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Audioengine HD6 Powered Speaker Review
Wayne Myers
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Lincoln, NE
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Audioengine HD6 Powered Speaker Review
Price per pair, direct from Audioengine: $749
by Wayne Myers
Introduction
The HD6 is the new flagship two-way powered monitor from
Audioengine. This little company out of Austin, Texas
focuses on producing and delivering high performance audio
products at the lowest possible cost. They offer free shipping,
30-day in-home audition (if purchased online direct from
Audioengine), no sales tax, and a 3-year warranty. This is my
fourth review of an Audioengine product and I was shown
again that the company excels at stretching the value equation
beyond normal limits.
Description
The HD6 features RCA, Bluetooth, and Toslink inputs. The left
speaker contains all of the electronics and the right speaker is
passive. Each is 12 x 7 x 10 inches, very easy to place. A tiny
remote gives volume, mute, and power on/off control from the
Listening Position (LP). A detented, digital volume control on
the left speaker has a push-push switch built in for the mute
function, which quickly and smoothly ramps the volume off
and on. Last Volume setting is remembered when power is
turned off and back on again, even when the unit has been
unplugged.
Bluetooth capability for the HD6 borrows from the B1
Bluetooth receiver from Audioengine. It features Bluetooth 4.0
aptX technology and near-CD quality sound, including 24-bit
upsampling, with approximately 30 mS latency. I reviewed the
B1 last year, and was very impressed by its sound quality.
Using the invert-subtract-null technique for measuring fidelity,
I found that the B1 actually would run for several seconds at a
time with bit-perfect lossless CD quality. During the times
when it was not precisely bit-perfect, it sounded like it was.
After careful listening and measurement tests, I was convinced
that its imitation of CD fidelity was pretty much impossible to
tell from the real thing.
The HD6 optical Toslink and DAC are derived from the D1
24-bit DAC by Audioengine. This little gem has compared with
honors to DACs in the over-$1,000 range , and handles
24-bit, 192 kHz sample rate natively.
The HD6 design does not include HF or LF shelving or rolloff
controls like are often found on powered monitors. I never use
them myself. If EQ is needed, I always find it will be more
than any such simplistic control can furnish, and must
accomplish it externally anyway.
RCA outputs are furnished to send signals to a subwoofer or
two. Cables included with the HD6 include speaker cable from
the left to the right speaker, a dual RCA interconnect, and a
power cord. I received a pair of HD6 with the very handsome
walnut veneer finish that would look great in any room. Cherry
and satin black paint finishes are also available. Magnetic
fasteners snap grille covers firmly and accurately into place.
Audioengine’s signature gray plush bags with closure cords
cover the speakers and cables, a classy touch included with all
of the company’s products I have reviewed. Build quality
appears solid and consistent. My impression has been that the
team in Austin puts a high priority on their quality processes.
Audioengine designs and produces their own driver elements
and many of the critical components in their products, so they
are anything but “box-built” with off-the-shelf components.
Link to Audioengine Web Site.
Unboxing
The two HD6 came together in a single double-layered carton,
only weighing 33.5 pounds, It was very easy to handle.
Formed foam spacers give 2 inches of Isolation all around the
HD6 units inside. Each speaker comes in a plush felt bag, as
do the cables.
Specifications and Measurements
Specifications
SHOW
Review Test Equipment
Measurement Methods
HIDE
Asus G74SX Laptop, Intel I7-2670QM @ 2.2
GHz, 16 GB DDR3 Memory, Windows 7 64-bit,
Room EQ Wizard, foobar2000, Reaper DAW
Digital Audio Workstation, Phenom II x6
1100t @ 3.5 GHz, 16 GB DDR2 Memory, AMD
Radeon HD 6670 Graphics & HDMI Media by
Sapphire, Windows 7 64-bit, Room EQ Wizard,
foobar2000, Reaper DAW
Digital Media Server, Phenom II x6 1055t @
2.8 GHz, 8 GB DDR2 Memory, AMD Radeon HD
6450 Graphics & HDMI Media by Asus,
Windows 7 64-bit, Room EQ Wizard,
foobar2000, Reaper DAW
Audioengine D1 Premium 24-bit DAC,
Courtesy Audioengine
Roland Quad-Capture Audio Interface
M-Audio Fast Track C600 Audio Interface
M-Audio Firewire 410 Audio Interface
Beyerdynamic MM1 Measurement Microphone
American Recorder SPL-8810 Sound Level
Meter
OPPO PM-1 Planar-Magnetic Headphones,
Courtesy OPPO, Home Theater Shack
Sponsor
OPPO HA-1 DAC/Headphone Amplifier,
Courtesy OPPO, Home Theater Shack
Sponsor
Sponsor[/b]
Audioengine B1 Wireless Bluetooth 4.0 Music
Receiver with aptX Codec
ASUS Nexus 7 Tablet (2013 version)
LG G3 Smartphone with aptX Codec
Axiom ADA-1250 4-Channel Power
Amplifier, Courtesy Axiom Audio
Behringer A500 Reference Power Amplifier
Onkyo TX-SR705 Receiver
Emotiva Pro Airmotiv 4 Powered Studio
Monitors
MartinLogan ESL Hybrid Electrostatic
Loudspeakers
Polk PSW10 10-Inch 100-Watt Powered
Subwoofer
Sony SA-WM250 8-Inch 100-Watt Powered
Subwoofer
Bosch DLR130 Laser Distance Measurer
Fluke 77 Multimeter
P3 P4400 Kill-A-Watt Electricity Usage
Monitor
CyberPower PP1100SW Sinewave UPS
Setup and First Impressions
It took all of 2 minutes to get the HD6 set up giving good
performance , followed by 3 more minor adjustments to
fine-tune. At that point, the HD6 were delivering sharp
imaging and a soundstage that all but allowed the speakers
themselves to disappeared. The HD6 were set up purposely so
that the imaging was best sitting slightly forward in my
listening chair, my ears about a foot forward from the back of
the chair. Before doing this, there was a midrange hollowness
which I knew was from the chair-back reflection.
Initial frequency response performance revealed and even
totality with a slight emphasis in the mid-bass. Mids and highs
at first seemed recessed, but I soon realized that what I was
hearing was lack of annoyance, always a good quality in a
loudspeaker. When called upon to produce, the HD6 do so with
admirable clarity and fidelity in that range.
The silk dome tweeters produce a high end that continue in
this lack-of-annoyance tradition. In my listening environment,
they are being compared to a pair of MartinLogan
electrostatics and amplification with a price tag about 6 times
higher than the HD6, so my standard for transparency is very
high. I received a good transparency showing from the
modestly-priced HD6.
Source comparisons
Using the tracks My Holiday by Mindy Smith and Ain't It A
Shame by the B 52's, I compared four input methods, the
Toslink, RCA in from the Audioengine D1 fed by Toslink, RCA
in from my LG G3 smartphone, and Bluetooth in transmitted
from my LG G3. For the Bluetooth I am agreeing with the
near-CD-quality claim. For the HD6 receiving Bluetooth from
my smartphone, test tracks showed all the signs of being free
from the hashy cymbal sounds normally accompanying
compressed audio.
The Toslink and the D1 sources sounded the best to me in my
particular setup, with the cleanest and most distinctive
soundstage and imaging (SS&I) being the distinguishing factor
that I could differentiate. Using the analog inputs from my
smartphone came next, and then the Bluetooth, the last two
sources having ever-so-slightly less distinctness and clarity in
the presentation. Without a Direct A-B comparison, those
differences would not be even noticeable I am quite sure.
The Toslink input path was used for the remaining evaluations.
Midfield Evaluation
King Crimson, The Power To Believe - Acapella, Level 5
I had just listened to these tracks at high volume on my
electrostatic speakers reference speakers. The second track
really starts off with a bang, and is fun at elevated volume. I
purposely pushed the HD6 a little with his track to see how it
would compare. The cymbals are well recorded and mixed
quite forward, and offer an excellent clarity test. Of course the
HD6 will not run at the same volume level, but they handled
this level quite well. I find myself listening for signs of
tweeters at work when evaluating speakers, and these
managed to stay in character and deliver the cymbals and high
frequencies with no distractions during the King Crimson track.
I made a couple of minor final position adjustments using
these tracks, and ended up very pleased with the evenness of
frequency response from the small cabinets and drivers. The
bass was solid and even and the high frequencies were very
even. A small band of emphasis in the mid-bass range was
evident, but barely noticeable, probably falling well within the
specified +/- 1.5 dB tolerance range for the HD6.
Civil Wars: Poison And Wine. The piano and guitar are
recorded in a way that is rich with detail, as are the two
vocalists in this track. The HD6 presents that detail with an
easy-going clarity.
Deerhoof: Qui Dorm, Només Somia
This track is full of little percussive details and sounds. While
listening to this track, it occurred to me that the best
compliment I could pay the HD6 was saying how easy it was
to forget they were there and just enjoy music. I have heard
speakers costing far more that I could not say this about.
The rear-slotted bass reflex tuning is a common strategy for
small enclosures, and works well with the HD6. It limits use
close to a wall, unless a bass management crossover rolls off
of the lowest frequencies sent to the HD6, but in the midfield
and nearfield positions that I used for the HD6, it worked very
well. Bass response down to the 50 Hz cutoff point was very
smooth and reasonably tight. A rubber pad on the bottom of
each speaker helps anchor it and improves the tightness of the
bass when used properly (more on this). The HD6 will benefit
from a subwoofer to add that last octave of low notes to one’s
coverage.
Experimenting with a filter to remove that slight mid-bass
boost revealed only about a 1 to 2 dB emphasis in that range,
hardly worth mentioning. I was actually pleased with how well
the HD6 bass response performed in my room. All tests were
without subwoofer support.
Todd Rundgren: Compassion
The cymbals, tinkly bells, and dense mids from synthesizers
give the tweeter a good workout with this track and a chance
to listen for signs of the tweeters at work. They were very well
behaved and on most tracks were easy to forget about all
together. The bells and cymbals on this track came through
with a solid clarity.
Muse: Supermassive Black Hole
This track started out louder than I expected it to, sending me
reaching for the little HD6 remote to turn it down quickly, then
I changed my mind and let it ride to see how well they would
handle it. The Little HD6 That Could is what I called them now
tell them after that, since they got through the track with no
strain even though they were pounding quite hard.
That HD6 design is that all three input types are all active all
the time, allowing the user to select source instead of having
to control input switching at the HD6. This is a convenience,
but forces the user to be mindful of input paths. An unused
input can become noisy if one is not careful, and more than
once I had the same signal coming into two paths at the same
time, with slightly different delays from elsewhere in my
system , causing sonic effects that were not desired in the
least. A little care with inputs to ensure the unused inputs are
quiet and the only one path is active at a time will be the order
of the day.
Radiohead: MorningMrMagpie
That mid-bass emphasis was more evident on this track. Again
the experimental 1 to 2 dB de-emphasis was all it took to
tame it down.
Subterranean Homesick Alien: on this Radiohead track, guitar
tones are particularly distinctive and revelatory. The HD6 with
no hesitation presented those tones faithfully.
My HD6 were set up at this point slanted upward slightly with
a spacer under the front of each of the speakers on the
homemade stands I had in use, and when I set them down flat
on the stands and added a 6 pound brick on top of each of the
HD6 cabinets, I could tell the low frequency tightness
improved markedly. This is not unusual for small, lightweight
speakers, they just do not have the mass to sit completely
still. The extra mass coupled from the stands and the added
brick, held on with a square of blue poster-mounting putty,
were enough to hold the enclosures a little more tightly in
place, although the brick did no service to the HD6
appearance-wise. The soundstage also improved, for the same
reasons no doubt, even though the listening position is even
more off-axis relative to the HD6 drivers. With this new setup
- surprise! - the speakers completely disappeared in the
soundstage and I had no reason to change their position for
any further midfield testing. The Little HD6 That Could moved
at this point from the realm of being a nice little pair of
speakers to that of real high-fidelity, more than I had
expected from them, but not a huge surprise. Similar things
have occurred in reviews of other Audioengine gear in the
past. My guess is that someone on their team must be a bit
OCD about insisting that their products don't just sound pretty
good for the price range but sound great regardless of price.
With the HD6, they have pulled it off again. Nice.
In addition to tighter bass overall, the bass guitar, kick drum,
and bigger resonant drums like floor toms all became much
more cohesive and natural sounding. The soundstage shifted
down very slightly, but centered vocals were still even with my
head level, so I found this not to be a distraction.
Final Midfield Setup
A = LP to Speaker Plane = 52 in
B = Tweeter to Tweeter = 58 in
C = LP to Front Wall = 99 in
Tweeter Height = 28 in
Toe-In Angle = 10 deg
Off-Axis LP Angle, horizontal = 15 deg
Off-Axis LP Angle, vertical (tweeter axis to ear) = 8 deg
Equal heights, level, symmetry.
Going back and listening again to previous tracks, they all
improved with this new setup.
I went to an old favorite track, The Verb To Love, by Todd
Rundgren, and was more than a bit transported by the
cohesive and natural sound and feel of all instruments and
vocals on the track. The Little HD6 That Could, DID, and did
so wonderfully.
Close To The Wall
The HD6 performed very well close to the front wall (farfield),
much better than I expected. Of course there was the
expected big boost in bass response due to boundary
reinforcement. Imaging remaining sharp and the soundstage
wide, open, cohesive and natural. The natural, cohesive nature
of the soundstage was what surprised me the most. Even with
that big bass boost from being close to the front wall, the
natural and cohesive nature of the sound of the bass guitar on
Radiohead’s The Tourist really stood out. A bass guitar that
sounds totally a part of the mix is not an easy achievement for
a small speaker.
Gorillaz: Rhinestone Eyes, Some Kind Of Nature, the inflated
base is really big on these tracks. It might be just right for
those who are Super Bass Hungry but it was a bit much for
me. Still, it remained reasonably well controlled.
The soundstage was shifted all the way toward the wall, and
imaging remained sharp. I was once again surprised at how
well the HD6 handled at the wall. On Crash Test Dummies,
Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, the tonality seemed slightly hollow in the
midrange, and I found a decent volume level putting some
strain on the tweeter amps again, so it was not my favorite
position, but under the right conditions I could see the HD6
being a good speaker to try for a close-to-the-wall situation.
Final Close-To-Wall Setup
A = LP to Speaker Plane = 52 in
B = Tweeter to Tweeter = 58 in
C = LP to Front Wall = 99 in
Tweeter Height = 28 in
Toe-In Angle = 10 deg
Off-Axis LP Angle, horizontal = 15 deg
Off-Axis LP Angle, vertical (tweeter axis to ear) = 8 deg
Equal heights, level, symmetry.
Nearfield
With the HD6 in a nearfield setup at my mixing station, the
positioning for optimum SS&I were a little more difficult to
find. This may have been in contrast to the truly superb SS&I I
had experienced so easily in the midfield and farfield locations.
Sweet spots tend to be tighter for nearfield setups, so speaker
placement can be critical. I even gave the standard equilateral
triangle arrangement with the LP on the tweeter axes, but
speakers with highly directive horn-loaded tweeters are the
only types that I have given good SS&I results in that
arrangement. And without the well-controlled reflections
supporting SS&I in the midfield - I admit to being a bit
fanatical about such matters - the equivalent result might not
have been achievable, but I had to try. I did finally arrive at a
satisfying result, although not as impressive as in the midfield.
At an on-axis LP, on brighter, more dense tracks, I found that
the extended high-frequency response was a little bright, with
that peak at 4 kHz standing out slightly. They needed about a
3 dB HF shelving rolloff to suit my ears on those brighter
tracks. Off-axis, where the SS&I sprang to their full liveliness,
I was impressed by the the HD6 delivered a distinctness of
detail in the soundstage presentation that rivaled what I have
heard in speakers costing well into the four-figure range, with
only an occasional "tweeter-at-work" effect in evidence,
possibly resulting from some combination of elevated tweeter
distortion, stored energy, and the 4 kHz peak. The effect was
never pronounced and was more than likely only even noticed
because my ears have been spoiled by electrostatics and
expensive ribbon tweeters each costing as much as the HD6
pair, to put it all in perspective. Properly placed, I found the
HD6 to excel in the nearfield as they had in the mid- and
farfield arrangements, with SS&I performance worth emulating
and almost unnoticeable high-frequency sacrifice from the
off-axis angle.
Final Nearfield Setup
A = LP to Speaker Plane = 35 in
B = Tweeter to Tweeter = 36 in
C = LP to Front Wall = n.a. (> 15 ft)
Tweeter Height = 43 in
Ear Height = 44 in
Toe-In Angle = 16 deg
Off-Axis LP Angle, horizontal = 17 deg
Face of speaker slanted forward = 10 deg
Equal heights, symmetry.
Conclusions
Make a note: Audioengine = Super Value, they are one and
the same. I will not say that the Audioengine HD6 is the only
great-sounding speaker at its $749/pair price point. But I will
say that for a nearfield or especially a midfield monitor
operating at sane volume levels, it is a serious high-fidelity
speaker that should be considered by anyone shopping in that
price range and beyond.
The Audioengine team has delivered another sure winner in
the HD6. My new standard review ending for Audioengine
products, and certainly for the HD6: Bravo again!
Go to the Audioengine HD6 Powered
Speaker Review Discussion Thread.
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