So I just bought the new Audio Engine A2+ speakers to used wired to my Mac Pro 2019. Currently have the connected to the 3.5mm jack but would the USB be better? Which do you guys recommend please...
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MP 7,1 Usb or 3.5mm Audio jack for new speakers?
- Thread starter Philllllip
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I'd invest the price of a USB cable and decide for yourself which sounds better. Its possible that the speakers have a better quality DAC than the built-in one in the Mac giving better quality sound. Being picky - having a digital connection to the speakers leaves less potential for noise/interference.
Then there's practical issues - it leaves the headphone jack free for, well, headphones, and since the speakers will show up as an independent sound output device you can (e.g.) route music to the external speakers and system pings and beeps to the internal etc.
OTOH, you might be short of USB sockets...
Apple says their 3.5mm headphone jack has headset support , so it is an audio input jack as well , which you do not need with speakers .
So , I guess in the future if you plan to attach a headset to your Mac for gaming or telecommunications ( e.g. Skype ) , you should use your Audio Engines connected with USB .
BTW , I'm curious to know why bluetooth was not an option ? You can beam audio from your Mac to a Bluetooth receiver integrated or attached to a stereo or home theater unit connected to two or more floor standing speakers . The sound would be awesome compared to your A.E.s .
Connected to my humble MP5,1 , I have a Startech USB Bluetooth 4.0 adapter that beams audio to a Bluetooth receiver that is connected to my analog stereo via RCA connectors . The stereo is wired to two large floor standing speakers . It sounds really sweet . You could do the same with your MP7,1's built in Bluetooth .
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To my knowledge, the AudioEngine A2+ USB port is just for power output to a phone or something and doesn't take audio input. That's how it is on my AudioEngine A5+ anyway. But I use an audio interface that my speakers then connect to
Bluetooth introduces a significant fraction-of-a-second delay to the audio. That's not an issue for listening to music, and good video players automatically delay the video to keep it in sync, but its a problem with any sort of interactive use - games, and particularly music production.
Also, Bluetooth relies on lossy audio compression.
10 seconds of googling shows that its a USB audio input: https://audioengineusa.com/product_tech_specs/a2-desktop-speakers/
Haha, fair enough. Shows me not to make assumptions. Just figured since my AudioEngine A5+, same brand and all, only has it for power out that it'd be the same on the smaller A2+. But made an ass out of me on that assumption.
Interesting ! To be honest , I've always had a love affair with wired connections for performance , stability and security reasons . But wireless is mandatory sometimes ( like avoiding cables someone could trip over ) .
I guess maybe the best situation of all would be a connection from the MP7,1's 3.5mm audio port to a stereo / home theater connected to two or more floor standing speakers . In my case this would involve a 3.5mm to RCA splitter cable or adapter , so I could handle the inputs to my analog stereo . One of my Sony's woofer cones is bigger than his entire speaker enclosure 😛 .
Actually, the other reason you might want to use USB is to support 5.1/7.1 speaker setups (with software that supports them) - the 3.5mm jack (since it stopped supporting optical audio) is strictly stereo only.
Audio Engine’s DACs in speakers have issues. When audio stops, they’ll sleep. But then they fade in the audio if they wake. Muffles things like alert sounds that are too short for the fade in, and can clip the beginning of longer audio.
I don’t know if this is still true of the DAC on the A2, but it’s present on my HD3s. If the A2s don’t have this issue, that would be good news. But I’ve been forced to use the 3.5mm input because of the issues.
I don’t know if this is still true of the DAC on the A2, but it’s present on my HD3s. If the A2s don’t have this issue, that would be good news. But I’ve been forced to use the 3.5mm input because of the issues.
Not having any of those problems. The only thing I notice is if I pause music/video or start music/video there is a tiny bit of digital noise for a split second Bit annoying but can live with it.