Review: Audioengine A2+ Wireless Speakers Are Great for the Home Office
I was looking for a set of desktop speakers to use while I work in my home office. I had been using my trusty Bose mini Soundlink II for years but was finally ready to upgrade to a real set of speakers that could give me the clarity of sound and the stereo experience I had been missing. I wanted speakers to use as computer speakers for my Mac mini and for listening to music while I work. After doing some research, I discovered the Audioengine A2+ speakers. At under $300, they are high-quality speakers for a reasonable price.
Audioengine A2+
Overview
The Audioengine A2+ retail for $269 and can be purchased from Amazon as well as direct from the Audioengine website. They are designed as a desktop speaker–modest in size, so they won’t take up too much desk real estate. They are also aesthetically pleasing–available in red, blue, white or black.
These speakers connect via Bluetooth but also accept wired connections via USB (micro), RCA or 3.5mm (headphone-style connector). Although they are ideal for desktop use, there is no reason why these couldn’t be used for music or media in other locations, such as your living room.
The Pros and Cons
The Pros
• Affordable price for quality speakers
• Easy to set up Bluetooth connection
• Compact size
• Quality sound
• Both wireless and wired connection options
The Cons
• If you like more bass, you’ll need a separate subwoofer
• Not portable–in case you are used to portable Bluetooth speakers
Impressions
Before I started using the A2+ speakers on my desktop, I had been using a Bose Soundlink mini II for music in my office, so I’ll frame some of my comments as a comparison between the two.
The setup
Setting up the A2+ speakers is easy, but if, like me, you haven’t set up anything other than portable Bluetooth speakers in a while, you may need to take a minute to read the instructions to figure out where your wires are going. These speakers are plugged into power and use a wired connection between the two speakers. Bluetooth was very easy to set up, and I can easily connect with my Mac or iPhone (or iPad, etc.).
Sound quality
My first thought here was absolutely, “Real stereo!” You just can’t recreate stereo with one, single speaker–and I have tried putting a pair of Bluetooth speakers into stereo mode before and been really disappointed with the results.
Beyond enjoying real stereo for the first time in a while, I found the quality of the sound to be quite good. With my Bose speaker, I had wanted more clarity and separation to the sound. The one thing I would say about these is that they will give you limited bass–this is no flaw of the design, just a reality of it. There are reasons for subwoofers being separate, and one advantage of that is to allow those who don’t care about the extra bass to not spend the money on it. Audioengine offers a couple of subwoofer options, the S6 ($299)and the S8 ($349), that can be easily added to the setup.
Conclusion
I have been using these speakers now for over a month, and I would definitely recommend them. The speakers are (way) more than loud enough for the desktop–I keep the volume knob set at about midway as well as the volume indicator on my iPhone set to about half when playing music. Turning either of these up to full hurts my ears, and I imagine turning everything up to full could cause hearing damage–so no problems here, and with any comfortably loud volume, there is no detectable loss in sound quality.
The modest size has caused me no trouble with space on my desk. Although I use them on my desk, I have moved them into our living room a time or two to play music when we’ve had guests. They’re great for either purpose. I also plan to pick up one of the subwoofer options from Audioengine in the near future to complete my setup.
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