If you’re short on time and just want the highlights of this article, here it is:
Overall, the Audioengine P4s are a decent pair of speakers that provide a good, if not a great, sound experience. The 4″ Kevlar woofer and 0.75″ silk dome tweeter provide a full frequency response with plenty of detail, and the bass-reflex port provides additional bass response.
The P4s are easy to connect and use with any type of sound system, from digital hybrid amplifiers to stereo and surround sound receivers. They also come with standard 5-way binding post connectors and are magnetically shielded, making them ideal for use near video monitors and other electronic devices.
The P4s are most ideal for those who are just getting into home audio and want a reliable, easy to use pair of speakers for a reasonable price. However, if you’re after a truly exceptional sound experience, then you might want to look elsewhere.
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Now let’s get to its bolts and nuts.
Audioengine P4 Review: Sound quality
Let me tell you something right off the bat.
The sound quality performance you'll end up getting from a speaker will always depend on your room acoustics - particularly room dimensions and speaker positions.
The impact of the combination of these two is actually so strong that in most cases, it doesn't even make sense to utter a single word on sound quality without speaking of them.
This is also why it's not unusual to see completely different reviews of the same speaker.
In one case the speaker might be placed in a sweet spot inside the room and hence the user might be satisfied. In other cases the same speaker might be ill placed and hence user might even have returned it.
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The point most people miss here is that it mostly isn't even about the engineering behind the speaker itself. It's about where you place the speaker inside which room.
So, in order to solve this problem, I've partnered with Acoustics and Audio Engineering PhD Andrea Cicero from AC Acustica and created Soundton - a simple, 2D, browser accessible online speaker placement calculator.
With Soundton, now there's a way to figure the sound quality of most speakers before you buy them.
Read more about its working principles at soundton.com.
The end colormap provides you the locations with the best (green) and worst (red) acoustics.