Audioengine HD6 Premium 24 Bit Bookshelf Speakers - Wireless 150W Bluetooth Speakers - Powerful Home Music System - Home Theater Systems, Studio Monitors

I love these speakers. I have only had them for 3 days and out of the box, they DO NOT sound good, trust me. Tidal sounded muddled on day 1. You must break in the speakers for 40-50 hours as directed. I tried to accelerate that process by blasting pink noise through them while I'm at class and when I got home I was pleasantly surprised. I was recommended this brand on The Tech Guy show with Leo Laporte many years ago and I only got around to buying them. They LOOK amazing too. I got them in white. I'm glad I opted for the HD6's which are the largest offering because I am upgrading my setup in the future and these guys look HUGE on my desk, which I love. The build quality of the speakers seem excellent. I am buying the AE DAC later for 32 bit. I run an optical cable to my 24bit DAC to my Mac mini for my music production setup. They were well-packaged too. I am buying the A2+'s for my gaming setup. If you're used to having a subwoofer, you're going to want a subwoofer with these. I would recommend getting the S6 because the S8 is just overkill, unless you just think the S8 looks cute..--You will never need to crank the S8 (or even the S6) to 100% for enough low end in your room. I may update my review again once I reach the end of the 50 hour break-in period. I am at hour 15 right now. I am expecting detailed, crisp, clean audio bliss.HOUR 50: YOU MUST BREAK IN THESE SPEAKERS FOR 50 HOURS, YOU SIMPLETONS (I'm referring to the other reviewers here, otherwise they will sound profoundly BAD). I'm at roughly hour 50 and I'm blown away by these speakers. They are an absolute joy. My method was that I searched on Tidal for Pink Noise and looped it overnight every night for several days. They can get loud and they are very detailed. I NEED to buy the S8 or S6 sub. The subwoofer seems like a necessity as my old setup had one and round out the sound nicely. I came from a Logitech Z625.

When researching speakers I could not find much information about the HD6 from websites other than professional reviewers or from the manufacturer so I suppose I'll write a review after having owned these speakers for over 6 months.I am not an audiophile, but I do research audio equipment and make purchasing decisions as though I were one. Basically I am saying I don't have trained ears.Because of that I can't really make any definitive statements about the audio quality of these speakers. I can say that as a discerning layman I absolutely love the sound of these speakers. I am a proponent of getting your information from those qualified to dispense it so please take my comments as to the audio quality worth a grain of salt. In this review I mean to elaborate upon the hardware/setup and capabilities as I have experienced them.I bought these to reduce clutter in my room. I had a receiver and it required remotes, shutting on an off every time I wanted to use it (They used too much power to leave on), extra space, a separate bluetooth receiver, and wires. It was basically a headache to use so I didn't use it much. These speakers eliminate the need for a receiver and thinking back to what I had before, I am very glad I made this purchase.I have these speakers connected to my television via the Optical input for viewing television/movies. Please note that if you plan to do the same, these speakers only interpret a PCM signal. Dolby digital signals will not play through these speakers. With regular cable on a panasonic Viera television from 2012, most channels use a Dolby signal. Most modern televisions allow you to alter the audio output settings and will convert to one format or the other, but some older ones like mine did not. I've since bought a newer samsung television and it alowed me to change the signal to PCM so now all channels play through these speakers.Even on the older television which did not convert to PCM, without altering any settings it played the audio of my playstation 4 just fine. The PS4 was connected via HDMI to the television, the television directed the audio to the Optical out. My newer television does the same. If after connecting the audio isn't playing, check your television's audio settings to be sure it is playing through the optical out and in PCM format. With automatic settings it will output the format it is given which may or may not be PCM.I use the speakers in equal measure to listen to music. Audiophile communities typically dissuade people from transmitting audio via bluetooth so I was a little hesitant to use bluetooth to play my music on these speakers. I have found that I can't tell the difference and for the sheer convenience I listen to far more music than I used to. There is also an aux input which is the gold standard really, sometimes I use it when I don't want to use bluetooth.The speakers must be on to establish a bluetooth connection (of course) and the speakers have their own remote which can put it into/out of sleep mode. I used a Kill-a-Watt meter to check the power consumption when in sleep and when on. I don't have my readings in front of me but the power usage difference amounted to only a few dollars every year, like 4 or 5 (cost was 7-11$ per year I think). So I choose to leave them on. This means I don't need to fish out a remote when I want to play music, I only need to select it from my list of bluetooth devices and can play music within seconds (without getting out of bed!). Volume is controlled via a knob on the speaker or by the remote. Your audio input device can control the volume up to the max output of what the speaker's volume is set at.These speakers seem to have a priority list when receiving multiple audio signals. I have not tested every situation but I can say with certainty that Bluetooth signals are prioritized over optical. This means I can be watching television and when audio plays through my phone (or whatever is connected via bluetooth) it will mute the television audio and play the phone's audio. There is a very minimal delay when switching sources, probably a second before the phone's audio comes on. What I love is that I can have the phone connected by bluetooth and as long as the phone is not producing audio it will continue playing the other source (television), when I start a song on my phone it switches over. When I pause the song or turn the music off it will switch back to the optical (television's audio output) after a second or two. The transitions are virtually seamless.For movies the speakers have a great low end, but nothing that will shake the house unless at very high volumes. Unless playing in a very large or crowded room I would not worry about these speakers not having adequate volume. If you plan to use them for parties I would do further research. I would venture to guess that they are loud enough for house parties.For playing video games the high and mid ends are excellent. The low end is significantly better than anything that is not a subwoofer. I've no experience with computer subwoofers so whether these are better than small subs I cannot say. I did pair these with an SVS SB2000 subwoofer which is 12" and noted a significant improvement in wow-factor. I used the speakers for a month or two without the sub. When a grenade goes off in a videogame you feel a thud in your chest and sense of terror that was not present without the added subwoofer. Unless at higher volumes without a subwoofer you don't feel the music (as in literally being vibrated by the low end) and you won't really feel explosions in games/movies. I elaborate on this because it was a concern of mine before buying these. I can't say these fail by not having unrealistic, distortedly loud bass though, as speakers I don't believe they could be improved upon significantly. A subwoofer really can't be substituted for as it is simply something that requires a certain size. (More powerful smaller ones though can to some degree imitate a larger sub).TLDR:To replace a full sound system with a receiver, these are amazing. I can hardly imagine going back to my old clunky setup. The high, mid, and low ends were impressive to me but because I like feeling explosions I added a subwoofer to my setup. For music I really don't think I could ask for more. Playing music by bluetooth on these if very simple, as the power draw is low enough that you don't need to turn them on/off so you can connect at any moment.If anybody who has read this has any questions or comments let me know! Thanks for reading.