[goodolcheez]

The A2 speaker's strong key is the mid push. It is more than plenty, especially given their size.  It has extremely tight bass, which makes some of the songs sound really, really good. I call it very very accurate mid / mid-low bass.  The beauty of this speaker is that its 2.75" carbon kevlar woofer works as "mid range" depending on setup, so addition of a subwoofer works well too.  Treble is plenty if you increase only by a notch on the 16k on equalizer setting.  The speaker goes up as high as 22kHz..
 
I am impressed that it is almost keeping up with my new 12" SVS SB12-NSD subwoofer.  All that low ends has been taken care of.   The A2 speakers themselves have great / pretty wide sound stage but with the addition of the sub there is much more weight to the music.
 
Doesn't sound so balanced from far-field listening due to the lack of A2 speakers output level but for nearfield listening this is the bomb. You hear all of the details and that added bass.....

 

[sygyzy]

Quote:

 
Sure, why not? The signal is analogue already.
Even if your DAC doesn't have RCA outputs, you could buy a converter (e.g. mini-to-RCA)

 
For some reason, I thought that maybe it would require a DAC of a certain power. Later, I realized a DAC's job is just to convert the signal and any "power" is the job of the amplifier. Duh.

 

[BradleyP]

I've had the A2s for several months and listen to them at least six hours a day.  These things are like your kids--you know their faults, but you love them anyway and wouldn't trade them for anything.  A mark of a truly good speaker is that with better equipment and source material upstream, they themselves sound better.  These things pass that test with flying colors.  I've mated them with the Audioengine D1 dac--a phenomenal bargain at $169--put them on the matching stands, and bought good RCA and USB cables.  Next, I got the J River media center player, set it for kernel streaming, and downloaded some 96/24 files from HD Tracks.  Oh.  My.  Gawd.  In terms of sheer pleasure, this little rig rivaled my $10k system in the other room.  I'm not kidding.  I sat at my desk and laughed out loud at the absurdity of what I was hearing, and the more I turned it up, the better it got.
 
In some ways, the little system actually beat the big system, much to my dismay.  To make a long story short, after some experimentation, I ended up connecting the D1 directly to my 250 watt per channel amp driving a pair of Martin Logan SL3 electrostatic speakers.  Again, I laughed out loud at the absurdity of what I was hearing.  This palm-size USB dac obliterated my CD player AND preamp whether was playing mp3, CD, or hi def.  Needless to day, I'm rethinking my whole he-man stereo, now.
 
If you hate the location of the volume knob on the back, the knob on the front of the D1 takes care of that.  Sorry for this rambling post, but I'm pretty high on my Audioengine gear.

 

[TuckYou91]

ok so say I want to buy these a2's for my ipod. I want to use them from my room just personal listening and my room is large but the speakers will be very close to me because I dont use a lot of my room. What else would I need other than my ipod and the speakers to set it all up?

 

[mtkversion]

Quote:

ok so say I want to buy these a2's for my ipod. I want to use them from my room just personal listening and my room is large but the speakers will be very close to me because I dont use a lot of my room. What else would I need other than my ipod and the speakers to set it all up?

A line out dock to connect the iPod.

You could run a regular 3.5mm IC from the headphone out on the iPod but you'll get better sound bypassing the internals.
 
Fiio makes a $10 dock but there are various models out there for you to try.

 

[TuckYou91]

Quote:

A line out dock to connect the iPod.

You could run a regular 3.5mm IC from the headphone out on the iPod but you'll get better sound bypassing the internals.
 
Fiio makes a $10 dock but there are various models out there for you to try.

Thanks, so all I need is the Line out dock correct? That $10 one would be good enough?

 

[mtkversion]

Quote:

Thanks, so all I need is the Line out dock correct? That $10 one would be good enough?

 
Yep.
 
The LOD isn't a requirement but it's recommended by most people I would think.

 

[TuckYou91]

Quote:

 
Yep.
 
The LOD isn't a requirement but it's recommended by most people I would think.

ok thanks man appreciate it

 

[mark2410]

Quote:

Thanks, so all I need is the Line out dock correct? That $10 one would be good enough?

 
yeah it will get the job done nicely.  depending on the ipod you have it may net be very different from the hp out but it does give a line level volume which is handy.

 

[Mr C]

Hey I was wondering how you guys were using your a2s.
 
I've had a set of audioengine a2 for a while and I wanted to add a bit of punch.
 
So I've got 2 choices here either I buy a sub with a speaker output (had to find one under 300$ here in france) or i get a soundcard (external) that has a sub output, the easily available option over here is a creative 5.1 surround card.
 
What I'm aiming to do is to be able to eq the speaker outpu to remove some of the bass from them so the sub does all the job.
 
Anyone got some advice on how to proceed?

 

[mark2410]

well getting a sub with speaker outputs (as in av outputs, not powered) would be the way to go i think.
 
honestly im not sure how common that is but i know the S8 has that so would be what id look to first.  i dont know what the availability is there however.
 
what to look out for is the sub having line in AND line out connectors

 

[Mr C]

Yeah the A8 looks nice but seemed a bit like overkill considering the size of my appartment of the a2s.
 
I managed to find a nice sub that had the kind of outputs needed for the A2s.
 
here is the link in case anyone from france is looking for a sub
 
http://www.cobrason.com/son-home-cinema/caissons-de-basses/mosscade-titan-5-5-noir.html

 

[mark2410]

that looks like it should be the right thing, you should come back when you get it and say how you get on with it.

 

[goodolcheez]

Quote:

Yeah the A8 looks nice but seemed a bit like overkill considering the size of my appartment of the a2s.
 
I managed to find a nice sub that had the kind of outputs needed for the A2s.
 
here is the link in case anyone from france is looking for a sub
 
http://www.cobrason.com/son-home-cinema/caissons-de-basses/mosscade-titan-5-5-noir.html

 
A2's love subs.   It sounds even better if you get a sound card (i.e. Asus Xonar). Connect A2's to the front out.  In the mid / upper bass region they beat speakers in the ~$1000 range.
 
With very expensive cables, it beats my Focal monitors in some songs.  You will experience treble lack with the sub running, but if you tune your bass output you can make some breathtaking sound outta it.

 

[gitchoo1]

Do you think buying two pairs of these and an s8 to create a 4.1 system and maybe adding a center channel would be a good idea?