This is a review and detailed measurements of the Audioengine N22 desktop stereo amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $199.
Fit and finish seems quite high for the class. The volume control is analog but a reviewer said it has poor balance at low volumes.
The quality extends to the back of the unit with large binding posts and such:
Unusual in this day and age is the fact that the N22 is a class AB amplifier. It was released back in 2011 which explains the reasoning.
Audioengine N22 Amplifier Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard of 5 watts into 4 ohms:
That is a lot of distortion, forcing the N22 to land in pretty poor category of our ratings:
FYI the amp took a long time to stabilize on power up:
As you see, we lost 4 dB as the unit warmed up! Pretty backward.
SNR is not bad and is typical of the desktop class:
Here is the really bad news:
Instead of a flat response, we have a bass boost! It is not documented either. Maybe they thought this would distinguish the amp in a crowded feel.
Crosstalk is decent:
Multitone performance is poor as you would expect:
And power is quite low:
Finally, we expect good transfer function from class AB amp and we get it:
But you also get elevated noise and very little power (just 12 watts at 20 Hz).
Conclusions
I guess we can cut audioengine some slack for N22 performance because it was produce many years before the crop of performant class D amplifiers. Still, I don't see why we couldn't have gotten flat frequency response. Or lower distortion.
Given the many better choices today, I can't recommend the audioengine N22.
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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/
Fit and finish seems quite high for the class. The volume control is analog but a reviewer said it has poor balance at low volumes.
The quality extends to the back of the unit with large binding posts and such:
Unusual in this day and age is the fact that the N22 is a class AB amplifier. It was released back in 2011 which explains the reasoning.
Audioengine N22 Amplifier Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard of 5 watts into 4 ohms:
That is a lot of distortion, forcing the N22 to land in pretty poor category of our ratings:
FYI the amp took a long time to stabilize on power up:
As you see, we lost 4 dB as the unit warmed up! Pretty backward.
SNR is not bad and is typical of the desktop class:
Here is the really bad news:
Instead of a flat response, we have a bass boost! It is not documented either. Maybe they thought this would distinguish the amp in a crowded feel.
Crosstalk is decent:
Multitone performance is poor as you would expect:
And power is quite low:
Finally, we expect good transfer function from class AB amp and we get it:
But you also get elevated noise and very little power (just 12 watts at 20 Hz).
Conclusions
I guess we can cut audioengine some slack for N22 performance because it was produce many years before the crop of performant class D amplifiers. Still, I don't see why we couldn't have gotten flat frequency response. Or lower distortion.
Given the many better choices today, I can't recommend the audioengine N22.
-----------
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/
