,

Sorry I misunderstood the comment, its about your use, not the
intended use of the louspeaker. Well the original AE1 has now
been reintroduced as the AE1 "classic" with allegedly indentical
drivers - so a replacement might not be too bad.

FWIW fitting another unit to a pair - giving you a spare AE driver
for one pair is the other option I'd consider, but the driver needs
to be relatively inefficient. Frame size is 135mm ?

/sreten.