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number four out of five in my series of

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speaker reviews and this is one that I have been asked to look at many many

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times or at least the older revision the audio engine A2 pluses are the followup

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to the older revision the extremely popular audio engine a2s and I have to

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say I was really excited to take them for a test

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drive the Corsair Flash Voyager go is the easy way to move photos music and

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videos between your Android device and your PC click now to learn more so let's

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start with what they are the A2 plus is

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a powered 2.0 speaker setup that relies on quality MDF construction with each

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speaker equipped with a 3/4 in silk Dome Tweeter and 2.75 in custom Kevlar woer

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the left speaker contains the business end of things with power in an analog

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input as well as a USB input enabled by the now included DAC that's an

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improvement over the previous A2 a coaxial audio output that allows music

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to be sent wirelessly to other speakers with an optional adapter or a subwoofer

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to be added to the system a two wire output to the right speaker and finally

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I really can't figure out why they put this here A rearm mounted volume knob at

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the front you find the speakers I mentioned before as well as a base Port

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that is the only real trick up the A2 Plus's sleeve in terms of reproducing

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low frequency sounds since it doesn't resort to using any Digital Signal

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processing or fake base boost circuits something that I'll comment on more

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later but let's move on to who these are for well at 250 bucks they're solidly

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constructed but not cheap so they seem to be targeted at folks who are willing

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to pay a premium for well-built non nonsense products that deliver a

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tangible performance improvement over cheaper Solutions but who also don't

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want to get sucked into the hype train of snake oil nonsense that exists around

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many audio file grade products sounds like a recipe for Success Reddit forums

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and other online communities will often rally around just such a bang for the

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buck product and from my casual observation that does seem to be where a

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lot of audio engines Fame comes from on the subject of bang for the buck they

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get reasonably loud louder than the Bowers and Wilkins mm1's for sure but at

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half the price of most of the other products in this review series I'm not

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expecting them to blow the roof off of my house and they don't in fact I'd say

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in terms of maximum volume they're not crank it so loud it hurts speakers where

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you're really going to feel the explosions in your favorite action games and movies but they would be suitable

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for ambient music at a cocktail party if you were to try and use them as room

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speakers as long as you can convince your guests to get a party reasonably

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quietly another thing that they're not is studio monitors although audio engine

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site does make a point of mentioning their studio monitor like design

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philosophy durability and you know quality and all that stuff so don't be

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surprised if you end up with something that might not be a studio monitor but

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might be tuned a little bit differently than your typical you know Beats by Dre

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type of sound signature now speaking of

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non-fat sound signatures the bottom line for me doing my listening tests with my

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usual mix of top 40 music Captain America and Titanfall games dreams is

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that the A2 pluses did not meet my

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expectations and I actually found them to be fairly anemic sounding

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yes I come in expecting them to have a more flat reference sound signature but

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I was still a little bit surprised taking it back at how unexciting they

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were to listen to given that they're half of the price of 2.0 competitors

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like the simple audio listen and Bowers and Wilkins mm1's they start to look

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more compelling because they're certainly better than a you know

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$29.99 plastic speaker set from a gaming brand but however natural sounding the

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bass might be versus the weird one-dimensional sounding base that I

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described in my mm1 review and as objectively better a solution it is to

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not use software tricks to play around with the way the speakers sound I just

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didn't find the A2 pluses that enjoyable to listen to they get surprisingly loud

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for their size yes but it just feels

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empty compared to the systems with base boosting tricks or subwoofers and

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however much the purists might hate me for saying it I prefer those Solutions

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in a side-by-side listening test it's not all bad news though expandability

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for the future is something to consider BMW's mm1's do not offer any subwoofer

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connection so you're stuck with them the way they are and many prepackaged

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speaker sets like Corsair's SP 2500s use

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proprietary cables and connectors so while they do come with a sub they

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aren't easily disconnected from it and connected to other gear in a modular

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fashion not so with these puppies

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hooking up a sub does wonders for the A2 plus and the audio engine S8 subwoofer

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is a great match for the it helps provide the Rumble that multimedia

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freaks will want and while you'll be spending about $100 more than the

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listens of the mm1's aside from the mm1's clear superiority at the high end

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this combo will actually give you a very well-rounded overall experience but they

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still don't get my recommendation because even with the subwoofer they

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feel like in I compromised to save space

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or to save money solution the enclosures

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however well engineered their reinforced MDF Construction with round corners

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might be simply don't seem big enough to

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deliver the same kick in the mids or the lows that they're bigger and not that

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much more expensive in the grand scheme of things Brothers than the A5 plus do

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so that's what you're left with if you want to shop all audio engine not an

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unusual thing given their reputation 250 bucks with no subwoofer and not a lot of

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fun to Listen to In This reviewer's opinion $600 with an S8 subwoofer or

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there's a third option in between that I really think Takes the Cake but you'll

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have to wait for my full review of the audio engine A5 plus to get the complete

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picture don't worry I'll try to get it done soon in the meantime guys thank you

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for watching my review of the A2 pluses the link for where to buy this product

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is in the video description below the like dislike and share buttons which you

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should definitely use accordingly also in the video description is a support

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link that we'd love for you to use if we appreciate what we do you can get a t-shirt give us a monthly contribution

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or change your browser bookmark to sites that give us an Kickback when you buy

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stuff it helps us out a lot thank you again for watching and as always don't

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forget to subscribe to L's Tech tips more unboxings reviews and other

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