Audioengine’s HD4 Next Gen and HD5 get a white oak finish with copper tweed grilles

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Audioengine’s two desktop speaker systems wear a new finish today. The HD4 Next Gen and the HD5 both come in a real white oak veneer now, with copper tweed grilles and gold trim, and nothing inside either cabinet changes.

The oak is pale and close-grained, a long way from the dark walnut this line usually leads with, and it changes how both systems look at a glance. The grilles snap on magnetically and arrive in copper tweed instead of black cloth.

The faceplate and volume knob trade their silver and black for gold. White oak takes its place beside the existing matte black, walnut, and hi-gloss piano white, and it is the first pale finish Audioengine has put on either system, aimed squarely at desks and living rooms that run light.

The cabinets underneath are the same hand-built, hand-finished boxes Audioengine has always made, and on the HD4 Next Gen the maker counts a 13-step finishing process borrowed from grand piano production. White oak is a veneer over that same enclosure, not a new cabinet. The grilles carry thin rubber pads on the back, so they can come on and off without marking the finish, and the wood grain underneath stays the grain buyers already know from the walnut.

Buying direct carries one more perk. Audioengine’s store runs a 60-day home trial.

The HD4 Next Gen in white oak

The HD4 Next Gen is the smaller system, a powered left speaker and a passive right one, each 9 inches tall, 5.5 wide, and 6.5 deep. We reviewed the original HD4 in 2021 and liked the formula: controls on the front plate, connections kept simple, and nothing about the setup that fights the desk. A single run of speaker wire ties the pair together.

Each cabinet runs a 4-inch aramid-fiber woofer under a 0.75-inch silk-dome tweeter. Amplification is Class AB at 30 watts RMS per channel, 120 watts peak across the pair, and a headphone jack sits on the front plate beside the gold knob.

Connections are where the Next Gen name comes from. USB-C feeds a Texas Instruments 24-bit DAC, Bluetooth 5.3 carries aptX Adaptive, and the wireless feed and the wired digital feed share that DAC between them.

The RCA and 3.5mm analog inputs stay live at the same time and play together. Bluetooth mutes the USB feed until the stream stops.

Audioengine sells the white oak HD4 Next Gen at $329, $100 under the $429 list, and it is in stock, while Amazon carries the same finish at the full $429.

Price: $329 $429 (save $100)
Where to buy: Audioengine and Amazon

The HD5 in white oak

The HD5 is the bigger and older of the two systems. A 5-inch aramid-fiber woofer replaces the HD4’s 4-inch, the same 0.75-inch silk-dome tweeter sits above it in a flared waveguide, and amplification runs to 50 watts RMS per channel, 150 watts peak for the pair.

The HD5 predates USB-C, so a computer connects over the included 3.5mm cable or the optical input, which feeds an AKM DAC handling 24-bit files up to 192kHz. Bluetooth is 5.0 with aptX HD.

The analog inputs take a turntable, a variable preamp output runs to a powered subwoofer when the pair needs help down low, and the whole connection set reads like a hi-fi component’s rather than a computer peripheral’s. That split is the real difference between the two systems.

In white oak the HD5 looks like furniture before it looks like studio gear. The pale veneer and the copper grille warm up a cabinet that in matte black has always looked like equipment, and the gold plate along the bottom front ties it to the smaller system across the room.

The voicing and the feature set underneath do not move at all.

Audioengine has the white oak HD5 at $419, $180 under its $599 list, in stock today, while Amazon lists the same finish at the full $599, so the discount lives on the maker’s store.

Price: $419 $599 (save $180)
Where to buy: Audioengine and Amazon

Which one fits the desk

The choice between them has not changed with the finish, and it was never about the finish. The HD4 Next Gen is the desk system: smaller cabinets, USB-C straight into the computer, the newer Bluetooth radio, and a footprint that leaves room for a monitor and a keyboard. The HD5 is the room system: more power, an optical input for a TV or a streamer, and a subwoofer output for the day the pair grows into a setup.

White oak is the first finish on this line that changes how the speakers sit in a room instead of how they sound. At the same list price as black or walnut, and discounted at the source today, it is the version to buy if the pale wood is the one you kept looking at.

Owners of either system in another finish gain nothing sonically here. Nothing about the sound changes. This is a finish launch, priced like one, over speakers already worth recommending.

One shopping note for anyone who decides the finish is negotiable: the standard finishes carry the same sale prices at Amazon, $329 for the HD4 Next Gen and $419 for the HD5. White oak at those prices is an Audioengine-direct proposition today.

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