For those of you unaware, Audio Pro produce speakers and subwoofers, general purpose, multiroom, and portable and chances are you’ve seen their popular T3 Bluetooth speaker before. They have this range of ‘A’ speakers, the A10, A15, A28 and A38, with the lower the number, generally signifying the smaller the speaker and price too. The A28 have a retail price of £550 here in the UK and is a pair of active, multi-room TV speakers and that title really gives it all away. These include Audio Pro Multroom and multi-person usage with other compatible Audio Pro speakers, plus AirPlay 2 and Google Cast. These will work with your tele, to a degree, thanks to them having HDMI ARC, optical in and if your TV is the really old, red and white line in.
Visually, I think these are one of the best-looking speakers I’ve tried or seen online in quite some time. They come in a black or white finish, with a magnetic grille to the front, which I love. They’re strong magnets and the grille snaps into place. However, behind the grille is a 4.5” wooder and 1” tweeter and I used them without the grille as they just look so sleek, and tidy, and I wanted to see them working too. Size-wise, they come in at 238mm tall, 150 wide, 200 deep and weigh 3.3kg each. These are powered or active, with a built-in class d amp providing 150watts total.
Connectivity as mentioned earlier includes HDMI ARC, Wifi 2.4 or 5GHz, Bluetooth 4.2, Line in and Optical in. There is also a sub-out option to add a separate powered subwoofer. Connections between the two are via a simple old-school 2core copper speaker cable and one is provided in the box, which is about 5m long.
Set up is generally pretty straightforward, it’s just plug and play and either choose to use these wirelessly or via a cable, wired back to your TV or media device. You will want to connect these to your home network over wifi to get the best flexibility and to do this, you need to install the Audio Pro Connect app to your smart device and follow the on-screen instructions. When you first pair them to your network, you’ll likely be prompted to install a firmware update, or at least I was, which is reassuring, knowing updates are being pushed out.
Control of the speakers is via the provided remote, which is quite a sleek piece of kit. This allows you to select the source, change track, and volume, the usual things you’d expect from a remote. This is the only way of controlling the speakers for wired connections, but for wireless, you’ve got some control via your smart device. I have to say, this is probably the best looking and feeling remote I’ve seen in a very long time, Audio Pro are really nailing the aesthetic of their products. The remote is weighty, it’s brushed metal and it looks and feels great to use.
Via the app, you can adjust the treble and bass to suit your needs, plus subwoofer output IF you have plugged in one. There are no EQ presets but having the ability to adjust the bass and treble is good enough. Connecting to your home network gives you and others the ability to connect to the speakers via Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect. Also, if you have other compatible speakers around your house, connected to your network, you can group them together for a whole-house audio experience
Audio performance is very good for this price point and I’ve really been enjoying them. Out of the box, without adjusting anything via the app, the sound profile is well-balanced and a joy to listen to. Listening to some rock music, the bass is punchy, the guitars cut through and the vocals are clear. I listened to some rock, country, and RnB and generally, they all sounded great. Volume-wise, loud enough to fill my living room for general background music or watching a TV show. With multi-room, you shouldn’t need to increase the volume too much if you have speakers dotted around. If you like your music really loud, these may not cut it and for a movie night, maybe, but there lies a problem.
Plugging the speakers into my Tele, it worked but not all the time and unfortunately, the speakers don’t include codecs like Dolby or DTS, so if the video file I played used them, they wouldn’t work, I had no sound. So typically, some streaming services were ok and generally live TV is also fine but where I have some movies on a NAS drive, they’re mkv files with Dolby as standard and these wouldn’t play. I know this is the speakers as my current soundbar will play Dolby and comparing the two, same movie, same cable, the soundbar worked but the speakers didn’t. Somewhat disappointing but when watching a movie via a streaming service that would play, they sounded good. A good amount of bass from explosions and vocals were generally ok, I found them to be loud enough, just.
Overall, I think the Audio Pro A28s are a decent pair of speakers at this price point. They look fantastic, and the remote is great, they really nailed that In my opinion. Music sounds great, multi-room, multi-user and the various connections are versatile and great to have. Sub out option is a bonus although the bass is good, I’m not sure you’d hit the volumes required to warrant a separate subwoofer. TV again sounds good, if you can get the audio working. Bluetooth is just 4.2, which sounds really weird saying that now as everything nowadays is at least 5.0 but these are lacking behind for some reason. Not a deal breaker but may put some people off. Cheaper alternatives are available which may be somewhat comparable in audio performance but not appearance. £550 is on the top end of what I’d pay for these. Something like £399 would make these a must-have.
For more info and to purchase, head over to the official Audio Pro website.
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