Audioengine 2 (A2)

The speakers being shipped by AudioEngine (and sold through Amazon and other outlets) are not as pictured on the AudioEngine website or in Amazon's official photos. They now have a large, hideously ugly… name and logo printed across the front of the speaker, completely ruining their formerly clean and attractive design. They will no longer be usable in my living room where I intended to put them. These are very expensive speakers for what they are and their visual appearance is critically important to their appeal. Not even the cheap and decent-sounding alternatives have such a grotesque corporate logo on them. I am not paying these people large sums of money to turn my living room into a billboard. The old design had AudioEngine's name clearly printed on the back for anyone who wanted to identify the speakers. Now it's just a crass advertisement at your expense. I am extraordinarily disappointed. Check the user photos here on Amazon to see for yourself. UPDATE: My second pair arrived without the ugly logo on the front. It looks like they were clearing out some stock from last month, so I got lucky with that pair. However, my rating still stands since the newer production runs appear to have the hideous logo. They need to end this and return to the original, attractive design. SOUND: So what about the sound quality? Well, it's good, but not that good. It is not a 159 dollar improvement over my 40 dollar JBL Duet speakers. I have a very good audiophile system for reference (American, hand-made components), and I'm listening to the A2s through a USB DAC (burr-brown chip) with it's own regulated power supply; my source files are uncompressed audio. The A2s are not anything like audiophile speakers as some have excitedly claimed. The A2s have an exaggerated bass response (even after elevating the front off of the desk) and this produces a recessed and thin midrange compared to a neutral and balanced speaker design. In short, they are made to appeal to someone who wants to listen to pop music with bass boost turned on. With that said, the bass is much more detailed than typically found in consumer audio. And the bass is better than the JBL duet speakers. But for such an expensive speaker (for its purpose), the A2 gets it wrong and is disappointing. [N.B. The mid-range improves greatly with the substitution of decent speaker wire. The supplied lamp cord speaker connector is horrendous. The bass is still over-emphasized, however, and the listening fatigue is still there.] The speakers are also fatiguing to listen to. This seems primarily to be due to the outdated amplifier in the speakers. AudioEngine has chosen not to use a digital amp, and this is a big mistake. Older, analogue amps (like the class A/B amp in the A2s) sound far inferior to digital amps in this price range. A modern digital amp like the Tripath would have sounded much better, and much less fatiguing for the price. The internal amp cannot be bypassed, so there is no option use these as normal, passive loudspeakers. You are stuck with the limitations of whatever amp they decided to put in there. The speakers also have a number of other significant design limitations. Firstly, they must be angled off of the desktop and preferably elevated to sound halfway acceptable. If you just set them on the desktop you get thumpy thumpy mud sound. AudioEngine doesn't provide (even as an extra option) a small stand to do this, however, so you'll have to jerry rig something. The A2s also have the volume adjustment located on the back, which is highly inconvenient. This is the place where you want to adjust the volume, NOT in the computer. The sound quality is degraded if you turn down the source signal (the computer output to the DAC in this case). The DAC needs to see a good, full signal to do its best. So the decision to move the volume knob to the back of the A2 is a pain since it needs to be accessible. Overall I would give these 3 stars for sound alone, considering their price, the overemphasized bass, the mid-range weakness, the mediocre amp that causes listening fatigue and can't be bypassed, the finicky sensitivity to positioning on the desktop, and the bad design making the volume knob hard to access. I am on the fence about keeping these or returning them and getting another pair of the JBL's (which get me 80-90% of what the A2s do). The 159 dollars savings is a big tempation.

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These speakers have a refreshingly simple design, and really nice, room-filling sound. They really don't need a subwoofer. Very high quality construction and connectors. Highly recommended alternative to… all the ugly plastic computer speakers that need a subwoofer. Would rate five stars but amazon's review system doesn't let me update that! The first set of these speakers I bought had an unsightly logo on the front. I contacted customer service and they said that a small batch of those had made it into production, but they would exchange it for free. They shipped me a new set right away. Really great service. These are speakers you will keep for a lifetime.

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Being a musician, when I was looking for speakers I wanted to find the best two piece set with the best sound. I did tons of research, and there is no doubt these are the best. They have amazing sound… quality, however the bass in not overly loud for hip-hop and such. If they are placed close to a wall the bass gets much more distinct, whereas when they are freestanding in the middle of a room they are less loud. Overall, would DEFINITELY recommend these; you will not be disappointed.

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