[Sudey5]

From my readings of the threads on this site I've pretty much decide to invest in some Audioengine A2's for my macbook pro. However I've also become curious of the A5's. I realise the A5's are much better but if I'm just running them straight out of my MBP, would the A5's be very much of an improvement? Or would I need some sort of DAC/external soundcard to actually take advantage of them.

(i should note that I don't like when I listen to my M50's through the headphone jack. I can hear alot of the internal noise and overall i don't think the output is too "powerful". It's not as nice as through my ipod/lossless). The reason for me asking this question is, if I run JUST the speakers, will I just hear the internal sounds and stuff I don't like?

Would I be better off for the same amount of money to buy a DAC + the A2's or JUST the A5's?

I'll be using them almost solely for music but movies are also a possibility.

 

[Mr. B]

There would indeed be a big improvement... a better source would allow you to take "full" advantage of them though.

 

[Sudey5]

if i didn't get an external soundcard or DAC, would I just be amplifying all the internal sounds of the computer?

 

[Mr. B]

If you're referring to line noise... yeah... but any decent speaker system will do that including the A2's.

 

[JonathanHF]

My A5's are pretty quiet straight out of my laptop, so I won't be worried about the noise.
If you are using them as desktop speakers, A2's will be better choice. (A desktop speaker stand is also recommended).
From my experience, the A5's sound much, much better when mounted on a pair of speaker stands than it does on a desk.

 

[Henry Flower]

Laptops vary a lot in the amount of internal noise they produce: my old one was so bad I never listened to music from the headphone out, while my new one sounds OK feeding the A2s.

Really, this isn't a question of A2 v A5; if your laptop is noisy, it's worth getting an external DAC whatever your choice of speaker. A basic external DAC is tiny, cheap, and cuts out all the noise - it's a great investment.

 

[Sudey5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Henry Flower /img/forum/go_quote.gif A basic external DAC is tiny, cheap, and cuts out all the noise - it's a great investment.

I'm very new to computer audio and was looking at possibly getting a DAC but the only ones i've heard about being good are a few hundred dollars and look huge. Do you have one that you're referring to that you could suggest?

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonathanHF If you are using them as desktop speakers, A2's will be better choice.

If a desktop speaker is a speaker that literally sits on your desk then yes, that is what they will be. You're thinking the A5's would be overkill?

 

[Henry Flower]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sudey5 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Do you have one that you're referring to that you could suggest?

I was thinking of something like the Alien or Gamma 1 (γ1) DACs. Both are DIY, but you can buy a pre-built version from someone else. If size isn't a huge issue, the E-MU 0202 and 0404 are good too. Of these, I've had the Alien and 0202, and both gave a slight, but definite general improvement over my laptop's built-in card, and (more importantly for me) eliminated the noise issue completely.

 

[Sudey5]

I will look into those. I suppose my last question is do you think it's a waste to go with the A5's over the A2's if they're just coming out of my laptop (sans DAC for now)

 

[elliottwilliams]

id go for the a5s. i havent heard them yet, but i used to own the a2s and found them very muddy sounding and overly bass heavy compared to other 2.0 systems

 

[bmckenney]

The A2's are not muddy sounding and not bass heavy at all. Bass light is more like it. I suspect it was not an ideal setup.

I would get the A2's with stand and the matching sub. Smaller footprint on the desk. But good room filling bass because of the sub. Play around with placement of the 2's on your desk, and placement of the sub. Once you get it dialed it, it will sound superb for a desktop system. And I would add a DAC at your leisure, but make it one that's good enough to beat the Mac's DAC.