Superb soundscape: Audio Pro A48 review

When picking out a new set of the best speakers, floor-standing like the A48s or otherwise, you’ve got a far greater job on your hands than you may think. If you want to maintain harmony within the living room, your new speakers should be absorbed by their surroundings as though they were just another part of the furniture. Much like contemporary window trim refits on a Georgian house, they should be practical and conspicuous, yes, but tastefully congruous in equal measure.

Not all speaker manufacturers rise to the challenge, but just leave it to a Swedish firm like Audio Pro to combine chic elegance with refined audio power for one marvellous set of sound blasters. Meet the A48s: Audio Pro’s answer to the tall-standing speaker. Clean yet sophisticated, these are fantastic speakers but they’re premium items. A new set of A48s will set you back a spine-zapping £1,200 - question is, are they worth it?

Out of the box

I must declare that I was especially excited about the A48s before they arrived. Premium home media tech is usually enough to get most audiophiles sweating, but I found myself taken in this case by the spec sheet. A pair of 5.25” woofers, a 2” Balanced Mode Radiator and a class D amplifier with Bluetooth connectivity? Imagination whirring on all cylinders, I was eager to get started.

Straight out of the rather large box, the two speakers are just about as chic and attractive as you would expect from a Swedish audio supplier. At just over 85cm tall – 215mm wide and 265mm deep - they’re not the tallest speakers but I found their stature pleasantly surprising as they were easier to manoeuvre for it. Weighing 10.5kg each, they were light enough to shuffle into position with ease. The speakers arrived with their silver face mesh already attached, though if you prefer the raw, naked drivers, it can be removed with ease as it's secured by a series of magnets.

I decided to position the pair flanking on either side of my Hi-fi setup, off-centre relative to the layout of the room but necessary for my test. Included with the speakers came a smattering of cables including the power cable and a Speakon cable, as well as the remote control. A beautifully weighted, exquisitely milled aluminium piece, the remote itself oozed class, extending the speakers’ allure of functional elegance into the palm of my hand. Sure, they are a tad more conspicuous than some ceiling speakers, but they sure do look great.

The A48s can be spec'd in either black or white from Audio Pro. The press speakers that I received were in satin white and though they were sleek, my initial impression was that the white trim didn’t live up to the price tag. The speaker bodies were fuss-free, glossless, and felt premium to the touch, but for £1200 did they look as expensive as I expected? I’m not so sure.

Setup

Setting the A48s up was a breeze. Most of the inputs can be found on just one of the speakers, including the main power socket, the RCA line in receptacles and the HDMI input. Once set up and plugged in, the second speaker can then connect to the first via a chunky, and rather ugly, Speakon cable. If I were I spending £1200 on a new set of speakers, I think I’d rather the colour of my Speakon matched that of the speakers themselves. In this case, I was left wondering whether this example had doubled up as the trailer connector on an Eddie Stobart lorry in a past life. Nevertheless, the cable still served perfectly in its capacity, powering the second speaker while sharing output.

Before the speakers had even arrived, I was set on trying out my turntable on them first as a set of vinyl speakers. While the speakers are active in that they provide their own amplification, external turntables will require an auxiliary pre-amp to work, as is explained in the owner’s manual. The manual specifies that an RIIA pre-amp is required to power turntable output through the speakers – a typo on an RIAA pre-amp? – but my Creek 4040 S2 did the trick with a couple of RCA cables plugged into the line in input. Just like that, they were ready to go.

Initial impressions

Once plugged in, it was time for the tricky part – what to stick on first? A delightfully tough decision I can only compare to choosing what movie to watch as you divide up your favourite takeaway on a Saturday night – complex, time-sensitive, and critical. I settled on Pink Floyd’s Meddle and though I momentarily considered the first side, I skipped straight to Echoes.

They didn’t disappoint. From the off, the tone of the A48 was succulent and nuanced, the tweeters working hard to deliver all the top-end frequency detail of the song’s opening minutes, though I was especially taken back once the bass kicked in. Deep and sharp, the A48s evinced layers to the song’s low-end frequencies that I was previously unaware of up until that moment. If anything, I found myself somewhat surprised at how Audio Pro was able to achieve such a deep bass sound from such slender units. The primary speaker houses an auxiliary subwoofer input for even more bass, but with a 30-25,000Hz frequency range, I'm not sure why you would need or want to.

Each kick and bass alignment was there to be relished, the next more satisfying and rewarding than the last. The snare drum sounded crisp, straight-edged and delectably tight throughout while the crystal clear guitars and vocals of the midrange carried the song out of the A48s.  I was thoroughly impressed.

Initial test over, I was left feeling dazzled but also quite privileged to have just listened to some of my favourite music out of such great audio equipment. The A48s shunned no part of the frequency range - it was consistently impressive throughout and felt indubitably premium. Worth the £1200? I think they make a very strong case.

Living with the A48

Over the following few weeks, I had the pleasure of living with the A48, utilising its power and prestige on a daily basis. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, though not entirely trouble-free. Over time, it became clear just how useful the remote control is as an asset to this audio set. Not just a pretty face, it allowed me to navigate effortlessly between sources so I could enjoy the speakers from the TV to the turntable without interruption.

Bluetooth

From the remote, I was able to initiate the A48’s Bluetooth pairing mode to hook my phone up. The primary speaker houses an LED light behind the mesh that illuminates in various colours depending on which pairing mode the speakers are in. Once the light started flashing in deep blue, I knew the speakers were ready to connect and then I was away – a process seemingly honed by Audio Pro to make switching between sources as simple as possible. The Bluetooth connection offered by the speakers was strong, enhancing my overall listening experience as I was then free to operate the output from anywhere in the room.

Once a Bluetooth connection had been established, I could also control my music directly from the Spotify app. I was satisfied with the usability of the Spotify app as a means to control the output of the speakers as the connection itself was very stable, with little to no lag in response to each of my inputs. They certainly can rank among the best Bluetooth speakers around.

Connecting to the TV

As multi-use home entertainment speakers, the A48s have been designed to serve all home media sources, including turntables, wireless music streaming and TVs. There are several methods by which users can connect their TVs to the A48s: Bluetooth, ARC HDMI or over WIFI.

Connecting my QLED Samsung TV to the speakers over Bluetooth was wholly undemanding. Just as it had been easy enough to do so on my smartphone, all I had to do was initiate the speakers’ pairing mode, find the Bluetooth settings on my television and then sync up. Again, the connection was consistently stable with no lag or interference at all. Connecting to the TV via the ARC HDMI ports produced the same result – a strong, faultless connection with no lag to speak of.

The A48s served brilliantly as home theatre speakers. Their deep, boomy bass response offered a new dynamic to my overall viewing experience – especially while watching films. They offered sharp and detailed audio that deepened the immersion value of the TV, the two complementing each other as they worked – and succeeded – to seize the full extent of my attention for hours on end. Once the final credits were over, the speakers could be turned down to suffice the mellow audio output of terrestrial television. Perhaps a little superfluous in this capacity, they still performed well to keep the mind engaged with whatever was taking place on the screen.

The app

AudioPro offers its own app from which users may operate and manage their speakers. Available on iOS and Android, the app can be used to control music from a host of different music streaming platforms – a somewhat redundant perk since, at least for Spotify users, the musical output of the A48s can be controlled on the Spotify app itself. Usefully, though, the app allows users to control the EQ settings on their A48s wirelessly.

When watching television with the speakers hooked up, I would occasionally dial the bass down and the mid-range up to enjoy the content at an agreeable volume. On the other hand, when Friday night would roll around again and I was ready to get started on the weekend, the bass would go back up. All the way back up.

Regardless of how much I wanted to aggravate my neighbours at any given point in time, having the opportunity to manage the frequency content of my speakers became a hugely satisfying perk, my only criticism being the app design itself. While the Sonos app boasts clean lines and modern design characteristics, I felt that Audio Pro’s app could do with a facelift. Especially given the premium nature of the speakers themselves. Check out our picks of the best wireless speakers.

Any downsides?

While the A48s are fantastic, they’re not without fault. I’ve already referenced both the tacky appearance of the white plastic and the ugly Speakon cable, but my primary issue lay with the WIFI function of the speakers. Despite numerous attempts, I couldn’t register a connection between my phone or television with the speakers over WIFI. I often found myself referring to the user manual in case I missed anything, but I found the manual to be quite unhelpful – clear and well-illustrated, yes, but lacking in any real guidance or direction on how to carry out some of the speakers’ functions.

Of course, not being able to use WIFI didn’t necessarily hinder my experience as I was still able to exploit the Bluetooth, ARC HDMI and RCA line in connections – all of which worked brilliantly. But failing to utilize a key function on such an expensive set of speakers, nevertheless, still left a fairly bad taste.

Pricing

The price of the A48s on the floor-standing speaker market puts them in quite a strange position. At £1,200, they’re very far from cheap. In fact, it’s the sort of money one would expect an audio enthusiast to pay for a pair of speakers, rather than a casual consumer in the market for a new set. Yet despite the high price tag, the A48s suddenly appear relatively cheap when compared to some of the other speakers on the market. Many sets, like the Bowers and Wilkins 603 S2s or the Wharfedale Evo 4.4s, top the £1,200 price tag of the A48s without breaking a sweat, while several blow past the £5,000 mark. They’re better equipped than the A48s with more drivers and perhaps better quality materials, but where does that leave the A48? Upper entry level for £1,200? Seems rather expensive.

Verdict

As my time with the A48s drew to a close, I found myself smitten. Their usability, dynamic output and elegant design had won me over, overshadowing the few grievances I also picked up along the way. I especially liked how responsive they were over Bluetooth, how easy they were to set up and maintain and how they didn’t dominate the room – they really did become just another part of the furniture.

There are more expensive models out there with superior capabilities but given the imperious stature of most floor-standing speakers, I felt the modest size of the A48s worked to their advantage. If I were in the market for a new set of home media speakers that wouldn’t dominate the area around them but could deliver high-end performance whenever I needed it, I would seriously consider a pair of A48s.

However, as I tested the speakers in a small flat in central Manchester, I was unable to really crank them up. I boosted the volume a handful of times, but in all honesty, they were just too big and powerful for my small apartment.

I was unable to exploit their potential on a regular basis, leaving me convinced that they would suit a large living room perfectly, but for now, I think I’d rather opt for a set of bookshelf speakers to save myself some space and money. Should the day come when I do have a large living room to fill, I’ll have my A48s in black, please

Follow up test

After struggling to connect the A48 speakers to my WIFI router, Audio Pro sent me another set to try again. Upon powering up and connecting to the iPhone app, I was immediately prompted to connect them to WIFI – a very easy process. Once complete, I was able to stream music through the speakers over WIFI for hours on end without so much of a glitch. I also liked the satin black finish of the second set over the white of the first.

Other alternatives:

How were the A48s tested?

My sample A48s were tested consistently over the course of four weeks. This gave me enough time to integrate the speakers into my daily routine. I was able to test the Bluetooth function, the ARC HDMI cable function and the Line In inputs using a Creek 4040 S2 pre amp, a 55-inch Samsung QLED TV and my iPhone 13. I altered the EQ of the speakers on a regular basis from the AudioPro app.

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