True audio enthusiasts will go to any lengths to satiate their musical needs through the perfect audio equipment. They just canât stand the slightest deviation from the actual sound, the purity of an artistâs creation and how the artist wanted it to be heard. Fortunately, there are a number of fantastic audio gears available on the market and some even cross the mark of thousands of US dollars! Today, we are going to show you 5 such amazing pieces of technology that provides the most realistic and perfected sound and yet comes under the price tag of $500.
1. Axiom Audio M3v3
M3v3 is the prime bookshelf speaker from Axiom Audio that is available under $500. This speaker set does have an amazing set of features that sets it apart from the competition. Let’s us start with the subtle but gracious design completed with wooden finish that gives it a stunning look.
M3v3 fits fantastically well with almost any kind of decoration the user may want, be it in wall or on wall configuration or completely independent one. The speaker includes a 6.5 inch aluminum cone woofer, coupled with a 1 inch titanium dome tweeter and the combination gives a mesmerizing sound output that is free of distortion and has clarity. According to Axiom, the speaker can work with almost every amplifier and has a maximum amplifying power of 175 Watts which is pretty great. The minimum impedance is 8 Ohms and frequency response is from 50 Hz to 20 KHz. The level of bass and treble is powerful and helps to achieve the brilliant performance M3v3 has to offer.
The speaker is priced at $348 for a single piece and a stereo set is available from Axiom at a special price of $548. The price is considerably smaller for such a fine piece of audio equipment which has equivalents from other manufacturers at double the price.
2. Audioengine 2
Audioengine 2 comes from the house of Audioengine and it is a breakthrough in desktop speaker arena. The speaker looks extremely clean and minimalistic, without a hint of overflowing. The makers present it as the perfect computer speaker for a small room as they designed the speaker after getting frustrated with the available computer speakers on the market belonging to the same category. Inside the beautiful case, the speaker houses a 20 mm silk dome tweeter consisting of a Neodymium magnet and a 2.75â woofer. Interestingly the woofer is made of a composite of Kevlar woven glass aramid and rubber surround. The amplifier used in the speaker is placed vertically for definite protection from mechanical shocks. Sound quality wise, the Audioengine 2 performs more than expected. Though being small system that can be placed on the palm of a grown man, Audioengine 2 packs a lot of punch in terms of solid bass. There are no audible colorations even for the trained ears and the highs are just as detailed as they should be for a premium sound quality. The makers claim to have achieved a smaller radiated magnetic field that reduces the amount of audible noise and they canât be proved wrong in this segment. The midrange is rich and articulate while the lows are equally powerful which is quite unexpected from this small sized sound system.
The Audioengine 2 is priced at $199 for a pair and thatâs a freaking steal for the quality of sound it provides.
3. Audyssey south of market audio dock
The makers state that it is âThe best sounding audio dock on the market. Period.â And there are definite reasons behind the claims as we found out while reviewing Audyssey South of Market audio dock. Starting with the curvaceous design that stands tall on your desk, Audyssey South of Market dock also has a surprisingly narrow footprint. Standing on a desktop, it just resembles a vertically placed encyclopedia of sorts. More like Appleâs code of design that says âless is moreâ, Audyssey went with a minimalistic design that reduces the number of buttons to as less possible. Being a dock, the set has a iPhone/iPod dock on the front and Audyssey cleverly hidden the volume controls on their logo on the dock. The dock uses two 4 inch woofers and two 0.75 inch tweeters to provide a rich sound output. The dock cradle used on the device supports iPhone 4S, 4, 3GS and 3G, all kinds of iPod Touch models, somewhat defunct iPod Classic and 4th/5th gen iPod Nanos. Obviously due to Bluetooth support and audio in port, a lot of other devices are also supported. Sound quality wise, South of Market audio dock provides a nice and unobtrusive output. The basses are nice without a unnecessary boom and midrange and trebles sound clear enough.
Audyssey South of Market Audio docks comes with a price tag of $399.99 USD which is a bit steep.
4. BOSE 301
Coming from a quite celebrated audio equipment maker, BOSE 301 has a burden of lot of expectations and it does not fail to deliver. The speakers come with a small profile and have a wooden finish. They are not quite handy weighing 5.7 kg each but manage quite well to fit in a bookshelf. Inside each speaker, they have a 2 inch precisely angled proprietary tweeters and a long excursion woofer of 8 inch. Bose uses a proprietary Direct/Reflecting speaker technology to ensure spacious music experience in your room and the results are quite convincing. The sound quality is immersive, having more than average bass, treble and mid ranges. Unfortunately, while they deliver in terms of broadened sound experiences, the clarity is something that lefts a lot to be desired. At $328, BOSE 301 is not exactly cheap.
5. Fluance ES-1
A break from all the bookshelf and desktop speakers we have discussed here so far, ES-1 is a floor standing speaker set available from Fluance. Each of the speakers from this stereo speaker set is quite long at 51.8 inches and weighs 14.5 kg â no wonder they are made for standing on the floor. Inside, each of the speaker houses four 5 inch woven glass fiber composite drivers with butyl rubber surrounds and one 1 inch titanium balanced silk dome ferrofluid cooled tweeter. The impedance is minimum at 8 Ohms. The sound output is as precise you can expect from a $500 priced speaker and some more. The coloration is as minimum as possible with deep bass, vibrant treble and soft mid ranges. The peak power output of this beast is 160 watt which is pretty impressive. Fluance ES-1 is priced at $399.99 at Amazon.
