A-414 Mk2, Audio Pro A-414 Mk2
Read more on the Audio Pro A-414 Mk2 in our home audio section
Fjk2010-08-18 03:42
I have a pair of Audio Pro A-414 Mk2 's. does anybody else own a pair of these? let me know!!!!
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Luca2010-08-19 14:32
I have bought a pair of these beasts just this morning (used and, I'm happy to say, at a bargain price). They sound really fantastic. Round, ransparent and colourless, very lively and very smooth: exactly the sound I like. I've made a real bargain!
By chance, do you know what the "Bass Blend" switch does, exactly?
Fjk2010-08-21 15:11
Hi am overjoyed to hear your reponse, I have owned mine for a little over 4 years now and am a producer so have been using them to mix on... (getting some adam a7x next week) My right speaker does not respond to some frequencies so well at high volume but are more than lovely at mid volume.
How much did you pay? i found mine in a relatives attic!!
Im not sure what the bass blend switch does... i keep them sounding as flat as possible for mixing reasons...
Luca2010-08-30 22:44
Hi Fjk, sorry for the late reply but I've been busy experimenting with the set, these days.
Actually, I found out that the previous owner has replaced the foam rings of the woofers, which is good, but it appears that the lab he has paid to do the job re-assembled the set inverting the wires of the woofers, so that I was missing a lot of the mid-bass due to the fact that the phase of the woofers was opposite to that of the midrange. Now the sound is very good indeed. If nothing, it is still a little bit too open, but after all, I thonk that this is what makes this set sound so "live"... Mind also, that I have connected the set to a small, 100 euros' media player with a Mediatek chip, which I use to play the flac files stored on my hard drive. The player appears to have a fairly decent audio, but I'm sure that if I hooked up a more serious DAC, the sound would certainly improve.
The price I paid for the set was 500 euros. Considering that these speakers were sold at the equivalent of 1800 euros in the early nineties, and that at the time 1800 euros were a lot of money... it's a bargain! I bet the price that we would have to pay for a similar quality speakers nowadays would be at least 2000 euros (and perhaps we would still need to buy a suitable amplifier).
I bought these speakers because I was searching ebay trying to find a sub to pair with my Sonus Faber Concertino, and I came across an advertisment for an audio pro active sub. I remembered in fact of having read, in the late 80s, an enthusistic review of both the sub and the a4-14 on a magazine. Accidentally, in the description of the sub, I read that the seller also had a pair of a4-14 mk2 he wanted to sell, and noticed that he actually had a "real" shop located just a few kilometers from my town. I thought these babies were there waiting for me... :-)
It took therefore me 2 seconds to change my mind from the sub to the a4-14. So I sent an email to the seller and arranged for the bargain the day after. I was so sure of the quality of these speakers because, after having read the review in the magazine, some 20 years ago I was curiosing out of an hi-fi shop in my town, when I was captured by what seemed to be Liza Minnelli singing live inside the shop. No need to say that when I entered the shop to see which system was playing so well, I found out that it was a pair of A4-14!
At the time I was a student and had no chance of buying these beauties, but I'm glad that today I can eventually own a pair, and the impression I had that day... is confirmed!
I really like speakers that can play dynamic, with a flat and extended frequency response in normal rooms. I believe that these are the true parameters to look for. It is not a coincidence, that such speakers are ususally really hard to find at an affordable price... I can only remember of a similar good impression when I heard a pair of ESS AMT 16, again by pure chance in another hi-fi shop. These also had a very dynamic and lively sound, but still cost 2500 euros, and need a good amplifier.
By the way... I found out the purpose of the bass blend switch. Is simply blends together the bass of the right and left channels. I think it was intended to solve some possible problems in matching the set with some peculiar rooms. Nothing of much interest then.
If I understand well, one of the louspeakers of your right box might be faulty, or perhaps the foam rings have deteriorated. Do you know that they're selling the replacement rings and the special glue to glue tham to the speaker cone, for something like 5 - 10 euros each?
I am thinking of buying an entire set of rings, just to keep them in stock, who knows... 8-)
Alessandro2011-01-26 15:18
Hello greetings from Italy!!
I also own a pair of Audio Pro A414 and they are working together with the Audio Pro B250. SIMPLE AMAZING! Couple of years I had the intention to change those speakers trying to find something that would sound at least as good as the Audio Pro, but cosmetically nicer to make my wife happy. I spent days and weeks to search for the perfect combination but nothing. Nothing could be compared with the sound of my system. When I brought my speaker system in the different Hi Fi stores to make a life comparison, I caught often on the face of the seller a glimpse of awkward; they remained impressed about the sound coming out from this 20 years old syestem. My target was to spend 4000- 5000 Euros, but I lost a lot of time. I need to put at least double of the money to get soemthing similar, hence out of my target. I could not find any speaker which could match the dynamic, the colorless and the total impact that the Audio Pro offers!!
So I decided to changed the CD. Now I own a nice Rega Saturn!!
Long Life to Audio Pro!! I do not understand why Audio Pro decided to stop the production. They should make it in a more attractive cabinet!! It would be surely a best buy
Ciao Alessandro
Tage2011-05-09 10:08
Hello, from Finland this time. I´ve been lucky to own a pair of A4-14mk2 since 1986. They have been in active use since then, and I´m more than happy with the sound: clear, open sound with good transients. I replaced the bass drivers some months ago, the surroundings of the old ones were quite broken. I´m happy to say that the service in Sweden works efficinetly. I hope to be an owner of a second pair of these: I´ve bet 4800€ for a very nice couple, and if nobody bets higher, I´ll get them today, 9:th of may.
Would anyone know any specs of the bass drivers? I´m asking, because I´ve replaced the surroundings of the old ones, and I intend to build a small pair of speakers with my 4,5 years old son. To be able to calculate the volyme, helmholtz etc., I need the basic specs.
I look forword to read your comments, Tage
Tage2011-05-09 10:48
Hello again. naturally the price is 480€, not 2800€.
Luca2011-05-19 12:05
Hi Tage.
The bass drivers of the set I bought have clearly been refoamed by the previous owner. I've contacted audio pro and thay said that they sell replacement bass drivers at about 90 euros each. Being these 4, it means about 360 euros for a full replacement. Now I'm wondering whether this would be worthy...
May I ask you, did you notice any difference in the bass, from the refoamed drivers to the new ones?
Unfortunately I don't have the parameters of the drivers. Maybe you can try to ask audio pro. By the way, I believe that you should consider that having refoamed them, you've altered their original parameters to a certain extent, and to be honest with you I wouldn't bother re-using them on custom made boxes. There are certainly much better speakers new, at cheap price and well documented, that you can use for home made boxes with better chance of success... But of course, it all depends on how much you like playing with things and how much time you can spend experimenting. :-)
As a side note, I've already spent too much time on the A4-14... In fact, once I had the bad idea to adjust the bias of the amplifiers strictly according the manufacturer's procedure, and in winter, with cold temperature in my room, the bass apmlifier of the right box got badly damaged. Both the final transistors burned in a matter of 3 seconds after switching the box on. It took me 2 weeks to repair it. I had to replace the final transistors 3 times because every time I switched the box on, they would burn. At the end I noticed that the bias current of the bass amplifier tends to rapidly diverge until the final transistors (and also their drivers) burn, if set as recommended by audio pro. My solution was to set the bias current to a much smaller value than recommended. With a smaller bias current in fact, it tends to stabilize rather than diverge. This It's likely to be a problem of design, since also the amplifier of the left box tends to have the same odd behaviour (although luckily I was able to prevent it to get damaged too). The mid-treble amplifier is designed a little differently, and in fact it does not have this problem.
Tage2011-05-24 10:32
Hi Luca.
Nice to get a reply from you. I haven’t been able to make a real comparison between these yet, I´ll let you know when I´ve done it. The guy who advised me when I refoamed the drivers told me that the parameters will equal those of new ones, that they fit in the tolerance limits of the production criteria. Still, it´s likely that at least the Qts will be different due to the new surrounding material.
I got the parameters of the woofers from AudioPro (below), they don´t seem too bad, actually they don´t differ much from those of new Peerless, Seas or other quality woofers of the same size. Still, the guy at AudioPro told me that they don´t fit into passive systems, that they are specially made for the active ACE-bass system.
I´m sorry to hear that you have had bad luck with the amps. I haven’t had such troubles with mine, even if I have replaced the final transistors a couple of times.
By the way, I´m lucky to own another pair of these, I got them for 480€, which was a real bargain. Surprisingly, the woofers’ surrounding are ok, even the potentiometers don´t make any noise.
As a comment on your side note, can one really spend too much time on the A4-14? ;-)
Thiele/Small - Parameters
Fo = 47.4 Hz
Qts = 0.45
Qes = 0.54
Qms = 2.8
Vas = 12.4 liters
DC-Resistance/Magnetic Strength
Re = 6.3 ohms
BL = 5.6 Tm
Mechanical - Parameters
Mms = 9.0 g
Cms = 1.25 mm/N
Rms = 0.97 Ns/m
d = 10.3 cm
Sd = 83 cm²
Sensitivity/Efficiency
Spl = 85.9 dB/W/m
No = 0.24 %
Cameron2011-07-12 07:48
Hi from Australia,I found a pair of a4-14 on the nature strip!Had them refoamed and wow,but the bass was a bit lacking,m&k mx125 sub and im in audio heaven.They are beautiful crisp and accurate.I will never sell them.
Sascha2011-07-29 19:36
Hello from germany. I have two pairs of the A4-14. They were offered at ebay (where else?..!)Fortunately the were in a good condition (nearly genuine except one speaker which LF-amplifier was broken and rotten foams. 2nd pair had the usual problems (rotten surroundings). Actually it was a fluke due to the fact i searched at ebay for some interesting bookshelf speakers and finally found Audio Pro. The sound is awesome. I was wondering how such a good sound could come out of such small speakers. Particularly the bass is incredible. Never heard such a clear and distortion-free sound before. The only thing i miss is an switch-on relay. Every time i switch them on i expect it wouldn´t be the last time because of the bad noise it does. I am very happy with these speakers and would never sell them too.
Camern2012-07-31 23:34
Hi from australia,still enjoying a4-14 with mk 125 subwoofer,would like to purchase
audio pro b2-50,does anyone have one for sale?They are very hard to come by in australia
Drew2012-10-28 12:01
WEll I have a B2-50 and just love it but we just moved and after trying to hook it up I forgot where the 4 RCA jacks were connected to my amp.?? I tried plugging them into the tape monitor plugs and the sub is not working but you can hardly hear it and I need to turn up the gain all the way just to start hearing it when it was in my old house I hardly had to move the control a 1/4 to 50% and it would be booming . Can any body help me please?? Thanks Drew drewworrell@yahoo.com
Drew2012-10-28 12:03
Please any help with correct connection of this wonderful unit will help!
Jerker L2012-12-28 10:32
Hi!<br /> <br /> The 5-pin DIN-connector has the following weiring connections.<br /> Pin 2 = Earth<br /> Pin 3 = Left line input<br /> Pin 5 = Right line input<br /> Pin 1 = Left line output filtered<br /> Pin 4 = Right line output filtered<br /> <br /> Good Luck!<br /> <br /> Personally I have also got the A4-14 ZERO that is the latest model of the series.<br /> <br /> Cheers
Kristoffer O.2013-03-17 12:31
Hello,
I bought a pair of these speakers a few months ago. They appear to be in near perfect condition. Black finish. Unique mids on these speakers.
I live in Norway and although it is very close to Sweden the folks at Audio Pro told me it was near impossible to have anything shipped across our countries for service. So I should find something local. I was thinking of refoaming the woofers.
Also, would anyone here know where to get new replacements for the DIN connectors on the speakers? I would very much like to upgrade them to gold/silver plated. And buy some new cables as I think the ones I have are nearly 30 years old and they dont seem to be of the best quality. (Original) I did contemplate about replacing the DIN connectors with RCA but i am not sure if I can do this operation by myself. Is there anyone tech-inclined here that could enlighten me on this?
When I plug the power sockets/connectors in I hear the usual "boom" on the right speaker (from the woofers". But nothing from the one I use as the left, just a small click from the tweeter/midrange. And this left speaker is also in need of some repair on the standby function as it is on all the time. Any thoughts on this? Shouldn't there be a "boom" on both speakers when plugging them in?
Thanks for any help :)
Sascha P2013-03-17 16:23
Hi,
are you shure that you have connected both speakers in the correct way? If both speaker switch on and only one speaker give this specific sound, maybe there is a problem with the bass-amp. Because the a4.14 are bi-amp, so it could be one of the amps are broken.
Do both speakers work (green and red led switches on)? One of mine had a corrupt bass-amp with a lot of distorsion. Sounded terrible. Also rotten foams on the woofers. So i had to repair it. Wasnt cheap but worth it.
Audio pro gave me the circuit sheme for the speaker.
There are some repair services for audio pro in germany:
http://www.audiotronic-service.de/inhalt/bearbeitenindex.html
or
http://abacus-electronics.biz/main.htm
Maybe the could help you.
My speakers are 100% original. Honestly i dont think that they would sound better if the DIN- socket were replaced. Even with cheap DIN-5 connectors they have a really clear and distorsion-free sound. I run them with a simple and cheap connector and cannot hear any difference to my jbl 4311b and Canton Karat M80DC. I wouldnt recommend rca´s if its not necessary.
Here in germany we have some suppliers (reichelt) for parts and tools, so it isnt a problem to
http://such002.reichelt.de/?SID=13UUXeX38AAAIAAFlQN4o4a14782badf418e359480682f6b89c67;ACTION=446
Kristoffer O.2013-04-21 01:14
Hello Sascha,
It's great to get an answer here :)
I have wondered if there was something wrong with one of the speakers, perhaps it is the amp. But nothing here sounds horrible. In fact, I suspect the woofers to be in good shape for their age. I haven't opened it up yet though.
There is a dealer of Audio Pro in Oslo, the capital of my country and they perform service and repairs. I have been talking to them. There's also a company in sweden who refoams the woofers.
You know, I just got new cables for them yesterday, custom made by a man on ebay. The seller is called amplifier_surgery in case you want to check it out. They are quite reasonable.
It' still DIN between the speakers and DIN to rca for the source. I remember a guy I bought a pair of speakers from some years back, he went on to become a sound engineer.. I asked him why he had speakers for 1800$ and cables for 10. He said he never heard any difference.. Listening to these new cables right now I have to laugh out loud. I have to say, and I wondered if I should email the man who sold me the Audio Pros :lol , that if he never tried any other cables than the original ones (especially if you bought them used 20 years after production and never heard them new), then he never knew what speakers he had.
The difference is quite remarkable, they are completely different speakers. The level of detail on certain areas is insane. The cables are silver plated and that is what is new to me so I will definetly be looking for more silver in the future. It is supernatural :)
Although they did surprise me they still dont fit the A4-14s perfectly. The sound is to extreme and the speakers make the catch for silver plated cables apparent. They say in the wires that the higher frequencies ride along the outer silver coating and the lower frequenices centers in the core of the cable/wire, where the copper is. It results in a unbalanced soundstage and creates a "hole" in the middle. The higher and the lower doesn't bridge well. And this became painstakingly apparent here. I hope this will ease of as they run in. They do run in, I can hear it. I dont know why people keep denying these things.
So copper cables might be the best choice for these speakers. An upgrade is absolutely recommendable. Although I actually enjoyed the old vintage sound from the original cables. Now they sound like some hyper speaker straight out of the hifi shop. They seem to be in surprisingly good condition. The difference would take down any cable skeptic in the whole world. I cannot imagine otherwise, they would have to be deaf or on drugs of some very sad kind. I would recommend some good coppercables, or perhaps just trying this cable I have if you tend to be sceptical :)
What I do wonder about is the soundstage, it seems slightly odd to me. It's not the most "wholesome", I have no idea if that is the right word. I mean, things seem a bit detached from each other at times. Like things in the stereo perspective arent cooperating as they should. I wonder if this is how the inbuilt amps sound. Can I ask if you can relate to this? I'm not talking about the cables, this was something I noticed when using the old ones too, but now everything about these speakers is more clear, I do think it will smooth out a little bit as they run in.
I should add that I am using Musical Fidelity M1 HPA as preamp, and it is very good. It is also a bit bright in it's soundcharacter and the speakers too, so now the silver made things even brighter. It's too bright and way off from from the ideal but it is very interesting to hear the silvers character.
I used to have a 4000$ setup and when I look back there wasn't much difference from 20$ cables to 250$ cables then. I think it is the a4-14 that is very revealing and sensitive. :)
Please, would you tell me if you also have the same thought on the imaging of the speakers?
Would be great to hear from you : )
-Kristoffer
Kristoffer O.2013-04-21 22:28
Hello again,
It's now another day of the burn in period and I left the systemon playing without much volume.
It's now clear that these speakers are the best I have ever heard. You all need to buy new cables :)
This is incredible. I will never sell these things. Please, Sascha, try the cables I have (if you dont believe there is difference) I could even pay for it :D Not right now though I have bills. But you need to hear the difference.
-Kristoffer
Sascha P2013-04-24 15:10
Hello Kristoffer,
yes, these speakes are brilliant. And yes you need to have a good source to let them play smooth and clear. For me a good source/player and a good amplifier is much more important than a silver plated cable. The cable need to have a good shielding and good plug connectors, and in my opinion thats all. But maybe your are right and silver wires spends this speakers some more clarity and prescision.
My experience is that i couldn´d hear a difference. To tell the truth i never tried cables more than 40€. Maybe i give it a try! Thanks for the advice!
I used to have electric cables (nym 3 x 1,5) as speaker cables. And it sounded good. :-) But the look wasnt good indeed.
In comparison to my JBL 4311b monitors (which are fine speakers; especially the mids and the punchy bass), they sound much more neutrally, are weak in the bass-pressure but goes deep. Ok, these 5" push-pull drivers couldn t get loud. But for the size of these speakers, its a miracle that the bass is absolutely dry with less distorision. I hear a lot of 70/80s pop/rock, classical music, metal and electro/singer-songwriter music. The mid/highs are precise in stage and much less annoying than other speakers that size i heard before.
But the audio pro works best in small or midsize rooms. my 2nd pair runs in my office as a near-field speaker. In this location they work best.
I had the luck to get a matching Audio pro b2-100 subwoofer. it fits perfect and sounds very very good and harmonic. for just 600,-€ i own a very very good speaker system. for a similar new speaker you have to spend much more money i guess. so i am satisfied with it. i absolutely love vintage gear (if it works fine!). You know that today it its not easy to find good old speakes for a fair price. The jbl/altec/vott speakers are very expensive when you look at ebay or other markets. But i love these big speaker systems. Im just looking for horn loaded klipsch/jbl/ or technics speakes. Sadly others do too, so the prices are extremely high, esp. on "ebay" :-( And then there is the "spare-spart-issue". The philips-mid and the tweeter are hard to get, so i try to buy every audio pro speaker when an opportunity is given.
I run the audio pro´s with my sansui au 919 (in repair), onkyo 90s receiver, harman kardon 90s receiver, pro-ject record player, and denon dcd 1510 cd-player.
Yeah, and i wouldn´t give them (a4-14) away too. I love listening. Great engineering!
Enjoy your gear!
Kind regards!
Frank2013-04-25 21:04
Hi, I'm the guy who started this whole thread.. Glad to see everyone chatting here... I will be selling one of my pairs of audio pro a414's. any body interested? Send me an offer! Thanks. F
Cameron2013-04-26 06:30
Frank would love them,problem is shipping, I'm in Australia ! If we could work something reasonable out then let's do it.let me know where you are and we can first work on shipping. Cheers cam
Kristoffer O.2013-04-28 00:30
Hello again, and Hello to Frank :)
Sascha,
Thank you for your reply :)
For source I use the inbuilt dac in the Musical fidelity headphone amp. It's not bad at all but musical fidelity also have standalone dacs which are very good. I think the one in my headphone amp is not as good as the standalone types. Still quite good and better than many of the dacs sold out there. For cd's I use a Pioneer 717 dvd player right now and it's not bad. Of course, the dvd player is best in comparison to the dac. In order to get really good sound out of dac you need to spend a little.
I listened to the Album Surrealistic Pillow by the Jefferson Airplane, which I think is an absolutely beautiful album. And it was extremely good 8)
I do think copper cables will give these speaker a more realistic sound. Either that or pure silver as silver plated does seem to have an overly brightening effect on my speakers. The difference is in definition. They also sound much larger than with the other cables, the soundstage is much larger.
The are great office speakers :D
I have done some research and I have a company that will do a complete overhaul of the electronics for my country's equivalent of 200$ :) Give or take say 70 dollars. I'll have to wait though as I'm a student and cant afford it right now. They are worth the wait. I believe the fault is in the amplifier, how many problems can a tweeter element have anyway?
I would absolutely love to get a hold of the subwoofer that goes along with these speakers. But I believe shipping one of those overseas would be costly.
I did wonder if a new ace bass woofer would fit them. Audio Pro is very popular in my country. And possibly even more affordable, it is strange I have noticed certain things cost the double in USA than here in Norway. I'm speaking of electrical goods like projectors, amps and speakers. Somehow, even though this is one of the most expensive countries in the world electronics are reasonably priced here. These speakers costed half the price here in Norway and sweden when they came then they did in the states.
The thing about the silver is that it makes higher frequencies sound really good. Silver would be great for more refined music like classical and jazz I think. Actually I haven't heard pure silver yet, only silver plated. But I will make a headphone cable in pure silver for my AKG Q701s to see how silver really sounds. Just a meter or so, wont be that expensive :) The headphones are very revealing too.
What I did notice was that when I first mounted the cables I had to turn the sensitivity down a lot as there was a lot of buzzing in the speakers with the amp on. Which did not happen with the old cable, then I heard nothing, I also had the sensitity way higher with the old cables.
I look forward to getting the speakers amps overhauled, one of them is also leaking white stuff from the capacitors or transistors. It's all over the amp-board, some white/greyish gum-like substance. And I even see a capacitor or transistor that has melted completely. I just noticed this, still that speaker sound perfect. It is weird.
I payed 160 dollars for my cables. but I chose 4 meters for each cable and that's really to much.
I would suggest buying some on ebay, a good copper cable by the metre and terminate/mount the DINs your self. I will do this myself too as I think I need a pair of good copper cables too.
I will keep you updated on the amplifier repairs :)
Also I will be looking for a decent cd player in the future, I just say a cary cd player which costed over 5000 dollars new for sale for just 500. That was tempting :P But being a student I cant afford that either :P Still a great buy.
If you cant get a hold of the old audio pro pre-amp, then I do suspect musical fidelity might also be a good match. They are generally very neutral I think, possibly a bit less punchy than the original audio pro preamp. Mine is also class A. Beautiful sound.
Cheers,
Kristoffer
Kristoffer O.2013-05-18 21:05
Hello again,
I have now updated with a pure silver signal cable, which costs about 400 pounds new :P I got it for less, but it is the finest pice of audio equipment I have ever seen. Yes, cables matter. It is clear as day and night, and these speakers offer more than anyone here knows I think. Depending on which equipment you use to drive them with. I think these speakers offer more than the man at Audio Pro knows, the man which I have talked with over emails. I asked if they planned to make new models based on this speaker or similar to it, he meant the current models can compete. He pointed towards the cheap desktop actives for laptops even, I think they have forgotten this speaker. No bad feelings towards audio pro of course, but their comparison to these cheap modern speakers is not fair.
I can still recommend the man at Ebay as it became apparent that the brightness and the difference in sound also had to do with the inbuilt dac of my apmplifier. With analogue source it is different. You still get a bit of that silvery sound from the plated cables.
Again, it was the seller: amplifier_surgery on ebay. I hope he doesn't mind me typing it here.
Those cables are very affordable compared to what I just bought :)
These speakers rock.
What is always strange to me when buying new cables is that every time the sound tenses up, it's much more tight and compresses the sound image in a way. Not really compressed but makes things tighter and centers it. Tight as a ducks arse. Sorry..
I think this eases off over time, it does so even during the first hours of listening. It's the same process as with an amplifier, it sounds like the same process, although an amplifier takes more time.
Has everyone left here?
Would be cool to hear from others here too :)
Regards,
Kristoffer
Frank2013-05-19 23:24
Hi cam, sorry didnt see your post, email me at fjkdrums@gmail.com we can get the ball rolling instead of flooding this thread ;)