Audioengine 5 Powered Loudspeakers

Finally, real speakers designed for portable audio players that deliver excellent quality sound (and don’t cost a fortune).

Huge Sound, Small Size
Audioengine 5 is a full-size speaker system in a bookshelf-sized package. Internal power amps eliminate the need to connect the Audioengine 5 to a bulky stereo receiver or power amplifier. And with built-in subwoofer ports, the Audioengine 5 adds incredible low-end bass without the need for an external subwoofer.

Built-in iPod Charging
Designed for optimal ease of setup and versatility, the Audioengine 5 has a built-in power port for iPod charging while listening to your music, watching movies, or playing games. Plug an Apple Universal Dock or iPod directly into the Audioengine Combo Port and you're ready to rock (or roll). The Combo Port charger is compatible with the nano and video iPod as well as all other products that charge via USB.

Airport Express Power
With an AC power jack in the rear panel, the Audioengine 5 provides the ability to stream music from your laptop directly to the speakers through Apple's Airport Express. The rear panel AC outlet is also ideal for providing power to other portable and home A/V equipment.A 2nd auxiliary mini-jack is located nearby for audio input from the Airport Express or other products. We've also included plenty of cables in a drawstring bag to connect all your gear.

No Receiver? No Problem!
For listening to real stereo sound Audioengine is all you need. If you want awesome speakers for your portable music player, game console, TV or DVD player but don't want a bulky receiver/amp hogging up your space, the Audioengine 5 system does the job.

Tasty Bass
Small Speakers, Big Bass. You won't hear any enhanced super-mega-hyper-monster boomy bass from these speakers. The low end from the Audioengine 5 is real bass, very near to originally-recorded music. From rap to classical to movies, you'll get tight, punchy bass with an awesome growl that will make you smile - regardless of the volume level.

Natural Mids and Dynamic Highs
The way Audioengine speakers duplicate a music soundstage is really cool. We had all these great adjectives written up to describe the midrange and highs (buzz phrases like "tonal accuracy with transparent clarity, excellent detail and harmonic correctness"), but they all just seemed overused and sort of lame. Our goal was to bring you the sound as it was originally mixed in the studio. Vocals are clearly placed and each instrument occupies its own space, making the speakers seem invisible to your ears. We feel that we've succeeded in our goal and hope you agree!

Brawn, Brains, and Beauty
Kevlar woofers for powerful bass, silk dome tweeters for smooth highs, built-in power amplifiers, truly useful connections, and a clean industrial design all allow the Audioengine 5 to integrate perfectly in your living room, bedroom, or desktop. Custom-designed and handcrafted wood cabinets with high-gloss professional piano finish make the Audioengine 5 a true work of art.

Audioengine 5 Tech Stuff

Custom Built
Audioengine designs and manufactures our own tweeters, woofers, and many other critical components. In other words, these are not "box built" speakers with off-the-shelf parts but entirely custom-designed to our specifications. What we do not fabricate directly in our factory we have custom-made to our designs (parts such as toroidal 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 AV stereo receivers and passive speakers.

Based on Studio Monitor Designs
Studio monitor speakers are used by producers and engineers in recording and production studios. They are designed with a theoretical flat frequency response which allows the engineer to create a final mix in such a way that the recorded music will sound good on most other speakers. Although Audioengine speakers are not designed to be up-close "nearfield" studio monitors, we do carry over much of the same higher-end technology, components, and design philosophy for Audioengine speakers.

Drivers
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. In other words, we did our homework on the speaker drivers and they will sound and look great after many years of use.

Cabinets
To minimize unwanted resonances and distortion, Audioengine cabinets have 1” thick high-resin MDF walls with extensive internal bracing. Heavy internal sound-damping material is used to reduce unwanted sound reflections inside the cabinet. All cabinet edges are rounded which look great and reduce high-frequency diffraction effects on the front baffles. Each cabinet contains tuned, rear-firing ports. Both speakers are tuned and tested together and sold in pairs.

Power Amplifier
The amplifiers in Audioengine speakers are very conservatively rated. 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 vertically mounted for maximum mechanical shock protection (a good thing).

Transformers
Power transformers are a large contributor to the overall audio performance, especially in the low end. Again, no off-the-shelf parts here. 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. In other words, toroidal transformers do make a difference.

Shielding
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.

USB Power
5V@1.2A USB power supply powers the latest generation iPods and most other USB "bus-powered" devices. The USB port is for charging only, not for data transfer or music syncing.

Recommended Speaker Setup
It is true that proper speaker placement has a huge impact on sound quality. There are many different theories, but all rooms and tastes are different so it's impossible to specify a "correct" placement. We do suggest you experiment with a few different locations to see what works for you. As a general rule of thumb for the best soundstage balance, the speakers should be equi-distant from side walls and a different distance from rear walls. For the best bass response on Audioengine 5, we recommend that you keep a minimum distance of 6-12" between the rear of the speakers and the rear wall.