Audioengine 5 - PC multimedia speakers for iPod - 45 Watt (total) - 2-way - white Review

These speakers represent a mindblowing, inconceivable price-performance proposition for the true music lover. The clarity, neutrality, musicality, staging and transparency is simply unreal for a <$400 speaker. If someone had told me these speakers were 5 times their price as I listened to them, I would have believed it.

2 caveats for potential buyers: if you are looking for asocial amounts of raw power and over the top bass, this was not designed for you. This is for music lovers that appreciate a crystal clear, musical and neutral delivery of material. Considering their size, their ability to deliver very satisfying bass umph and play at levels that will overwhelm your ability to discern detail is pretty amazing, though.

For those who utterly need more bass, AudioEngine was thoughtful enough to provide a subwoofer port, and I can tell you it works, but if I had to do it all over again I'd save myself the subwoofer expense. It has to be turned way down in volume and truly kept under 60Hz to not spoil the Audioengine's balance delivery.

And I don't praise the AudioEngine speakers too easily: I regard myself as a bit of an audiophile snob, listening to my music at home through a $25k stereo consisting of Accuphase CD and amplifier and B&W speakers.

I got a transfer that has me living in a one bedroom apartment for the next year or two. No way the big stereo, speakers (and over 2,000 CDs) could come with me. After doing some research and asking some people whose opinion I respect on less snobbish audiophile forums, I decided to buy the AudioEngine speakers. The setup is remarkably easy: my entire collection resides on a redundant network drive. I stream it wirelessly to a small box (the Slim Devices SqueezeBox) that does the DA conversion at very high quality, and it gets fed into the active AudioEngine speakers. The total cost of this minimalist and clean setup (perfect for a one bedroom apartment that I like neat and open) is of less than $700 for electronics, plus a few additional hundred for stuff that filters and cleans power, plus good quality cabling (but nothing esoterically expensive). The result? Pretty amazing. Do I still miss my home stereo? Yes. But it's amazing how close this gets, and how satifying this is, at a fraction of the cost.

This is a great time to be an audiophile.

Thank you, AudioEngine!



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Product Description:
Small Speakers, Big Bass. You won't hear any enhanced super-mega-hyper-monster boomy bass from these speakers. The low end from the Audioengine 5 is real bass, very near to the originally recorded music. From rap to classical to movies, you'll get tight, punchy bass with an awesome growl that will make you smile - regardless of the volume level. Kevlar woofers for powerful bass, silk dome tweeters for smooth highs, built-in power amplifiers, truly useful connections, and a clean industrial design all allow the Audioengine 5 to integrate perfectly in your living room, bedroom, or desktop. Custom-designed and handcrafted wood cabinets with high-gloss professional piano finish make the Audioengine 5 a true work of art. All these (and more) have been carefully considered to create an authentic soundstage for your valuable multimedia components - the sound as it was originally mixed in the studio. Vocals are clearly placed and each instrument occupies its own space. BR> It works with: Flat panel TV Mobile phones and PDAs CD and DVD players Videogame players Digital radio and satellite receivers All other products with 1/8 mini-jack or RCA outputs! The 2-way speaker system employs a 5 Kevlar Woofer coupled with a 20mm silk soft-dome Tweeter to deliver a wide frequency response range from 50 Hz up to 22,000Hz. The 1 thick MDF cabinet offers excellent audio support to deliver an authentic, rich soundstage that rivals much larger speaker systems. ipod power charger port 2 audio inputs Built-in power amplifiers, no receiver needed - 45 Watts RMS per channel Wireless-ready! Power outlet for Airport Express Front panel volume control Custom Kevlar woofers for super low end / Silk dome tweeters for smooth highs Subwoofer output for adding an optional powered subwoofer High-quality speaker connectors Auto-sleep power saving mode Hand-built and finished cabinets Video shielded Au

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