The Audioengine A5+

I have had the AegoM speakers as my desktop speakers in my room for close to 7 years now. Recently, I have been looking to replace my aging speakers with a new pair, but couldn’t decide on a suitable one. The Aego M has set the bar really high in terms of audio quality, and getting my next pair is going to be tough. There aren’t many bookshelf speakers or 2.1 speaker set-ups that sounds as good as the Aego M or better at that price point. I bought my set for $300, and it was $300 well spent. For years it has given me nothing short but audio bliss. Coupled with a decent DAC, and any audio played through my Macbook Air sounds just terrific.

Last week, I set my sights on Augioengine A5+ speakers. It’s a bookshelf speaker with no discreet subwoofer. Instead, it’s larger than the AegoM, supposedly to make up for the lack of the subwoofer so that there is enough oomph to drive low frequency sounds through the speakers. At $600, this pair is not cheap. To be used in a room, is quite an overkill, because these speakers can go incredible loud if you want it to. Though I wasn’t able to do a comprehensive test on the audio quality output until I receive it this Wednesday, reports suggest that the Audioengine A5+ speakers have excellent stereo isolation, giving listeners an immersive audio experience and an expansive soundstage to most kinds of music being played.

I ultimately chose this because it was readily available in stores. I tested Dali Zensor 3, but it costed almost a grand just for a pair of speakers, but they sounded really good. Like, audiophile quality good. And just like the Audioengine A5+, it’s really loud, which in my case isn’t really suitable for a single room set up. The Dali Zensor 3, has enough audio power output to power your home theatre system in the living room, if you want a simple 2 speaker stereo set up that is. There is a Dali Zensor 1, but I wasn’t able to test those speakers at the store that was selling them, because it wasn’t connected to an amplifier or a receiver at that time. And yes, the Dali Zensor 1 requires a separate amplifier because those are passive speakers. So to think that I would need to buy the speakers and an amplifier, thus adding costs and complexity considerably just doesn’t cut it for me. What I wanted was a simple, straightforward speaker set up that blasts good quality audio.

There are other brands that I considered, namely speakers from Sonos, JBL, Bang and Olufsen, and Bose, but I think those are either way to expensive, or the price doesn’t truly justify the build quality and audio quality.

I am going to miss the Aego M. I am very used to the soundstage that it produces in my room. It would take a while for me to get used to the new set of speakers, especially when now it doesn’t come with a separate subwoofer, so I would miss the bass thumping beats from some kinds music or  low frequency rumble coming off the base speaker  from the movies I watched that I so enjoyed in the old set up.

Can’t wait for it to arrive tomorrow. I will probably write a short impression on the audio quality of the Audioengine A5+ and how I set it up in my room. Hopefully, I won’t suffer any technical difficulties with the speakers and that everything is brand new and working as intended.