Composure over razzmatazz – why these understated five-star hi-fi speakers are the ones I’m lusting after

Any hi-fi fan knows there are times when a speaker, well, speaks to you at a personal level.

It’s a magical moment when the stars align and you find a pair with the sonic character tailor-made for your tastes, that are the right size for the room you intend to put them in and within your budget.

And at the start of the month, I felt a tingle of that oh so wonderful, but rare, sensation reading our review of the five-star Acoustic Energy AE300 Mk2.

So much so that I felt the need to write this feature after spending many hours checking which hi-fi shops have some in stock so I can give them a listen (if my boss, Joe Cox, is reading this, you can’t fire me, this article proves it was all “research”).

Cards on the table, this is a theoretical tingle, as I haven't heard the speakers yet. Sadly. My job title and responsibilities mean I don’t get to visit our hi-fi listening rooms in Winnersh, where the testing magic happens, as often as I would like. I am mainly based in our London office, where our home cinema testing spaces are.

I do read every review (see Joe definitely don’t want to fire me), despite this. And, as senior staff writer Lewis Empson, who was sitting next to me at the time will confirm, I had a very strong reaction to the AE300 Mk2 review – he even felt the need to ask “are you ok” after my eyes started widening to Gollum levels.

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While I do get to hear a lot of amazing, sometimes Temptation-level, hardware because of my job, I am not in a position actually to buy any of it for personal use.

Let’s just say a professional shiny things chasers’ salary isn’t what I’d like it to be…

Which is why for years I’ve had a very basic system in my lounge. One that has the multi-What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Technics SA-C600 at its heart. Backing this up are a pair of Q Acoustics 3030i standmount speakers and the Cambridge Audio Alva TT V2 turntable.

Expensive? Not by serious hi-fi standards. But all the parts are brilliant performers, especially from What Hi-Fi?’s hallowed performance-per-pound / dollar metric.

My upgrade budget also stretches only to around £700, maybe £800 if I start eating beans on toast for dinner for a few months. Which means I don't have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to upgrading the speakers, let alone the system or turntable.

This is especially true as I am belligerently determined that, if I'm going to upgrade, I want the new speakers to be a palpable improvement that meet my and my wife's personal tastes.

Most of the recent comparatively priced speakers we have reviewed, including the newer four-star Q Acoustics 5010, don't quite manage this.

I also love the step up five-star Bowers & Wilkins 606 S3, but I find them a tad too fussy when it comes to placement and partnering equipment for them to work with my home setup without a lot more work than I am currently willing to do.

The only speakers that come close to meeting my criteria are the Dali Oberon 5 floorstanders. But sadly, my attempt to replace the 3030i with them fell flat fairly fast due to the “and my wife’s” part of the criteria.

When I took my measuring tape out and floated the idea of swapping the 3030i out for them, I got a firm “no”. She is very particular about not letting my larger hi-fi and home cinema hardware into the lounge – and, to my dismay, full-sized floorstanders fall into that category in her opinion.

Which is why our technical editor, Ketan Bharadia’s, description of the size-approved AE300 Mk2 as “unfussy” speakers capable of delivering a subtle “slow burning” sound piqued my interest so fast.

I have detailed many times before my desire for hi-fi to be the bassist in my lounge’s band, and why I always look for a balanced, articulate and controlled sound over one that steps over the source material’s intended character.

This is a key reason I continue to use the four-star Beyerdynamic Aventho 300 as my daily commute and nine-to-five workhorse wireless headphones.

And yes, I get that this makes me sound boring, but everyone has their own tastes and I want my hi-fi to be as balanced and as accurate to the source as possible – I want the sound to retain the imperfections and tiny touches that make the recording and track unique.

That’s why I pay for hi-res streaming on Tidal and you’ll drag my physical album collection from my cold dead hand.

So Ketan’s description of the speakers’ sound clicked with me in a way no other recent review of standmounts at this price has – especially this bit:

“Feed them a demanding recording such as Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall and they don’t sound out of their depth. There is an excellent level of detail, but it is presented in a natural and unforced manner. Our current benchmarks at this price are the Bowers & Wilkins 606 S3, and these certainly deliver the music with more bombast, and initially it seems more clarity too.

“But as we listen longer, it becomes clear that much of that impression stems from the 606 S3’s brighter and more etched sounding treble. The Acoustic Energy pair are smoother, more refined, and when you listen longer, it is clear that they sound more natural too.”

In short, they deliver a sound focused on composure and control over razzmatazz – which is exactly what I want. They are also small and unfussy enough to sneak into my listening space without invoking a squabble, making them a rare beast indeed.

With that, I need to sign off and make a quick trip to the hi-fi store for some more “research”.

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