Audioengine A5+ Powered Speaker Review

[Ron Texas]

Tons of these have been sold. They may not be Genelecs, but they are good for the money and good enough for most people.

 

[Kaiju]

Thank you for reviewing this Amirm..

 

[SimpleTheater]

I should have gotten the A5’s. :-(

Instead I bought the HD3’s because of the built in headphone amp. Huge mistake. The headphone amp sucks and worse yet Bluetooth isn’t defeatable. The number of times my people are messing with their phones and find the AudioEngine Bluetooth (which of course can’t be password protected) is mind boggling. And once it’s on Bluetooth you can’t do anything except shut them off.

I will never buy a non-defeatable Bluetooth device again.

 

[ernestcarl]

To each their own, but I've stumbled upon that wreck of a channel before, and it's not something worth revisiting; imvho of course. If a musical instrument fell on that "reviewer", he wouldn't know what it sounded like when it hit him, and reverbated within the room.

Edit: Timbre kinda escapes the grasp of those who listen to electronica, full time.

I don't watch 99% of the stuff he reviews. But I find it, every now and again, interesting to hear about other people's views on the stuff I've used or own(ed).

 

[Billy Budapest]

I have to say, that looks really nice—I find the glossy versions plain and a little bit ugly.

As for Zeos’ reviews, the less said from me, the better.

Thank you for the review.

I really have enjoyed mine, and nice to see a solid review. Mine are in the kitchen...bamboo is one of the finishes.

View attachment 67196

 

[ROOSKIE]

"Less bad than expected", I guess. Passive speakers with builtin amplifiers are dumb, though.

I see no reason to agree with you. Passive powered speakers in this class are a great consumer product. Tons of folks want an all in one set-up with no need for amps and such.
Passive crossovers makes it easier to use one speaker as a slave and one as a master unit. No need for a proprietary cable that would be required to run a slave if the system was active, you can just use one run of regular speaker wire. Consumers of this product can just plug one speaker into the AC power.
Very little would be lost here. The design could still have some additional Eq built into the circuit board and the missing DSP didn't seem to affect this system much, it measures very well for the price point.
As well Audio Engine can sell the same speaker in a fully passive set (because the R&D is now done) for folks who want to use their own amp but like the Audioengine brand.
Anyway all the best.

 

[ROOSKIE]

Hmm. I am listening to a pair of 305P ii right now as I type. I can hear exactly no hiss.

I don't hear any hiss on my 308Ps.

I had the LSR308 and the 306p MARK II. Both had hiss. Very noticeable, I could hear it across the room if it was quiet. I would have never been able to use these near-field. I did appreciate very, very much their sound quality vs price. Would still recommend them for most folks as long as I tell them about potential hiss issues.
I don't have either set anymore or I would measure the frequency of the hiss. Maybe it was out of your hearing range or maybe you got lucky. Nearly everyone I have ever talked to or heard from about any of the 3 series JBL's had some amount of hiss.

 

[Sancus]

No need for a proprietary cable that would be required to run a slave if the system was active, you can just use one run of regular speaker wire.

You can also use a standard cable meant for something else, like how Vanatoo does it with a length of RJ50 cable.

 

[Objectivist01]

Even the lowest level Genelecs have an active crossover even though it's analog, I believe.

As long as the drivers are well selected and cabin the well designed you don’t really have to have a huge crossover which wastes lot of power. Also, don’t have to have two different amps cramped into a small shell. But yes

Not really competitors, indeed. I'd like to see some measurements of the Fluid Audio FX50 (with a DSP based crossover!) and Tannoy Gold 5, as I think coaxial is an extra nice feature for computer speakers that are often used too near.

remember r100 measurments?

 

[Old Listener]

Thanks for the review, Amir. I bought my Audioengine speakers before long before your review but it is nice to get more info about them.

I bought a pair of Audioengine A5 speakers in 2007 and used them for near field desktop audio for 10 years. I thoroughly listing to music and for audio with videos. The woofer surrounds didn't turn white, the tweeters didn't get very dusty but after I gave the speakers to my wife, the electronics stopped working. (Couldn't stand to have a woman controlling them I guess. )

I now use Audioengine HD6 speakers for desktop audio. I measured in-room response and applied two DSP filters in the JRiver player s/w. I'm listening 18" from the speakers at 75-85 dB max. The amps and the speakers' drivers have plenty of headroom to handle the boosts required by the DSP filters I set. I'm quite happy with the sound. The volume control on the front of the master speaker controls volume from both speakers and there is a single on-off switch controlling both speakers. Having 2 analog inputs is often handy as well. No hiss either.

I use another pair of HD6 speakers for TV sound in our living room with Toslink input to the speakers. I sit about 7' from the speakers and listen at 75-80 dB max. The remote control for the speakers lets me control volume and mute the speakers when needed.

Sometimes we listen to music in the dining room with sound from the HD6 speakers in the living room. The HD6s are a bit marginal at that distance.

I used active monitors in my main system for almost 20 years before replacing them with active studio monitors. I used Audioengine speakers for desktop audio (powered but not active) for the last ~14 years. I didn't find them lacking for near field use during those years.

Audioengine sells direct. They do sometimes have sales. They have had 20% off sales during the black Friday-cyber Monday period in recent years.

 

[Objectivist01]

Thanks for the review, Amir. I bought my Audioengine speakers before long before your review but it is nice to get more info about them.

I bought a pair of Audioengine A5 speakers in 2007 and used them for near field desktop audio for 10 years. I thoroughly listing to music and for audio with videos. The woofer surrounds didn't turn white, the tweeters didn't get very dusty but after I gave the speakers to my wife, the electronics stopped working. (Couldn't stand to have a woman controlling them I guess. )

I now use Audioengine HD6 speakers for desktop audio. I measured in-room response and applied two DSP filters in the JRiver player s/w. I'm listening 18" from the speakers at 75-85 dB max. The amps and the speakers' drivers have plenty of headroom to handle the boosts required by the DSP filters I set. I'm quite happy with the sound. The volume control on the front of the master speaker controls volume from both speakers and there is a single on-off switch controlling both speakers. Having 2 analog inputs is often handy as well. No hiss either.

I use another pair of HD6 speakers for TV sound in our living room with Toslink input to the speakers. I sit about 7' from the speakers and listen at 75-80 dB max. The remote control for the speakers lets me control volume and mute the speakers when needed.

Sometimes we listen to music in the dining room with sound from the HD6 speakers in the living room. The HD6s are a bit marginal at that distance.

I used active monitors in my main system for almost 20 years before replacing them with active studio monitors. I used Audioengine speakers for desktop audio (powered but not active) for the last ~14 years. I didn't find them lacking for near field use during those years.

Audioengine sells direct. They do sometimes have sales. They have had 20% off sales during the black Friday-cyber Monday period in recent years.

Another brand which comes to my mind like this is audiopro which also sounded quite neutral to me, but now I am curious how they measure. The good thing about them is a slimmer profile, which is more useful on a desk.

 

[restorer-john]

Hmm. I am listening to a pair of 305P ii right now as I type. I can hear exactly no hiss.

Hmm? Is all that Hum drowning out the hiss?

 

[Francis Vaughan]

I had the LSR308 and the 306p MARK II. Both had hiss. Very noticeable, I could hear it across the room if it was quiet. I would have never been able to use these near-field. I did appreciate very, very much their sound quality vs price. Would still recommend them for most folks as long as I tell them about potential hiss issues.
I don't have either set anymore or I would measure the frequency of the hiss. Maybe it was out of your hearing range or maybe you got lucky. Nearly everyone I have ever talked to or heard from about any of the 3 series JBL's had some amount of hiss.

It does seem odd. There is actually a tiny bit of hiss, more than I would get from a higher quality amplifier (heck these amps are really really cheap, mostly designed for car audio I suspect.) I can hear it if the room is quiet and I'm closer than about 2 feet. But it is imperceptible with music at any volume. It isn't impossible the the design has been tweaked. Mine are brand new. A few days out of the box only.
I checked with a simple spectrograph, and the noise is wideband centred on about 3kHz with a width of about 1kHz. There is a second lesser amount centred on about 5kHz. This was measured with the microphone stuck right into the tweeter. It isn't exactly fabulous performance, but seriously, for the money these things are miraculous.

 

[q3cpma]

As long as the drivers are well selected and cabin the well designed you don’t really have to have a huge crossover which wastes lot of power. Also, don’t have to have two different amps cramped into a small shell. But yes

You could potentially lower that crossover point distorsion with steeper slopes, though. And active crossovers are actually cheaper than decent passive ones, letting you invest in more important stuff. But it's indeed not very practical if you want a master/slave pair (which you wouldn't, as one breaking means you have to buy both again).

remember r100 measurments?

No. Where can you find these? Anyway, we don't have measurements from the models I mentionned, so I wouldn't try to guess them. The FX50 even has an on-axis graph from the manufacturer that's quite flat.

 

[Mimi]

Ciao Amirm, sono un nuovo iscritto, grazie per il tuo lavoro, possiedo una coppia di concertino Sonus Faber, sono a conoscenza che anche tu le possiedi, ti prego di recensirle, quando hai un po' di tempo,sono curioso del risultato. Scusami se ti scrivo in italiano ma non conosco l'inglese. Ti saluto e ti auguro il meglio.

 

[Mimi]

Scusa l'errore sono le concertino.

 

[amirm]

Ciao Amirm, sono un nuovo iscritto, grazie per il tuo lavoro, possiedo una coppia di concertino Sonus Faber, sono a conoscenza che anche tu le possiedi, ti prego di recensirle, quando hai un po' di tempo,sono curioso del risultato. Scusami se ti scrivo in italiano ma non conosco l'inglese. Ti saluto e ti auguro il meglio.

Ciao Mimi. Sicuro (will do).

 

[Mimi]

Grazie, Amirm sei il numero uno. Ti saluto cordialmente

 

[Objectivist01]

You could potentially lower that crossover point distorsion with steeper slopes, though. And active crossovers are actually cheaper than decent passive ones, letting you invest in more important stuff. But it's indeed not very practical if you want a master/slave pair (which you wouldn't, as one breaking means you have to buy both again).


No. Where can you find these? Anyway, we don't have measurements from the models I mentionned, so I wouldn't try to guess them. The FX50 even has an on-axis graph from the manufacturer that's quite flat.

My bad I meant q100. Yes you have a point on true active speakers with multiple amps. Their produce most performance without wasting energy. I agree to that. I was wrong about my previous statement after I gave thought to it again.

 

[Wombat]

Hmm? Is all that Hum drowning out the hiss?

Lucky me. My LSR 305 Mk11s don't audibly hiss, or hum. And no, it is not my hearing.

Today the lass who sold me a lottery ticket, today, said, after my bemoaning(take note Thomas) my lack of any lottery success, "Well you must be lucky in other ways". Dammit, is she psychic re the 305s?