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General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

Audioengine 5's -- great little active speakers!

Just treated myself to a pair of Audioengine 5 active speakers and can't believe their fine sound. I bought them mainly to use with my TV when I don't want to run the TV through the "big" system. The music channels on cable sure sound great!

FWIW, the following are some items that I clarified with the company and discovered on my own which may be useful for others:

(1) Auto on /off - The amp turns itself on almost immediately after it senses a signal. After the signal stops, the amp goes into sleep / standby mode after 15 minutes or so, but the green "on" light always remains on. There is no indication that the amp has gone into standby mode (in which it draws minimal current) but it does go into standby. Using the TV's RCA audio outs to the Audioengine, the Audioengine responds seemlessly and goes on and off just like the TV's built in speakers. No difference.

Upgrades - Of course, I couldn't help but do the upgrade thing on cables, even though the stock cables sound fine, as follows:

(1) Powercord - To upgrade the powercord, it's necessary to get an adapter to connect a powercord with an IEC termination since the unit uses the smaller C7 2 pin outlet. Plus, it's the "polarized" C7 in which one side of the connector is round and the other square. The only connector I located that fits since it's polarized is the Voodoo Cable VIEC7-C14 which costs a reasonable $19.

(3) Other cable upgrades - The Audioengine, like all speakers (and amps), benefited from upgrades. To see how much, I connected an $1,100 Shunyata Python Helix powercord, $2,200 Nordost Valykra interconnects, and a Nordost Valkyrja speaker cable ($6,500 the pair). And, yes, there were improvements, but I'm just as happy with some minor upgrades (which I'm now doing), or even maybe even just using the stock cables.

There are a lot of features for connections and also a line out, for, e.g., a subwoofer. But, the unit has unbelievable bass for two five inch woofers. The specs say -1.5 db @ 50hz and one of the review mentioned that a test record showed usable bass at 30hz! In my set up, near the TV, there's occasionally too much bass so I've put a rag in the rear bass ports. If your input source has an eq, you could adjust accordingly.

I've had a lot of fun with this little unit and I can believe the rave reviews, even when one of the reviewers said he could almost believe they were $1,500 monitors. Build quality is excellent and the company itself has been very reponsive to my various questions, a real high end company.

I've no connection with Audioengine, just a happy enthused new owner.




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Topic - Audioengine 5's -- great little active speakers! - Ned 19:31:07 12/21/09 (10)

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