Audioengine 5 review and a question

[Dr_Asik]

So I got my Audioengine 5 computer speakers, and here goes the review.

The first thing that struck me is how heavy they are. I had to carry the box in my hands from the post office to my house, and God was I happy to drop them when I could. When I opened the box, I discovered that they were wrapped in about 2 inches of foam + foam bags + drawstring bags. The included manual has a certain sense of humor : "if bass output is low, check that the bass ports on the rear panels are not blocked by a rodent or jelly sandwich" and is very informative.

I chose the black model. These things have no sharp edge, have a beautiful finish and look impressive next to my monitors. Anyway, you can see for yourself with Google image or Youtube.

So what you can't get with pictures or youtube : how they sound. I was expecting them to be more neutral than the Klipsch, to have better balance, clearer high-end, but less powerful bass. That's exactly how they effectively are, except that the bass is much cleaner than on the Klipsch.

People say that they sound much better after 24-48 hours of break-in, personally I can't notice any significant difference as I've been listening full-time to them since initial set up. If they changed somewhat, I didn't notice. I can't say that they suddenly revealed a world of detail that was absent on the Klipsch PM 2.1; however they definitely make vocals sound much more natural, orchestra feel more present, and video games feel a bit more true to life. Right now I'm listening to nature sounds, crickets to be precise, and if I didn't know it was a record, I couldn't tell if they were real or not.

Due to poor acoustics of my desktop and room, I knew that 5" woofers sitting on my desk would create some unwanted resonance, but the problem isn't so bad except when I try to force very deep bass through them, like Arvo Pärt's De Profundis or certain electronic music. It is in these moments that I wish my room and budget would allow me to get a subwoofer, and then these speakers would really shine.

Also there seems to be a small technical problem with the A5s. Maybe it's just these ones in particular, but when they are idle or playing very quietly, from time to time they emit a disturbing static sound, and then they stop playing from a few seconds. Actually, whatever was playing stops emitting any real sound and must be restarted. Maybe it's a sudden problem with my sound adapter (Realtek adapter on Gigabyte p35 motherboard), but it never happened with any other speakers or headphones. Today they've played without a hitch for 10 hours, but yesterday when I was playing them at the lowest audible level, every hour or so they had that glitch. Does anyone have any information on this problem?

So that's it for now, if you have any questions I am pleased to provide what information I can.

 

[WmAx]

Also there seems to be a small technical problem with the A5s. Maybe it's just these ones in particular, but when they are idle or playing very quietly, from time to time they emit a disturbing static sound, and then they stop playing from a few seconds. Actually, whatever was playing stops emitting any real sound and must be restarted. Maybe it's a sudden problem with my sound adapter (Realtek adapter on Gigabyte p35 motherboard), but it never happened with any other speakers or headphones. Today they've played without a hitch for 10 hours, but yesterday when I was playing them at the lowest audible level, every hour or so they had that glitch. Does anyone have any information on this problem?

So that's it for now, if you have any questions I am pleased to provide what information I can.

Problem like this rarely get better, but instead, get worse. I would verify that the cables used are good, and that the problem is not the source, then return them for a replacement.

-Chris

 

[emorphien]

I agree with WmAx on the sound problem. Hard to tell if it's actually the speakers but double check your wiring, make sure everything is connected properly and all the cables are in good condition. Try other speakers (or plug headphones in to the port) as well and see if it ever happens.

I have to say that I'd be very curious to hear the A5 speakers. I bought a pair of the A2s this past spring because I wanted a nice pair of small, unobtrusive speakers that could give me some halfway decent sound and I was sick of all the crappy sets of 2.0 and 2.1 computer speakers. I find these do exactly what I wanted of them. If I had more space I am sure I would have gone for a different solution but given the space constraint these really fit the bill.

 

[Dr_Asik]

So I contacted Audioengine support yesterday night and they answered this morning :

Hi there,
This sounds like your sleep circuit kicking in. The sleep circuit is a power saving feature built in to your speakers to allow you to leave the speakers on at all times without harming the amps or your power bill! This circuit reacts to the amount of input signal you are feeding the speakers. The reason your music will pop and cut off is likely because your source volume is too low. Try turning up the volume on your source and turning down the volume on the speakers. If you hear the pop while the speakers are idle this simply means that they are powering down into this sleep mode. Hopefully this will not be a problem as we feel it is a valuable feature. Let us know what you think! Thank you for supporting Audioengine.

Problem solved for me.