Audioengine A5+ Powered Speakers

Audioengine designs and manufactures our own tweeters, woofers, and other critical components. In other words, these are not “box built” speakers with off-the-shelf parts but custom-designed to our specifications. What we do not fabricate directly in our factory we have made to our designs (parts such as transformers, magnets, and wiring harnesses, for example). The cabinets, drivers, bass port designs, amplifiers, and crossovers are all painstakingly tuned together for each Audioengine model. This, in turn, makes for a much more efficient system that requires much less power than passive speakers and a separate integrated amplifier or similar A/V components.

Audioengine uses audiophile-quality, ferro fluid cooled silk dome tweeters with neodymium magnets. Silk tweeters hold up well under high power and the edge-driven design gives very smooth response. The woofers are Kevlar woven glass aramid composite with rubber surrounds. Kevlar is obviously very strong, which means that the woofer retains its shape when being driven at high levels. The speaker materials and construction are robust enough to stand up to some serious thrashing, so speaker grills aren’t needed and they will sound and look great after many years of use.

The amplifiers in Audioengine speakers are located in the left speaker and are a conservatively rated analog design. All components are tuned together for each model, which provides a much more efficient system requiring less power than passive speakers and separate amplifiers. Circuit boards for the power and preamp sections are mounted for maximum mechanical shock protection.

Power transformers are a large contributor to the overall audio performance, especially in the low end. Again, no off-the-shelf parts. Audioengine uses gapless core toroidal transformers which have a tighter radiated magnetic field, directly translating to lower noise. They are lighter than standard, lower-cost “EI” transformers and also generate less heat.

Both drivers are directly video shielded and allow the user to place the speakers within a few inches of a video monitor. This shielding also offers protection for hard-drive digital music players.

The Audioengine 5+ includes a 5V, 500mA USB power supply that powers later generation iPod, iPhone, and most other USB “bus-powered” devices. The USB port is for power and charging, not for data transfer or music syncing.