Hi guys,
Now I am not a speaker guy by any means and mostly have crappy stock speakers around here (although I just upgraded my surround speakers for my NAD T747 to some Harmon Kardon 30BQ's) and this will be my first attempt at reviewing speakers.
SET-UP:
Source: PC via PopPulse SPDIF II (foobar2000 via ASAIO), Marantz VC6001
DAC: Music Hall DAC25.2 (NOS Mullard E881CC, upgraded OPA's, upgraded caps)
AMP: Audio-GD ROC (Via XLR from the DAC > ROC > RCA Pre-amp output)
INTRODUCTION:
To start off I was using some 8 year old Altec Lansing 221's which do sound good, but not mid-fi at all, but are rather lower on the scale. They just had a to boomy bass response to my more refined ears. They are a great set for rock/rap because of the boosted bass and treble, but they had sibilance issues and had a very small soundstage, if you could even call it one.
So I had been researching new PC speakers for a couple of months and looked into some from Klipsch and Harmon Kardon, but then I saw these on Music Direct's website and they caught my eye. I looked into them a bit more and saw that Stereophile game them a great review (I trust their speaker reviews far more than headphone reviews). I looked around the net and read tons upon tons of great reviews and thought I would try them out.
So here we are with the Audioengine A2B powered desktop speakers. They are much smaller than one would thin from pictures of them but don't let their size fool you. They toss out a much bigger sound than you would think in this price range, but more on that later.
Inside their cardboard box you will find two silk like pouches that rest on a foam insert and contain the accessories/supplies. The little silk like bags look and feel like they are much more expensive and also give you the idea that these speakers are high end. So now what's in the top two pouches? They come with a power supply, two lengths of mini-mini cables, and speaker wire. Now time to take the foam out and once you do that you see two more larger pouches that are resting in foam. These are the famed speakers.
The speakers themselves look and feel high quality and are incredibly sturdy looking and are built very well. They are a hefty little speaker and look most impressive. The back of the left speaker has two inputs, one being a 1/8" input (from Ipod's, Zune's, and other devices that sue this jack size) and the other being RCA inputs. You'll also be presented with a volume knob as speaker binding posts and the power input from the PSU.
SOUND SIGNATURE:
I would say these speakers offer a very neutral and largely uncolored sound, but perhaps a bit on the warm side with smoother highs, warmer mids, and defined bass. Not that warm at all so still mainly neutral
After the initial set-up is done I decided to try them out with some light stuff such as Rebecca Pidgeon's 'Spanish Harlem'. Wow these speakers sound so open and airy with great extension on both ends and the midband is just right and not recessed or congested. Overall the sound is very neutral. The sound that flows from these is so effortless and liquid. You want to know more though, right?
I then tried out something heavier and played some COLD and played some songs from their album 'A Different Kind of Pain'. I chose this album as it's not really heavy, but not light either. I wanted to see how these speakers faired with rock. I must say they do a great job with rock. Guitars a clear and have a great full sound to them. Symbols crash just right and the bass is fast and punchy. The highs are also very open, though modern rock has slightly boosted treble.
TREBLE:
The treble on these speakers is essentially grain free and extremely open and airy with no sign of sibilance or exaggeration. Really they are just crystal clear and smooth sounding with enough sparky to not sound dull.
MIDRANGE:
The midband is very very good. It's very resolving and detailed and not honky or congested. It lets guitars rip and scream and lets vocals shine with body and emotion. The mids are nicely detailed and can be called neutral with a hint of warmth.
BASS:
Oh man the bass. I was not expecting bass out of these but I must say they really satisfy me. The bass is not heavy or prominent but in no way light. It's fast, punchy, and very deep with great extension. It gives good weight to instruments and drums sound very good on these. Rap music can sound a bit underwhelming as these don't muster up the bottom end for that genre, but rock and metal do just fine.
SOUNDSTAGE:
The soundstage really surprised me as well and it was pretty holographic and wide. These speakers can really throw a nice soundstage out in front of you and it's a very precise soundstage at that! Everything sounds where it should be and the sounds are accurate.
CONCLUSION:
I can not believe these speakers are only $200 and offer such great sound quality for the money. I would say they remind me of a speaker version of the HD600, though slightly brighter and lighter on the bass. But man these speakers really surprised me a lot. I'm not s speaker guy by any means but now I am getting into speakers. I will say just jump on these. They are a bargain at this price and have plenty of power behind them and sound much bigger than they are. If you are into computer audio then these should be on your short list.
