This is a review and detailed measurements of the Amazon Basics 80 Watt bookshelf speaker. I purchased it for just US $50 (pair) but current price is $342.
I put the designation "80W" as there is another speaker with the same name but with 50 watt power. This one is "higher end" with a more powerful amplifier and slanted back baffle. There is not a lot of weight to the speaker and while it looks a hair cheap, standing back from it, it looks fine. The dark circle is not a port (which is in the back) but rather a black cover for the power/status LED and receiver for remote control:
I was impressed with inclusion of Toslink digital input. Controls feel nice too. As you see, the remote is the standard one we see in countless audio products from China but has custom labels. I actually like this remote.
As you can tell from the pair of speaker terminals, they drive the slave unit passively so there is no active crossover here.
Given what I see here, I don't think this speaker's real cost is closer to its current price than what I bought it for.
Operationally I ran into a strange thing. Each measurement made by the system runs three times to gather timing and average the results. With this speaker, I would often hear it only play part of the initial sweep sometimes. It seemed like it was powering down in between sweeps which is hard to fathom as the gap is only 8 seconds or so between measurements. Reading Amazon comments, people complained about the speaker quickly going into sleep. I did not see any problem when listening to it with music.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.
Reference axis was the center of the tweeter (aligned by eye). The grill was not used although it is a very transparent one so it should not impact the sound much. Measurement room was at 14 degrees C. Accuracy is better than 1% for almost entire audio spectrum.
Amazon Basics 80W Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
Note: the lower amplitude of the bass frequencies may be partially due to it cutting off the lower part of the sweep as I explained in the intro. It is not fully responsible for that though as my single, in-room measurements also show some drooping there.
Overall response is one of the most chewed up ones I have seen. Clearly there are many interfering factors there so let's look at individual driver measurements in near field:
OK, we get a lot of clarity now. Clearly the messiness between 500 Hz and 2 kHz due to port or cabinet resonances interfering with the mid-woofer's response. The crossover frequency seems quite high allowing the woofer to show its resonance around 4.5 kHz and another around 6 kHz.
Early window reflections shows much of the messiness as well:
Summing the two, we get a predicted in-room response that is quite flat (depending on how you draw the trend line):
Response is impressively flat though down 50 Hz!
Another impressive thing is the very low distortion at 86 dBSPL:
It is not very usable at 96 dBSPL as is typical of these speakers. I could hear odd tones during that sweep even with my hearing protection on.
Directivity is both terrible and OK:
The wide and relatively smooth response from the woofer makes horizontal width quite wide. But once the tweeter takes over, we get fair bit of messiness and narrowing.
Vertically it is more challenging than many 2-way speakers due to slanted back baffle stealing some of your range:
For fans of timing analysis, here are the waterfall, impulse and step responses:
Notice the latency through the system of about 14 milliseconds. All of the measurements are through the analog input by the way.
Amazon Basics 80W Listening Tests and Equalization
Given the measurements, I was ready for the worst. As a testament of how difficult and useless stand alone listening tests are, the 80W didn't sound horrible at all. It actually took a few seconds for me to realize the excess brightness but the rest of the problems were not obvious until I develop filters and tested their impact with AB tests of turning them on and off:
There is a broad shelving filter (Band 1/Teal Green) to match the mid to high frequencies to bass. I reduced the level of this as if you go by the measurements, it is too jarring in how much of the brilliance of the speaker is taken away. I put in a pair of dips to get rid of the port/cabinet resonances and final one for the woofer. All of this helped to improve clarity and balance the tonality.
Once there, a major feature of this speaker took front and center: powerful amplification together with good driver bass response meant that in near-field listening I had all the volume I wanted. This is far in excess of many studio/powered monitors can handle. There simply is no signal of distortion as you crank up the volume and are greeted with good bass to boot. There is no sub-bass to speak of but what is there is not badly distorted.
I can't emphasize the above enough. I can't use vast majority of small monitors because it is so easy to get them to crackle due to lack of amplification power. This speaker uses a single more powerful amplifier instead of splitting the budget into two lower power one. On the face of it we would think that an active crossover with dual amps is better but not when it comes at the cost of limited power. I am able to fix many of the flaws with software EQ anyway.
And oh, the large size of this box means that it portrays a much larger image than small monitors.
Once I had the EQ dialed in, I was enjoying and marveling at the fidelity of this "flawed" speaker! On my audiophile tracks it played them with nuances that I reserve for very well executed and high-end speakers.
Note that I tested the unit in near-field setting.
Conclusions
Objectively, the Amazon Basics 80W makes many classical mistakes which make you want to throw up. Fortunately many of the mistakes manifest themselves in resonances that are fixable by reducing level and thereby lowering distortion. In this regard, equalization works powerfully letting the ample dynamic range of this speaker to show off and differentiate itself from the competition. For the $50 price I paid, it is the steal of the century with EQ. Even without, if you are not bothered by somewhat bright personality (which is offset nicely by unusually flat bass response).
Overall, I am going to happily recommend the Amazon Basics 80W with equalization.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
I put the designation "80W" as there is another speaker with the same name but with 50 watt power. This one is "higher end" with a more powerful amplifier and slanted back baffle. There is not a lot of weight to the speaker and while it looks a hair cheap, standing back from it, it looks fine. The dark circle is not a port (which is in the back) but rather a black cover for the power/status LED and receiver for remote control:
I was impressed with inclusion of Toslink digital input. Controls feel nice too. As you see, the remote is the standard one we see in countless audio products from China but has custom labels. I actually like this remote.
As you can tell from the pair of speaker terminals, they drive the slave unit passively so there is no active crossover here.
Given what I see here, I don't think this speaker's real cost is closer to its current price than what I bought it for.
Operationally I ran into a strange thing. Each measurement made by the system runs three times to gather timing and average the results. With this speaker, I would often hear it only play part of the initial sweep sometimes. It seemed like it was powering down in between sweeps which is hard to fathom as the gap is only 8 seconds or so between measurements. Reading Amazon comments, people complained about the speaker quickly going into sleep. I did not see any problem when listening to it with music.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.
Reference axis was the center of the tweeter (aligned by eye). The grill was not used although it is a very transparent one so it should not impact the sound much. Measurement room was at 14 degrees C. Accuracy is better than 1% for almost entire audio spectrum.
Amazon Basics 80W Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
Note: the lower amplitude of the bass frequencies may be partially due to it cutting off the lower part of the sweep as I explained in the intro. It is not fully responsible for that though as my single, in-room measurements also show some drooping there.
Overall response is one of the most chewed up ones I have seen. Clearly there are many interfering factors there so let's look at individual driver measurements in near field:
OK, we get a lot of clarity now. Clearly the messiness between 500 Hz and 2 kHz due to port or cabinet resonances interfering with the mid-woofer's response. The crossover frequency seems quite high allowing the woofer to show its resonance around 4.5 kHz and another around 6 kHz.
Early window reflections shows much of the messiness as well:
Summing the two, we get a predicted in-room response that is quite flat (depending on how you draw the trend line):
Response is impressively flat though down 50 Hz!
Another impressive thing is the very low distortion at 86 dBSPL:
It is not very usable at 96 dBSPL as is typical of these speakers. I could hear odd tones during that sweep even with my hearing protection on.
Directivity is both terrible and OK:
The wide and relatively smooth response from the woofer makes horizontal width quite wide. But once the tweeter takes over, we get fair bit of messiness and narrowing.
Vertically it is more challenging than many 2-way speakers due to slanted back baffle stealing some of your range:
For fans of timing analysis, here are the waterfall, impulse and step responses:
Notice the latency through the system of about 14 milliseconds. All of the measurements are through the analog input by the way.
Amazon Basics 80W Listening Tests and Equalization
Given the measurements, I was ready for the worst. As a testament of how difficult and useless stand alone listening tests are, the 80W didn't sound horrible at all. It actually took a few seconds for me to realize the excess brightness but the rest of the problems were not obvious until I develop filters and tested their impact with AB tests of turning them on and off:
There is a broad shelving filter (Band 1/Teal Green) to match the mid to high frequencies to bass. I reduced the level of this as if you go by the measurements, it is too jarring in how much of the brilliance of the speaker is taken away. I put in a pair of dips to get rid of the port/cabinet resonances and final one for the woofer. All of this helped to improve clarity and balance the tonality.
Once there, a major feature of this speaker took front and center: powerful amplification together with good driver bass response meant that in near-field listening I had all the volume I wanted. This is far in excess of many studio/powered monitors can handle. There simply is no signal of distortion as you crank up the volume and are greeted with good bass to boot. There is no sub-bass to speak of but what is there is not badly distorted.
I can't emphasize the above enough. I can't use vast majority of small monitors because it is so easy to get them to crackle due to lack of amplification power. This speaker uses a single more powerful amplifier instead of splitting the budget into two lower power one. On the face of it we would think that an active crossover with dual amps is better but not when it comes at the cost of limited power. I am able to fix many of the flaws with software EQ anyway.
And oh, the large size of this box means that it portrays a much larger image than small monitors.
Once I had the EQ dialed in, I was enjoying and marveling at the fidelity of this "flawed" speaker! On my audiophile tracks it played them with nuances that I reserve for very well executed and high-end speakers.
Note that I tested the unit in near-field setting.
Conclusions
Objectively, the Amazon Basics 80W makes many classical mistakes which make you want to throw up. Fortunately many of the mistakes manifest themselves in resonances that are fixable by reducing level and thereby lowering distortion. In this regard, equalization works powerfully letting the ample dynamic range of this speaker to show off and differentiate itself from the competition. For the $50 price I paid, it is the steal of the century with EQ. Even without, if you are not bothered by somewhat bright personality (which is offset nicely by unusually flat bass response).
Overall, I am going to happily recommend the Amazon Basics 80W with equalization.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
