The Audioengine 2 is a powered bookshelf speaker—not a new type of product per se for the California-based company, which for years has sold the…
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In nearly 25 years, it's been rare that I've reviewed an exciting breakthrough product. The Audioengine 2 is such a product—not because it performs at an extraordinary level (though it does), and not because it's such an incredible value for money (though it is), but because it creates a new market, a new application for high-end audio, and a chance for audiophiles to enjoy music in ways they may have never considered before.
I also wondered how well the Audioengines could soundstage. They're not exactly matched, are they? One cabinet has a stereo amplifier in it, the other doesn't. One cabinet is internally hardwired, the other via a cable from the first speaker. That said, they reproduced without a hitch the soundstage width and depth, the image specificity, and the hall sound of Antal Dorati and the London Symphony's recording of Stravinsky's The Firebird (CD, Mercury Living Presence SR 90226).
Now for the fun part
I took the wife and kids on our first long-distance car vacation, to visit family and…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Powered, reflex-loaded desktop loudspeaker system. Drive-units: 20mm silk-dome tweeter, 2.75" Kevlar woofer. Frequency response: 65Hz–22kHz, ±2.0dB. Signal/noise: >95dB (typical, A-weighted). Power output: 30Wpc peak, 15W RMS. Inputs: 1/8" stereo mini-jack, dual RCA jacks. Amplifier type: dual class-AB monolithic. THD: 0.05% at all power settings. Crosstalk: 50dB. Input impedance: 10k ohms unbalanced. Protection: output current limiting, thermal over-temperature, power on/off transient protection. AC voltage: 100–240V, 50/60Hz auto-switching.
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: VPI TNT IV turntable, Immedia RPM tonearm, Koetsu Urushi cartridge; Rega Planar 3 turntable, Syrinx PU-3 tonearm, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood & Aurum Beta S cartridges.
Digital Sources: Lector CDP-7T, California Audio Labs Icon Mk.II Power Boss, Creek Destiny & CD53 Mk.II CD players; Pioneer DV-333 DVD player; Apple iPod.
Preamplification: Vendetta Research SCP-2D phono stage, Audio Valve Eklipse line stage.
Power Amplifier: Audio Research Reference 110.
Integrated Amplifiers: Cayin A50T, Creek Destiny & Creek 5350SE.…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The input impedance of the Audioengine2's integral amplifier was 21k ohms at high and middle frequencies, rising slightly to 24k ohms at 20Hz, both figures usefully higher than specified. Channel separation (not shown) was superb, at >100dB above 2kHz. The amplifier offered a voltage gain of 26.8dB at 1kHz, 100mV input giving an output of 2.18V at the right-channel speaker terminals. Because the amplifier for both channels is contained in the left-channel loudspeaker, which has a pair of speaker output terminals for the right-channel speaker, I was able to look…
I want to start this year's gift recommendations by briefly revisiting the results of my Musical Cultural Literacy for Americans write-in competition, which ran in the April issue. All 12 winning entries of 12 selections each are posted online (footnote 1).
I thought a few entries included one or two selections that were a cut above some of the selections on my original list. So I've harvested those recommendations, from both winning and non-winning lists, with a mind toward helping your holiday gift-list making.
One problem I had with some entries was that the lists were full of…
The wood these cabinets are made from is about 150 years old. The trees were at least 100 years old when they were felled to make large whisky barrels. I was unable to find out how large the barrels were, but judging from the Japanese website, they may be 125 gallons or more. Nor could I discover any prices for barrels of that size, but a new European oak wine barrel half that size costs about $600. Each retired barrel is said to make one pair of speakers. (I think, though, that something has been lost in translation; Pioneer apparently also makes a larger Pure Malt Speaker, not sold in the…
Although for centuries most Compline music consisted of Psalms chanted monophonically, as the storms of Reformation and reaction buffeted England in the 16th and 17th centuries, some of the greatest church music of any era was written for Compline, in polyphonic style by Tallis, Byrd, and their contemporaries.
This kind of thing must drive record-company people and outside publicists to the bottle, but no sooner had one truly excellent Compline CD landed on my desk than a truly excellent Compline SACD took up residence near it. The SACD, Music for Compline (Harmonia Mundi HMU 807419),…
Sidebar: Sources
AKG Acoustics, 8500 Balboa Boulevard, Northridge, CA 91329. Tel: (818) 920-3212. Fax: (615) 781-9896. Web: www.akgusa.com.
Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc., 2265 E. 220th Street, Long Beach, CA 90810. Tel: (800) 421-1404. Web: www.pioneerelectronics.com.
I don't want a symphony orchestra in my room: That's crazy. I want their music, played with enough realism that I can hear how it's done.
My room is 12' wide by 19' long, with an 8' ceiling, and it's made of wood and Sheetrock. There's no way any sane person would want to sit there and hear the same loudness level they'd hear in a concert hall, in the presence of a full orchestra. Count me among them.
I also wouldn't want to sit in that room and hear quite the same physical scale as a real orchestra —which is neither here nor there, since there doesn't appear to be any way of…