Great speakers made even better
The retro white finish on Audioengine's A5+
self-powered speakers is totally groovy, man.
Wow. How did five years go by so quickly?
We first became aware of Audioengine in early 2007, when the company asked if
we'd be interested in evaluating its A5 self-powered speakers. It's now 2012,
and we have the revamped A5+ self-powered speakers on our desk. Now, as then,
we're knocked out by the huge sound these monitors can produce.
Audioengine
A5+ Powered Speakers
The changes from the original A5 aren't
significant, but they didn't need to be for these speakers to sound great.
Slotted vents have replaced the rear bass ports. The 1/8-inch audio input and
the USB port for charging a smartphone, iPod, or other digital media player
have both been moved from the top of the cabinet to the back of the enclosure.
The aux AC outlet has been nixed, but the second 1/8-inch input has been
replaced by a pair of stereo RCA inputs. The RCA line-outs and five-way binding
posts for connecting the left and right channels have been carried over, but
the line-outs are now variable where the output level on the original A5 was
fixed.
Audioengine's engineers have added a large
heatsink to help cool the dual Class AB monolithic amplifiers inside the left
cabinet, which now draw power from a toroidal power transformer (valued for
its ability to reject electromagnetic interference). As with the A5, the A5+
produces a superbly clean 50 watts per channel, with claimed total harmonic
distortion of just 0.5 percent and an A-weighted signal-to-noise ratio greater
than 95dB. The drivers themselves are either the same as what was used in the
original A5 or something very close, with 5-inch Kevlar woofers accompanied by
0.79-inch silk dome tweeters.
The A5+ cabinets are made from 1-inch-thick
MDF and measure 10-inches high, 7-inches wide, and 7.75-inches deep, and
there's a standard 1/4-inch screw mount in the bottom of each enclosure to
accommodate floor stands. There's a volume control on the front of the left
speaker, and Audioengine provides a simple IR remote for controlling or muting
the volume control as well as putting the speaker into a sleep mode when it's
not being used (so you don't have to reach around the back of the cabinet to
flip the power switch).
The
retro white finish on Audioengine’s A5+ self-powered speakers is totally groovy
Reaching back into our music library, we
listened to the groundbreaking Dire Straits album Lover Over Gold that we
had ripped from a CD and encoded in FLAC. ‘It Never Rains’ opens with a
happy-go-lucky synth line, which is soon joined by bass and drums. As layers of
piano, electric guitar, Hammond organ, and vocals were gradually layered on
top, the speakers never lost the ability to render the drummer's rim shots with
crystal clarity. This track starts out very quiet and builds to an incredible
climax with the synth, piano, and guitar trading licks while the rhythm section
relentlessly pushes the song forward. We're never ready for it to end, and it
seems the band isn't either, because the track ends in a long fade. We had an
equally exciting experience with games: The A5+ delivers tight, gut-punching
bass response as we played Max Payne 3, even without a subwoofer (although
Audioengine now offers one that you can add to the mix). You'll need plenty of
room atop your desk to accommodate these speakers, but they're perfect for
power users.
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Details
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Price:
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$400
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Website:
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www.audioengineusa.com
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Pros and cons
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Pros:
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Silk Dome: Superb sound; great
convenience features
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Cons:
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Teapot Dome: Large cabinets take up a lot
of desktop space
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Verdict
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9/10
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