Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsVery nice compact desk speakers. Problems with the first set, but great customer support
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2020
The first pair of these I got worked for about an hour, then the left speaker cut out and stopped making any sound. Thankfully, Audioengine's customer support was excellent. They responded quickly with a pre-paid shipping label to send the speakers to them, and cross-shipped a new set to me the next business day. They made a point to send me a replacement set that had been randomly pulled off the line for an extra QA check, to make sure the replacement worked as it's supposed to. I really couldn't have asked for better service than that.
I've been using the replacement pair for about a week now, and I'm very happy with the quality of these speakers.
The fit and finish matches what I would expect from a premium speaker in this price range. They feel solidly built, and look good with the magnetically-attached grill on or off. The retro-inspired wood grain and metal styling adds a touch of classiness to my desk setup. The volume knob also feels sturdy, is smooth to turn, and has just the right amount of resistance to it. No complaints here!
I also have no real complaints when it comes to the sound. While they may not have the most detailed treble I've ever heard, the mids are well-balanced and make voices (both singing and talking) sound very natural, and overall the sound these speakers produce is smooth and inviting, which makes them comfortable to listen to all day long. They sound very clear at low volume, and are more than capable of rocking out with no audible distortion that I could hear at relatively high volumes (though I haven't tried turning the volume all the way up, because it's not necessary at the close distance I'm listening to them from, so I can't comment on how well they'd work in, for example, a living room setup). Do they sound as good as my full-range floorstanding speakers that cost three times as much? No, of course not. But for what they are and what they cost, I'm happy with the sound they produce.
On their own, they don't have much in the way of bass, but you have to keep your expectations in check, because there's only so much you can expect from a 2.5" driver. I appreciate that Audioengine didn't artificially over-boost the mid-bass like a lot of other small powered speakers do, so they sound well-balanced and natural all the way down to the limits of their frequency range. This also makes it easier to blend them with a subwoofer, if you so choose.
I did so choose, and paired them with a 10-inch sub that I recently retired from my home theater setup.
The HD3 has a switch on the back of the left speaker that enables a 100-Hz crossover, for pairing with a subwoofer. However, I found that using the speaker's built-in crossover left them feeling somewhat disjointed from the sub, probably because sounds above 80Hz are localizable, so that range of sounds between 80 and 100Hz was audibly coming from a different location than the speakers. I have the speakers positioned on a shelf behind my computer monitor, which may be making the separation more noticeable, and it's possible that it may not be as much of an issue if the speakers were positioned lower. I ended up leaving the speakers set to full-range (which goes comfortably below 80Hz) and used trial-and-error to adjust the low-pass crossover on my subwoofer until I found a setting that blended nicely with the speakers. This resulted in a much more balanced sound that blends the sub with the speakers a lot more naturally.
The speakers sound pretty good on their own if you're not a bass-head, but pairing them with a nice subwoofer really takes them to another level. If you want speakers with decent bass and don't have space (in your room or your budget) for a subwoofer, I'd recommend stepping up to a larger speaker, but if you do plan to use a sub, I don't think a larger speaker is necessary, at least for a desk audio system.
I went back and forth a bit on whether to go with a 4 or 5 star rating for this review. If the first pair I received had worked, they would easily be deserving of 5 stars, no question, but I was tempted to take off a star for receiving a defective set. In the end, though, I decided that Audioengine's customer service earned them that star back. I understand that no product will ever be 100% defect-free, so when defects do occur, what really matters is that the manufacturer stands behind their product and does everything they can to make it right for the customer, and Audioengine did that for me.
