Acoustic Energy · 500 · Floorstander

AE520²

Product description
The three-way at the top of the second-generation 500 Series, and the only one in the range that separates midrange from bass: a 125 mm carbon cone of its own crossing at 220 Hz, above a pair of 165 mm carbon woofers. The 29 mm soft dome comes down from the Corinium, as it does throughout the series. All of it sits in a cabinet 1.05 m tall and 185 mm across — the same width as the AE509² beside it — standing on aluminium outriggers that reach well past the box.

Performance — where it sits in the catalog

BassTrebleSensitivityEasy loadCone area
Bass reachTreble reachSensitivityEasy loadCone area
AE520²28 Hz28 kHz92 dB6 Ω557 cm²
Median32 Hz30 kHz90 dB6 Ω654 cm²
How to read this chart

Each axis spans the range the 640 floorstanders in the catalog actually cover, so equal distance means equal difference — and for cone area and the two frequencies, which are read as ratios, equal distance means equal ratio. The dashed inner ring is where the scale starts, not zero. Ranked within a class because a bookshelf measured against floorstanders is feeble on every axis for the single reason that it is a bookshelf. Cone area is summed from the drive units — no maker publishes it. Bass and treble reach are quoted to different tolerances and only 56% of the catalog says which, so read those two axes as approximate. The grey outline is the median of this speaker's own class, the 592 passive floorstanders — same type, same side of the active/passive line, which matters because the two halves are not the same product: the median active bookshelf carries 155 cm² of cone against the passive median's 219. Median rather than mean, because a handful of very large cabinets would drag a mean above most of the class it claims to describe.

Units
TypeFloorstander
HiFi ladder position#217 of 640 floorstander
PowerPassive
Height1050 mm
Width185 mm
Depth360 mm
Footprint853 cm²
Space taken89.6 L
Weight30 kg
EnclosureBass reflex
Drivers1× 29 mm tweeter (soft dome), 1× 125 mm mid (carbon fibre cone), 2× 165 mm woofer (carbon fibre cone)
Crossover frequency220 / 3600 Hz
Frequency response28–28000 Hz (±6 dB)
Sensitivity92 dB
Impedance6 Ω
Power handling200 W
Where to buyCheck availability ↗
Manufactureracoustic-energy.co.uk ↗
Product pageOpen product page ↗

Suggested TrueScale comparisons

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