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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 83 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
111 of 118 found the following review helpful:
 Very Very Nice Apr 12, 2009
By Opus Maru
"Les M"
I compared these with the M-Audio AV40. I decided on these. They sound great. They're very clean and as other reviewers noted, a little directional. They are monitors. The cones are open and exposed, so I can't recommend them around small children. Their construction is solid with precise fit and finish. I really like them. There are a couple things you need to know about these before you decide to purchase them.
First, they don't come with cables. They accept standard XLR (3 pin) male plugs or standard 1/4 inch patch chord for the clean, balanced, installation needed in a recording studio. I purchased my cables from a local guitar shop (Guitar Player). Adorama sells special XLR stereo sets with a 3.5mm stereo pin for computers. That's a better set up than the two individual XLR cables and Y-adapter I picked up (less connections). This site (Amazon) lists them as "HOSA STEREO 3.5mm (M) - TWO XLR(M), 3m (9.9 ft.)". They also offer a 6 footer. If my cable set up gets noisy, I'll order one for myself.
Second, the speakers are a bit larger than your typical computer speakers, but not unwieldy. While I was at the Guitar Player, they had the BX8a speakers on display. They were a bit bigger, and also sounded very nice (hard to listen to them over the constant cacophony of disjointed, (bad) guitar and drum players).
The final consideration is that each speaker requires its own power outlet. Keep in mind that they are 70 watt, so make sure you shut them off when you're not using them (unless you like burning 140 watts for nothing :-) ). If you can accommodate the power outlet and cable requirements, these are well worth it.
40 of 41 found the following review helpful:
Everything I hoped for Mar 04, 2009
By Matt. J.
"HavokJester"
I did my homework on studio monitors before getting these and based on what I heard in guitarcenter and read about online, these monitors are the best bang for your buck. they are very heavy duty and solidly built as well as powerful. The kevlar cones are awesome and I won't worry about blowing them out like paper cones do! I have a smaller studio space and I sit about 4 feet from them and out of 1-10 on the volume dial a 2 or 3 is PLENTY loud, almost too loud being that close. The sound is pure and clean, better with them on some Mopads like I have. 1/4" TRS and XLR input gives you options and each one is independently powered giving strong signal and no pass-through latency like you sometimes get with a passive speaker in a pair. Unless money is a major issue it is worth buying these over the M-audio AV40's. Also, the BX8a's are just bigger versions of these. Unless you need major volume or that extra smidgen of bass for whatever reason, these 5a's will handle anything you throw at them.
I have them on Mopads like I said and I'm using monster 500 studio patchbay cables running direct from my Tascam US1641 monitor out L/R. I'm using them mostly for mixing Bass guitar and drums in my studio after recording and the bass is plenty capable on these. The speakers sound just like my huge amp does minus the EQ's of course. i don't hear any frequency loss or lack of presence from me playing through my amp and playing back what I've recorded on bass guitar. Drums are crisp and I can't say anything bad about these speakers. These are the BX5a Deluxe speakers which are the new version of the old BX5a's. If you're buying BX5a's, make sure they are the deluxe ones as amazon has a couple different listings under m-audio BX5a.
30 of 31 found the following review helpful:
Couldn't be happier. Feb 16, 2009
By Superabounder
"Stephen"
These monitors provide a beautiful sound. I use them attached to my mac with an Apogee Duet for recording my own music. I find that I spend more time just listening to my itunes through these things. The sound is as if I have a good pair of headphones on. It is true that you will hear plenty of details in your music that really stand out that you may not have heard before. The one suggestion I have is that you make sure you are using them in a set up where you are positioned for listening between them. They are very directional. Although the sound is fine outside of directly in front of them, it is substantially better in the line of fire. The speakers themselves are also of very solid build quality. I have sometimes heard some pops from them, but not sure if it is a speaker issue or the cleanliness of my power supply. In some cases, I think I have just heard recording defects in the source material due to how clean the sound is.
I tend to like buying the best thing I can afford instead of buying something cheap, and these have not disappointed at all. Anyway, these are a great choice for someone who appreciates good sound and doesn't want to break the bank.
20 of 20 found the following review helpful:
Great speakers for the money! Nov 06, 2009
By T. NGUYEN
This is actually my first review on Amazon and I just wanted to share some thoughts on the BX5A Deluxe studio monitors since they were, from my standpoint, a pretty big purchase ^^ (I'm usually a frugal guy).
These speakers- and I refer to them as speakers because I do not use them for amateur recording or producing as they were probably intended- sound very nice for what you pay. I'm in Canada and they were $280, which is still a lot since our dollar is supposed to be pretty strong as of this writing, but nonetheless cheaper than the Mackie MR5 or KRK Rokits, which were a ridiculous $400 a pair. You'll see a lot of comparisons between these three sets since they're in similar price range, unfortunately you'll just have to test them and decide for yourselves, but the general consensus is the KRK's being meatier on the bass, the mackie's flatter/warmer, while the M-audios are brighter (more on this later). but really, all three are great choices and you can't go wrong. I decided on the BX5A simply because in my case there was simply a bigger price gap which I do not think is the case in the US, though I'm not sure. Anyway I just use this for listening to music...not an audiophile by any stretch- but I wanted to see what I was missing out on with nicer set-ups. Prior to this pair I owned Logitech's z-2300 and these naturally blow them out of the water, no comparison.
Some considerations...
-These breathe new life onto songs I thought I knew too well. The clarity is sparkling, you can perceive the separation in the instruments, vocals are lifelike, imaging is crystal clear, you'll pick out new details in particularly lush, multi-layered tracks, [insert cliched audio praise here]
-the z-2300s weren't that bad per se (despite their notorious reputation I really found them quite decent)- they just happen to sound really crappy in retrospect, and it would be very hard going back. It's all relative perspective anyway- who knows, if I get an expensive Dynaudio set down the road these BX5as will might sound like garbage. I admit fully aware we probably don't truly know what we were missing out on until we hear even better...but should I ever walk down that cursed rich man's path, one starts to pay more and more for less and less improvement. so for now, I'm happy with what I got.
-although these claim to be reference grade studio monitors (i.e. completely flat frequency spectrum) this was not the initial impression I got. They are actually quite bright, i.e. the trebles are TOO high, SSS's come off as shrill and harsh, while bass is a little on soft side, but still punchy and realistic, not boomy. Still, I had to fix the weaknesses through a teeny bit of EQ tweaking, and now to my ears (and after burn-in as well) they are just dandy.
-BUY A DISCRETE SOUNDCARD. This should be your priority after getting the speakers; forget uber-expensive cables, forget fancy acoustic treatment, keep it simple and get a soundcard first. Onboard sound has come a long way, this is true. But that integrated realtek stuff still doesn't hold a candle to having dedicated soundcards. In fact I'd even argue onboard sound+BX5A= only slight improvement over sound card+z2300. So naturally, soundcard+BX5A, now we're talking...that's a combo. It really does make a difference, and they are pretty cheap, you get a budget one like xonar dx.
-Next is to re-rip or re-dl your music into at least 320KBPS, but really, FLAC is preferable. If you couldn't tell the difference in the past between 128 and lossless it's precisely because the basic desktop speakers really weren't capable of any critical listening experience anyway. They couldn't flesh out the flaws of the recording. But garbage in is garbage out. Now since you're going to get a nice pair of speakers, at least feed it a good source, or it'd be just like buying an HDTV signal and complaining that your old VHS collection looks like crap.
-Balanced vs unbalanced cables, for our intents and purposes, shouldn't really matter in a small home setting or studio. Balanced cables are intended to reduce the outside noise or interference picked up over really long really cable runs. This isn't a big deal in your computer room with hsorter cables, so save your money unless you want peace of mind.
-Finally, these can be very loud, so happy listening and safe listening! Enjoy.
34 of 37 found the following review helpful:
 These monitors have a manufacturer's defect that is unresolved Jan 02, 2011
By David A. Defields
"A. DeFields"
I bought these monitors about 6 months ago. I was very excited and impressed out of the box. They sounded great. However, after about 4 months, one of them would randomly power down. After 5 months, that monitor wouldn't even power up anymore. I did a google search on the issue, and low and behold, several people who own this product have had the same problem. Even to the extent that m-audio's forum has a thread on it and how to fix it, which involves buying a new capacitor, taking the monitor apart, removing the old capacitor and soldering on the new one (here is the thread link: [...] . This means you have to solder something directly onto the circuit board. Pretty involved if you don't know what you are doing. It seemed to fix the issue for most of the people on the thread, but it didn't fix it for me. This is obviously a manufacturer's defect and I'm very disappointed that m-audio hasn't addressed it. Since I forgot to fill out the warranty card, they offered to fix it for me if I pay for shipping both ways, pay for the new part, and $40 per hour for labor. At that cost I will opt to just buy new monitors, and they won't be m-audio's brand. I'm very upset because I've always felt they were a solid company that stands up for their products. Maybe things have changed since they were acquired by Avid. Hopefully enough bad reviews will cause them to change back.
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