Audioengine A5+ system

They closed my office and was told to work out of my house about 6 weeks ago, so I took one of the spare bedrooms and turned it into an office. Naturally I had to have music, initially it was going to be a headphone based system but I found that not conductive to working. I picked up a set of Audioengine A5+ speakers which I built a system around with a Audio Technica AT-LP1240, Mac Mini with a 4TB drive, Benchmark DAC2HDR and a Sony Blu-Ray player. These speakers sound much better than I would have expected. The system rocks nicely.

 

Those are great speakers. I use a pair for our outdoor theater when the weather is nice. Last showing this year will the shining at Halloween. They throw a surprisingly wide soundstage and have a very pleasing sound for such an inexpensive set of powered speakers.

 

I've had them for over a year in my office. I absolutely love them. Really nice sound for the $.

 

I concur and have a pair sitting on my desk right now. I am running USB from a mac mini into a Cambridge Audio DAC. It sounds very good. Quite a bit better than a "typical" desktop system isn't it?

 

I really like mine. I bought them as a portable system for poker night. Now I have them in my new office at work, but I like them less as near fielders. They get a little phasey, but that could be my lack of outboard DAC for now.

 

They surprize me every day how good they are. They sure get better with the source.
But even with Spotify Premium at 320kb they sound good.

 

I bought these for my home office. PSB powered speakers. I think the Audioengine's outperform them by a significant margin. I wish I would have just bought another pair of 5+'s.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_760APS1SUB/PSB-Alpha-PS1-SubSeries-100.html

 

That it is!

 

Big fan of those speakers. Office system is Squeezebox (lossless) -> Grace m903 -> Audioengine A5+.

Very musical for the $, whoever voiced these did a great job.

 

Using Jriver PC>Dragonfly>A5+ now
Waiting on some Schitt gear to try out.

 

Pleased with these too. Sound good to me in the space I am using them in. One speaker sometimes 'shorts out' for a few seconds at a time for some reason, but usually not a problem at all. I did buy them at a very good price, as refurbished and direct from audioengine. About a year ago or more perhaps at just over $300.

 

I've had A5s for over 7 years. They still sound fine in a nearfield application.

 

I have a Squeezebox Touch hooked up to a pair of A5+ in my bedroom system. Great and simple system. My only complaint is the remote buttons have already cracked after about a year of use.

 

I finally set up an inexpensive dac in the office system, a Fiio E10k. No more phasiness, and great sound.

 

Anyone using these with the S8 sub? It sounds great.

 

those are nice, but for roughly the same money you can get Omaga Speakers Super Desktop 3 which are spectacular and look ohmygodsosexy

for those who care, and I hope there are a lot of them, they're made in AMERICA

http://omegaloudspeakers.com/super3desktop.html

 

Spent $100 on the little Schiit DAC. Sounds great after running in.

 

I am using the Audioengine angled isolation pads. A little to much lift for my application.
Anybody have any other ideas, DIY or ?

Agree with opinions on the Schiit Modi dac...good value.

 

I have a pair of A5+ in my garage system. Windows 7 laptop > Dragonfly > A5+

I absolutely love the speakers in this application. Plenty of volume without distortion, and really nice well rounded sound. Since it's my garage, I'm sticking with the Dragonfly for the DAC, but I'm sure the speakers would scale well with upgraded source components.

At work I spend a lot of time at my desk, and my system is Windows 7 desktop > Dragonfly > A2... I use the angled stands in this application and the imaging is great. For my work environment, they are perfect. I can hear some nice tight bass, but nothing overpowering which would bother my coworkers. My only slight complaint with the A2's is the volume control on the back. At low listening levels, it's really difficult to fine tune the volume. Even a very slight turn of the knob can result in a significant volume/balance change. The A5's don't have this issue at all.

 

Not the 5+ but I do use their S8 sub with the A2. A butt-kicking desktop system!

 

Agreed- using the AE angled insolation stands increases the nearfield performance drastically. Even if using the A2+ or A5+ as a bookshelf speaker the stands make a big difference in tighter bass extension (less boom).

If you are a Sonos user try the A5+ or A2+ with the Sonos Connect. Amazing.

 

About twice the price, aren't they?

 

And not "powered." The Omegas do look great!

 

off the top of my head they're less than 6 benjamins
I thought the AE were about that price no?
there is frankly NO comparison in sound
but true, they are not powered and an amp is necessary. that I didnt count in my initial post

 

I'll just add one more voice agreeing. The A5+ are an incredible bargain. I used them for 2 years in my desktop system and loved them. When I replaced them with Harbeth P3ESR, I heard the difference, but it the change was hardly shocking. Great choice!