Hello everyone, new member here as you can probably tell... I've been looking for a small set of active speakers that could serve double duty, as I plan to use 'em on my desktop most of the time for music listening while I'm on the PC, but would also like them to be semi-portable so I can take them with me and use 'em with an iPod or a laptop at small parties and such. They just have to be loud enough to fill a small room.
Now, I was set on getting the Audioengine A2s due to the stellar reviews they've received everywhere... At $238 w/shipping (it costs a pretty penny to ship stuff to Puerto Rico) they aren't cheap but they aren't too expensive either. Short of some studio-monitor-like sets from M-Audio and Behringer I haven't seen any other appealing options. I don't need a fancy dock or remote functionality, and I prefer a 2.0 setup as it'd be optimal for listening at the PC.
Recently I saw the Samson SoundDock 3i active speaker set at a local electronics store and was intrigued by it but it seems they're fairly new and there's hardly any info on them online. The reviews I've seen are spotty at best. I saw What Hi-Fi? is going to publish a review on them on the 11th but I'm throwing a party at a beach house on the 9th, heh, so I was hoping someone here had given them a listen!
They seem to be spec'd very similarly to the A2s, as far as I can tell anyway. The SD 3i tech specs are detailed at the very end of the manual here:
http://www.samsontech.com/products/relatedDocs/StudioDock3i4i_OM_5L_v1_1.pdf
A2's here:
http://www.audioengineusa.com/tech_stuff_a2.php
Similarly sized, similarly powered (15W RMS), the SD 3i have slightly larger woofers... The clincher to all of this is, the Samson set is significantly cheaper and it includes several extra features, such as the front volume knob + aux/headphone ports, the actual iPod dock, a USB port for sync'ing said iPod, and even an internal DAC to use the speakers with a computer off that USB port rather than the RCA jacks (how decent that DAC is or isn't I wouldn't know). Don't they have to pay Apple a license for use of the dock?
Considering all those extras, could they possibly sound anywhere as nice as the A2's while costing less? Despite the smilar specs (which I know are all-too-often misleading).
I might just end up purchasing them tomorrow and trying them out over the weekend and at that party, just to avoid the belching of the old boombox we'd otherwise use, heh... If I'm unhappy I can always return them and opt for the A2s I guess.
Now, I was set on getting the Audioengine A2s due to the stellar reviews they've received everywhere... At $238 w/shipping (it costs a pretty penny to ship stuff to Puerto Rico) they aren't cheap but they aren't too expensive either. Short of some studio-monitor-like sets from M-Audio and Behringer I haven't seen any other appealing options. I don't need a fancy dock or remote functionality, and I prefer a 2.0 setup as it'd be optimal for listening at the PC.
Recently I saw the Samson SoundDock 3i active speaker set at a local electronics store and was intrigued by it but it seems they're fairly new and there's hardly any info on them online. The reviews I've seen are spotty at best. I saw What Hi-Fi? is going to publish a review on them on the 11th but I'm throwing a party at a beach house on the 9th, heh, so I was hoping someone here had given them a listen!
They seem to be spec'd very similarly to the A2s, as far as I can tell anyway. The SD 3i tech specs are detailed at the very end of the manual here:
http://www.samsontech.com/products/relatedDocs/StudioDock3i4i_OM_5L_v1_1.pdf
A2's here:
http://www.audioengineusa.com/tech_stuff_a2.php
Similarly sized, similarly powered (15W RMS), the SD 3i have slightly larger woofers... The clincher to all of this is, the Samson set is significantly cheaper and it includes several extra features, such as the front volume knob + aux/headphone ports, the actual iPod dock, a USB port for sync'ing said iPod, and even an internal DAC to use the speakers with a computer off that USB port rather than the RCA jacks (how decent that DAC is or isn't I wouldn't know). Don't they have to pay Apple a license for use of the dock?
Considering all those extras, could they possibly sound anywhere as nice as the A2's while costing less? Despite the smilar specs (which I know are all-too-often misleading).
I might just end up purchasing them tomorrow and trying them out over the weekend and at that party, just to avoid the belching of the old boombox we'd otherwise use, heh... If I'm unhappy I can always return them and opt for the A2s I guess.
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