Audio-Technica's cheap active bookshelf speakers look like the perfect buy for new vinyl fans

It looks like Audio-Technica has bought the office a new espresso machine, because there's been a veritable frenzy of activity from the commpany lately. We've had a new pair of affordable wireless earbuds , and a new budget Bluetooth turntable , and now there's a new set of powered bookshelf speakers, the Audio-Technica AT-SP3X. The most impressive part of them may well be the price: the AT-SP3X are $199 / £169 (about AU$300). That makes them very competitive.

Powered speakers don't need an amp because they have their own amp inside one of the speakers, and that means they're well suited to products such as one of the best turntables , as long they have a phono stage in (as, wouldn't you know, A-T's own aforementioned one does). And of course you can use other sound sources too, such as your phone or your computer, whether that's wired or wirelessly over Bluetooth, which these speakers also support.

Audio-Technica AT-SP3X: key specifications and pricing

The new Audio-Technica AT-SP3X are compact compared to most of the best stereo speakers : the speakers are 7.9 inches by 4.9 inches by 5.4 inches; in metric that's 200mm x 113mm x 145mm. And the speakers are fairly chunky with a weight of 3.3lbs (1.5kg) for the left and 3.5lbs (1.6kg) for the right speaker. That difference is because the right speaker is where the amplifier lives.

The drivers are 3-inch woofers paired with 1.1-inch tweeters in a two-way design, and power output is a respectable 30W. The frequency response is 55Hz to 20,000Hz, which is quite impressive for speakers so small, and goes lower than some similarly priced competitors.

The Bluetooth version here is Bluetooth 5.3 with multi-point pairing. Although the speakers can go wireless to your phone, there's a cable to connect the two of them together that's a generous six feet long. And in another thoughtful touch there's an on-speaker volume control so you don't need to rely on your streaming source to adjust the levels.

If you're just getting started with vinyl, an affordable turntable with a phono stage and these speakers could be the perfect starting point – affordable and compact. We look forward to reviewing them in the future, to find out for sure.

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