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

Showing 2 responses by milpai

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.
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.