In this short series ‘Old and New’ some of the team are going to share an old, reliable piece of gear that we use all the time and something that has come into our lives in the past year. Next up is Luke Goddard:
Old - Acoustic Energy AE22 Active Monitor Speakers
With mics, DAWs, audio plugins, and dazzling virtual instruments frequently stealing the limelight, the venerable studio monitor speaker can sometimes be the thing that gets, well, taken for granted as other pieces come and go. Of course we’re always on the lookout for the next ear-turning creation to cover on the blog, but when it comes to my own monitors, they fall firmly into the category of the unsung hero. Like so many other things in general, those that do their thing the best are often those that only get noticed in their absence. My pair of Acoustic Energy AE22 main studio monitors is one such piece (or should that be pieces?) of equipment.
At around 15 years’ service, these are the longest sitting members of my studio inventory, and if they were a person they would probably have their favourite chair in the lounge and favourite mug in the kitchen! In essence they are active, sealed cabinet boxes with 8 inch bass/mid drivers and 25mm HF units that contribute to the units’ slightly funky styling thanks to the latter’s ‘plug’ waveguides and extruded housings. Amp design is old school AB which is very apparent whenever I have had to move them!
The mids are well forward, although not at all NS10-like in their voicing, capped with highs that respond well to experimentation with positioning. The real highlights for me are their low end, which although restrained is both quick and very well-extended (helped by their port-less design), and their imaging. In the right spot, this gives an almost headphone-like etched centre that has always impressed me.
Without doubt, these are hard to come by now. Although the AE22’s are discontinued, Acoustic Energy themselves have since moved back to pastures Hi-Fi, although the company is still based here in the UK. Good job really, as they were only down the road and on the phone to provide a new part more recently when someone (in a no-guitar-stand-hurry) dented the aluminium LF driver with their bass’s tuning handle. In case you’re wondering, I have since forgiven myself…
New - PreSonus AudioBox GO Interface
It’s funny how the most unassuming gear can sometimes lodge itself into your workflow so sneakily… A newer addition to my working life has been the dinky AudioBox GO interface from PreSonus. Having been initially asked to try it out it quickly became apparent that this was in fact the gear I didn’t realise I needed. It turns out that my old daily driver SPL Crimson had 50% more I/O than I needed for a lot of tasks, and a car parking space sized footprint on my standing desk and in my bag that could be put to more productive use elsewhere.
For those times where laptop audio I/O is not an option (ie, just a headphone port), and the USB 2X2 is too big for my bag (or someone else’s Christmas stocking), PreSonus got it just about right with this thing which I now think of more as a set of Go-Faster Stripes for my laptop.
It has a DI input, monitor and headphone outs, plus a single mic input that claims 50dB of gain, but its handling of ‘deaf’ dynamics leaves me convinced it has more! Along with a headphone amp that is loud if not reference grade, and switchable phantom, this thing is hotter and cleaner than you might expect from the average 5 volt sipper. Below you can see it on the bench of Julian Krause for an in-depth dissection…