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Acoustic AM2112 / AM2115 Stage Monitors
Frank Dunham
2000-11-05

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Here at MusicGearReview.Com we get to test a fair amount of professional gear throughout the year. One thing that we’re used to seeing when looking at stage monitors are sturdy, well engineered cabinets that sound “pretty good”. There just doesn’t seem to be a lot of what we’d consider to be “high-end” stage monitors out there. After all, stage monitors are sometimes not selected as painstakingly as some other types of gear or PA equipment.

Enter the AM2112 and AM2115 series from Acoustic. These professional monitors, with 12” and 15” drivers, respectively, are built like tanks and will stand up to anything you can throw at them in the live environment. What you might not expect, however, is the incredible sound quality that these Acoustic monitors provide. This is primary due to the materials and design. With pure titanium ferro-fluid cooled compression drivers and a proprietary optimized non-resonant CD conical wave guide horn, the clarity of these monitors is clearly evident the first time you crank them up.

Quality is not always derived from just the driver materials, though. In the case of the AM series, the enclosures have a great deal to do with the overall quality as well. Made from 13 ply Baltic birch and covered with TourGuard, a weather resistant, flame rated and paintable material, these low-profile and multi-position cabinets can probably withstand a truck running over them. Hopefully, you don’t run into those types of things in your live environment, but if you did, at least your stage monitors would be safe.

Let’s talk a little about power handling, though. The “take whatever you can throw at them” mantra of these Acoustic monitors is taken one step further in this respect. Both the AM2112 and AM2115 can handle 600W RMS and 1200W of program material. They have a sensitivity of 99db at 1W/1M and a maximum SPL of 129db at 1M. Signal strength is bolstered by dual parallel ¼” and Neutrik NL4 speakon connectors.

We tested the monitors in two different environments. The first was a classic rock set with the Barking Spiders, local to the Pittsburgh area. This was an extremely loud show where we were primarily concerned with pumping enough power into these units to provide enough signal for the band. They were used in conjunction with some monitors from Carvin and clearly stood out in the crowd. The second test was in a small acoustic gig with one of our writers, Rich Byrnes. All he needed for this set was one monitor. He used the AM2112. After the show, Rich couldn’t speak more highly of how detailed and articulated the sound was coming from the AM2112. The only thing that came up as a possible negative from both tests, were complaints from the guys using them about how heavy the units are. Considering the quality of the construction and output, though, these minor complaints were disregarded.

Bottom Line:

The AM2112 and AM2115 Stage Monitors are professional quality units that will provide years of road abuse while providing incredibly powerful and high quality sound. Our road test, although not abusive, required a great deal of power and capacity due to the loud volume levels we were operating at. These monitors stood up to the test. They’re strong, powerful and loud. Just what you’d want for a loud concert. However, they’re clean enough to be used for even more subtle performances. For the price, we don’t think you’re going to find a more sturdy, better sounding stage monitor. At least we haven’t seen one yet that could compete.