Review: Converting burnt Audioengine A5 to passive speakers + Norge 2060 Amp.

[even_keeled]

This is not really a usual DIY, but it somewhat fits here. I used to own a pair of Audioengine which started giving me problems around 2 years in with right speaker (passive) producing a wheezing sound for no reason. That was my first suspicion of that the system was on the verge of death. Another thing I noticed was that if I kept the volume on the speakers to the max. and keep the volume low on PC, they used to sound really good. Little did I know, this was killing my A5s. The A5 amplifier has a known issue of poor heat dissipation and the amps gradually fry themselves. That said, I absolutely loved the sound they produced, way more than my friends' 50k+ gigantic home theater setups with their annoying roars and grumbles. So, when my A5s finally went kaput, I was too attached to let them go. Fortunately, converting the A5s to passive speakers was rather easy. There are simple instructions here that I followed:

Bought a faulty A5... you decide its fate - Page 2

After this, all I had to do was to connect them to an amplifier. Norge has a good reputation on these forums and I decided to go with them. I order a set from technoguru.in. One thing to consider is that these amps are really huge and heavy.

Anyhow, I am happy with the purchase, in fact the passivized A5s sound slightly better than they did with the stock amplifier. I will try and post a video review of my setup. Meanwhile, I hope my post comes handy to someone in same boat. The conversion is really easy to perform, I suggest people to give it try before tossing it out.

 

[apk]

Congratulations on converting the active speakers to passive. Hope these give you many more years of good sound.

The Norge is a very capable amplifier, and should you feel the itch to upgrade, you can easily replace the speakers without worrying about the amplifier's capability to drive better speakers.

 

[hemantwaghe]

Congratss - some images please?/

 

[MoorthyA]

wow... may i know what would be the A5 is specification after converting into Passive ? :indifferent14:

meaning that Active A5 says [ 50W RMS / 75W peak per channel ]. So after converting into Passive what would be the amplifier's recommendation

Watts for speaker alone : 50w or more ? (note lower model AE P4 rated as 125w per channel)

Ohms : 4 or 8 ?

Sensitivity : any idea?


sorry don't get me wrong, i have a reason. here in my place AE showroom selling pair of A5+ passive speakers (only the passive speaker of two faulty A5+) for 10k INR as used. Can i buy 4 speakers and configure it as my Home Theater's front and back rear? instead of buying HTiB package? really appreciate your advice please...

 

[doctormac]

So I followed those same instructions linked above when mine pooped out. Unfortunately, either my wiring was different (there are reportedly different models of the A5 boards) or I screwed up. At any rate I did not cut the circuit board as some suggested, but rather clipped the wires indicated in red. When I connected the input speaker from my amp (I used an Orb Mini-T) I got all sorts of crazy popping and clipping. By sheer dumb luck I found that one of the two contact points indicated was wrong for me. By attaching the wires where I indicate in this picture, everything worked fine. My attachment point would be cut off if you sawed the board, so maybe if you do that the original connection points would work, I don't know. But I wanted to keep the ability to just screw the board to the heatsink for a secure and easy connection. Hope this helps someone.

 

[lukitg]

Hello, I am trying to convert my audioengines to passive, however no links seem to be working. Can anyone post a working link, or could they possibly leave me some instructions with images?

Thanks!

 

[Mikejapan]

Hello, I am trying to convert my audioengines to passive, however no links seem to be working. Can anyone post a working link, or could they possibly leave me some instructions with images?

Thanks!

Anyone still on this thread? I’m wanting to convert my AudioEngine A5s to passive as well. Need photos if anyone has.

 

[spirovious]

Anyone still on this thread? I’m wanting to convert my AudioEngine A5s to passive as well. Need photos if anyone has.

How are speakers connected internally? If clips, then removing it will make it passive. Then need to make a solder joint with speaker wires which can be connected to amp.You can also add a banana plug connection to A5 cabinet for easy connections.