Loudspeakers

Mat Spandl, Acoustic Energy's MD and principal designer, had a clear vision for the Corinium's form that 'combines the benefits of a standmount and floorstanding speaker to produce a source that's acoustically familiar to that of live music'. The result is a relatively compact floorstander with mid and high frequency drivers roughly at ear height and a bass section placed lower in the cabinet 'to couple to and drive the room'. In practice this means AE's 120mm carbon-fibre midrange unit is operating over at least four critical octaves (AE cites five) where a balance must be sought between the limits of its excursion when handling the lowest frequencies and its directivity at crossover to the tweeter. The latter is a sizeable (29mm) soft dome, with signal phase inverted at crossover, but there is still an obvious loss in off-axis treble [see PM's Lab Report, blue trace, Graph 1].

At the rear of the cabinet, the port is tuned to a lower frequency than might be anticipated [see PM's Lab Report], and with an attenuated output. Nevertheless this is for good reason as AE is attempting to leverage some of the potential +3dB bass boost from the drivers' proximity to the floor, blending a degree of boundary reinforcement with that of the port to supplement the Corinium's overall bass output. High sensitivity is also part of the equation, tough amplifier load notwithstanding, as this demonstrates that both mid and bass drivers will achieve high SPLs without being pushed too hard. This is important as any distortion incurred by the 120mm unit at bass frequencies will spread into the mid. PM