P4 Passive Speakers — Audioengine

Technical Specifications

General Specifications

Type
2-way passive speaker system, front ported design, power amplifier or AV receiver required

Amplifier Type
N/A

Power Output
N/A

Drivers
4" aramid fiber woofers

0.75" silk dome tweeters

Inputs
Gold-plated, 5-way binding posts

Outputs
N/A

Input Voltages
N/A

SNR
N/A

THD+N
N/A

Crosstalk
N/A

Frequency Response
60 Hz-22 kHz ±1.5 dB

Frequency Response w/ Bass Reduction Switch selected
N/A

Analog Input Impedance
N/A

Nominal Impedance
4 ohms

Input Impedance
N/A

Crossover Frequency
N/A

Protection
N/A

Power Consumption
N/A

Standby Consumption
N/A

Phase
N/A

Recommended Amplifier Power
10-125 W per channel

Battery Life
N/A

Battery Charge Time
N/A

Weights And Measures

Dimensions (HWD)
9.2" (23.4 cm) x 5.5" (14 cm) x 6.5" (16.5 cm)

Weight
6 lb (2.7 kg)

Total Shipping Weight
14.8 lb (6.7 kg)

Shipping Box Dimensions (LWH)
18" (45.7 cm) x 9" (22.9 cm) x 13" (33 cm)

Environmental Requirements

Operating temperature: 32 degrees F to 95 degrees F
Non-operating temperature: -4 degrees F to 113 degrees F
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% non-condensing

Materials And Construction

0.5" (13 mm) thick MDF cabinets
4" (102 mm) aramid fiber woofers with advanced voice coils
0.75" (20 mm) silk dome tweeters with neodymium magnets

Cabinets

To minimize unwanted resonances and distortion, Audioengine cabinets have thick high-resin MDF walls with extensive internal bracing. Heavy internal sound-damping material is used to reduce unwanted sound reflections inside the cabinet. All cabinet edges are rounded which look great and reduce high-frequency diffraction effects on the front baffles. The P4 cabinet contains tuned, front-port slots.

Furniture Grade Finishes

The P4 cabinets are available in several handsome finishes, including bamboo veneers as well as satin black and high-gloss white paint, offering a wide choice for complementing room furnishings.

Custom Components

Audioengine designs and manufactures our own speaker drivers and other critical components. In other words, the P4 is not a box-built system with off-the-shelf parts, but includes custom-designed components constructed to our specifications. What we do not fabricate directly inside our factories we have made to our specific designs and parts such as circuit boards, transformers, magnets, and wiring harnesses, for example.

Based On Studio Monitor Designs

Studio monitor speakers are used by producers and engineers in recording and production studios. They are designed with a theoretical flat frequency response which allows the engineer to create a final mix in such a way that the recorded music will sound good on most other speakers. Although Audioengine speakers are not designed to be up-close “nearfield” studio monitors, we do carry over much of the same higher-end technology, components, and design philosophy for all Audioengine speaker systems.

Driver Designs

Audioengine uses audiophile quality, ferrofluid-cooled, silk dome tweeters with Neodymium magnets. Silk tweeters hold up well under high power and the edge-driven design gives very smooth response. The woofers are aramid fiber woven glass composite with rubber surrounds. Aramid fiber is obviously very strong, which means that the woofer retains its shape when being driven at high levels. The speaker materials and construction are robust enough to stand up to some serious thrashing, so speaker grills aren’t needed. In other words, we did our homework on the speaker drivers and they will sound and look great after many years of use.

Shielding

Both drivers are directly magnetically shielded which allow you to place the speakers within a few inches of a video monitor. This shielding also offers protection for hard drive-based digital music players.

Quickstart Guide

P4 Quick Setup

Connecting your Speakers

To connect your P4 speakers to a receiver or amp you will need 2-conductor stranded speaker wire. All Audioengine speakers use high quality, five-way gold plated binding posts that will accept heavy gauge bare wire, banana plugs, spade lugs, or pin terminators. We recommend your speaker wire be at least 16 gauge and that you use the same length of wire from your amplifier to each speaker. It’s also a good idea to turn off your receiver/amplifier before connecting your speakers.

Preparing the Speaker Wire

Separate the last 3” of each speaker wire conductor.
Strip ½” of insulation from the end of each wire.
Twist the exposed copper strands with your fingers 3 or 4 times so the strands stay together.

Note: As you make your connections, be sure to connect the positive (+) terminals on your receiver to the positive (+) terminals on your speakers. Even if your wire does not have (+) or (-) markings, most 2-conductor speaker wire has printing on one side to help you differentiate between the wire pairs.

If you are Using Bare Wire

Use your thumb and finger to unscrew the binding post connectors on the back of each speaker.
Insert each speaker wire into the holes on the side of the binding post connectors, observing proper polarity.
Retighten the binding posts with your fingers.
The stripped portion of the wire should be secured firmly in each connector.
Make sure that none of the speaker wire strands have come in contact with an adjoining terminal.

For the full setup guide, download the attached PDF:
P4_Setup Guide_v2

P4 Setup Video

Troubleshooting

HDP6 and P4 Troubleshooting Tips

The following troubleshooting tips can help diagnose and correct most concerns with the HDP6 or P4. We have attempted to make this list as comprehensive as possible, so some of these may not apply to your issue, but please go through each tip.

Verify that the power controls for your amp, preamp, and/or AV receiver are powered on and working.
Check that the volume level of your audio source components or devices are turned up.
Check the speaker wire connections from your amp to the speakers by removing the speaker wire from each speaker and then reconnecting. Also check the speaker wire polarity by verifying that the wires are going to the same terminals on both speakers.
Check that the cables from your audio source(s) to the amplifier are properly connected. Confirm this by unplugging the audio cables and then reconnecting.
Try using different audio input sources and/or devices to see if the problem follows.
Try swapping inputs to the left and right speaker to see if the issue remains in the same channel or follows the speaker.
If you are using a computer with your setup, make sure the volume is up on your media players, internet radio, master control, device volume, etc. and that the balance control is centered.
If you are using a wireless adapter, preamp, or external DAC, remove these (temporarily) and connect the audio source directly to the amp/speakers.
If your input source has its own EQ (equalizer), please make sure the low end is at a moderate level as having too much bass can cause distortion.
Move your amp and HDP6/P4 speakers to a different location to see if something is causing interference in the current setup. Something as simple as a wireless internet router, cordless or mobile phone, or halogen lamp nearby can cause interference.

FAQ's

The dimensions of each speaker is 9.2"H x 5.5"W x 6.5"D

We take great pride in our products, and go through great lengths to ensure consistency and quality. For that reason, this item was randomly selected for an additional step of Quality Assurance.

The threaded inserts found in the P4's will accommodate a 1/4" -20 threaded bolt. Be careful to not overtighten the bolt as you could damage the cabinet by doing so.

Absolutely! You can connect any Audioengine speaker with an analog output to any Sonos product that has the Line-In feature. You can also connect any Audioengine passive speakers into an existing Sonos system using the Sonos Amp.

This sometimes happens when the speakers and turntable share the same surface. The vibrations from the speakers playing feedback into the turntables stylus, causing unwanted noise. The best way to mitigate this would be to place the speakers on a different surface. If that's not an option, we'd recommend trying out some isolation stands. For larger speakers like A5+ and HD6, the ones made by Isoacoustics work well.

The lower the speaker impedance, the more current (amperage) your amp or receiver will need to provide, but most separate power amps have more than a sufficient power supply and power amp sections for driving 4 ohm loads with ease. In fact many amps will perform better with a 4 ohm load as opposed to 8 ohms if their design is robust enough to supply the extra current. A quick web search will bring up more information on this subject.

The P4 is a very efficient speaker and designed to work well with digital hybrid amplifiers (Class-D, Class-T, etc.) as well as most stereo receivers, integrated amps, tube amplifiers, and whole-house music systems such as the Sonos ZonePlayer 120. Check out our N22 amp for a great setup!

Yes, We do use solid bamboo for these speakers! The bamboo cabinets were tuned to sound the same as the MDF speakers, but the density of bamboo will give it natural acoustic advantages over MDF material.

The P4 came about from requests from customers that already have our powered speakers and/or have a music system and needed speakers but wanted the same Audioengine sound from a passive speaker.

To use the P4 speakers with the S8 you would need an amp, like our N22, to supply power to the P4 speakers and connect to the S8.