Stereophile: Audioengine 2

Several of Stereophile's editors were excited about the compact and inexpensive Audioengine 5 amplified speakers ($349/pair), which were bringing forth some sweet sounds playing files directly from a laptop. New to the Audioengine line is the tiny 2 (seen here, $199/pair), which offered a sound surprisingly similar to that of its bigger brother. The music was clean and clear, and conveyed an emotion that belied the speaker's size. Like the A5, the A2 keeps all of its electronics in the left speaker but, unlike the A5, it uses a front slot port for bass performance.

Audioengine's Brett Bargenquast told me a bit about the company. It's basically a three-man team, with Brett handling sales and his brother Brady and their good friend, Dave Evans, managing the design. With looks that leave no mystery behind Audioengine's target audience, it should come as no surprise that Brady was once project manager for Apple's iPod.

"We're working on the consumer-level, looking to introduce people to higher quality sound, without asking them to pay an arm and a leg," said Brett.

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Reader Comments

Posted Mon Dec 3, 2007, 4:39 PM — By Grant Okamura

I just bought both the A2 and A5 and they are really nice. I'm a band director and do a lot of band recordings. I used to edit on my computer speakers, cut a CD and take it home to listen on my home system (Spendors, tube gear, etc) and was always surprised how different they sounded. At home there was a deeper sound stage, warmer, reverb seemed much longer, etc. Now the two sound nearly alike and I'm able to match the two up really nicely. I was struck by the depth, being able to hear all the way until the end of the reverb in the hall. Tones are so warm and realistic and yet with a lot of air around the sounds. Even things like timpani were well defined on both speakers. The A2 sounded much deeper than the satellites plus subwoofer it replaced. I happen to be reaching for something and was surprised at the amount of air movement in the A2 slots during a particular large bass drum. And no hint of whistling. I'm really excited about these speakers. Some of my students are out looking f

Posted Sat Jan17, 2009, 10:48 PM — By Mitch Bar

I got the A2B's first because they looked good. To my pleasant surprise they sounded quite good on my computer setup replacing a pair of Creative's T-40's which are no slouch's. I found the sound of the 2's so pleasing that I thought I'd give the 5's a go in my living room where a bigger system once was. The sound of the 5's is marvelous but perhaps isn't quite as warm as the 2's but this is a good thing. My main system upstairs is nicer but the A5W's give a sound which rivals if not surpasses a system before it which was a 200 per side integrated amp running two $1000 bookshelf speakers each speaker and of course the $2000 cd player all cabled with cardas top of their line cables and the best power cables I could find for this system. That at an approximate price of $5000) is seriously rivaled by these Audioengine 5's run with either my ipod or for best results I havea Sony DVD player as a transport going in to a Chinese made "Zero" DAC going to input

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