Audioengine B2 Premium Bluetooth Speaker (Walnut)

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Product Specifications

Audioengine B2 Premium Bluetooth Speaker (Walnut)

Product Description

Color:Walnut Audioengine B2 Premium Bluetooth Speaker (Walnut)

Product Reviews

Excellent sound if set up properly

Well, I’m an audiophile with a $30,000 dedicated stereo system in a dedicated room and have written many in-depth reviews of high-end audio equipment for a premier review site. I find the negative reviews of this speaker unfortunate as this speaker is capable of very satisfying and high quality sound, but like most higher quality audio products it requires a little more effort to get the best out of it. Specifically, for starters you want to play some music through it for at least 50 hours before making any assessments of its sound. This is because right out of the box the drivers will be stiff and need to loosen up before they will sound as designed, and the internal electronics inside the speaker also need to burn in.Next, especially if the speaker will often be situated below ear height (but even if not) I’d highly recommend purchasing the associated ADS1 speaker “stands” as they aim the tweeters more toward your ears, which is critical as the high frequency sound from tweeters is highly directional and could be significantly compromised/decreased if your ears are well above or below the tweeters’ axis. Secondly and also importantly, the rubber stands do a good job of damping vibrations between the speaker and whatever surface it’s on, which improves bass tightness and evenness as well as overall imaging. These details may explain many of the reviews that found the B2 to be bass heavy or mushy sounding. Oh, and while we’re on this topic, if sound quality is important and you want to hear the B2 at its best, REMOVE THE GRILL WHEN LISTENING. It blocks the sound – especially the treble – when it’s on. The grill is more for protecting the drivers from prying fingers when not in use.THIS NEXT PIECE IS CRITICAL. The B2 is a pretty revealing of whatever quality is fed into it precisely because it uses higher quality components than most other products in this class. Many other competitors boost bass and lower mids and attenuate upper treble so basically all music will sound the same through it. They’ll never sound accurate or great, but they’ll pretty much always sound appealing no matter what’s fed into them. If that’s what you’re after, the B2 may not be for you. But there’s something most people ignore that can make the B2 sound significantly better than almost all of the others. In your phone or whatever you’re using for a sound source you can go into the audio settings and choose from several preset equalization options usually labelled “Jazz,” “Rock,” etc. These settings vary the sound you’ll hear greatly, so it’s critical you at least go through them with some of your music to find the one or two that sound best to you. The B2 will reward you substantially for your effort with likely significantly improved sound. Even better, if your phone, tablet, or whatever has an option called “Equalizer” or the like you may have the ability to customize the sound you hear to your specific preferences (rather than being limited to the above preset options) by giving you the ability to adjust individual frequencies from the low bass up through the midrange and up to the high treble. Don’t worry, this is easy and if you take some time to play with it and you’ll likely find a personal setting you prefer to any of the preset options. That’s what I did and the B2 rewarded with very well balanced and pleasing sound that greatly surpassed most other wireless speakers I’ve heard. If it at all helps get you started with this, a good curve to start with would look something like a small letters “nr” next to each other with the lowest bass frequency starting at the midline and rising a little before decreasing to the midline in the midrange and then increasing back up again and leveling off at the highest treble a good bit above the midline. You’ll see what I mean once you’re in the equalizer. Again, if you put some effort in at the beginning the B2 has the resolution and refinement to produce very nice sound. Basically, garbage in garbage out. The B2 will let you hear it either way. Don’t be afraid to play around with it to ultimately find what sounds best to you.Lastly, there were some comments about the B2 sounding narrow unless you’re sitting in front of it. I had the B2 out in a field while we played a waffle ball game and the sound does get compromised if you move off axis as it does with many high-end speakers. To mitigate this I turned the B2 up on its narrow end, and the sound literally filled the whole field with more than adequate volume and even decent bass. If you have the B2 in a larger space or in a party type situation you might want to try this if placement allows. By the way, I left the B2’s volume controller on the rear at the mid level permanently and adjusted volume from my phone, and the speaker was always plenty loud enough so that’s what I recommend doing.Sorry for the length of this post, but especially if you’re willing to follow the steps above (or even if you’re not) the B2 is a very well made and great sounding speaker that will reward you more than most competitors out there.

Great buy

Excellent sound for a bluetooth speaker and a real beauty to look at. High quality construction and powerful enough for a whole room. Note that this is not considered a portable speaker since (1) it’s heavy, (2) doesn’t have a rechargeable battery, and (3) the controls are in the back and not easily accessible. I would recommend the DS1 speaker stands with it by AudioEngine. They fit nicely and they improve the sound.

Works great for me

I tried a different powered bluetooth speaker and though it had great sound, but it stopped working after three days. I elected to return it instead of getting a replacement and eventually decided to try this one instead. Although smaller and lighter, I was very surprised by the full sound this speaker generates. Unlike some other reviewers, I have never had issues connecting to this speaker via bluetooth and the speaker fills the room with a full, rich sound even though it sits on the bottom shelf of my entertainment center. It has been working great for over two months now so I’m pleased I decided to give it a try.

A superb stereo bluetooth speaker

Over the past few months, I’ve been slowly getting rid my large collection of dust magnet jewel cases and their CDs from our master bedroom bedside table and the CD towers in the living room and home office, slowly rebuilding my mostly classical music collection to ITunes MP4s purchased for my Windows 7 desktop and my IPad Air. It’s time to get rid of the large and bulky 7 year-old Tivoli Hi-Fi system in the bedroom with its unreliable CD player and the repeatedly troublesome Classe Audio CD transport that’s long been a part of my main stereo system. Time to replace the Tivoli with a nice bluetooth speaker and connect the stereo system to my desktop system.After considerable research, I started with the Bose Soundlink Mini Bluetooth Speaker for about $200. Very small, portable, and sounds quite good for its size, with decent bass and OK mids and highs. For my home office desktop, I upgraded from some plastic legacy Altec speakers to the Audioengine A2+ Premium speakers with rubber mounts. Extremely natural and dynamic sound, excellent bass down to about 75Hz and smooth, natural mids and highs. After listening to the A2+ speakers for about three weeks, I was sold. That’s when I found the Audioengine B2 bluetooth speaker here at Amazon for $299. It’s really two of those superb A2+s fused together into a very attractive minimalist wood veneered bluetooth patckage. The B2 now sits on our master bedroom table along with the iPad Air, where it plays my iTunes playlists and fills the room with great sound. IMO, the B2 is by far the best bluetooth speaker out there at this time (until Audioengine decides to create and sell a larger A5+-based version). The small and portable Bose Mini? We take that out into the yard during patio lunches and gardening sessions, or when we go on vacation and want a decent bluetooth speaker for the hotel room.12/21/2014 Update: My wife and I were so impressed with my first AudioEngine B2, we went ahead and ordered a second for the den. Since I first took ownership of the first B2, a few issues have come to my attention. First, I strongly recommend that you purchase and mount two black rubber Audioengine ADS1 Desktop Speaker Stands (also available from Amazon.com) side by side directly underneath the center of the B2 unit, just below the woofers and woofer ports. This will make an immediate improvement in the B2’s sound quality, significantly improving the bass response (to what appears sub-60 Hz performance) and tilting the B2 speakers slightly upward, better directing the sound in your listening direction. Second, give the speakers about a week of extensive listening to allow them to “break in” properly. Third, if you use an iOS device (Ipad, Iphone, etc.) to connect to the B2 bluetooth speakers, be aware that at the present time they’ll both appear under the same name in your Bluetooth settings and you might experience a bit of a hassle connecting to the correct B2 at any given time. The folks at AudioEngine are aware of this shortcoming (Android devices already allow you to custom rename your bluetooth devices). The AudioEngine reps assure me they’ve contacted Apple support and asked that an upcoming iOS 8.x update correct this problem. Finally, the clear, natural, and very smooth sound of the B2 bluetooth speakers continues to amaze me (as one would expect from conjoined A2+ speakers).

cheap jack

I did not use the Bluetooth feature. I wanted to use the Aux In, but the input is a cheap 3.5mm jack, which failed.

Killer sound !

Beautiful craftsmanship and sound, now my Pandora account fills the house with awesome sound. Buy the speaker stands for even better sound !

Audioengine Quality

Love it, sounds great!

My husband is very very pleased with it

Bought this for my outdoor wedding. My husband is very very pleased with it! Sound quality is awesome it was so awesome that our upstairs neighbor had to come tell us to turn it…

One Star

Did not work had to return it. Would not connect to bluetooth.

Beautiful Sound!

This was gifted to me for Christmas. I’m in love with this thing! I know very little about the technical side of speakers (or many electronics in general), so I can’t say very…

Good bluetooh distance

Powerful Bluetooth speaker. Loud, yet clear. Good Bluetooth distance. I like the quality and feel of the product. My son has it paired with an Echo Dot and he loves it.