Saturday, July 31, 2021

Audioengine A2+ Wireless Speaker Hands-on

A typical workstation, especially at home, usually includes a PC, monitor, and some peripherals. At times, a laptop is more than enough. When it comes to audio, when not using headphones, we usually resort to built-in speakers, which doesn’t really provide that immersive experience, especially when gaming, watching a movie, or just streaming your favorite music. That’s where home music systems like the Audioengine A2+ Wireless Speakers come in. Read our thoughts about it below.

One of the first things we noticed about the A2+ Wireless Speaker is its design. It’s simple, yet classy, something that would appeal to those who prefer something minimalistic. Our unit is the Hi-Gloss White, but it also comes in Hi-Gloss Red and Satin Black. We prefer the white one as it looks clean and stands out on a desk setup where the color black is more prominent.

The package contains the A2+ left powered speaker, the right passive speaker, speaker wire (16AWG), USB cable, power supply with detachable AC cord, mini-jack audio cable, microfiber speaker bags, microfiber cable bag, and microfiber power supply bag.

The A2+ features hand-crafted wooden cabinets. The Hi-Gloss models are sport excellent paint jobs that could be mistaken for a solid block of premium plastic. On the front are 2.75″ aramid fiber woofers, 0.75″ silk tweeters, and slits that function as air vents. You will feel the air blowing out of it when you play bassy tracks. The bottom, on the other hand, is padded with foam to help keep things stable and not to scratch your table.

The back part is where it gets busy, especially for the left speaker. We have the volume/power knob, pair button, USB input, power inlet, stereo RCA inputs and outputs for subwoofers (like the Audioengine S8), and output to right (passive) speaker. For the right speaker, we have the input for the wire.

We’re actually surprised at how easy it is to set up. It’s just like using any Bluetooth speaker but with an extra step. All you need to do is connect the speaker wires and secure them in place, connect the power adapter, then switch it on by turning the volume knob.

At this point, the A2+’s pairing button will light up to indicate that it’s ready for pairing. All you need to do is connect your smartphone, tablet, or laptop to it via Bluetooth. It uses Bluetooth 5.0 with support for aptX, AAC, and SBS codecs. If wireless is not your thing or your device doesn’t support it, you can use the available wired connections, which is good if you have a turntable or old music player that supports the formats.

There’s no app needed or remote, which we hope it had as we always need to reach at the back to adjust the volume. It’s not a serious downer, though, but it would make things more convenient.

When it comes to audio quality, we can say that this is one of the best desk speakers we’ve tested. It can get really loud, which is not an issue if you’re listening on your desk. At this distance, the A2+ will sound like it’s a big speaker. It’s powerful enough to fill a small room but it won’t sound like actual large speakers. It’s best experienced at close range.

We mentioned earlier that you can connect this to a subwoofer, but we can say that it’s not a must on the A2+. The lows are tight, clean, and can provide a decent oomph. The mids and highs, on the other hand, are crisp and have plenty of detail. The spectrums are well delivered and do not drown each other even in higher volumes.

Overall, we like the Audioengine A2+ and has been our default speaker for our WFH setup. We use it when streaming music and watching videos. It’s attractive, doesn’t take up much desk space, could use a bit of cable management, though, but powerful. It’s priced at PHP 14,990, so if you have the budget and are on a hunt for premium-looking desk speakers, we definitely recommend this one.