Another recommendation by the Internet, the Aego-M caught my attention quickly enough with rave reviews and an attractive price point.

The Aego-M is a 2.1 speaker system from Acoustic Energy, a company I had not seen until I went looking for speakers on the Internet. My Creative 5.1 T5100 was in the process of dying a horrible death after 7 years of faithful service. It would have been working fine, actually, if the wires had not been bitten off by a dammed pet. Presently the system is hooked up to my television and is holding up well, surprisingly. Makes me almost regret buying my Aego-M, in fact.

In my quest for a new speaker system, the Aego-M was a speaker system my local tech forums raved about. I had wanted a 5.1 speaker system, but the Logitech and Creatives were way out of my budget. I had to compromise and get a 2.1 speaker system, jury-rigged to 5.1 with the addition of two huge, old Aiwa speakers for my rear speakers and my monitor as my centre speaker. The closest competitor at the time of purchase to the Aego-M was the Creative T3, which sounded absolutely terrible when I auditioned it. The T3 sounded like a bass machine straight out of Terminator instead of an 'audiophile' speaker system it was advertised as.

I got my Aego-M for $250 (Singapore dollars, of course) from a little shop in Sim Lim Square. It had sounded fantastic, with resounding clarity and volume. The speakers had impressed me with its loud, clear sound and well-blended bass. Interestingly, a significant portion of the bass is produced from the two satellites. The massive subwoofer handles deep thumps while the satellites handled the higher-pitched snare-drum bass. I like it.

The design of the speakers are passable. The speakers have a metal casing which gives them heft, and makes them very sturdy. I could kill a man with these speakers - the build quality is impeccable. They came in both black and white, and I bought the white speakers to suit my colour scheme.

I brought home the heavier-than-expected box home (on public transport, no less) and installed it immediately, with no fuss (How complicated can a 2.1 speaker system be?). The speakers were connected to a Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 sound card, the card I bought for the now repurposed T5100. I started up foobar2000 and ran a variety of songs ranging from rock, to pop, to classical, to vocal, to rap, to jazz and to you get the idea.

It sounded different from when I auditioned it in the store, and I believe this can be attributed to the high-end Denon the speakers were connected to in the store. However, the speakers still performed admirably, and I was smitten.

The highs, such as the crash of cymbals, sounded clear, yet harsh at the same time in my first impressions. They sound perfectly fine to me right now, however.

The mids sound pronounced, not blended into the bass like my older set of speakers. They were fulfilling and distinct from the whole sound.

The bass was a topic of discontent in the reviews I had read. To me, there were ample amounts of it, but it was distributed subtly. It might not be earth-shattering, but it can be felt, and it blends into the music masterfully.

For gaming, I switch on my rear speakers for surround sound. Like with music, I could now hear extra details in the sound, like the metallic chink of empty magazines, or the clank of metal against flesh with the speakers. The speakers perform good enough for gaming for me, contrary to reports on the Internet suggesting otherwise.

It it a different story when it comes to movies, however. Films lacked the extra 'oomph' - explosions were as subtle as the bass itself. At Bass 3, the maximum setting, the speakers did adequately, not impressively. The floor vibrated whenever stuff exploded, but the vibrations were not destructive enough.

Other small things about this system:
1. There is an aux port on the front of the speakers, which will be convenient if you have most of your music on your MP3 player.

2. The absence of a wired remote to control the bass and volume will be felt by those who intend to place the subwoofer far away from where he will be sitting.

3. Hearing fatigue with this system is nearly non-existent, unlike my older system. I must re-emphasise that music sounds fabulous on these speakers.

The speakers bear the hallmarks of a much-more expensive system, and it will not be regretted by most who purchase it.

Labels: fail, purchase, review, speakers