Advantages: Sound quality, ease of use and installation Disadvantages: A few rough edges, cheap remote
The Aego5 system from AcousticEnergy is a ?home cinema? surround sound setup that includes everything you need (apart from a suitable TV and DVD player!) in one box. It?s a system based around a small decoder unit, a (comparatively) larger sub-woofer/amplifier unit and 5 satellite speakers, described by the manufacturers, not unfairly, as ?palm sized?. This targets the package at the user who can?t live with the sizeable speakers some other setups involve ? ideal for my average size living room. I made my purchasing decision following a number of favourable reviews this unit received in the related specialist magazines.
So how did it turn out?
Firstly, it?s fair to say that very nearly everything you need to get going is included in the box, even batteries for the remote control and wall mounting stands for the speakers (though ...
Advantages: Superb Sound Quality, Small Satellites Disadvantages: Slight hum from subwoofer, no Dolby Prologic 2 support
The AcousticEnergy5.1 system is available in two configurations - one with and one without a Dolby Digital / DTS decoder. The version without the decoder is less expensive and would be suitable if your system already has some form of surround sound decoding capability. I went for the version with the decoder.
The system is very easy to set up. All amplification is perfomed within the subwoofer so this forms the 'hub' of the system.
There is a single cable from the decoder to the subwoofer, then 5 single cables from the subwoofer to each of the satellites (one each for the left, right, centre, surround left and surround right channels)
The decoder itself has a coaxial and a digital input for digital sources, as well as three line level standard stereo inputs for connecting non-digital equipment.
The subwoofer is powered by ...
Advantages: Attractive, good power, smooth sounding. Disadvantages: None found yet
These speakers are very attractive, mine are white with black grilles, they are easy to set up and have 5 metres of cable to each satellite speaker, there is cabling for different applications, mine is for connection to my computer.
Having got everything connected and in position, power up and listen to some favourite tracks to see if any tweaking is needed, if you have Vista Home Premium it should have Realtek Audio Manager, this has 24 environment modes and 13 Equaliser modes, add this to the 3 bass positions on the Aego and you have a possible 936 permutations, I have settled for living room/powerful/bass 2 but I suggest experimenting to get the best sound for your specific environment. They have 90 watts rms output and can be used at low volume without loss of low or high frequencies, there are other cheaper systems but this one ...
