Audioengine A2+ has white noise. Defective?

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myst4ry

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Is this speaker supposed to be dead silent when nothing is playing, or even nothing plugged into it? The moment I plug it into the power socket, and turn it on, it makes a white noise, I can hear it slightly from where I sit, and if I put my ear closer, it's definitely a white noise with a slight buzz, kind of like when you turn the volume up too loud on speakers when nothing is playing.

Can anyone let me know if this is normal, so I can return them if not? Thanks
 
450 said:
Seems more like power issues if anything.
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Are your speakers dead silent, I normally only use monitor speakers, so I don't know if this is normal or not.

Noise comes out of upper part of speaker, so I'm guessing that is the high frequency driver. The lower part is quiet. Strange thing is that BOTH speakers do the same noise.
 
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+1 I have the Kanto YU5 (similar design), and have the same issue. A low level hiss is apparent when you get really close to the tweeter.
 
I'm having Amazon send me a replacement, will update if new ones also hiss, that would mean that these speakers are truly garbage despite the high recommendations.
 
Replacement also have white noise hiss, I guess it's just the way they were made.

If you're sensitive to high pitched/white noise hisses, DO NOT BUY THIS SPEAKER.

You need to be at least a meter away to not hear it unless your ear is turned towards it, not ideal for computer speakers.
 
myst4ry said:
Replacement also have white noise hiss, I guess it's just the way they were made.

If you're sensitive to high pitched/white noise hisses, DO NOT BUY THIS SPEAKER.

You need to be at least a meter away to not hear it unless your ear is turned towards it, not ideal for computer speakers.
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how high is the volume and what are you using to connect it to your computer? I am using A5+ and I dont have this issue, you should try a different cable. maybe RCA to aux or a different sound device, onboard maybe instead of your soundcard
 
I hate that in speakers. Hopefully the Simple Audio Listen's I just ordered don't show this problem (was also considering A5+'s).
 
Phlorge said:
how high is the volume and what are you using to connect it to your computer? I am using A5+ and I dont have this issue, you should try a different cable. maybe RCA to aux or a different sound device, onboard maybe instead of your soundcard
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he said even with nothing plugged into them this still hiss.
 
Were they sitting near a wireless router?

My Netgear router causes constant noise in every speaker I've put near it, including my BX5's and my home theater speakers. I ended up having to move the router up to a shelf about ~4 feet away from the speakers to get rid of the noise completely. If it's on the desk with them they hiss.
 
A small amount of hiss is perfectly normal for an amplifier. If you can't hear it without taking your ear right to the tweeter nothing is probably wrong.
 
Bummer, Kanto is sending me a replacement, and they indicated that I should not be hearing hiss using it near a computer. Will update as well.
 
A small amount of hiss is normal for any speaker with analog input. This should be too small to be audible, though, unless you are like 1ft away or otherwise really close.

To get away from that, you need to go true digital input, i.e. something like Corsair SP2500 or Vanatoo Transparent One.
 
All amplifiers "hiss" some. Some so little that we cannot hear it (obviously this is desired) but it is always going to be there to some degree. Even some high-end brands are known for this. I had a NAD (a reasonably respected brand from England) T753 (also T761) that both had a TON of hiss. I hated them. Don't know why others like their gear. They were 100x worse with headphones, too (headphones are high-sensitivity and the higher the sensitivity, the easier it is to hear noise). Very bad with speakers (and my speakers are somewhat inefficient at around 86dB or so 1W/1m) but literally unusable with headphones.

This is called "signal to noise ratio" or SNR, by the way. The better the SNR, the less hiss (and hum and other stuff) the amplifier will add to the signal. (In the case of hum, though, it can also be caused by things like ground loops and that would not be related to the SNR spec of the amplifier since it's not the amplifier itself creating the problem.)

As the previous poster said, a digital interconnect can reduce this because cables themselves can also pick up noise (which also is not included in the SNR spec for the amp). But if your amplifier itself is the problem (like it definitely was with my NAD receivers), this still won't help.

Audioengine is not a high-end brand and I really don't know why they are so popular here or why there are such high expectations of them. They aren't $5 speakers and they aren't awful, but just because you like the simplicity of active speakers/"monitors" doesn't make them the best choice. I can't understand the motivations of someone who buys a product just so they can run 1-2 fewer wires. You end up with a product that is worse than other, separate options. You end up with lower reliability where you will have to replace the system if the amp OR the speaker drivers fail. And you end up paying more money overall than you need to for a decent system. And your selection is much worse in general when only considering active options.
 
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dandragonrage said:
Audioengine is not a high-end brand and I really don't know why they are so popular here or why there are such high expectations of them. They aren't $5 speakers and they aren't awful, but just because you like the simplicity of active speakers/"monitors" doesn't make them the best choice. I can't understand the motivations of someone who buys a product just so they can run 1-2 fewer wires. You end up with a product that is worse than other, separate options. You end up with lower reliability where you will have to replace the system if the amp OR the speaker drivers fail. And you end up paying more money overall than you need to for a decent system. And your selection is much worse in general when only considering active options.
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If you're also speaking on monitor, I think monitors are indeed the better choice (in most instances) for listening at the desk; since they don't require a separate amp to power the speakers. Better quality monitors usually have two built in amps, which are calibrated for each driver. In terms of quality, it's completely subjective. I've read countless statements about quality monitors lasting for years.

Sure you may have to send a powered speaker off for repair if an amp dies, but that's just one speaker. If the amp dies powering passive speakers, then nothing works. This is different for Audioengine speakers (and many multimedia speakers) where the amp(s) are usually located in one speaker (*the other is passive*).

I paid a dirt cheap price (in regards to the quality of sound they emit) for my LSR305' at $239 with a volume controller. There are also numerous speakers/brands to select from in active monitor market.
 
All but the cheapest active monitors are meant for professional use. They need to have a neutral near field sound and good endurance, the pros do most of their work with the monitors running.

So unless you buy 50 dollar crap you can completely forget about reliability issues. The monitors are not any more likely to break than your average hifi amplifier is.
 
I'm familiar with the Audioengine A2 as I have a pair and the hiss isn't particularly loud compared to low end computer speakers, some of which have much higher levels of hiss. Also the A2s may be louder than a typical passive speaker system + amp but it's not louder your typical studio monitor.

Most active monitors have higher gain than your typical home theater receiver, so if you are used to using bookshelf speakers you may find the level of tweeter hiss surprising from powered monitors. Also the more active DSP you have the greater the passive noise level will be. For example a super high end DEQX system will several thousand dollar EQ introduce will introduce quite a bit of passive noise on top of what you normally get with powered monitors. So that's the tradeoff with professional systems compared to a home system.

I have some Genelecs 8040s ($3000 msrp) and they also have much higher tweeter hiss than you will get from even $100 receiver and some throwaway $50 passive speakers off Amazon. Gain levels are typically pretty hot on powered monitors. It's just one way to get more output with a small integrated amplifier that has to fit into a tiny form factor.
 
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