September 2009 Reviewed by Kevin East	Acoustic Energy Radiance 1 / 3 / Centre / Subwoofer Home-Theater Speaker System

Description Model: Radiance 3 floorstanding loudspeaker Price: $3000 USD per pair Dimensions: 36"H x 9"W x 11.7"D Weight: 39.7 pounds each Model: Radiance Centre center-channel loudspeaker Price: $800 USD Dimensions: 17.7"W x 7.3"H x 11.7"D Weight: 17.6 pounds Model: Radiance 1 surround loudspeaker Price: $1200 USD per pair Dimensions: 12.6"H x 7.3"W x 9.8"D Weight: 17.6 pounds each Model: Radiance subwoofer Price: $1200 USD Dimensions: 16.2"H x 14.2"W x 12.8"D Weight: 37.5 pounds Warranty: Five years on all passive components, one year on subwoofer amplifier. System price: $6200 USD

Features Radiance 3 Three-way, biwirable, reflex-loaded design 1.5" neodymium ring-radiator tweeter 5.1" aluminum Pure Piston midrange driver Two 6.2" aluminum Pure Piston woofers Radiance 1 Two-way, biwirable, reflex-loaded design 1.5" neodymium ring-radiator tweeter 5.1" aluminum Pure Piston mid/woofer Radiance Centre 2.5-way, biwirable, reflex-loaded design 1.5" neodymium ring-radiator tweeter Two 5.1" aluminum Pure Piston mid/woofers Radiance Subwoofer 8.66" pulp-cone, long-throw woofer 200W amplifier (manufacturer rated) Customizable notch filter Variable crossover settings Variable 0-180° phase setting

I spent some 15 years writing for The $ensible Sound, gleefully poking fun at audio’s sacred cows and the self-anointed, golden-eared pooh-bahs who, with appropriate gravitas and deeply furrowed brows, would peer over their half-moon spectacles and intone the virtues of spending more to get more.

Of course, T$S was all about spending less to get more, so it was with some trepidation that I accepted the offer to review Acoustic Energy’s Radiance line. After all, with a system price of $6200, these aren’t exactly budget fare. Like any skeptical audio writer, I was ready to carve ’em a new one if they didn’t outperform everything in their class, not to mention everything in their path.

Attributes

The Radiance speakers are bass-reflex designs. The Radiance 3 tower ($3000/pair) has a rear-firing port for each driver, while the Radiance 1 surround ($1200/pair) has one port, and the Radiance Centre center-channel speaker ($800) has two. The tweeter, a neodymium ring-radiator, is complemented by the deployment of a novel high-frequency dispersion technology AE calls the DXT Lens. Essentially, the DXT Lens uses profile calculations to match the soundwave dispersion from the tweeter to AE’s Pure Piston aluminum-cone midrange drivers. The theory is that this will better match the speakers to any listening environment, and provide a coherence, for a more natural sound.

If there is a defining feature of the Radiances, it is their cabinets, which curve in a gentle parabola from front to rear, to minimize internal vibrations in the 0.75"-thick MDF of which they’re built. All Radiance speakers, including the Centre, are biwirable, and come finished in a choice of natural wood or black ash.

Like too many other manufacturers, AE calls their nominal 5.1" driver a "woofer," a designation I take qualified exception to. I accept the notion that, even in a bass-reflex design, a 5.1" driver can reproduce decent midbass down to perhaps the 80-100Hz region. But that ain’t real bass. For the Radiance 3, AE claims a frequency response of 40Hz-45kHz -- a top end way beyond the limits of human hearing. I haven’t seen a decay plot of the 3’s frequency response, but I’ll betcha that 40Hz point is at the very bottom of a fairly steep rolloff, which means that it has an excellent midrange driver whose crossover is designed to deliver generous midbass. I think this is a good thing. While I enjoy deep bass, its artifacts, mainly standing waves, can mess up a listening room, a too-common occurrence in which the cure is far worse than the disease. For most applications, heaping dollops of midbass are more than enough. You dial in the sub when you need it, not as a matter of course. For what it’s worth, for all the music we played through the Radiances, I’m not sure the sub kicked in even once -- but with movies, especially action thrillers, it regularly thundered.

One would think that a fairly expensive speaker with some neat engineering and biwiring capabilities would have a user’s manual covering a bit more than the basics of placement, power, and specs. In this regard the Radiance manual falls far short of what I’d expect to accompany any component at these prices, especially the Radiance 3 ($3000/pair). Although the manual notes that each speaker is biwirable, it doesn’t say if each set of binding posts is connected to a different component, as in my reference Legacy Audio Classics, in which one post is dedicated to the woofers, the other to the midrange/tweeter. In fact, all the Radiance manual says is to consult the audio dealer for the correct cables! If biwiring does something special, then AE should say something about it. The manual should explain the benefits of doubling your anticipated speaker-cable budget and demonstrate how biwiring is accomplished with an amplifier that lacks dual outputs for each channel. It’s a shame that Acoustic Energy compromises a fine product with such miserably thin documentation.

Installation

Each Radiance 3 tower sits on four metal feet that are screwed into the speaker’s bottom with an Allen/hex wrench (supplied), each foot accommodating a spike (another instance in which some guidance in the speaker’s assembly would have been welcome). This is as elegant an isolation mechanism as I’ve seen at this price. Although it works just fine if you have carpeted floors, alas, we don’t; I cushioned the feet with felt pads. I placed the Radiance 3s 11’ apart, to either side of the entertainment center, on top of which I set the Radiance Centre. The Radiance 1 surrounds were on stands to either side of the listening position at the center of our sectional sofa, itself about 11’ from each Radiance 3. The Radiance subwoofer, perched atop its four screw-in rubber feet, went behind a comfy, overstuffed leather chair to the left of the entertainment center. I set the crossovers of the sub, using my Onkyo TX-SR800 A/V receiver, to 80Hz. Finally, I tuned the installation using the receiver’s pink-noise generator and a RadioShack digital SPL meter.

Listening

I threw everything at the Radiances, beginning with the marvelous Concert for George (DVD, Warner 74546), Eric Clapton’s loving 2002 tribute concert for the late George Harrison. The AE Radiances brought home Ravi Shankar’s monumental Arpan, a sprawling epic of classic Indian orchestral music threaded through with Western elements. In stereo mode, the orchestra spread across the soundstage, almost as wide as the orchestra itself, which you have to see on the DVD: the players are perched on a massive ledge above the stage proper, no more than two deep. High and wide indeed. In surround mode, however, the soundstage exploded in height and depth -- a pleasant and welcome change from the last few systems we’ve had here, where music in surround sound didn’t measure up to "mere" two-channel stereo. When the rock orchestra -- it’s too big to be called a "band" -- took over, the clarity of the sound was remarkable. Even with three drummers (Henry Spinetti, Jim Keltner, Ringo Starr) and supporting percussion (Ray Cooper, Jim Capaldi), the sound was never muddled or muddied. Yes, this is a tribute to the recording engineers as well, but hats off to the Radiance system for faithfully capturing the live sound with no audible compromise.

Next up were a collection of Haydn symphonies, Nos. 22, 26, 67, and 80, recorded live with Nicholas Kramer conducting the BBC Philharmonic and offered by BBC Music Magazine (CD, Vol.17 No.11). If Haydn was the virtual inventor of the classical symphony, these works provide evidence of how the form developed in complexity over time. The three movements of No.26, "Lamentatione," clock in at a mere 13:25, whereas the four-movement No.80, composed some 18 years later, is a (barely) more leisurely 21:22. Although Kramer took some liberties with the instrumentation, substituting oboes for cellos in Nos. 22 and 26, the sum of the experience through the Radiance system was flawless. If Haydn felt constrained by his lengthy servitude to the Esterházys, the spritely liveliness of No.22 betrays no discomfort. Once again, although the stereo rendering was marvelous, switching to surround sound only enhanced the musical experience.

Animated features such as Hayao Miyazaki’s sublime Whisper of the Heart (1995) rely on precise sound placement to lend a convincing feel of realism. In chapter 6, the "Country Road" trio plays both off- and onscreen. The sound engineers modulate the sound among the front channel and surround channels so that when the three old men are offscreen, their sound retreats to the right surround, and when they’re onscreen, the lone violin retreats to the left surround. This subtle transformation is meant to be transparent to someone concentrating on the scene’s dynamics. The Radiance speakers conveyed the sound shifts with ease and conviction -- the timbre matching of the five speakers was excellent.

(A side note: Regular readers will recognize my love and admiration for Miyazaki’s storytelling as much as for his studio’s gifts for animated magnificence. In this day and age, when computer animation, with which I have no complaint, is ascendant, Miyazaki’s old-school approach of animated cels over matte paintings is easily the equal of, and in some ways surpasses, the work of the Disney studio at its creative apex: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Pinocchio, etc. If you haven’t yet seen any of Miyazaki’s films, do -- you’ll be rewarded. Better yet, make sure you have an excellent sound system at your disposal -- perhaps the Radiance series.)

I couldn’t let a sound system this good pass by without a mindless action film, replete with derring-do, massive explosions, car/bot/monster chases, and a femme fatale or two. Out came Hellboy and Ron Perlman’s massive, crimson muscle suit. There are many places in Hellboy where the Radiances could strut their stuff, especially the opening of the portal to hell in chapter 2. The egg chase in chapter 14, when Abe Sapien hunts for hell’s offspring in a subterranean New York cistern, builds slowly as Abe finds one egg after another while the "parents" swim menacingly in the foreground. The sound lurches from side to side of the soundstage as the subwoofer rumbles with each parental pass. After Abe drops his protective reliquary, its watery tinkle bounces unobtrusively to the surrounds. The suspense builds with the sound, ’cos you just know that Abe’s gonna get it, having lost his protective charm. And indeed he does. This is another example of how well the Radiances dealt, virtually simultaneously, with the loud and the delicate, the profane and the sacred.

Because the Radiances are biwirable, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take ’em upstairs to the Man Cave, the listening room where the real work gets done. It’s outfitted with an original Sunfire power amplifier, Audio by Van Alstine Omega Star III EC preamplifier, and Parasound C/DP 1000 CD player, all routed through an Adcom ACE-515 power conditioner and driving my pair of vintage Legacy Audio Classics. Because the manual gives away no information about how to biwire the Radiances, I flipped a coin and connected the Sunfire’s voltage outputs to the lower set of binding posts, the current outputs to the upper set.

What was apparent from the outset was the comparative "trebliness" of the sound. Compared to the Legacy Classics, the Radiance 3s had a decidedly upward tilt to their frequency response, perhaps betraying their primary use as home-theater speakers. I’ve observed this phenomenon time and again with home-theater speakers performing audio-only duties: they’re tuned to accentuate film soundtracks. Although many do a decent job with music, it’s not their principal function, and the Radiance 3 seemed no exception. That said, music was pleasing through the 3s, and the things you’d expect from a pair of good stereo speakers -- good soundstaging, transparency, and bass response -- were all acceptable. And keep in mind that when I played music in the family room, I found no fault with the Radiances’ sound, especially in Dolby Pro Logic surround mode.

Vienna Teng’s glorious and fragile "Blue Caravan," from Dreaming Through the Noise (CD, Zoe 00143-1091-2), was a bit congested in the middle 32. Whereas the Legacy Classics managed to place Teng’s voice and the complex arrangement in discrete locations on the soundstage, the Radiance 3s tended to slightly overlap them. The walking bass in the Mavericks’ "Dance the Night Away," from Trampoline (CD, MCA MCAD-70018), was forward and pronounced, and the opening acoustic guitars were a smidgen thin -- just enough to be noticeable. Bass response was excellent, yielding evidence of the excellent engineering behind the Radiance’s reflex design. On "Orinoco Flow," from Enya’s Watermark (CD, Reprise 26774-2), the bottom note of the bridge, a subterranean tone that has defeated many a fine speaker, was captured by the Radiances, but lacked any notable depth or resolution -- and this is a note that the Legacy Classics can rumble on a par with subwoofers. These responses confirmed for me that the Radiance 3’s drivers and reflex design were acquitting themselves very, very well in the midbass, but hadn’t quite got enough moxie to burrow into the deep bass.

I reinstalled the Radiance 3s in the home-theater system, this time to see how the bass response fared with the Radiance Sub in the mix. Right off, the Radiance Sub answered the call: the ultimate bridge note in "Orinoco Flow" thundered with palpable presence. It would appear that, despite the frequency response claimed by Acoustic Energy for the Radiance 3, a subwoofer is indispensable if you're going to reach the deepest bass notes a recording can afford. However, what I also unexpectedly found was a renewed richness in Vienna Teng's vocals when the sound was switched into surround mode. The Radiance Centre finely accented her crisp Ella-esque diction, dentals ticking and labials popping with limpid precision. Also, gone was the uptilted frequency response, almost as if DPLII sanded-off the sound's sharp corners. Then again, the family room is a decidedly different listening environment that isn't as musically demanding as the Man Cave. What confidence I lost in the Radiance 3s in a dedicated listening room had been easily restored.

Conclusion

A reviewer can be astonished by value -- the bargain-basement-price, hi-fi-sounding Yambeka Audio home-theater speakers come to mind -- or amazed by technological achievements, such as the Energy Take Classic micromonitors. But despite my value pedigree, I really dig big, heavy, full-range speakers that have been designed with little or no compromise, whose designers aren’t as much into making statements as into getting out of the way of soundtracks and music -- instead of the medium, you hear the message.

Acoustic Energy’s Radiance system can render clean, loud, powerful sound, then turn around and deliver the most nuanced delicacy. This is what you want in a full-range speaker: something that can handle a cosmic blast or tutti passage with force and power, then limn with deft panache the rustle of a lone leaf or the ping of a triangle.

Folks, the Acoustic Energy Radiances are the real deal. They deliver natural, fully realized sound without a skosh of strain -- for all that I put them through, I never once felt they would fail to meet the challenge. Yes, the Radiance system is pricey, but it delivers the goods you want a fully mature, full-range home-theater system to deliver. If you’re looking to move up and value musicality as much as home-theater bombast, you should give the AE Radiance system serious consideration.

Manufacturer contact information:

Acoustic Energy Ltd.
16 Bridge Road
Cirencester, Gloucestershire
England GL7 1NJ, UK
Phone: +44 (0)1285-654432

Website: www.acoustic-energy.co.uk

Acoustic Energy North America Inc.
675 VFW Pkwy #102
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3656
Phone: (508) 695-8090
Fax: (781) 207-0700

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