2nd opinion on Energy Audissey 2+2

I owned a pair of A2+2's about five years ago, when I first got into hi-fi. These were my first "better-than-Bose" speakers.

With most of what I have to say about these speakers, you have to keep in mind that I used mass-market calibre receivers and CD players, and I couldn't position the speakers optimally in the room because of practical considerations.

With that disclaimer out of the way, my opinion of the A2+2 is that they had a dark timbre, and not much treble extension. How do they compare with other speakers? I had a pair of Paradigm Mini-monitors at the time for comparison. The A2+2 had a more open midrange than the Paradigm, the Paradigm midrange sounding recessed in comparison. However, I felt that the Paradigm midrange was smoother; the A2+2 midrange sounded rather grainy.

My speaker priorities are tonal balance and vocal reproduction, so my opinion talks about those aspects. I don't highly value soundstaging, imaging, etc. so I don't have much to say on the A2+2's ability in these areas.

Don't think that I'm being harsh on the A2+2. I've never *really* liked any speaker I've owned or heard in a store. That's why I go through about one pair of speakers per year.

Happy listening.

I currently have the A3+2-1's which is the bigger brother of the 2+2's. They are a fine sounding speaker if you take the time to set them up correctly. They have been the hardest speaker to set-up that I have owned. They seem to work best in my room about 2.5feet from back wall and at least 2feet from side walls; however, it all depends on room size/shape as this is the second room I've used them in. They have pretty good bass extension (maybe more than the comparable sized veritas)the mids are wonderful and highs are just ok, to good. Not a bad speaker for the price, even with the diffuculty of set-up. Take your time, it took a while for me to get the best sound out of them.

The Audissey speakers were a neat design but had to be placed out in the room for the proper soundstage. I had the luck of being a retailer a few years ago and tried these with many different amps. I can tell to never underestimate the benefits of a quality high power amp. One of the best combos I heard was a class A amp with 100 watts per channel, wish I could recall the name,it was a trade in of limited production, and a pair of A2+2s. Depth and vocals were unlike any I had heard before, very surprising considering the rather modest expense. Then again on some hometheater receivers the speakers could be rather bland if not muddied.

I agree with mcspike, my 3+2's didn't wake up untill I ran them with a Parasound HCA-1000 amp. I have heard many times that the Energy speakers work very well powered by Parasound amps, I have to agree. They did sound muddied, to put it lightly, with a Sony 5ES receiver