M-Audio Studiophile AV30 Professional Reference Speakers | List Price: $129.99
Discount Price: $86.38
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Brand: M-Audio
Binding: Electronics
Features: - 3" composite woofers
- 3/4¿ ferrofluid-cooled silk dome tweeters
- OptImage III tweeter wave guides for superior imaging
- 15-watt-per-channel amplifier with architecture
- magnetic shielding
BEST Speakers [Posted on 2008-08-07]
I didnt want a room full of speakers and yet I still wanted great sound ... these fit the bill perfectly. Comes with both US and European plugs and swtich in the back.
Great sound !!!
Make sure you break them in before you judge! [Posted on 2008-08-31]
These are very good speakers, but at first I was disappointed because they needed breaking in. After a few hours of solid rockin, i noticed they were sounding better! Now after weeks they sound amazing and seem to just keep getting better! They go loud enough to fill a room and get your groove on. Only those that like their music extremely loud would want more. The base is good enough as well, and only those who want that huge booming super deep base would want more. I would consider myself an audiophile, and these are solid speakers at a good price. oh.. and they are small enough to fit nicely on a desk connected to your computer.
For the price and size, these are great [Posted on 2008-09-03]
I bought these speakers to listen to music and news at my desk in my apartment, and BOY do they fit the bill.
I've put them through the ringer--rock, folk, house, drum & bass, hip hop, samba, All Things Considered--and they sound remarkably good in all applications. Everything but D&B and hip hop sounds almost as good as on my other monitors (KRK 5's) that cost twice as much. The fidelity is impressive, and the response is remarkably flat. If you're used to or prefer the more U-shaped sound of non-monitors, be sure to turn on the appropriate EQ in iTunes; they'll sound tinny otherwise, but that's what a flat-response monitor will sound like compared to regular 2- or 3-way stereo speakers. It's all those mid-range sounds you're used to covering up.
They also handle a good deal of volume. With the volume knob at 50% and my MacBook volume at 75%, it's "Turn that noise down!" loud and still as clear as at lower volumes for most types of music.
The bass lines in the D&B have some drop-off on the bottom end, but that's a LOT to ask of a value-priced monitor with a 3" woofer. I listen to really nasty stuff with super-low bass--Technical Itch, Dieselboy, Bad Company, and the like--so I expected that this would be the one area with less than amazing reproduction. I was right. (Roni Size's "Brown Paper Bag" is much more within their range.) Hip hop beats can lose a some punch, too, and this is the one area where you'll notice a little distortion at higher volumes. (The kick drums in D&B are usually a little more like real kicks than in much hip hop, and these sound great even at higher volumes.)
Again, for the size (don't have a ruler--each speaker is maybe 5" wide and 6" deep) and price, they do surprisingly well. Other challenging types of music with lots of bass that just isn't as low, e.g. House, come through remarkably well.
The 4" version was very well reviewed, so I thought I'd give these a shot because they cost less and take up less room. Also, the primary difference would be in the bass response, and I live in an apartment building, so for me, having less bass was actually a good thing. They still get too loud for me to play them anything close to maxed out, and they sound great.
One more thing: I like the design. M-Audio knew this would be more for desktop listening than studio applications such as mixing (for which I got the KRK 5's). Thus, they put all the inputs and controls on one speaker, which is nice because it only requires one power cable and you don't have to split an RCA cable to run one line to each speaker. It comes with a 1/8" to RCA cable (connects your computer's audio out port to the RCA jacks in the back) AND a 1/8" to 1/8" cable (connects your iPod to the Aux In port on the front). The volume knob in front is also nice.
If you want reasonably high fidelity for a low price at your desk, and you don't need subwoofer-type bass response, I'd recommend these speakers. Highly.
Very good for price, please add tiltability... [Posted on 2008-10-15]
IF you set them flat on a desk the sound suffers. Combine that with their inability to tilt and I would call that a problem.
They are pretty directional and M-Audio says proper placement is with the center of the speaker at ear level. How do you accomplish that on a desk?
They could use just a bit more bass, but that's what the AV-40s are for.
I put some small things under the front to tilt them up and they sound very good....a HUGE leap from basic computer speakers. Very good for the price, but calling them "professional reference speakers" is not accurate.
Set them apart as wide as space allows.
Add an equalizer to your shopping list [Posted on 2008-10-29]
As usual, the package arrived from Amazon poorly packed - was literally open, but since the speakers were in their own additional box, they endured Amazon's sorry packing. I try to avoid Amazon generally.
These speakers are WAY too bassy - they were apparently designed to impress 14-yr-olds, but not adults. The geniuses at M-Audio were under some delusion that they could create in computer desktop speakers the kind of separation and clarity of bass that occurs in standalone systems. Uh...nope. The result is mud city. I was literally getting throbbing headaches from listening to the muddy response of these speakers. Horrible!!!
They have no upper-range boost whatsoever - the response actually begins to drop off at around 5k upwards. Very, very bad. You'll need to roll off a huge amount of lower-end bass to counteract the annoying roar of these speakers, and further equalize to bring out anything remotely resembling a cymbal or crisp acoustic guitar notes. Any monotonic bass (studio version of "Calico Skies," e.g.) with these things set at flat, and you'll be stickin' your fingers in your ears.
Solution? Just go to the built-in EQ of all your players, right? WRONG!! I tried that for hours, and the usual ultra-cheap software equalizers just wouldn't cut it this time - just made matters worse. The sound was frickin' horrible. And of course YouTube music vids were a nightmare. So I finally sprung for a good used standalone hardware equalizer, and that helped a lot (and provided much-needed *global* EQ), but I'm still not impressed at all by the sound of these speakers. They're basically utilitarian, and barely that. Way hard to get decent-sounding vocals, no matter how much I twiddled with mid-range settings.
And btw, my sound card is an M-Audio Audiophile 2496, so blame it on that, M-Audio. And yeah - I made sure the bass boost was OFF.
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