Sound quality: Audioengine's HD6 had acceptable overall sound quality - this model reproduces music and dialog reasonably well despite the obvious shortcomings in its sound. Bass has good impact and goes deep, but is somewhat prominent and boomy. Midrange is fairly even, but is somewhat hazy, a bit grainy, and a touch muffled. Treble is fairly extended, but is subdued and smeared. Does a decent job of recovering room ambience, but sounds somewhat congested. This two speaker model comes as a stereo pair, and its sound stage width and focus depends on how well it is placed. When it is well placed, there is good stereo separation; however while the sound field extends somewhat above the speakers it only extends a bit beyond the sides and it doesn't have much depth. Individual instruments and voices are identifiable with good side to side imaging between the speakers, but have a two dimensional quality. Since they come as a stereo pair they can be placed to provide better stereo separation than many other models. No significant difference between Bluetooth, Optical, Aux and RCA sound quality. Can provide a decent volume level in a large sized room, but is best suited for medium sized rooms.
Ease of use: We found the Audioengine HD6 ease of use to be very good overall. Wired Setup: Banana plug cable provided for left/right interconnect of speakers, simply plug in, no prep needed. Instructions mention polarity matching but don’t show or explain what polarity matching means. Bluetooth Setup: Unit is always in pairing mode when not already paired, shows a pairing mode indicator. Indicates when pairing mode has occurred and never times out. The volume control is an unlabeled infinity knob located on the front of the speaker, but the fact that it is a knob suggests that it is a volume control. Lacks index markings for volume levels, and has a visual indication when max volume is reached. Source selection is "Plug-unplug" where Bluetooth, both line inputs and Optical input can play at the same time. Have to turn off audio from source so there is no overlap. Unambiguous.
