Audioengine A5+


I recently purchased a pair of Audioengine A2 speakers for work that quickly became the catalyst for purchasing a pair of the A5+ speakers for our family/play room. We just use an iPod or iPhone source, but I have connect the speakers directly to my Pioneer Elite SACD player several times in my main listening room (living room) and have been blown away with the result. On certain recording I am certain that I could fool most people into believing they were listening to my Focal 836v speakers as long as it wasn't an A to B comparison where the difference becomes very obvious. On other recordings they don't hold up as well and sound strained at louder volumes. I had a friend over and was listening to Saint-Saens Symphony No.3 "organ" and he kept looking at my receiver to verify that the little speakers were honestly responsible for everything he was hearing. The low organ note reproduction is really impressive in my room. Overall, this is a re,cording that is too much for them at volume, but on certain passages they perform almost beyond belief. I could easily consider them in combination with my SACD player to be a true audiophile system.

One of these days the smaller A2 speakers will come home from work for a date with the Pioneer Elite just to see what they sound like with a real source.
mceljo

07-20-13: Jriden
What's the matter, A5+ not expensive enough to sound good to you? Have you blind tested against the Focal?
Right now the Focal XS Books are $299/pair on Amazon, at Crutchfield, and probably at most authorized dealers. That's $100 less than the AudioEngine 5+. So it's definitely not a price snobbery issue.
hmm… boy i wouldn't agree with that there, jriden.

i went from a $5,000 system ta $20,000 system. it's not a subtle improvement at all. one is not bad, but will eventually be fatiguing. the other will knock you out. will a $50,000 system be better? yeah probably will.

i've got some audioengine p4s in my office. they are ok, for sure. looking for something better though. i'm sure it's out there, even at a few more dollars.
The desktop system that operates at a level far above anything else I've heard is the Mini-Maggies, and at $1500 it should. The transparency and jump factor has to be heard to be believed.

It's not snobbery or price-related perception; it's unequivocally better in every way.
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