Gadgetory

number four out of five in my series of speaker reviews and this is one that I have been asked to look at many many times or at least the older revision the audio engine a two pluses are the follow-up to the older revision the extremely popular audio engine a tooth and I have to say I was really excited to take them for a test drive the Corsair Flash Voyager go is the easy way to move photos music and videos between your Android device and your PC click now to learn more so let's start with what they are the a2 plus is a powered 2.0 speaker setup that relies on quality MDF construction with each speaker equipped with a 3/4 inch silk dome tweeter and 2.75 inch custom Kevlar woofer the left speaker contains the business end of things we have power in an analog input as well as a USB input enabled by the now included DAC that's an improvement over the previous a 2 a coaxial audio output that allows music to be sent wirelessly to other speakers with an optional adapter or a subwoofer to be added to the system a 2 wire output to the right speaker and finally I really can't figure out why they put this here a rear mounted volume knob at the front you find the speakers I mentioned before as well as a base port that is the only real trick at the a 2 pluses sleeve in terms of reproducing low-frequency sounds since it doesn't resort to using any digital signal processing or fake bass boost circuits something that will comment on more later but let's move on to who these are for well at 250 bucks they're solidly constructed but not cheap so they seem to be targeted at folks who are willing to pay a premium for well-built no-nonsense products that deliver a tangible performance improvement over cheaper solutions but who also don't want to get sucked into the hype train of snake-oil nonsense that exists around many audiophile grade products sounds like a recipe for success reddit forums and other online communities will often rally around just such a bang for the buck product and from my casual observation that does seem to be where a law audio engines pain comes from on the subject of bang for the buck they get reasonably loud louder than the Bowers and Wilkins nm ones for sure but at half the price of most of the other products in this review series I'm not expecting them to blow the roof off of my house and they don't in fact I'd say in terms of maximum volume they're not crank it so loud it hurts speakers where you're really going to feel the explosions in your favorite action games and movies but they would be suitable for ambient music at a cocktail party if you were to try and use them as room speakers as long as you can convince your guests to party reasonably quietly another thing that they're not is studio monitors although audio engine site does make a point of mentioning their studio monitor like design philosophy durability and you know quality and all that stuff so don't be surprised if you end up with something that might not be a studio monitor but might be tuned a little bit differently than your typical you know beats by dre type of sound signature now speaking of non flat sound signatures the bottom line for me doing my listening tests with my usual mix of top 40 music Captain America and titanfall games dreams is that the a 2 pluses did not meet my expectations and I actually found them to be fairly anemic sounding yes I come in expecting them to have a more flat reference sound signature but I was still a little bit surprised taken aback at how unexcited they were to listen to given that they're half of the price of 2.0 competitors like the simple audio listen and Bowers and Wilkins mm ones they start to look more compelling because they're certainly better than a you know 29.99 plastic speaker set from a gaming brand but however natural sounding the bass might be versus the weird one-dimensional sounding bass that I described in my mm1 review and as objectively better a solution it is to not use software tricks to play around with the way the speaker's sound I just didn't mind the a2 pluses that enjoyable to listen to they get surprisingly loud for their size yes but it just feels empty compared to the system's with these boosting tricks or subwoofers and however much the purists might hate me for saying it I prefer those solutions in a side by side listening test it's not all bad news though expandability for the future is something to consider B&W SMM ones do not offer any subwoofer connection so you're stuck with them the way they are and many prepackaged speaker sets like Corsairs SP 2500 s use proprietary cables and connectors so while they do come with a sub they aren't easily disconnected from it and connected to other gear in a modular fashion not so with these puppies hooking up a sub does wonders for the a2 plus and the audio engine s8 subwoofer is a great match for them it helps provide the rumble that multimedia freaks will want and while you'll be spending about $100 more than the listens of the mm ones aside from the mm one's clear superiority at the high end this combo will actually give you a very well rounded overall experience but they still don't get my recommendation because even with the subwoofer they feel like an eye compromised to save space or to save money solution the enclosures however well engineered they're reinforced MDF construction with rounded corners might be simply don't seem big enough to deliver the same kick in the mids or the lows that they're bigger and not that much more expensive in the grand scheme of things brothers in the a5 plus 2 so that's what you're left with if you want to shop all audio engine not an unusual thing given the reputation 250 bucks with no subwoofer and not a lot of fun to listen to in this reviewers opinion $600 with an S eight sub woofer or there's a third option in between that I really think takes the cake but you'll have to wait for my full review of the audio engine a 5 plus to get the complete picture don't worry I'll try to get it done soon in the meantime guys thank you for watching my review of the a2 pluses the link for where to buy this product is in the video description below the like dislike and share buttons which you should definitely use accordingly also in the video description is a support link that we'd love for you to use if we appreciate what we do you can get a t-shirt give us a monthly contribution or change your browser bookmark to sites that give us an affiliate kickback when you buy stuff it helps us out a lot thank you again for watching and as always don't forget to subscribe - tech tips from our unboxings reviews and other computer videos