Audio Engine A2+ & S8 Sub Review

[Ryoku]

Hey guys so, I just picked up a pair of Audio Engine A2+'s and S8 Sub and thought I'd share my experience with them.  I ordered the speakers and sub from NCIX using the free shipping option and they both came in 2 days, faster then I expected to say the least.  Last time I ordered something from NCIX it took quite awhile, but then again it was just after xmas so they were probably pretty back logged (Note I live in Canada so I ordered from the Canadian one).

 

So first of all here's some pictures of the packaging and contents of the box.

 

 

This was quite the pleasant first view of the contents of the box.  Soft foam with all the cables in quality cloth bags, Off to a good start!

 

 

The contents of the bags are Power adaptor, Speaker Wire, Stereo Cable, USB Cable.  After removing the bags and the top layer of foam, you get to the speakers and manual.

 

 

Again in their own quality cloth bags with a layer of thin soft foam rapped around the speakers.  Finally to the beauties themselves, Very solid and they have a nice bit of weight to them, which was quite the difference from the Old Z-5500 Logitech speakers I came from (which weren't terrible speakers but you could clearly see and feel the difference in quality!).  The speakers have RCA Inputs and Outputs, Stereo Input, USB Input for a Standard-B plug, and connectors for Standard Speaker Wire.  The sub also came packaged in the exact same manner, thick layer of soft foam and the sub was in a HUGE cloth bag of its own (wow, nice touch!).  The sub had some nobs for controlling Volume, Crossover, and Phase.  It has RCA Inputs and Outputs, Stereo In, LFE In, and an Aux Power plug (this is where I plugged the power for my Speakers in)

 

Setup was easy enough, Connected my computer to the sub with the included 6.5 foot Stereo cable then the sub to the A2+'s with the included RCA cable, took less then 5 mins.  Opened Winamp with Armin Van Buuren - A State Of Trance 669 (2014-06-26) radio set and everything in my room started to shake (daaaamn this sub pounds and it was only on like 1/3 volume!)! Crawled under my desk and turn the volume on the sub down and then turned the A2+'s on (oops ).  That's when I was pretty blown away, I'm no audiophile but I can say I'm pretty happy with these speakers/sub.  In my opinion a very good intro to quality speakers.  I can't really explain the way the sound properly but what I can say is that low, Med, and High ranges all sound proper to my untrained ears, no range seemed to over power the others.  Maybe if I was a picky Audiophile I'd probably have some more insight on this? who knows.  I listened to a wide variety of music from Japanese Pop\Rock, Punk, Metal (Variety of different types Death/Black/Progressive ect), Trance, Classic Rock, Classical all sounded great (note I was using a flat equalizer on Winamp so everything was base with no changes).

 

At $259.99 for the A2+'s and $349.99 for the S8 Subwoofer in Canadian they aren't cheap that's for sure, but I'm happy with mine.  If your looking to plunge into a quality sound setup this might be a good starting point but there could be some other options like Kanto YU2, TU5, or YUMI speakers.

 

If you have any questions feel free to ask, I may be able to answer.