Acoustic Energy Aego

cyKey · 26 Dec 2005 at 20:42

I've been testing mine for the past 2 days. Initially I was disapointed. Sure they were a crisper cleaner sound than my Creative 6700's but were they really worth £100? I was disapointed that one of my favourite tracks was actually more distorted than it was on my Creatives. However. After swapping from iTunes to Winamp and testing out some other tracks I've come to love these speakers. I'm sure its just an issue with the equalizer thats causing iTunes to mess up at the moment. I was wowed by the extra detail I could hear in Radiohead's tracks, by the clarity of some acoustic albums I have and by the oh so lovely bass on the Batman Begins soundtrack. I've got mine set at level 2 and I'm starting to appreciate how some tracks don't have any bass and how some have perfect bass. They've done exactly what I wanted which was to fall in love with my tunes again

I'll take some pics of mine, I got the white ones. White monitor, keyboard, mac, etc

ray · 26 Dec 2005 at 20:51

-Neil- said:
What sort of cable is that coming from the pc to the Left and Right connectors?
Any advantage to using different cabling, the stuff that comes with the speakers seems to be a good quality.

Neil.

Hi Neil,

The supplied cable that connected the soundcard output to the L/R speaker input was damaged so there was no sound in one channel.

Rather than waiting and going through the hassle or trying to get a replacement cable from Acoustic Energy, I just used a Monster brand cable that I had lying around which I think cost me £20.

I haven't compared the sound between the original and the upgraded cable but I doubt they'll be much of a difference. It just looks better

Ray.

-Neil- · 26 Dec 2005 at 21:04

Ah ok, thanks for the info

=============================

These speakers are quite amazing, the leap between these and my old Altec Lansings is like night and day. The best comparison is when I made the switch from some cheap £15 headphones to my £75 Shure E4C's, I can hear parts of songs I've never heard before

Neil.

cyKey · 26 Dec 2005 at 22:44

flyman · 31 Dec 2005 at 19:16

cyKey said:
I've been testing mine for the past 2 days. Initially I was disapointed. Sure they were a crisper cleaner sound than my Creative 6700's but were they really worth £100? I was disapointed that one of my favourite tracks was actually more distorted than it was on my Creatives. However. After swapping from iTunes to Winamp and testing out some other tracks I've come to love these speakers. I'm sure its just an issue with the equalizer thats causing iTunes to mess up at the moment. I was wowed by the extra detail I could hear in Radiohead's tracks, by the clarity of some acoustic albums I have and by the oh so lovely bass on the Batman Begins soundtrack. I've got mine set at level 2 and I'm starting to appreciate how some tracks don't have any bass and how some have perfect bass. They've done exactly what I wanted which was to fall in love with my tunes again I'll take some pics of mine, I got the white ones. White monitor, keyboard, mac, etc

Hi cyKey,

I understand you're using your Aego M's with a Mac. Have you got them up and running ok? I'm thinking of buying the same or possibly the Klipsch Pro Media 2.1's or Altec Lansings MX5021 speakers. Have you listened to any of these other speakers to make a comparison?
You also mentioned that there may be problems with the equaliser in iTunes! Did you resolve the problem? Funny you should mention that because I have a similar problem when using the equaliser with Airport Expess/iTunes, the music just sounds really poor quality!

cyKey · 31 Dec 2005 at 20:14

Ah I'm actually using them on my PC with an Audigy 2 card. The problem I had in iTunes was due to the supposedly perfect equalizer settings I found, which on some tracks sounded wrong. DRZ told me to turn off all equalizers and since then its been great. I've positioned my speakers like so;

I haven't heard any of those speakers but they are better than my Creative 6700's 6.1 system. A much cleaner sound, crisper bass.

flyman · 3 Jan 2006 at 14:25

Hi again!

Well I think I'm going to go with the Aego M's. Its a shame theres not a headphone socket. Any idea if I can get some sort of device for switching between my USB PC165 headphones and the Aego M speakers?

zealot · 3 Jan 2006 at 15:14

flyman said:
Hi again!

Well I think I'm going to go with the Aego M's. Its a shame theres not a headphone socket. Any idea if I can get some sort of device for switching between my USB PC165 headphones and the Aego M speakers?

Why when you have usb headphones. If you still need one Plantronics Headphone Switch cost about £10.

flyman · 3 Jan 2006 at 18:27

zealot said:
Why when you have usb headphones. If you still need one Plantronics Headphone Switch cost about £10.

Hi zealot,

To answer your question, its just that sometimes I prefer to play with speakers and on other occasions with headphones!

BTW this Plantronics gizmo - whats it called, where can I buy one and do you know if it will work with my Mac?

Sorry, bit of a noobie when it comes to this kind of stuff. :confused:

zealot · 3 Jan 2006 at 22:40

Oh i see anyway just cut Plantronics Headphone Switch into google you should find one as it's against the rules I would think it would work with the mac the switch only uses jack plugs.

flyman · 3 Jan 2006 at 23:11

zealot said:
Oh i see anyway just cut Plantronics Headphone Switch into google you should find one as it's against the rules I would think it would work with the mac the switch only uses jack plugs.

Hi zealot,

Bad news I'm afraid. I had a conversation with Plantronics and they said that the switch is analogue and will not work with USB headphones! :confused:

Back to the drawing board again i think

zealot · 3 Jan 2006 at 23:39

Just plug the switch after the usb section of the headphones as they have jacks as well don't they?

findrum · 8 Jan 2006 at 20:52

I'm looking for some new speakers to go with my Mac and I recently tried the Bose Companion 3, Altec Lansing FX-6021, and Creative's D250s and wasn't happy with any of them. Returned them all in the end. The Bose sounded the best overall, and looked great, but I wasn't happy with the annoying hiss coming from the satelite speakers. The Altec's looked cheap, sounded mediocre, and the sub hummed and buzzed even with nothing connected to its input. The Creative's just sound like they looked: cheesy plastic boxes.

I saw the Aego Ms at Mac Expo but the rep tried to impress by cranking up the volume, a waste of time in the noisy environment of a show. He said that a guy from Bose had said that the Aego's sounded great and that a £99 price tag was a real worry for Bose. I'd love to try these but am a little concerned by the low price tag. Anyone compared them to Bose?

mctrials23 · 9 Jan 2006 at 00:03

z-2300's are sweet, sounds amazing with a sb live and ive just ordered an x-fi so should be even better.

Also you get a headphone jack in the remote

flyman · 9 Jan 2006 at 10:15

findrum said:
I'm looking for some new speakers to go with my Mac and I recently tried the Bose Companion 3, Altec Lansing FX-6021, and Creative's D250s and wasn't happy with any of them. Returned them all in the end. The Bose sounded the best overall, and looked great, but I wasn't happy with the annoying hiss coming from the satelite speakers. The Altec's looked cheap, sounded mediocre, and the sub hummed and buzzed even with nothing connected to its input. The Creative's just sound like they looked: cheesy plastic boxes.

I saw the Aego Ms at Mac Expo but the rep tried to impress by cranking up the volume, a waste of time in the noisy environment of a show. He said that a guy from Bose had said that the Aego's sounded great and that a £99 price tag was a real worry for Bose. I'd love to try these but am a little concerned by the low price tag. Anyone compared them to Bose?

Hi Findrum,

I think that choosing speakers is a very personal thing and using your own ears is really the only way to go, though I must admit I did rely on other peoples ratings before I bought!

I'm not an audiophile but I think I do know when things sound good - The Aego M's sound very very good indeed. A very remarkable sound quality for their size. They're also very well made and look great sat alongside a Mac!

In my opinion for the price they get 10/10.
Hope that helps for you.

findrum · 12 Jan 2006 at 09:32

flyman said:
Hi Findrum,

I think that choosing speakers is a very personal thing and using your own ears is really the only way to go, though I must admit I did rely on other peoples ratings before I bought!

I'm not an audiophile but I think I do know when things sound good - The Aego M's sound very very good indeed. A very remarkable sound quality for their size. They're also very well made and look great sat alongside a Mac!

In my opinion for the price they get 10/10.
Hope that helps for you.

Thanks Flyman.

Do your Aego M satelites hiss at all, and is there any noticeable hum or buzz from the sub?

flyman · 13 Jan 2006 at 08:58

findrum said:
Thanks Flyman.

Do your Aego M satelites hiss at all, and is there any noticeable hum or buzz from the sub?

I can honestly say that I can only hear a slight hiss from the sats but ONLY when up at MAX volume. With regard to the sub I can hear a very slight hum but again at MAX volume.
In BOTH instances you have to put your ear up against the speaker to hear the noise.
Let me assure the noise does nothing to interfear, and wont distract from your listening to music or playing games.

Please let me know you decide. BTW what Mac do you have?

ATB Flyman

findrum · 13 Jan 2006 at 13:05

flyman said:
I can honestly say that I can only hear a slight hiss from the sats but ONLY when up at MAX volume. With regard to the sub I can hear a very slight hum but again at MAX volume.
In BOTH instances you have to put your ear up against the speaker to hear the noise.
Let me assure the noise does nothing to interfear, and wont distract from your listening to music or playing games.

Please let me know you decide. BTW what Mac do you have?

ATB Flyman

Thanks Flyman. I can live with a little hiss when the volume is cranked all the way up. The Bose Companion 3s hissed even when the volume was turned down all the way. Muting them stopped it, but then I couldn't hear any system beeps. I work at my computer all day and couldn't put up with the hissing satellites, especially as they are intended to be used either side of the computer monitor, which is only 2 ft. from your ears. They looked and sounded great, but it's a lot of money to pay for annoying hiss. Perhaps Bose will introduce a Companion 3a that fixes the problem.

I think I'll give the Aego Ms a try with the option of returning them within 7 days if I'm not happy. Trouble is, I can only find Superfi that's selling them online and I've had bad experience with their customer service in the past.

I'm using a Titanium G4 PowerBook but am now drooling over a G5 Power Mac :-)

We'll see.

flyman · 13 Jan 2006 at 18:20

findrum said:
Thanks Flyman. I can live with a little hiss when the volume is cranked all the way up. The Bose Companion 3s hissed even when the volume was turned down all the way. Muting them stopped it, but then I couldn't hear any system beeps. I work at my computer all day and couldn't put up with the hissing satellites, especially as they are intended to be used either side of the computer monitor, which is only 2 ft. from your ears. They looked and sounded great, but it's a lot of money to pay for annoying hiss. Perhaps Bose will introduce a Companion 3a that fixes the problem.

I think I'll give the Aego Ms a try with the option of returning them within 7 days if I'm not happy. Trouble is, I can only find Superfi that's selling them online and I've had bad experience with their customer service in the past.

I'm using a Titanium G4 PowerBook but am now drooling over a G5 Power Mac We'll see.

I sit at my PC for hours at a time without any music on and theres no hiss/hum whatsoever.
Thought you might like to know that I bought my Aego M's from Superfi and found their service very good with no problems at all. Perhaps you've just been unlucky?
BTW good luck with the G5. Are you not waiting for a new Intel chip model?

ray · 13 Jan 2006 at 20:04

findrum said:
I think I'll give the Aego Ms a try with the option of returning them within 7 days if I'm not happy. Trouble is, I can only find Superfi that's selling them online and I've had bad experience with their customer service in the past.

If you don't want to buy from SuperFi you can try the online site recommended by Acoustic Energy themselves who I bought my set of Aego's from. They currently have it in stock for £99.99 including delivery which is the same as SuperFi.

I'm not sure I can mention the site but you can contact Acoustic Energy to ask them.

http://www.acoustic-energy.co.uk/Contact_us/index.asp

Ray.