Was the Audioengine a mere one-off? A one-hit wonder? ‘Of course not!’ and that you’d hear from the speakers themselves, when you plug them up, sit down and wonder whether your eardrums can really go pop!

Audioengine 2, is a notch up, powered with twin speakers, and is accessible in lustrous black and white, is about one-third the size of the Audioengine 5. These speakers are top-notch quality and a surprise by itself, considering that these little guys can really fill a room full of music.

While the A5 speakers are marketed as iPod-enabled bookshelf speakers, the A2 speakers are marketed for desktops. It is merely 4 inches wide and 6 inches high and can fit on any desktop. Even those desktops that are cluttered and you might even have trouble finding it. So you should choose its location wisely as this 12-pound weight starts feeling a lot heavier if you have to keep moving them around the house.

But are these $200 computer speakers actually worth it? Well, when you are playing music or watching video clips on a laptop, these little guys are really, really worth it. They almost possess the same clear audio performance of the A5 and blow away any other $100 computer speakers.

While they still look a lot like A5’s little baby brother, they have a lot more differences. The A2 speakers don’t have a built-in iPod charging port on top nor an airport express power jack behind it. But just like its big brother the A5, the A2’s features really outdo itself. It possesses a 3-inch Kevlar woofer cone, and a 1/8-inch mini-jack, along with RCA inputs. And of course, a volume control knob on the back of the left speaker.

And was this expected from Audioengine? ‘Of course it was,’ you’d hear every time you plug them up!