Audioengine All in One A2 Portable Wireless Speaker – Audio with Lossless aptX Bluetooth and Analog Audio Input for Phone, Tablet, and Computers

Beautiful design — Good sound
I was looking for a bluetooth speaker that also has an analog wire connection option. And most importantly, I wanted the unit to look good. Most bluetooth speakers have the most obnoxious designs. This piece is one of the best I’ve ever seen.The sound is good. It’s limited by its size, but for its size it has a very good sound—good low end and decent stereo spread. And very simple user interface. Bluetooth paired immediately. Nice to have a 3.5 backup too—and it actually comes with a 3.5 cable!Opening the box was like opening an Apple product. Cool boxing, and nice microfiber bags around the equipment.I applaud the makers for having good taste and good sense. Only after a long search through many ugly products did I come across this beauty.

Simply excellent desktop speakers.
I read that new speakers take a few months to break in so I waited until I owned these for a while before writing this review. I’ve had these for almost a year.Executive summary:I upgraded to these AudioEngine A2+ speakers from the $20 speakers I’d been using since I got my desktop PC. These are so much better. These sound as good or better than any speakers I’ve ever owned, even ones that are much more expensive. They are worth every penny. I have zero regrets and would recommend them to anybody. I am not an audio expert and I have not done exhaustive comparisons between these and a lot of other kinds of speakers.Details:My $20 speakers were OK but after 6 months of pandemic working-at-home I was definitely ready for a sound improvement. I read a bunch of reviews of different computer speakers. There were a lot of speakers around the $100-150 price point, but I decided to splurge on these at over $250 because the reviews were good and I figured that you get what you pay for. I have no idea whether these are better than any of the ones I didn’t buy.My first take upon unboxing was that these folks care about what they’re selling. The packaging was extremely well done. Each speaker came in its own individual cloth bag, and the rest of the box was very well put together. Obviously this has nothing to do with the sound quality, but when people pay so much attention to what’s on the outside, chances are pretty good that they care a lot about the insides too.The physical size of these is perfect for my limited desktop. I had considered getting the larger A5 instead and after seeing these, I’m glad I didn’t, they would have been much too bulky for my particular setup. The wiring setup is very easy. All inputs plug in to the left speaker and the right speaker is just a slave that connects to the right via speaker wire. The left speaker also contains all of the electronics like the Bluetooth, USB DAC, and amplifier. So it tends to run a bit warmer than the right speaker but not overly hot. They give you every cable you’ll need for all the different inputs.I turned them on and started listening. My music source is Amazon Music HD. They immediately sounded fantastic, but after making this investment I decided to do a bit of research and figure out how to optimize them for the best listening.First I got equalizer software for my PC. I use the APO equalizer, with the Peace GUI. This is an amazing piece of software for the price ($0), and it lets you customize just about every aspect of your sound. Everybody has different preferences, and ears with different ages, and varying sensitivities at different frequencies, and Peace/APO lets you tweak the equalization so you can get it sounding just right for you. It’s a huge improvement over the flat response that a computer gives you by default, and far more capable than the equalizer that came with my sound card.Next I tilted the speakers upwards so that they point directly at my head from where they’re sitting on my desk. This made a huge difference in the mid-to-high frequencies. I ended up buying the AudioEngine DS1 speaker stands. They’re custom fitted to the A2+ speakers and even though their angle is not adjustable, it’s perfect for my specific layout. This brings up the point that a PC sound system is usually used by just one person, so you can position the speakers so that your head is in the perfect “sweet spot” of the sound field. Of course that is possible with any PC speakers.These speakers have a bunch of different inputs, all of which can operate simultaneously. From my desktop PC I connect them to the on-board sound card via the provided 3.5mm cable. From my laptop I connect via a dedicated USB DAC that I bought because otherwise my laptop just wasn’t able to produce anything like the great sound I was getting from my desktop. I knew before I bought them that they had multiple inputs but that turned out to be an unexpectedly nice feature because I can switch seamlessly between audio from both computers, and even hear sound effects from both systems at the same time when I need to. I am only using the analog inputs. I did not try the built-in Bluetooth. I did try the built-in USB DAC, and I was unable to get it to sound as good as either of my other sources.Overall the sound from these is superb – the highs are crystal clear with zero tinniness and I can’t think about any aspect of the sound that I’m unhappy with. One comment I see in a lot of the A2 reviews is that people think the bass is lacking. It’s true that these don’t thump you out of your seat like a dedicated subwoofer would, or even speakers with bigger drivers. But the bass they deliver is super clear. I can hear every nuance of a jazz bassline, and low drum beats with no problem at all. I personally have no issue with the bass on these, but if that ever changes they also have RCA outputs that can be used to drive a dedicated subwoofer if I feel like adding one some day.

These are quality and performance. I love the sound and the look, and if you ever upgrade your speaker to include a sub they come even more alive. They are somewhat pricey but in my opinion, they are worth the cost.

Estoy acostumbrado a escuchar equipos de audio caros y quería unas bocinas muy pequeñas para una área de trabajo en la que no tengo espacio. Estas bocinas suenan muy bien tomando en cuenta su tamaño. Aunque tengo un preamplificador con DAC integrado de 24 bits y 192KHz, realmente no se aprecia diferencia al usarlo en lugar del DAC incorporado en las bocinas de 16 bits y 48KHz. Tienen dos temas negativos: una caída importante de volumen en el rango de 1Khz a 5Khz, que se aprecia desde el primer momento. Es como si estuvieran ecualizadas en forma de V, con muy buenos bajos y agudos, pero pocos medios. El segundo detalle es que en pruebas utilizando la conexión Bluetooth el sonido tiene algunas pequeñas interrupciones, esto último lo probé con dos celulares Huawei, ambos con TIDAL instalado. Aunque generalmente nunca uso Bluetooth para conectar equipos de audio, sí había usado previamente esos dos equipos con el pre-DAC que tengo y no se presentaba ese problema, por lo que pienso que puede ser algún problema con las bocinas. De cualquier manera las recomiendo ampliamente.