Associated Gear: 55W Rotel Receiver Rega Planet Target Speaker Stands Radio Shack "Megawire" Cables NHT Subwoofer and separate 100W NHT Amp I bought these speakers after moving my NHT SuperOnes into my home theatre. After living with them for a couple of years, I have these thoughts: 1) Difficult to drive: Make sure your amp. is up to the task. 2) Good imaging: Requires careful setup but I've found that a bit of toe-in, but still slightly off-axis, with speakers 6 feet apart, listener 8-9 feet away from speaker, works best. Must be on stands, with tweeters at ear level. 3) For the price, musical, but not don't kid yourself - for the price, don't expect miracles. 4) Good build quality, esp. for price. 5) Need a subwoofer for full range (obviously. 6) Accurate, although soundstage a bit flat. All in all, this is a nice little speaker, very very good compared to similarly priced competition, but does not perform miracles.

Good bass for the size. Excellent midrange. Mostly clean and natural sound. Attractive cabinet. Solid build.

Poor placement of performers. Extreme highs are smeared.

Reporting after 10 months of ownership, partnered with a Creek 4330MkII and Arcam Alpha 7SE...

Although they are only reasonably samll they they still deliver a fair punch, they are not brilliant on the bass but they have a realy nice treble.

As i like my music so that it makes my ears blead i obviously like them loud, but when used with a higher quality amplifier (i have the arcam A65 amplifier) they can begin to clap when they are out up loud. But other than that they are a great speaker and i strongly suggest that if you are looking for a pair of speakers in this price range then these are deffinately the ones to go for.

I have had the aegis ones for over 2 years now, and i am still enjoying them. Although they are 2 years old they still sound as good as any other book shelf speaker today, i keep thinking to my self that i should buy a new pair, and a more expensive pair, but then i think why bother. They still sound great. i Have quite a good system now, i have the arcam A65 amp, the arcam cd72 compact disc player and i also have the yamaha yst sw160 sub woofer to deal with the bass side of things.And my whole system sounds brilliant.

Beutiful, visually a musically

Hard to place to get a good sound stage.

You could buy a better speaker system for it''s price. It does wonder''s. I could only wish for a little better CD player and a amplifier. CD: AMC CD8a Amp: Rotel RA-931 Interconnect: Straightwire Chorus

Wonderful imaging, full-bodied sound

None that are obvious, yet!

I auditioned these speakers after reading all the rave reviews with a healthy dose of scepticism - Boy! was I surprised!! These are incredible speakers. I heard these paired with relatively inexpensive electronics (Marantz receiver & cdp) as well as more high-end tube gear and these babies handled both sources with panache - the sound is full-bodied, incredibly balanced and just plain musical. The musicality is not at the expense of detail either - in Keith Jarret's Live at the Blue Note I could hear all kinds of sounds that I had missed before - someone in the audience clearing their throat, little trills on the cymbals, and just stuff that is present in a small club environment. While not all of these contribute to the music, the realistic portrayal of the club's atmosphere unequivocally raised the level of enjoyment (well, it did mine).
In comparison with the PSB 400i, which is a really nice and well balanced speaker, the Aegis Ones seem to have more punch and a superior ability to retrieve detail. As for the smaller PSBs like the 300i or the Alpha series, there is no comparison at all - the Aegis Ones just blow those away on every count. I prefer the sound of the Aegis Ones to the NHT as well. Although, that may have something to do with the fact that system matching is a lot easier than it is with the NHTs.
Needless to say, I bought a pair for my bedroom system - I have it paired to a NAD c340/c320 combo with Straightwire Encore 2 interconnect and AQ Type 6 cables. The NAD does cause a SLIGHT recession in the midrange - I have a feeling the Creek 4330 would be a terrific match for these speakers.
Very highly recommended at twice the price.

Similar Products Used:

PSB (all bookshelf models), NHT super ones

Beautiful sound. Great price!!! Can be had for $250!!!

Maybe not the most exciting speaker, but that's all.

I went to the store to listen to some Paradigm Mini monitors for fun. I thought I'd like them, but man, that treble is extremely harsh and can make brass instruments and vocals unnatural. This lead me to listen to the AEs.

BAM!!! These speakers immediately impressed me! VERY natural sounding. Imaging is average: It's better than the Minis, however, which is due to their awesome midrange. They don't bring the performance into the room like much more expensive speakers do, but hey, at this price you can't have everything. NHT Super Ones are very nice (have very good imaging for price and also sound quite natural), but they are picky of associated equipment unlike the AEs.

If you have $250-$300 burning a hole in your pocket and want speakers, you have to get these!! Believe the hype. They sound beautiful. 5 for value. 5 for performance compared to other speakers in same price range. 4 overall, because there are better speakers, but they also cost MUCH more.

Similar Products Used:

KEF, Paradigm, NHT, PSB, etc etc

Great mid- and high-range sounds.

A touch low on the bass sounds

These are magnificent speakers for the price. I cannot emphasize how good the value is for these puppies. Sure, you could pay a lot more and get more. However, I dare anyone to find me a better pair of $250 speakers. If you can't succeed on that level, I bet most people can't find a better $500 pair of speakers. Truly remarkable. Acoustic Energy does it again!

mid-range, imaging, soundstage

stands required - can cost almost as much as much as the speakers

System: Rotel RX-950AX receiver
Rega Planet CD player
Systemdek IIX turntable
Magnum Dynalab outdoor FM antenna
Nakamichi BX-2 cassette deck
NHT SW2PI sub-woofer with outboard amplifier
Radioshack 12 gauge speaker cable
Generic interconnects

Needed to replace the SuperOnes, which were put into service in a dedicated home theatre setup. Really liked the SuperOnes but felt they were a bit difficult to drive with the modestly powered receiver (50W PC)despite the sub-woofer amp doing the heavy lifting.

Compared the Aegis 1s side-by-side with the B&Ws driven by a similarly powered (to my own) Rotel integrated amp. Both were roughly the same price (the B&Ws were a shade cheaper) but the difference in sound between the two speakers was like night and day. Compared to the vocal clarity and instrument definition of the Aegis 1s, the B&Ws sounded like the vocalists were singing with cotton balls in their mouths. The B&Ws didn't stand a chance.

Some reviewers have suggested the Aegis 1s are a bit laid back. I did not find this, using my solid-state electronics setup. They are still a bit difficult to drive, but certain recordings absolutely come to life when heard through these speakers. Clearly a sub-woofer is an absolute necessity with these speakers if close-to-full frequency response is the goal. I listened extensively to the matching sub-woofer offered by Acoustic Energy (my father has one in his home theatre) but I was completely underwhelmed by its performance. The NHT sub-woofer is a far better match in my opinion.

Even the laminate finish looks good! Prices are kept competitive by manufacturing the speakers in Malaysia. This does not appear to have negatively affected the build quality though.

In summary, a great speaker for those looking for "budget audiophile" and wishing to go the bookshelf/sub route rather than full-range. Happy listening.

Similar Products Used:

NHT SuperOne, B&W 302

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Just a short addendum to my review below:
The highly praised Cello recording I mention is Shostakovich's Cello Concerto's Nos 1 and 2 with Maria Kliegel on Naxos - not Shatakovich as I misspelled in the original review.
No matter, still a fantastic recording - you'll be enthralled - guaranteed!

Similar Products Used:

See below

My former system was about to die in the summer of the year 2000. I said goodbye to it. In July and August I read much of reviews and I visited many HiFi-stores.

I'm experienced with CD Players and Integrated Amplifiers of NAD for a long time, and I listened to many
speakersystems in the price class of 700$-1400$ per pair.

This is the system I tested many loudspeakers on: NAD C320 Integrated Amplifier, Technics SA-110 Stereo Receiver, NAD 5425 CD Player. For the speaker connection I always use CableTalk 3.1. Interconnect: NoWire audio tuning pc-ofc gold.

To compare the Acoustic Energy Aegis One, I listened houres to the Mission 702 ($500 per pair), a V-Vox loudspeaker ($700 per pair), and I listened to the KEF-K Series (280$ per pair), KEF Cresta Two ($300 per pair), and similar Mission and B&W Mini Monitors to give the more inexpensive ones a chance.

When you listened the first time to The Acoustic Energy Aegis One, you immediate percept it has qualities you only expect at the price class of $800-higher! I never heard bass of the extremely good quality without resonation of the embracement as these loudspeakers can produce. Also the feature comes right to you. When you play a cd, you are listening to the cd, and not to the loudspeakers. The sound is extremely natural if the distance between you and the speaker is 1.5 till 5.5 metres. To compare: even the KEF-Q of 1000$ a piece doesn't have the uncoloured sound of this Aegis One. In the same price class you can find the KEF-K series and the KEF Cresta. When you turn up the volume, the KEF speakers will begin to thump. The sound will distort. But the Aegis One's will still producate a clear sound. When you're overloading the Aegis One, you'll here a loud 'thick!', it's a warning signal. Ofcourse this comparisation is very extreme, but real. When you like listening to listening classical music loud, you can't do it with a speaker of KEF, Mission (stopped up), B&W in this price class. They don't even réach the quality of sound the Aegis produces. For sure there are speakers which are better, but you can only find it at $4000 a pair, is my experience. I was 3 days in full enthousiasm of this speaker; and every time I play a CD it's a satisfaction to me, and I am happy that this speaker exist.

- 99.99% pure Teflon cross-over.
- 120 Watts maximum power handling.
- Metal cone.
- Not a regular compressed paper loudspeaker.
- Award-winning tweeter which is used for the complete Aegis-series.
- Gold connection to the loudspeaker cable.
- Very nice filter.
- Well designed.
- Non resonation brace of wood.
- Bass-reflex port on the rear side.

The only weakness is (it's NOT a weakness of the speaker!) you have to buy a qood CD Player and an amplifier and cables, for the best result.

Never classical music, jazz, aggressive pop-music/guiter bands, sounded so nice and clear. The complete spectrum of sound 35 Hz-20000 Hz you'll here! Almost without distortion: even deep thumping quick base at 100 bpm will not distort the rest of the instruments!

My opinion: with Aegis One you're listening to a CD, LP, etc. and NOT to the speakers.

Absolutely best sound quality ever produced till now in the price class to $1200-$2450 a pair.

Frank ter Voorde