INTRODUCTION 

 Having been in the electronics field for nearly 40-years I can recall when the first transistor radios came out when I was a boy and how I had to place the radio against my ear to hear some of the baseball games that I used to listen to at night laying on the bed.  When I bought my first vinyl record album I listened to it on a single speaker system as well.  Then along came this new state of the art discovery known as stereo and the first time I heard music being played on a multiple speaker system I knew that had to be what the angels sounded like when they played their music.

Today we are reviewing a set of 2.1 speakers from Eagle Technology USA and we will be subjecting them to various audio conditions raging from using them with an MP3 Player, using them as audio speakers for my ham radio and using them as add-on speakers for our HDTV and of course using them on our computer.

Everything is small about these speakers, except their sound! By using stiff cone materials and strong permanent magnets, these speakers are capable of generating higher sound pressures than conventional speakers. Solid wood enclosure with bass reflex port further amplifies its overall sound level.

• Dedicated subwoofer and midrange drivers for high decibel output

• Adjustable bass level

• Stiff and light cone materials for precise vibrations

• Smooth response over broad frequency so you hear the music at exactly the same way it was recorded

• Solid wood enclosures accurately amplifies overall sound level

• Great for MP3 player, CD, PC, video gaming system, home audio system or just about any other audio sources

• Total RMS Power: 15 Watts

-Satellites: 5 Watts RMS x 2 (into 4 ohms, @<=1% THD)

-Subwoofer: 5 Watts RMS x 2 (into 4 ohms, @<=1% THD)

• Total Peak Power: 30 Watts

• Frequency Response: 40Hz to 20kHz

• Drivers:

-Satellites: 3-inch high output drivers with solid wood enclosure

-Subwoofer: 4-inch drivers with solid wood enclosure

• Speaker Dimension:

-Satellites: 3.86” x 5.52” x 3.94”

-Subwoofer: 5.52” x 9.02” x 9.26”

ET-AR502-BK speaker system

User manual

3.5mm to RCA audio cable

PACKAGING

The Eagle | Arion speakers are packaged in black colored box that has a combination of pale green and white letters to accent the the carton .  On the front of the carton it lists the maker and has a brief description and a catch phrase that states that the speakers are "small yet powerful'.  The carton also states that the speakers are rated at 30-watts peak  and below that it also lists the model number which is ET-AR502-BK. 

Now lets take a minute and talk about how speakers are rated.  High-end speaker and audio systems can be marked in one of two ways and that is not to say that there are not other ways to look at them but I am going to use the two most common.  Since music and even the spoken word is not a constant sound the peaks and valleys it creates are not constant. RMS (Root Mean Squared) watts are ones that can be listened to constantly. Peak watts as the speakers for this set of speakers are rated; can be listened to briefly.  In my personal opinion speakers rated by peak power are deceptive as the output is not even hear what they claim to be rated at.  If you look at some of the very expensive speaker whether they be Bose or JVC you will find that they are advertised with an RMS rating. 

Looking at the opposite side of the carton it identifies the important parts of the speakers showing such things as volume controls, bass control. It also points out the wood enclosures and the sub-woofer and the tweeter and mid-range speakers.

Looking at the ends of the carton you will see that one end has the complete specifications  for the speakers system including the subwoofer. In these specs you will see that it states the system is rated at a Total RMS Power of 15 Watts. To add to the confusion it states that the two small speakers are rated at 2.5-watts RMS each totaling 5-watts + the 5-watt RMS for the sub-woofer which equals a total of 10-watts RMS combined. The carton has the total wattage set to 30 watts peak which just adds to the confusion. 

The final pictures shows how well the package was sealed and protected form any damage that might occur during shipping of the speakers.

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE SPEAKERS

The Eagle Technology | Arion speakers as you can see by the photographs are composed of two small satellite speaker and a single larger subwoofer.  The housing which holds the speakers is made of composite wood with a faux wood grain finish which gives the speakers a more pricey look. 

The subwoofer has a bottom firing speaker and a single air baffle located on the front of the speaker box.  Each of the speakers have rubber feet screwed to them to prevent the speakers from vibrating off of their location. As would be expected the subwoofer is the heaviest of the two speakers.  The smaller speakers use 3" magnetic speakers where the subwoofer uses a 4" magnetic speaker.  The system has a rated frequency response of 40Hz to 20kHz. It may be worth placing a fan guard over the exposed speaker.

Each of speakers has a single  medium length wire on them which is has a single RCA male connector attached to the end of the wire.  This connector in turn is plugged into the RCA female connector on the rear of the subwoofer.

Here you can see the controls located on the subwoofer, they consist of a single large volume knob and a single smaller bass knob.  During our testing we found that the source volume had to be turned up well beyond mid-point on the volume control to produce and listenable volume on the speakers.

Each of the smaller speakers has a raised lettering with the word Eagle on it.

Looking at the rear of the subwoofer you will find 2-pair of RCA female connectors, The top connectors are marked as audio input. In other words this is where the wires with single phone jack will connect to the source whether it be an MP3 player, computer or radio.  The bottom connectors are for audio output or to connect to the smaller speakers.  There is a power switch which is the means by which you turn the speakers on and off.  There is no fuse of other replaceable safety circuit on the speakers.

A LOOK INSIDE THE SPEAKERS

With the back removed from the smaller speakers you can see that the inside of the speaker cavity is pretty bare as there is no sound enchancing material added.  Also missing is any type of crossover network, this may be handled by the audio portion of the amplifier but, this is also very common in lower priced speakers.

With the back removed from the subwoofer we can get a partial look at the power supply and power amplifier. 

Here you can see what Eagle calls the subwoofer speaker, when in reality it is actually a low-end mid-range speaker doing duty as a subwoofer.  We will touch on this speaker future on when we report our findings of our tests. 

THE SPEAKER TESTS

Test 1 - MP3

Using the Eagle speakers with my IPod Nano gave me a chance to see how well they produced music that I was very well acquainted with, listening to music from various artists like Lady Ga Ga, Cold Play, Queen and Bond.  Being that these speakers are in the sub-50 dollar range I was not surprised to find that they really lacked the highs that I have been accustom to hearing using  my Bose Wave Radio and using the same MP3 player using the Auxiliary Jack and function on the unit.  Yes I realize that comparing the Bose to the Eagle speakers in like comparing apple and oranges so perhaps it is better to compare the speakers to a set of low-end headphones.  Using this criteria they are about equal in highs and lows.

Test 2 - Ham Radio

For those of you that are not familiar with what Ham or Amateur Radio is, it is a hobby where after being given tests to show your competency you are allowed to talk to other Ham Radio operators in the US and around the world.  Communications is done by either Telephony or voice communications or via CW (Morse Code).  Some of the more exotic methods of communicating with other is Moon Bounce, where a signal is transmitted from your station to the surface of the moon where it bounces off to return to the earth thousands of miles away.  One other type of communication worth mentioning is one that uses satellites. It makes no difference what method you choose the important part is that you must be able to hear and understand what is being sent to you to receive.

Using the Eagle speakers in a rather odd way to attach to my radio transceiver I was able to make good use of the speakers characteristics.  The input cable for the speakers has a matching pair of RCA phone jacks, one for the left channel and one for the right and a single stereo 1/8" phono jack on the opposite end.  Since my radio's audio is monaural (one channel) I I bridged the two speaker jack so that both speakers worked at once.  I tend us listen to all of my Morse Code using a built-in 500 Hz filter on my radio and this frequency seemed to agree very well with the speakers.  Using Single Sideband Phone the audio quality was crisp but required that the audio volume be turned up relatively high to get the proper volume out of the speaker.  Overall the seemed to work very well when used this way.

Test 3 - Computer

Using the speaker with my office and radio computer and connected to an M-Audio Revelation sound card they seemed to be slightly better than average as far as sound reproduction went.  Listening to both music from Yahoo's Music Site as well as listening to various MP3s and watching Net Flick movies they performed as well as can be expected for a $30.00 set of speakers.

CONCLUSION

If you are looking for a pair of Sub-$50 dollar speakers and are not to concerned about the sound reproduction qualities then these speakers are worth a look.  The overall appearance is good enough that they won't look out of place on your desk or table. Most importantly the price is right.