Audioengine A5 or Passive speakers with Amplifier?
- Thread starter balashome
- Start date
balashome said:
Thank you.
Why HTPC instead of CD/DVD?
Answer is I can not play HD DVD/Blue Ray rips in any DVD player.
DVD player's functionality is limited, HTPC's is not. It can play any format I throw at HTPC.
HTPC also saved me from buying a low end dedicated CD player, In the audio side. Also I can play FLACs,MP3s, whatever in HTPC, not just CDs as in CD Player.
Hey balashome! I own both the setups your looking at, the A5 and passive speakers with an amp (Although floorstanders).
The A5's are primarily designed as studio monitors and that's exactly what I'm using them for (My family home studio). The response is not as flat as the M-Audio's but certainly not close to Passive bookshelves for enjoying music. These are more for setting your mixes right and monitoring your instruments.
My other setup consists of a Marantz SR4001 with two Sonodyne 2605's for general music listening and home theatre applications.
For the application your looking for, I'd strongly recommend the amp+bookshelves solution as the A5's can leave you lacking for that extra bit.
However if slightly frequencies don't really matter to you and you'd pick the versatility and compactness of the A5, then by all means do go ahead since if your not really into high end audio, they won't disappoint you one bit. Don't underestimate them, they are very capable speakers.
The A5's are primarily designed as studio monitors and that's exactly what I'm using them for (My family home studio). The response is not as flat as the M-Audio's but certainly not close to Passive bookshelves for enjoying music. These are more for setting your mixes right and monitoring your instruments.
My other setup consists of a Marantz SR4001 with two Sonodyne 2605's for general music listening and home theatre applications.
For the application your looking for, I'd strongly recommend the amp+bookshelves solution as the A5's can leave you lacking for that extra bit.
However if slightly frequencies don't really matter to you and you'd pick the versatility and compactness of the A5, then by all means do go ahead since if your not really into high end audio, they won't disappoint you one bit. Don't underestimate them, they are very capable speakers.
Hello Anish,
Thanks for responding. The information you provided is very useful.
Hmmm...wonder why the reviews all over the web are so very effusive then! Also what do you think about claims that Active Speakers are better than Passive Speakers (all other things being equal)?
Thanks for responding. The information you provided is very useful.
Hmmm...wonder why the reviews all over the web are so very effusive then! Also what do you think about claims that Active Speakers are better than Passive Speakers (all other things being equal)?
Also if I do decide to go the passive speaker+amp route, what do members feel about the following combination(s)?
1) Denon 1508 + PSB Alpha B1 (37000 Rs.)
2) Denon 1508 + Polk RTi A1 (35500 Rs.)
3) Marantz SR3001 + Energy C1 (35000 Rs.)
4) Yamaha RX V463 + PSB Alpha B1 (38000 Rs.)
5) Yamaha RX V463 + Mission M31i (34500 Rs. )
This is about the maximum price range that I want to go with right now. I am yet to audition the Wharfedale series. So, I have not included those. Any suggestions are welcome.
1) Denon 1508 + PSB Alpha B1 (37000 Rs.)
2) Denon 1508 + Polk RTi A1 (35500 Rs.)
3) Marantz SR3001 + Energy C1 (35000 Rs.)
4) Yamaha RX V463 + PSB Alpha B1 (38000 Rs.)
5) Yamaha RX V463 + Mission M31i (34500 Rs. )
This is about the maximum price range that I want to go with right now. I am yet to audition the Wharfedale series. So, I have not included those. Any suggestions are welcome.
bottle said:
Had a 10 min chat with Ashutosh also over the phone when buying them he and confirmed the same. I was very keen to buy the M-Audio BX5a's but he convinced me that the A5's would sound better overall.
That's a very generalised statement and I wouldn't buy such statements. It depends specifically on the speakers in question and each amplification system has its own merits and limitations. If we start getting into that, we'll need another thread and have to invite Sangrambalashome said:
I've been a little sporadic over here, so this thread hadn't come up for me (or attracted my attention) on my earlier searches.
I'll chip in what I can - seeing it's almost 1am here.
Very quickly, a bad active system will be worse than a good passive system, all other things being equal. Also, a well-designed passive will beat an active at the same price point, all other things being equal - the additional cost of amplification robs some of the attention the rest of the circuitry would have gotten. And very generally, a well-designed active will have a crossover that may be more expensive than the cost of an electronic crossover and the amps in an active system. Confusing? It's meant to be.
To put it very simply, there is no golden formula or rule to ascertain which would suit you better. You have to carefully consider your requirements, your ability to drive low-level or speaker-level signals around a room (both of which are very complex matters best left to a more technical discussion which I don't have the time for at this moment but can get into later), the intended use of the said system and the depth of your pockets.
There are advocates on both sides of the fence, with examples like the Nautilus and the Confidence on the passive side, and the Orions and the Beolab5 on the active side at the ~3000 dollar budget range, for example. None is better than the other, but they're all a little different. Active speakers do have a number of advantages - a lower number of performance-affecting variables, easier match between multiple units, more predictable performance, and a system that keeps to spec for a longer period of time. But they do need a very capable upstream system and decent power connections spread across the room. You can't put 5 sets of Orions in your living room and use an extension cord. Passive systems have more difficulty in crossover consistency, and therefore matching between units is generally quite poor (specially at the entry level), are sometimes difficult to drive, and require low-impedance connections to the amplifier, so you have to route some pretty heavy wires all over your living room.
My recommendation would be the regular passive speaker + receiver route. I know 60% of your usage is music, and therefore the ideal setup for you would have been two high quality speakers and a high-quality stereo amp, unless you are hell-bent on surround. Which it seems you are, so I'll assume surround it is - and so you need a scalable set of 5 speakers and a sub, plus a receiver to go with it.
Coming to your specific choices, I have heard the Image series but not the Alpha. The B25 are very, very good speakers and you'd be hard-pressed to find equivalent value (they cost ~25K/pr). I know the Wharfedales get more votes around here and probably for good reason, but I have not heard them so can't comment on their sound. The PSBs image beautifully, and can fill a reasonably large room with little stress. A little on the quiet side, but they disappear easily once the volume is cranked up. You need a good amp for them - they are low impedance speakers and reasonably difficult to drive.
The Mission are very ho-hum - boring, flat and uninvolving. Polite, and can sound a little stressed at high levels. Very little dynamic range, so I'm not sure will work well for movies. The Polks are just the opposite, very juicy and bright - probably excellent speakers for home theater if you want to impress the neighbors, or if you do a lot of listening at very low levels, where the excess brightness may actually help. Not polite at all, so may be fatiguing over long stretches of loud listening. I hated them, btw, but you might want to listen as a point of of reference (and to figure out how you would treat any advice that I give here).
The issue with studio monitors is that they are totally unsuited for music listening unless you're a mixing engineer trying to analyse recordings for techniques and tricks. If the A5 sounds like it, I'd stay far away if my intended use is music and movies. I have covered some of the pitfalls of this approach earlier, search my posts.
However, the A5s are targeted toward music listeners so I doubt very much that they will have the response of a studio monitor. Since they clearly state that they are "not designed to be up-close nearfield studio monitors", I am pretty sure that their crossovers are optimised for mid/far field use. Again, I have not heard these but if it was a serious monitor (with all its attendant defects for regular room usage) it would have merited some attention in the pro circles, of which it has none, so I can safely assume it is a "room" speaker and not a "Studio" speaker. It should therefore be usable for HT duty.
As far as the receivers are concerned, I'm afraid I can't help you there. Maybe some of the other guys will have more inputs for you.
I'll chip in what I can - seeing it's almost 1am here.
Very quickly, a bad active system will be worse than a good passive system, all other things being equal. Also, a well-designed passive will beat an active at the same price point, all other things being equal - the additional cost of amplification robs some of the attention the rest of the circuitry would have gotten. And very generally, a well-designed active will have a crossover that may be more expensive than the cost of an electronic crossover and the amps in an active system. Confusing? It's meant to be.
To put it very simply, there is no golden formula or rule to ascertain which would suit you better. You have to carefully consider your requirements, your ability to drive low-level or speaker-level signals around a room (both of which are very complex matters best left to a more technical discussion which I don't have the time for at this moment but can get into later), the intended use of the said system and the depth of your pockets.
There are advocates on both sides of the fence, with examples like the Nautilus and the Confidence on the passive side, and the Orions and the Beolab5 on the active side at the ~3000 dollar budget range, for example. None is better than the other, but they're all a little different. Active speakers do have a number of advantages - a lower number of performance-affecting variables, easier match between multiple units, more predictable performance, and a system that keeps to spec for a longer period of time. But they do need a very capable upstream system and decent power connections spread across the room. You can't put 5 sets of Orions in your living room and use an extension cord. Passive systems have more difficulty in crossover consistency, and therefore matching between units is generally quite poor (specially at the entry level), are sometimes difficult to drive, and require low-impedance connections to the amplifier, so you have to route some pretty heavy wires all over your living room.
My recommendation would be the regular passive speaker + receiver route. I know 60% of your usage is music, and therefore the ideal setup for you would have been two high quality speakers and a high-quality stereo amp, unless you are hell-bent on surround. Which it seems you are, so I'll assume surround it is - and so you need a scalable set of 5 speakers and a sub, plus a receiver to go with it.
Coming to your specific choices, I have heard the Image series but not the Alpha. The B25 are very, very good speakers and you'd be hard-pressed to find equivalent value (they cost ~25K/pr). I know the Wharfedales get more votes around here and probably for good reason, but I have not heard them so can't comment on their sound. The PSBs image beautifully, and can fill a reasonably large room with little stress. A little on the quiet side, but they disappear easily once the volume is cranked up. You need a good amp for them - they are low impedance speakers and reasonably difficult to drive.
The Mission are very ho-hum - boring, flat and uninvolving. Polite, and can sound a little stressed at high levels. Very little dynamic range, so I'm not sure will work well for movies. The Polks are just the opposite, very juicy and bright - probably excellent speakers for home theater if you want to impress the neighbors, or if you do a lot of listening at very low levels, where the excess brightness may actually help. Not polite at all, so may be fatiguing over long stretches of loud listening. I hated them, btw, but you might want to listen as a point of of reference (and to figure out how you would treat any advice that I give here).
The issue with studio monitors is that they are totally unsuited for music listening unless you're a mixing engineer trying to analyse recordings for techniques and tricks. If the A5 sounds like it, I'd stay far away if my intended use is music and movies. I have covered some of the pitfalls of this approach earlier, search my posts.
However, the A5s are targeted toward music listeners so I doubt very much that they will have the response of a studio monitor. Since they clearly state that they are "not designed to be up-close nearfield studio monitors", I am pretty sure that their crossovers are optimised for mid/far field use. Again, I have not heard these but if it was a serious monitor (with all its attendant defects for regular room usage) it would have merited some attention in the pro circles, of which it has none, so I can safely assume it is a "room" speaker and not a "Studio" speaker. It should therefore be usable for HT duty.
As far as the receivers are concerned, I'm afraid I can't help you there. Maybe some of the other guys will have more inputs for you.
Chaos said:
Monitor Audio was in that list originally. But the Bronze BR2 got very expensive. I dont know how SuperCzar managed to get the AudioPeople guy to give him the BR2s at 16500 but the guy at the shop is talking about giving the BR1 to me at 17000
. Now that would mean that the BR2s would be somewhere near 19000 and that would shoot the cost beyond 40000 which I dont want to happen.Sangram - that was a very helpful and detailed message. Considering that this was pretty late in the night, it is especially appreciable. Thank you.
Coming to the Audioengine A5 speaker, any review that you can find on the internet (and there are gazillions of them) only talks of them in glowing terms. They have been tested for near field listening as well as for room filling tests, for soundstage as well as imaging. I have seen a few measurement tests too where the Audioengines seem to have done a great job. I was almost 90% fixed on getting them when I got Anish's message here.
Still I have got a simple question for Anish here - would you rate the Audioengines above the comparably priced passive speakers - such as the Wharfedale Diamonds, Mordaunt Shorts, PSB Alphas or the Missions?
And Sangram - you are bang on right about the Mission M31i speakers. They are indeed very uninvolving speakers. But they do come into their own on movies. The dia drive bass drivers do add depth and timing to effects such as tinkles, bursts or explosions. In fact, the Missions produced the best bass that I had heard among the bookshelves listed! But the midrange is the most important thing for me and there the Missions do not distinguish themselves.
And the PSB Alpha B1s are right at the top of my list to buy at this moment. Thank you for the information about the Image 25 series. I have heard only good things about them.
But here is my question - if Audioengines are good for HT duty, can I look at a scenario where I buy the Audioengine A5s as the left and right speakers for now and then look at adding a sub and then add the A2s are the rear speakers? Is that sort of setup possible? Can pairs of Active speakers actually be linked together for a surround effect? Would setting up such a surround effect system (a 4.1 basically) involve adding an amplifier necessarily?
But Sangram, as keen as I do appear on surround, it is music which is of greater importance for me. However, the better half and the rest of the family is keen on movies as well. So, there has got to be a middle point. And if the system is scalable to accomodate surround as well, that would clinch the deal, so to speak.
Thank you everybody for all the help!
Coming to the Audioengine A5 speaker, any review that you can find on the internet (and there are gazillions of them) only talks of them in glowing terms. They have been tested for near field listening as well as for room filling tests, for soundstage as well as imaging. I have seen a few measurement tests too where the Audioengines seem to have done a great job. I was almost 90% fixed on getting them when I got Anish's message here.
Still I have got a simple question for Anish here - would you rate the Audioengines above the comparably priced passive speakers - such as the Wharfedale Diamonds, Mordaunt Shorts, PSB Alphas or the Missions?
And Sangram - you are bang on right about the Mission M31i speakers. They are indeed very uninvolving speakers. But they do come into their own on movies. The dia drive bass drivers do add depth and timing to effects such as tinkles, bursts or explosions. In fact, the Missions produced the best bass that I had heard among the bookshelves listed! But the midrange is the most important thing for me and there the Missions do not distinguish themselves.
And the PSB Alpha B1s are right at the top of my list to buy at this moment. Thank you for the information about the Image 25 series. I have heard only good things about them.
But here is my question - if Audioengines are good for HT duty, can I look at a scenario where I buy the Audioengine A5s as the left and right speakers for now and then look at adding a sub and then add the A2s are the rear speakers? Is that sort of setup possible? Can pairs of Active speakers actually be linked together for a surround effect? Would setting up such a surround effect system (a 4.1 basically) involve adding an amplifier necessarily?
But Sangram, as keen as I do appear on surround, it is music which is of greater importance for me.
However, the better half and the rest of the family is keen on movies as well. So, there has got to be a middle point. And if the system is scalable to accomodate surround as well, that would clinch the deal, so to speak. Thank you everybody for all the help!
Anish - I had this question in the middle of a post to Sangram. So I am putting this out here for better visibility:
Still I have got a simple question for Anish here - would you rate the Audioengines above the comparably priced passive speakers - such as the Wharfedale Diamonds, Mordaunt Shorts, PSB Alphas or the Missions?
Still I have got a simple question for Anish here - would you rate the Audioengines above the comparably priced passive speakers - such as the Wharfedale Diamonds, Mordaunt Shorts, PSB Alphas or the Missions?
^^Why don't you request gmano to go with you... since he's already got it for that price, I guess he should have no issues getting another pair 
. PSBs are great speakers as well. If you can't manage the monitor audios, get the PSBs. A person is buying my old Jamo E855 speakers and he seemed to be very very happy with his earlier PSB Image towers.
If you were in bangalore, I'd have straightaway suggested the Usher S520 but unfortunately you are not.
. PSBs are great speakers as well. If you can't manage the monitor audios, get the PSBs. A person is buying my old Jamo E855 speakers and he seemed to be very very happy with his earlier PSB Image towers.If you were in bangalore, I'd have straightaway suggested the Usher S520 but unfortunately you are not.
Chaos said:^^Why don't you request gmano to go with you... since he's already got it for that price, I guess he should have no issues getting another pair
If you were in bangalore, I'd have straightaway suggested the Usher S520 but unfortunately you are not.
Oh, I must have confused gmano with SuperCzar. I have a Wharfedale Diamond series audition with Promusicals on Saturday after which I might visit Decibel to see about the best deal he can offer on the Yamaha RX V463 and PSB Alpha B1 combination. Based on how they turn out, I will get back with my impressions here and take the forum's advice.
By the way does anybody here know whether the Sharda Motors place (ProAcoustics) is still there at T.Nagar, Chennai? I have been trying to get their phone numbers, but to no avail. The numbers that I have managed to get are all not reachable. Have they closed down?
Why dont you go visit audiopeople in person and try to see if you can wrangle a good deal on the monitor audios. BR2 is really nice (maybe mano can give you a demo at his place) I picked up a monitor audio b1 (the generation before BR series) for 12.5k myself.balashome said:Monitor Audio was in that list originally. But the Bronze BR2 got very expensive. I dont know how SuperCzar managed to get the AudioPeople guy to give him the BR2s at 16500 but the guy at the shop is talking about giving the BR1 to me at 17000
that proacoustics is also along the road where audiopeople is right ? what do they deal with. i remember one dealer there which closed down and it could be pro acoustics. what do they deal with. when i went they had boston, marantz and a few others
bottle said:
Ah, bottle, I think you are referring to ProAcoustics. If you say they have closed down, then that must be the reason why I am not able to raise any response from their numbers. They were also supposed to have Mordaunt Avant Shorts. I was interested in listening to the 902is! Guess that is not possible.
And I will try to wrangle a good deal on the BR2s at Audio People. But that probably depends on how the audition with the Wharfedale Diamonds go. Regardless I should have an audition with the BR2s as well anyway.
Promusicals is in Egmore - Casa Major Road. They stock Wharfedale Diamonds, Marantz and Yamahas. The person I talked to there, Perumal, also mentioned that they could have a year old stock which could be priced attractively. Let me go visit them and see what they have to offer. Then I will post the information here.
Also can people suggest some good auditioning material? Maybe a CD for mid range, another for bass and another for the higher frequencies?
I try and get an idea using Classical music vocal performances. But I am not sure if that is the best way to go about doing it. Please advice.
I try and get an idea using Classical music vocal performances. But I am not sure if that is the best way to go about doing it. Please advice.
Dealers / Mordaunt Short
try talking to this guy and see if he has them
the audio people website is also listing mordaunt, you can check there too
try talking to this guy and see if he has them
the audio people website is also listing mordaunt, you can check there too