In your search for affordable yet great sounding speakers a good pair to start with is either the Peachtree M24 or Audioengine A2+. If you’re after a good quality, safe product at an affordable price, one of these might be right for you. By the time you landed here, I bet you may have seen or heard about reviews of these speakers and probably read what people have been writing online comparing them.
I am here to give you an unbiased opinion on the matter. I’m not trying to sell you anything. You should trust my opinion based on numbers and facts. As I go along, I will also be imparting some knowledge to help you get the most out of each speaker. Keep reading to learn more about the features and sound quality of these premium speakers.
About the Peachtree M24
These speakers are powered by Bluetooth and have a turntable built in. They also have a phono stage, digital input and USB DAC so they’ll work well with any type of music. They sound great, right? They might be more than you think. Keep reading to learn more about their features and benefits;
Peachtree M24 Specs at a Glance
The Peachtree M24 speakers are great sounding and come with all the features and qualities you need, plus unlike other speakers these beauties are made of real wood.
- Speaker Driver — 1” silk dome tweeter and custom-designed 4″ fiberglass woofer
- Subwoofer output for additional bass.
- This gadget provides a 5V USB charger so you can keep your mobile devices charged.
- IR remote controls with power, input, and bass and treble controls.
- Front-panel volume control and input selection.
- The LEDs on the front panel indicate power and which input you’re using.
- Power amplification: 2 X 50W.
- The right-sized machine is 8.7 inches tall, 5.5 inches wide, and 8 inches deep including connectors.
- It’s from Peachtree so it sounds great!
- Inputs — Features USB, Bluetooth, optical, and aux/phono (MM) analog inputs.
- Dimensions — 8 ¾” tall, 5 ½” wide, and 8” deep.
- Included Accessories.
- Grilles, IR Wireless Remote, Control, and connectors.
- Non-resonant, extra-thick ABS fabric mesh grills are protective.
- From the outside, this wireless speaker has tone controls for full bass and treble control. Basic controls are also included on the front of it too.
Design and Build Quality
The M24 doesn’t have big drawers. It’s a little shorter than other brands and even its sister, the M25. The M24 cabinets are 8 ¾” tall, 5 ½” wide, and 8” deep while the M25 is 10 ½” tall, 6 ¾” wide, and 9” deep. So if you’re looking for a computer monitor, or a TV to place on the side-table in your living room, then M24s should be on your list. Not only do they look great and sound great too – we’ll talk about how they perform later on in this article.
Peachtree designs offers a variety of speaker colors, such as bamboo-style, to give you the option that suits your needs best. I think the bamboo model is one of their better models and it looks really nice without the grill. Removing the grill increases accessibility and allows you to see important controls. The design of Peachtree products is beautiful, which makes it fair to charge a little more for the product.
Components of a great speaker include the woofer and tweeter, which are found in the Peachtree M24 Audio speakers. These speakers have 1” silk dome tweeters and customized woofers made with fiberglass. The fiberglass is special and improves the sound quality. The material is both stiff ; plus light and this makes it possible to play midrange and bass frequencies really well. The M24 is rear-ported – which enhances the sound and makes it great for playing live or in small spaces ; so it’s rare to have a product like that.
If you’re looking for a set of desktop speakers, be careful that they have both good sound and it’s possible to connect to bluetooth devices. It’s really difficult to find a speaker that sounds good, offers lots of connectivity options and is affordable. Peachtree’s M24 aims to fix these problems, so everyone wins. The M24 brings all the best things together with a powerful sound and sleek design. This is an incredible product that has few flaws.
To make it easier for you to plug everything in and use the Peachtree right away, the input cable is located on its right side, with amplifiers and DACs too. All you need to do is plug the speakers into an AC outlet, run a speaker wire over to the left speaker and plug in your audio source. You’re good to go!
The volume knob is right on the front and also serves as an input selector. When pressing it in, it should rotate clockwise or anticlockwise to adjust the volume. The M24 has a left-hand side window that switches colours to let you know which input is in use at any given time.
Features and Technology
Technology is constantly evolving, and with new developments come different ways of listening to music. Some people prefer vinyl records while others prefer live streaming or CDs, the options are endless. The responsibillty of getting music into speakers will always lie with the manufactuers. However, they need to work out a solution that doesn’t affect audio quality or increase the price of their product too much so it’s offputting for buyers.
The M24 speakers can be hooked up to different types of audio sources. The Peachtree M24 as a built-in MM phono stage, which translates to better sound quality. This means you can play records with a direct connection to the speakers without having to get a separate phono preamplifier or more cables. Have you considered that other devices don’t come pre-loaded with this kind of speaker?
If you don’t need to connect a turntable then flick the switch on the back to change it to the aux setting. This switches it from phono input to aux input. You have that flexibility of switching between which input you want in or out at any time. Not only does this speaker let you stream music from your phone, tablet or even snap, but it also has Bluetooth capabilities. So you can turn on your playlist and enjoy it without interruptions.
Your Sonos, Connect or Node 2i are examples of external streaming devices – they can be connected to the DAC inside the M-Speakers using the optical digital input. You can use this speaker to enhance your gaming experience on the TV. You just need a cable that goes from the speaker to your TV’s sound bar or any other audio device with a digital optical input and output.
A good set of speakers will mean a lot more to your sound than just a fancy set-up. If you’re using your M Speakers as personal computer speakers, it’s best to connect them through the USB cable on the back. This way you’ll be able to listen and enjoy high-quality audio files. I’m a big fan of Peachtree and the way they design their stands. I can’t recommend their products enough, but if you’re looking for something that’s higher quality, then we recommend checking out the IsoAcoustics ISO-130.
At the back is another really useful feature; a USB charging port. Let’s say you need your phone to be charging while it’s connected, just plug in a USB cord into the port and have peace of mind that it will stay charged up. If you want more bass, then just plug the subwoofer wire into the back. You might not need it though, because these speakers are deep and have a good output in that area for their size.
The M24 also comes with a remote which you can use to conveniently control the volume, skip tracks and change the bass and treble levels. If you want to quickly get the settings back to a neutral level, it only takes a click of the button and everything will be back as it was. Powered speakers like the Peachtree models use an inbuilt amplifier.
When the manufacturer knows the exact amplifier and speakers used, it gives them a huge advantage, allowing them to save money while perfectly matching their amp and speakers. Peachtree used both their amplifier and speaker expertise when designing their systems. Peachtree has a long history of building great-sounding amps, but it was surprising because they also made passive speakers before the M series. When you combine their expertise from the traditional amp space with their passive speakers-oriented experience, you have a winning combination.
The Hi-Res DAC is a great new addition to the M24. From it you’ll be able to decode files that are up to 24/96. This is quite unique for a studio monitor in this price range, from what we can tell.
Performance
The M Speakers are one of the best we’ve heard. The sound is pleasantly complex without any aspect overdoing it. The guitar has a natural, clean sound – it’s pure and juicy at the top and doesn’t try to push bass beyond its limits. The detail I was hearing on, for example, Chicago’s “I” was super awesome.
Over the course of our listening, we gave Jimi Hendrix, The Avett Brothers, Rolling Stones, Chicago, Led Zeppelin, and other bands a try. Regardless of what was playing through these speakers we found that they were great! Music sounds much better when you tell it to turn up louder.
On older recordings, I loved how you could sometimes tweak the tone settings on the remote. Slowing down the treble a little bit helped to take the harsh edge off and allowed us to listen with ease.
They sounded best at a set distance of six foot between each other. In other words, when they’re six feet apart they should be six feet away from the speaker to get that 3d sound I was talking about. The vocal will seem to come forward in this scenario and everything will feel deeper overall.
For some reason, you need to turn the volume on the speaker up before you connect via Bluetooth. Other than that, it’s great and straightforward to use. If you do not, you might find you have the phone turned wide open and you still don’t have much volume. This is something that happens with all Bluetooth speakers. With any device connected directly to the M24, there’s only 1 volume control on the unit.
We’ve tested other speakers that can produce better sound quality than these at their price, but honestly nothing comes close to the sound they put out for the price. They sound so full and musical. You won’t find a better speaker at this price.
About the Audioengine A2+
AudioEngine is very picky when it comes to their products and they offer a high level of quality in every product they market. Even the AudioEngine A2+ was manufactured with quality in mind. It’s rich sound and bright frequency response make it a popular, yet affordable option. The sound is perfect, the features are amazing! Keep reading to find out what it has to offer you.
Audioengine A2+ Specs at a Glance
- Analog class A/B power amplifiers.
- Dual audio inputs for connecting up to 2 devices.
- USB audio input.
- Bluetooth aptX.
- Subwoofer audio output.
- Custom Aramid Fiber tweeters and woofers.
- Power-saving idle mode.
- 60W of Power.
- Dimensions: 6”H x 4”W x 5.25”D.
- Included Accessories.
- Pair of Audioengine A2+ Wireless Powered Speakers.
- Bluetooth antenna.
- 6.5ft speaker wire.
- Power supply and cord.
- 5ft USB cable.
- 5ft mini-jack audio cable.
- Microfiber speaker bags and cable bags.
- Setup guide.
Design and Build Quality
The A2+ is available in black, red or white and includes two 6x4x5.3in speakers that are perfect anywhere around your desk, table, or sideboard. Unlike just about every other wireless speaker we test, this is a stereo pair. The power to the right speaker has to go through the left one for anything to work. Yeah, they’re wireless, but still wired somehow. The piano-like enclosure finishes also look pretty good and with the grille-free drivers on show it looks super cool too.
Designers have one gripe about this product: the speakers are too short, which limits their flexibility. You’ll need to tilt them upward in order to get the most performance out of them. There are a few ways to do this, and Audioengine have adopted this one by including some stands that mimic kickstands. I think it would be worth it because they align the tweeters closer with your ears that would be sitting at a desk, without angling the tweeters up, they will fire at your ribcage.
The A2+ Wireless is a set that’s wired and doesn’t offer many features. There’s no speakerphone, app, or multi-room either. Audioengine was smart to keep this all simple though – easy, clean design and transparent sound output makes it hard to imagine anything they could improve on!
Features and Technology
Each speaker is equipped with a 0.75-inch silk dome tweeter and 2.75-inch aramid fiber woofer, bringing peak power to 60 watts and frequency range up to 22kHz in total. The left speaker weighs 3.5 pounds while the right comes in at 3.2 pounds – a total of 6 pounds between the two of them.
In addition to that, the left speaker is powered and has an included wire that connects to the right passive speaker. The left speaker has connections for the power supply at the back panel. It also has an RCA input and output, and a 3.5mm auxiliary input with a cable included.
The system is very easy to set up. There’s a Bluetooth pairing button and a volume knob which also functions as the power switch. Apart from that, there’s also a micro USB input (so you won’t ever be without connectivity).
The volume knob on the speakers doesn’t control the volume of your phone. If you max out the speaker and turn down your phone, it will sound quieter than you would expect. Glad to say that this is an unusual feature in most speakers we test, but it does allow you to protect the speakers from loud bursts. However, one integrated volume control might be more efficient.
Performance
We tested the speakers on a desktop, slightly angled upwards. Without the angling, the high frequency audio was distinctly muted. But even if you direct them up or screw them into stands using their threaded screw holes on the bottom rubberized panel, we recommend it. This review is for speaker setups where the tweeters are about as close to the listener as possible. We tested at around 75% volume on our speakers, and we also varied how loud our audio source was – an iPhone 8.
With powerful sub-bass content like “Silent Shout” by The Knife, the A2+ Wireless speakers sounds full and punchy. The sound quality of the speaker and phone were roughly the same and distortion is nearly a non-issue. When maxing out both devices, there was some distortion on deeper bass notes but for average listeners, it’s not an issue. If you’re looking for a speaker with a banging bass sound, Audioengine may not be the right choice. They have high-quality sound quality instead, but those accurate low frequencies may be gone.
Bill Callahan’s “Drover”, with a lower amount of deep bass, is a better representation of the general sound signature. On bass-heavy systems, the drums can sound overly thunderous but through the A2+ Wireless they sound more balanced. The vocals in Callahan’s songs aren’t weak or brittle, but we hear a lot more low frequency and less high-mid richness in them than we do in the drums.
The higher register percussive hits and acoustic guitar strums are brighter and more balanced in the tweeters which allows for a full, great sounding song to be heard. The subwoofer works exceptionally well with this setup, but you still get a lot of low-mid richness from the woofers. Electric bass and deep vocals in particular stand out.
On “No Church in The Wild” by Jay-Z and Kanye West, the main thing that could get lost in the mix is given a higher presence. This ensures that it retains its punchiness throughout, despite being mixed with louder instruments. The natural ambience at the background of the song is quieter, to let its other elements shine. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered without the thunder they are capable of—again, this is a system that doesn’t deliver the truly deep lows—but the overall sound signature still packs some bass heft in the drum loop itself. The vocals on this track are extremely crisp and clear. You can tell that they have a little sibilance in places, but it’s not badly done. Balance is also good – there might be a hint of added brightness and richness as well.
Orchestral tracks sound great through the A2+ Wireless, such as John Adams’ opening scene from The Gospel According to the Other Mary. Lower register instrumentation is delivered with a nice richness. You’ll also hear high-register brass, strings and other instruments nicely in this wireless headphone system. Classical and jazz pieces sound fantastic through the speakers, but pop mixes also sound crisp, not quite as deep – depending on who you ask.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Excellent sonic clarity, with a focus on accuracy.
- Solid connectivity, including output for subwoofer.
- Handsome, streamlined design.
- No DSP.
Cons:
- Speakers must be angled upward/elevated on desktops for proper audio experience.
- Not for those seeking powerful sub-bass.
Final Verdict
Audioengine A2+ wireless speakers are made different from the competition. These have a stereo sound separation instead of mono and you don’t find that in many other wireless devices. That, combined with their accuracy, makes for a clean sound signature that’s transparent and has depth. Audioengine’s A2+ Wireless speakers are great for anyone that wants to reconnect with their stereo and get rid of wires. The speakers bypass digital signal processing, which means they provide a completely accurate listening experience.
The M24s are more expensive but Audioengines, and the A2+ especially offer a higher level of sound quality. We’re going to have to say that we’ll take what Audioengine is giving us for the better deal. We think Audioengine A2+ is the best of these two speakers and that is why we picked it as the winner. It would be nice to get a response from you on this. Let us know in the comments below!
FAQ for Peachtree M24 vs. Audioengine A2+
What are the key differences between Peachtree M24 and Audioengine A2+?
The Audioengine A2+ speakers are a 2.0 speaker system that is perfect for listening to music. They have a frequency response of 60-20,000 Hz and a power output of 100 watts. The speakers come in either black or white and can be used with any Bluetooth-enabled device.
The Peachtree M24 speaker system is made up of four different components that can be arranged in different layouts to suit the needs of the user. It has a frequency response of 55-24,000 Hz and an RMS power output of 80 watts per channel. These speakers are available in either black or white and they too can be used with any Bluetooth enabled device.
Which is the Peachtree M24 or Audioengine A2+ is better for listening to music?
It’s hard to say which one is better for listening to music because the difference in their size, power, and frequency ranges are very different. The Audioengine A2+ is smaller than the Peachtree M24 so it doesn’t have as much power or range as the Peachtree M24 does.
Which is the Peachtree M24 or Audioengine A2+ would you recommend for a beginner?
For beginner i would recommend the Audioengine A2+ speakers because they are more affordable and have a better sound quality.
Is a subwoofer needed for the Peachtree M24 or Audioengine A2+?
The answer is no. The M24 and Audioengine A2+ speakers are designed to produce sound in a full range, without the need of a subwoofer.
How much does the Peachtree M24 and Audioengine A2+ cost?
These speakers are affordable and offer great quality sound. The Peachtree M24 has a price tag of $399 while the Audioengine A2+ costs $269.