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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
milpai's avatar
milpai
2,415 posts
 
I am currently looking into buying the Audioengine A2 since wife thinks A5+ is big for the living room where the kids like to dance to their tunes. Thank You for the inputs on the A5+. Can you please clarify if the iPod can be directly connected to the A5+ through the available USB type A port in the back? I would prefer to do this rathen tan take the headdphone line out from the iPod.

As I was researching the net, I came across Emotiva's Airmotive 4 which have gotten great reviews. I was thinking of getting the Pure iPod dock and connecting to these using the RCA out from the dock. Alternatively also looking at passive speakers in the $399 range and then using a Lepai or similar amp and the Pure iPod dock to complete the setup.
stevecham
3,340 posts
 
Yes the A5+ is a well executed design and the bass content for these is striking
for their size. The amp is also quite remarkable, it seems the designers found
the sweet spot with these. I have filled my living room a couple of time with a
simple iPod, dock and lossless files playing through them. If you want to hear
some amazing bass though them try playing Spahn Ranch's Closure album. It
will thunder-rock the house at decent volumes.
dne
141 posts
 
For living room usage, I think you'll need the A5+ and not the A2. There is likely to be just too much space in a living room for the small woofer used in the A2. I presently use a pair of A5 in the living room as TV speakers and would certainly not want a smaller woofer, great as the bass is in the A5.

Let's face it, a 5" woofer in the A5 series is still small for a living room, and though the Audioengines have excellent bass, it's likely that this is achieved at the sacrifice of playing very loud (though they still play loudly, but not super loud). The laws of physics still apply.

I think they're great speakers too and have recommended them to several others. In fact, for TV usage I use them nearly all the time and generally see no need to use my big system instead (Magnepan 3.6, Pass Lab ...).
mceljo OP
1,357 posts
 
I have the A5+ speakers connected to my iPod via an Apple 30-pin to RCA cable that allow a USB connection for charging. The A5+ speakers have one RCA and one mini plug connections along with a USB port for charging. The difference between Apple lossless on the iPod and a direct connect to my SACD player is significant, but the iPod sounds great for anything but critical listening and if I'm going to do that I have my main system in the next room.

I had the A2 speakers in the same room and they are not quite enough for a larger space. They were able to fill the room with a nice background volume, but in comparison the A5+ speakers are significantly better. My wife's reaction to the A5+ speakers was that they were not as big as she expected and I had even built a mock-up to set on the shelf.

For a living room you really need the A5+.
milpai's avatar
milpai
2,415 posts
 
Did some more research and finalized on the following for our living room:
Pioneer SP-BS22-LR speakers ($137)
SMSL Amplifier ($96)
(http://www.ebay.com/itm/SMSL-SA-98-Flagship-level-Top-HIFI-Digital-Big-Power-Amplifier-TDA7498-100W-2-B-/170999520511?pt=Car_Amplifiers&hash=item27d05d9cff)

Purchased the speakers today and waiting for the amp. Will initially connect the iPod to the amp through the Y-cable and eventually will get the Pure i-20 dock.

Auditioned the speakers at local Bestbuy, where they were connected to a cheap receiver and ipod. Yet they sounded pretty decent compared to the comparable $250+ speakers around them.
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