Music’s Finest Conductor AN-E Loudspeaker Owner’s Manual Table of Contents Introduction 1 Unpacking Instructions 2 Loudspeaker Placement 3 Connection 4 Warranty Information 7 Running In 8 Care & Maintenance 8 Specifications 9 Contact Information 9
Introduction Congratulations on your purchase of a pair of Audio Note™ AN-E loudspeakers! We hope and expect that they will give you many years of musical enjoyment and trouble-free listening. And, whether you know it or not, you’ve just struck a blow in the service of Music.
Unpacking Instructions To easily remove the loudspeaker from its carton, fold the four bottom flaps outward. Then, holding the inner packing material in place, tip the box over onto its open end and simply lift the carton away. If there are any signs of shipping damage, inform your dealer at once. Be sure to save the cartons and all packing materials in the event that subsequent sale or repair necessitates re-shipping. At this time, please fill in the warranty card, putting both serial nos.
The object of the setting up exercise is to find a position where the speakers pressurize the room in a similar way to that of natural instruments, this will restore a much overlooked aspect of music reproduction: the actual pressure generated by instruments, which is one of the main differences between “live” and “reproduced”. Four main options, (presented from most to least desirable, all else being equal), are: 1.
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At the rear of each speaker there are two pairs of red and black terminals marked LF and HF. Your loudspeakers were shipped from the factory with these pairs bridged by connecting links. The input to one pair of terminals will be fed to both sets of terminals. The facility to split the crossover on the AN-E allows the speakers to be operated in a bi-wired or bi-amplifier mode. The crossovers are split by removing the connecting links between the HF and LF terminals on the rear of the speaker.
Bi-amplifying involves using two stereo or four mono power amplifiers to drive the loudspeakers. When using two stereo power amplifiers, or four monaural amplifiers, it is possible to bi-amplify in three ways: Figure 3 shows both channels of a stereo amplifier driving one loudspeaker system. In the illustration, the right channel is driving the HF unit; the left channel drives the LF unit. This would be repeated with the second stereo amplifier and the other loudspeaker system.
Lastly, as shown in Figure 5, four separate monaural amplifiers can be used, with each amplifier driving a single loudspeaker driver. (Only the connections for one loudspeaker are shown. Repeat for the other channel.) PLEASE NOTE: Care must be taken when connecting the pre-amplifier inputs to make sure that each loudspeaker receives either the Right or the Left channel input and not a mix of the two.
Running-in Period (or Great Expectations) While we fully expect your AN-E loudspeakers to produce beautiful music, they may not do so from the first moment out of the box. Don’t be alarmed; it’s perfectly normal. Dynamic loudspeakers have a running in period, during which the drive units “loosen up” – mainly consisting of the suspension working its way up to full, normal working compliance. During this period, it may sound somewhat dry, bright and constricted.