Audioengine A5, right speaker misbehaving.

[Steken]

Greetings,

 

I've got a massive problem with my brand-new Audioengine A5’s.

 

The left speaker works just fine, thank you very much, but the right speaker’s got a lousy attitude.

 

Not all the time, mind you – but during certain parts of certain songs, it starts giving out an ungodly racket.

 

Seeing how I’m completely new to this whole audiophile thing, I have a hard time categorizing the noise with much precision: I don’t really know if it’s “technically" best described as a distortion, a buzz, a drone, a noise, a jitter, or something else entirely… But here goes:

 

Spontaneously, I’d describe it as, basically, a "dirty, bassy, distorted vibration."

 

It appears more strongly during certain songs than during others – Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582-a, is an extreme example. (I’m wondering if maybe certain heavy bass or mid-levels sets it off…?)

 

It disappears completely if I turn the music and/or the speakers off.

 

Before you ask, I have ruled out the possibility that the problem might be in the source files themselves – the Bach piece mentioned above, for example, is an excellent FLAC file which sounds absolutely perfect through my Sennheiser HD-555’s; hell, even my crappy old Logitech X-220’s do a better job with it than the A5’s…!

 

One last thing: I don’t know if it makes a difference, but I’ll add that I’ve been running the A5’s directly from my Macbook Pro so far; I’m getting a u-Dac2 in a couple of days, though I don’t know if it’ll make a difference with regards to this problem. (Here’s hopin’…!)

 

So… Yeah. Any ideas, any solutions…?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Best regards,

Peter

 

[Akapod]

If the problem persists, I'd give AudioEngine a buzz.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Peter - Can you swap the left and right channels via software or hardware to see if the problem stays on the same channel or moves over?

 

 

 

[bradyb]

Email Audioengine ([email protected]) and Marshall will send you a list of things to check. Sounds like you might have a defective speaker, and if this is the case Marshall and his crew will take care of you.

 

Regards,

Brady

Audioengine

 

[Steken]

Akapod: Thanks for the tip, mate! Will try.

 

Computer-Audiophile: Just tried it. Switched the channels using Audio MIDI Setup. Result: Right speaker's still booming and distorting away like crazy, while the left speaker seems to work just fine.

 

bradyb: Thanks for the tip! I just wrote Marshall an e-mail, and am now eagerly looking forward to his reply...

 

Will keep you lads posted, thanks again!

 

/P