Audio Note AN-E Ltd. Field Coil Speakers

Andy Grove’s article on the development of the speakers — Jeff Day (Positive Feedback) on AN’s field coil loudspeakers — HiFi Bible Review (English Summary) — HiFi Bible Review (Full Review in Chinese)

The AN-E Ltd. Field Coil design represents years of research and development.

Field coil drive units, or in laymen’s terms, powered drive units, using an electromagnet to generate the magnetic field with which the voice coil interacts (by Lorentz Force), date from the earliest days of electrical music reproduction. At the time, not long after the turn of the 20th century, permanent magnet technology was not sufficiently advanced to make a conveniently sized, and priced, speaker drive unit. 

Electrical efficiency was much less of a consideration then, and there was often a ‘free’ source of power for the field coil – by using the speaker field coil as the smoothing choke in the device’s power supply. 

Now, the question arises as to why revisit an older, now largely redundant technology?

That is because of the sound. The effect is not that there is more in terms of quantity from the speakers, there isn’t, there’s actually less. They sound calmer, more relaxed and graceful, yet there is now more information – in terms of tonality, subtle inflection, and atmosphere. What was previously obscured is now revealed. The scales have fallen from your ears!

Delve into Audio Note (UK)’s  designer-in-chief Andy Grove’s full article linked below for further  insight into the design and construction of the AN-E Ltd. Field Coil speakers.​