I just attended an open house at my local high end dealer last Thursday. Whereas last year I described my experience with an incredible $198,000 pair of speakers, this year the speakers that really got my attention were some modest stand-mounted speakers presenting an unintrusive 9"x14" front baffle, and priced at $1000/pair. They impressed me as much as a $2800 pair of mini monitors plus $1800 matching subwoofer from last year while playing louder on less power. I'm talking about the GoldenEar http://www.goldenear.com/products/aon-series'>Aon 3 standmount speakers.
That's the Aon3 on the left. The smaller one on the right is the Aon2 at $800/pair, and pretty much provides the same thing for slightly smaller rooms.
Eschewing conventional dome-tweeter designs, GoldenEar uses a Heil-type folded ribbon tweeter to extreme advantage. Upon hearing it I immediately realized that its treble is devoid of tweeter ringing and overshoot that we have become so accustomed to in reproduced sound. In fact this folded ribbon tweeter made me realize how much inertia-based edginess and ringing over the years has defined the sound of reproduced music, thanks to the limitations of conventional pistonic tweeters. This ribbon tweeter has a response out to 35Khz, meaning that it has a very fast rise time, which in turn means that its detail retrieval is superb. But unlike so many speakers that have hopped up treble to create the perception of detail. the Aon conveys the natural detail of a live performance without the hot treble of a aluminum or titanium resonance nor the edginess of overshoot and ringing. That's where the tweeter keeps vibrating after the input signal has stopped and is something we don't want. Fortunately the GoldenEar folded ribbon tweeter has no ringing or overshoot that I could detect.
Second, this speaker doesn't require many watts to get going, especially for a standmount. Standmounts are typically 84-87dB efficient (at 1w input at 1M away), but this one is rated at 90dB output at 1w input. Having heard it live I'm inclined to believe the mfr's spec. The demo speakers were driven by a 60wpc Peachtree integrated amp; yet it never wanted for power, dynamics, bass definition, or slam. These should be a good match for anything north of 40 watts, or even less in a smaller room. Yet it can handle up to 250 watts. With a 150 wpc amp it should KILL!
Third, assuming you take some care in placement (i.e., about 2' from the wall behind them), these speakers have excellent bass. They sound like mid-sized floor standers and are pretty much flat to 38 Hz, which is lower than the bottom string of a 4-string bass and almost down to the bottom of a 5-string. The bass was clean, extended, fast, and well-defined. Not just for a mini-monitor, but for any floorstander up to $2000. If I were in the market for a $1K speaker, the Aon3 would be at the top of my list whether I was looking for a monitor or a floorstander. It's that good and the bass is that good. Not just low, but articulate and clean while its midrange and treble are particularly fast and transparent. Usually a small standmount can't be efficient and have extended bass, but the Aon has an exceptional 7" mid/woofer and is augmented by two side-firing 8" passive radiators in a sealed cabinet with no parallel surfaces. The passive radiators make the bass act like it's coming from a larger cabinet and the non-parallel surfaces kill standing waves (resonances).
I know I take a lot of ribbing for adjusting things for inflation, but it helps emphasize current values in the context of when we were willing to pay something for our music. Many of you may be thinking "A thousand bucks for a pair of little speakers? You must be out of your mind." Well, yeah, maybe I'm out of my mind, but I'm having a lot of fun. As to the money, consider that in 1972-1975, the vinyl-finish Advent Loudspeaker was considered THE BARGAIN of the decade at $198 a pair. Adjusted for inflation, these Aon3s cost $8 less than the vinyl-wrapped Advents did in 1973. Compared to the vinyl-clad Advents, the Aons are nicer looking, take up less space, require one-fourth the power to play as loud, have a wider bass and treble extension, greater dynamic range, more linearity, and far greater detail and transparency than did the legendary Advents. With butyl surrounds, their drivers will last much longer as well.
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JohnnyB
I just attended an open house at my local high end dealer last Thursday. Whereas last year I described my experience with an incredible $198,000 pair of speakers, this year the speakers that really got my attention were some modest stand-mounted speakers presenting an unintrusive 9"x14" front baffle, and priced at $1000/pair. They impressed me as much as a $2800 pair of mini monitors plus $1800 matching subwoofer from last year while playing louder on less power. I'm talking about the GoldenEar http://www.goldenear.com/products/aon-series'>Aon 3 standmount speakers.
That's the Aon3 on the left. The smaller one on the right is the Aon2 at $800/pair, and pretty much provides the same thing for slightly smaller rooms.
Eschewing conventional dome-tweeter designs, GoldenEar uses a Heil-type folded ribbon tweeter to extreme advantage. Upon hearing it I immediately realized that its treble is devoid of tweeter ringing and overshoot that we have become so accustomed to in reproduced sound. In fact this folded ribbon tweeter made me realize how much inertia-based edginess and ringing over the years has defined the sound of reproduced music, thanks to the limitations of conventional pistonic tweeters. This ribbon tweeter has a response out to 35Khz, meaning that it has a very fast rise time, which in turn means that its detail retrieval is superb. But unlike so many speakers that have hopped up treble to create the perception of detail. the Aon conveys the natural detail of a live performance without the hot treble of a aluminum or titanium resonance nor the edginess of overshoot and ringing. That's where the tweeter keeps vibrating after the input signal has stopped and is something we don't want. Fortunately the GoldenEar folded ribbon tweeter has no ringing or overshoot that I could detect.
Second, this speaker doesn't require many watts to get going, especially for a standmount. Standmounts are typically 84-87dB efficient (at 1w input at 1M away), but this one is rated at 90dB output at 1w input. Having heard it live I'm inclined to believe the mfr's spec. The demo speakers were driven by a 60wpc Peachtree integrated amp; yet it never wanted for power, dynamics, bass definition, or slam. These should be a good match for anything north of 40 watts, or even less in a smaller room. Yet it can handle up to 250 watts. With a 150 wpc amp it should KILL!
Third, assuming you take some care in placement (i.e., about 2' from the wall behind them), these speakers have excellent bass. They sound like mid-sized floor standers and are pretty much flat to 38 Hz, which is lower than the bottom string of a 4-string bass and almost down to the bottom of a 5-string. The bass was clean, extended, fast, and well-defined. Not just for a mini-monitor, but for any floorstander up to $2000. If I were in the market for a $1K speaker, the Aon3 would be at the top of my list whether I was looking for a monitor or a floorstander. It's that good and the bass is that good. Not just low, but articulate and clean while its midrange and treble are particularly fast and transparent. Usually a small standmount can't be efficient and have extended bass, but the Aon has an exceptional 7" mid/woofer and is augmented by two side-firing 8" passive radiators in a sealed cabinet with no parallel surfaces. The passive radiators make the bass act like it's coming from a larger cabinet and the non-parallel surfaces kill standing waves (resonances).
But don't take my word for it; check out this http://www.goldenear.com/images/reviews/aon3_tone_2012.pdf'>professional review and http://www.avguide.com/review/goldenear-technology-aon-3-bookshelf-monitor-playback-59'>this one, both of which seem to be impressed in many of the same ways that I was.
I know I take a lot of ribbing for adjusting things for inflation, but it helps emphasize current values in the context of when we were willing to pay something for our music. Many of you may be thinking "A thousand bucks for a pair of little speakers? You must be out of your mind." Well, yeah, maybe I'm out of my mind, but I'm having a lot of fun. As to the money, consider that in 1972-1975, the vinyl-finish Advent Loudspeaker was considered THE BARGAIN of the decade at $198 a pair. Adjusted for inflation, these Aon3s cost $8 less than the vinyl-wrapped Advents did in 1973. Compared to the vinyl-clad Advents, the Aons are nicer looking, take up less space, require one-fourth the power to play as loud, have a wider bass and treble extension, greater dynamic range, more linearity, and far greater detail and transparency than did the legendary Advents. With butyl surrounds, their drivers will last much longer as well.
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