These Audio Pros aren’t a bad pair of wireless speakers – they are easy to set up, they can work for both your music and your TV sound, and they are capable of working in a multi-room setup. They support just about every kind of input and you can use pretty much any music streaming service with them.
The trouble is that they just don’t sound that great. If a pair of speakers doesn’t make you excited about listening to music, they have fallen short of their primary purpose.
If you’re already heavily invested in the Audio Pro ecosystem, you might wish to try them out, but we’d advise you to spend your money elsewhere and buy something more musically talented, such as the Ruark Audio MR1 Mk2s.
COVID-19 appears to have created demand for audio products, and no more so than for active passive speakers such as the Audio Pro A26.
These Swedish-developed speakers are compact and, in essence, an excellent well-priced, all-round audio solution that fits the needs of many homeowners – especially people who want great sound without speakers taking up a lot of room.
Retailing at some stores for $799.95 this pair of speakers and the subwoofer are significantly cheaper than a lot of other products in the market, especially as they deliver a big sound for the price.
To connect these speakers, we used an HDMI cable to the TV’s ARC output. When it came to clear dialogue, these speakers really delivered.
Out-of-the-box connectivity is easy, whether it be via low-latency Bluetooth or over wi-fi.
When connected via the Audio Pro App, you can access a multitude of streaming services such as Spotify Connect, Tidal, Amazon Music and iHeart Radio.
Audio Pro is no flashy app; it’s a basic bog-standard app but it works, which is really all you want for accessing music and managing content.
It has EQ control with bass and treble sliders, plus an audio virtualiser mode that comes in handy when the speakers are set up with a TV.
The small remote that comes with the speakers lets you easily access Bluetooth and wi-fi (with five wi-fi pre-sets available), and of course, control the audio output.
We reviewed a black pair, but they also come in white. We prefer the latter; they deliver a Scandinavian, more sophisticated look.
When you remove the speaker covers, you will find an i25mm textile dome tweeter on the top with an 11.4cm woofer on the bottom.
Turn these speakers around and you’ll realise they are communication talented, with Bluetooth 5.0 aptX, optical and analogue aux capability.
There’s also an RCA subwoofer connection and HDMI ARC connectivity, as well as a wi-fi button and the ability to pair the left and right speakers with high quality audio cable.
Inside the left speaker is a pair of 75-watt Class D amplifiers – one drives the master speaker and the other is for the passive speaker.
To get optimum sound we suggest you consider wall mounting the speakers with the optional bracket accessory, which you can buy from an Audio Pro reseller.
Audio Pro A26 compatibility
All communication can be managed from the Audio Pro Control app, and you can stream content from here too.
We did a couple of things to test these speakers. First, we streamed content from Tidal and Amazon Music.
Next, we hooked them up to a record player and played 24bit content. We used an HDMI Arc connection on a 4K UHD TV using an HDMI 2.1 cable.
The Tidal content, which included Jazz and classical music, was significantly superior to the same content from Amazon Music.
Where these speakers excelled was amplifying dynamic, live-played rock music – we gave Led Zeppelin, Vangelis, Electric Light Orchestra and Elton John LPs a spin on a Project turntable.
For the money, the sound was excellent when the output was cranked up – especially with the 24-bit original records, some of which were over 30 years old.
More so impressive was the quality of audio output when these speakers were hooked up to a TV playing a Netflix movie. They’re actually worthy of replacing a soundbar and although they’re two-channel audio, still delivered crisp, clear dialogue.
The audio is still centred to where the speakers sit, but there’s enough distinction to hear positioning of the first violin in the foreground and the rest of the string section behind and to the right.
What you get with these speakers is good tone balance and a clear playback of instruments, especially when playing a 24-bit recording.
The weakness was treble notes and weak output from the tweeter on certain tracks. While it’s there, it’s not too noticeable.
Specs
Power: 2x 75W Digital Class D amplifier
Inputs: HDMI ARC, optical, aux-in, Wi Fi
Tweeter: 2.5cm textile dome
Woofer: 11.5cm
Spotify Connect: Yes
Finishes: White, Black
Rear-ported: Yes
Dimensions: H23.8 x W15 x D20cm
These Audio Pros aren’t a bad pair of wireless speakers – they are easy to set up, they can work for both your music and your TV sound, and they are capable of working in a multi-room setup. They support just about every kind of input and you can use pretty much any music streaming service with them.
The trouble is that they just don’t sound that great. If a pair of speakers doesn’t make you excited about listening to music, they have fallen short of their primary purpose.
If you’re already heavily invested in the Audio Pro ecosystem, you might wish to try them out, but we’d advise you to spend your money elsewhere and buy something more musically talented, such as the Ruark Audio MR1 Mk2s.