Although we’re a relatively young company, Acoustic Image is owned and operated by people with decades of experience in the professional music and sound industry. Like you, we’re musicians who insist upon superior sound quality and reliable performance from our audio equipment.

AI was founded because we were never quite satisfied with the products available for the working musician. Today, if you play guitar or bass, violin, keyboard, a woodwind or even a brass instrument, or if you are a vocalist, we’ve got a sound reinforcement product designed with you in mind… one that delivers superior performance across the spectrum.

Great product designs go far beyond having the right knobs in the right places. At AI, we custom design and build by hand unique, innovative, and functional audio products that deliver a characteristically musical sound with unmatched transparency and fidelity. There is nothing “me too” in the process. In essence, we merge advanced acoustic design and switching amplifier technology with unique enclosure configurations to create compact, ultra-lightweight products offering highly accurate, full range sound.

Ultimately, our pledge to you is for quality… to deliver well-constructed, reliable audio products that serve you well night after night, year after year — and to offer a warranty on those products that is better than any other in the industry. We are able to meet both of these commitments because we design and manufacture each and every Acoustic Image amplifier in the U.S.A.

Our Technology

Applying “musical thinking outside the box”, we have taken a different approach to the technology of musical instrument amplification in order to improve the performance and portability of combo amps for the working musician.

What’s so unique about our products? There are four key differences:

• We employ downfiring, upfiring or sidefiring low frequency drivers in all of our enclosures.
• We use unique enclosure shapes and materials to improve portability and sonic performance.
• We use switch mode power supplies and class D power amplifiers instead of using traditional linear designs.
• We design the systems to have full range frequency response, an essential part of reproducing the sound of all acoustic instruments.

Each of these differences provides an improvement in the performance of our products. Here's how:

Downfiring, upfiring or sidefiring designs make a small driver sound bigger and allow for a smaller enclosure for a given driver size—with sound dispersion superior to front firing designs. Omnidirectional output produces a more natural and more transparent sound… and means you are more easily heard on the bandstand. Our designs have evolved over the years as a result of the improvement in the high frequency response of the drivers we use. The result is that we have recently focused on sidefiring and upfiring designs.

Our amplifier design is smaller and more efficient than traditional linear amps. It weighs less because there are no large heat sinks or cooling fans and has a unique “warm” sound (unlike traditional solid state amps) because its output stage is radically different. The switching power supply eliminates large bulky power transformers with a resulting dramatic decrease in weight. Because we design our own amplifiers, we have a distinctly transparent sound, unlike that of any other instrument amplifiers. Just as importantly, our products are overdesigned to stand up to meet our strenuous testing (which routinely shuts down mass produced products when we compare) and to the rigors of the road.

With our unique enclosure shapes and materials, form follows function. A cylinder is an inherently stiffer shape which allows the walls to be thinner and lighter. In fact, because we predominantly use acoustically inert polymer materials, our cabinets are the lightest in the industry but still eliminate resonances which can color the sound in competitors’ cabinets.

Finally, we design each system to reproduce the full frequency range. This is a critical factor for accurately reproducing the sound of an acoustic instrument. We do not design voiced or limited response systems for specific instruments. With us, there is no “keyboard amp” or “acoustic guitar” amp, just amps with the capability of accurately reproducing all instruments.

We don't use these new technologies to “be different”. We use them because they make us better-able to deliver more portable, better sounding products which, because of their small size and high sound quality, virtually disappear on stage… leaving the sound of the instrument being amplified, only louder.

Thanks for visiting our website. Email or call if you want more information. Or talk to a dealer. Acoustic Image products are available from quality retailers on the web and on the street, around the world.

Upfiring, Downfiring, or Sidefiring?

For a detailed comparison of our three basic cabinet designs, please see the White Paper Upfiring, Downfiring or Sidefiring.