How to get the best results from Audioengine A2 speaker with SB Touch

[MrClive]

Hope someone can help.

I've recently bought some Audioengine A2 speakers for my Squeezebox Touch.

They're currently set up on a shelf along a wall in the corner of the livingroom. I was wondering how to get the best out of them. The shelf is 85cm wide, 30cm deep with a matching sized shelf positioned 30cm above this.

As they're front venting speakers I'm guessing there's no issue with them being too close to the wall. Does anyone know if this is the case?

Would they be better positioned at the front of the shelf or against the wall?

Alternatively would it be better to put them on the higher shelf?

They're also connected with the standard speaker cables and connectors that the SB Touch and A2's come with.

Any recomendations with speaker positioning or connecters that would improve the sound quality?

[garym]

Position at front edge of shelf rather than toward the back

[aubuti]

First advice is to experiment a lot and decide for yourself. There are a lot of other details such as room acoustics that are hard to advise on in absentia. And fortunately those little guys are a lot easier to reposition than some 50kg floorstanders....

My starting point would be to put them on the front of the shelf, so that the front of the speakers lines up with the front edge of the shelf, or even overhangs a little bit. Also, even though their ports are on the front, how close they are to the back wall will make a difference, especially in the perceived bass response. If you want more low end, move them back towards the wall, which also means having more shelf in front of the speaker. In some cases that gives unpleasant reflections, in other cases it gives the extra oomph that a listener is looking for.

As for higher shelf or lower shelf, it depends mostly on how high they are. Most often you want the speakers at ear level when you are in the main listening position(s), which for a home living room is usually sitting down. So whether that is the lower or the higher shelf depends on how low your lower shelf is.

The Touch's RCA cables are nothing to write home about, and I don't know about the cables that ship with the A2s. If you want to upgrade from those, you can get good quality, reasonably priced, no-BS cables from bluejeanscable.com. I like the LC-1 RCA cables (to go from the Touch to the L speaker) and the "10 white" or "12 white" speaker cables (to go from the L speaker to the R speaker), but there are plenty of other good alternatives. I wouldn't worry about it until you get the placement where you like it.

Enjoy!

[pippin]

Numb as the A2s are there is little sense in playing around with the cables too much.

If the wall resonates I would move them away a bit, it's always wise to have speakers at the front of the shelf.

The one thing you have to take care of the most with the A2s, though, is their relative position to your listening position.
They are kind of extreme near-field speakers and do give quite a bit of a directional sound. So if your listening position is generally higher than the speakers, you could try to move them a bit back on the shelf, if your listening position is below the speakers you could tilt them a bit, I did that with mine in such a situation.

It's a bit hard to make them sound right in a very big or very small room and if you are not sitting/standing close to them and IF you are sitting close to them there's little you can do wrong (except to have too small a room).

[MrClive]

Thanks for all of the advice, I'll have a play around with them.

They're currently positioned either side of the touch facing slightly away from the main listening area (for neatness....not me my other half)
In regards to the height of the speakers they currently on a shelf that's about 5 and a half feet off the ground. Generally positioned there to keep them out of the way of my children!!

Thanks again, will keep you posted

[aubuti]

In regards to the height of the speakers they currently on a shelf that's about 5 and a half feet off the ground. Generally positioned there to keep them out of the way of my children!!

Yes, and the lack of grilles makes them especially attractive to kids....