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Are Audioengine A5s worth the £90 over A2s?

smwatson

smwatson

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 30, 2005
961
6
London, England
I plan on using A2s/A5s with my Macbook at Uni.

Is the £90 (~$180) price difference worth it? Would I be alright with A2s or are the A5s ALOT better?
 
macsander

macsander

macrumors regular
Feb 18, 2008
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Killyp

Killyp

macrumors 68040
Jun 14, 2006
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If you can stretch a little bit more, then you'll be able to get KRK Rokit RP5s, which will massively outperform the audioengines, and most other sub £350 studio monitors for that matter...
 
macsander

macsander

macrumors regular
Feb 18, 2008
219
0
Killyp said:
If you can stretch a little bit more, then you'll be able to get KRK Rokit RP5s, which will massively outperform the audioengines, and most other sub £350 studio monitors for that matter...
Click to expand...

I don't agree with that, you are saying that because you are a pro audio user(musician or music editor). For the average ear, studio monitors will sound fatuiging after a while and a bit harsh/uncomfortable). I think very good speakers(A5's) will be far more enjoyable for a music fanat!
 
Killyp

Killyp

macrumors 68040
Jun 14, 2006
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macsander said:
I don't agree with that, you are saying that because you are a pro audio user(musician or music editor). For the average ear, studio monitors will sound fatuiging after a while and a bit harsh/uncomfortable). I think very good speakers(A5's) will be far more enjoyable for a music fanat!
Click to expand...

No, the KRKs have an HF contour control on the back, so you can make them sound more like hifi speakers...
 
Killyp

Killyp

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Jun 14, 2006
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macsander said:
Those bite the dust in comparison with audioengines, A2's are much better made by a pro audio company.
Click to expand...

JBL are more of a pro audio company than Audioengine, who haven't entered into the professional market at all. The A2s and A5s are very very good multimedia speakers, not hifi speakers, monitors or PA speakers.

If you're really wanting proper sound, then the only route to go is proper speakers, such as a good hifi or monitors (and monitors will be much cheaper).
 
macsander

macsander

macrumors regular
Feb 18, 2008
219
0
Killyp said:
JBL are more of a pro audio company than Audioengine, who haven't entered into the professional market at all. The A2s and A5s are very very good multimedia speakers, not hifi speakers, monitors or PA speakers.

If you're really wanting proper sound, then the only route to go is proper speakers, such as a good hifi or monitors (and monitors will be much cheaper).
Click to expand...

Yeah maybe you would like to read the background on the guys who started Audioengine, they started to enter the consumer market with proper speakers. I hope you're not trying to state the JBL spotlight speakers are better than audioengine, cause that would make me laugh outloud. You're talking about pro monitors but not everybody wants the hassle of 6-7 cables to have 2 speakers working and having a seperate amplifier as well. That's too much for most of us.
 
Killyp

Killyp

macrumors 68040
Jun 14, 2006
3,859
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:rolleyes:

Audioengine may have started to enter the market with 'proper' speakers, but they ended up producing very very good multimedia speakers as I've said, hence why their taglines are things like The perfect audio upgrade for your PC or Mac, and Small Speakers, Big Bass.

The Audioengines are good speakers, I'm not saying they aren't, I'm just saying if you really want fantastic performance, there are much better options out there. Also, please correct me if I am wrong, but you'll only need one extra cable to power a pair of monitors, in the form of a power cable for the other speaker?

The Audioengines aren't active speakers, they're just powered. They have rear-firing ports which makes them very sensitive to where they're placed (a big issue when it comes to sitting on a desk), and they only have a minijack input (a cost-cutting measure) and spring-clip connections (another cost cutting measure, which doesn't produce a particularly good sound).

A pair of speakers like the KRKs are active, not just powered. They have front-firing ports which reduces their dependency on correct placement, they have RCA, XLR and Jack inputs (allowing you to use good quality cables) and they have HF adjustment controls allowing you to change the way they sound if you want to. 4 x cables - 2 x power + 2 x audio coming from one socket.

A good hifi will easily outperform the Audioengines, and won't need '7' cables as you put it. 1 x mains cable, 2 x speaker cables, 1 x audio cable.
 
smwatson

smwatson

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 30, 2005
961
6
London, England
Killyp, you seem to know your stuff.

My budget is now £120. Can you recommend a pair of quality monitors/speakers or whatever? I've decided I no longer want a 2.1 system as I have no room for the sub. Don't have much desk space as it is, so dont want massive monitors either.

Cheers.
 
Killyp

Killyp

macrumors 68040
Jun 14, 2006
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Ouch, £120 is kinda tight.

I would recommend Samson Resolv 50As, but you're going to need some sort of a pre-amp/good volume control to go with those.

At that price, I'm going to have to admit that you'd be better off with a pair of very very good multimedia speakers, or else you're going to end up using OS X's built-in volume control (which is pretty poor to be honest). The A2s don't have one sadly, but M-Audio make their Studiophile series which are actually very good for the money and have built-in volume controls on the face of one of the cabinets. Make sure you leave the bass-boost off though, or else they'll end up sounding like a bad boom box. They can sound good otherwise...
 
macsander

macsander

macrumors regular
Feb 18, 2008
219
0
Killyp said:
Ouch, £120 is kinda tight.

I would recommend Samson Resolv 50As, but you're going to need some sort of a pre-amp/good volume control to go with those.

At that price, I'm going to have to admit that you'd be better off with a pair of very very good multimedia speakers, or else you're going to end up using OS X's built-in volume control (which is pretty poor to be honest). The A2s don't have one sadly, but M-Audio make their Studiophile series which are actually very good for the money and have built-in volume controls on the face of one of the cabinets. Make sure you leave the bass-boost off though, or else they'll end up sounding like a bad boom box. They can sound good otherwise...
Click to expand...

For that budget I would indeed go for m-audio's which a friend of mine has or go for the A2's(would be my choice). The A2's do have a volume control on the back of the left speaker.
 
Killyp

Killyp

macrumors 68040
Jun 14, 2006
3,859
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That would be my choice too if you don't mind reaching round the back of the speaker. I would just prefer something a little more obvious personally.
 
H

hempcamp

macrumors member
Dec 22, 2007
70
0
DC/VA
Killyp said:
The Audioengines aren't active speakers, they're just powered.... they only have a minijack input (a cost-cutting measure) and spring-clip connections (another cost cutting measure, which doesn't produce a particularly good sound).
Click to expand...

Not true. Current models of both the A2 and A5 have shared minijack and RCA inputs and binding posts to connect the powered left speaker to the passive right speaker.

Please read current specs before posting.

I highly recommend the A2 to those looking for a great sounding and accurate pair of desktop speakers.

--Chris
 
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