M-Audio BX5 D2 5" Active 2-Way Studio Monitor Speakers (Pair)

SOUND QUALITY: The BX5 sounds neutral and balanced. Compared to similar sized consumer speakers, they are a bit understated and without bass bloat or exaggerated highs. The even keeled tonal signature is pleasing and easy to listen to for hours. It also lacks a midrange bump, and sounds a bit recessed or laid-back compared to average earbuds or home speakers. In fact the BX5 sounds similar to my Sennheiser 580HD headphones, but with less lower bass. And that's a good thing for mixing as you don't want speakers that add color and/or bumps in the frequency response. Unlike typical passive stereo speakers, the BX5 is powered with separate amplifiers for the tweeter and woofer, i.e., bi-amped. This design allows for accurate reproduction as amplifiers are optimized for each driver. The downside to this design is each speaker needs both input and power cables, so not convenient for living room use but not a problem for nearfield computer based editing. At first the BX5 struck me as underpowered for a 70 watt rating, at least with a signal directly from my Mac Pro. However, once jacked into the hotter signal from my MOTU Ultralite the true power of the BX5 was revealed. It was loud and could be painfully so if cranked. These are directional speakers and render placement of instruments in a stereo soundfield accurately as long as you sit in the sweet spot a couple feet out (your head should form a triangle with the two speakers). That diffuse room filling tone of home theatre speakers is MIA. In fact, unlike most speakers, there is little rearwards projection. Perfect for not bothering family or neighbors but bad for parties. So don't buy these for standard stereo or home theatre use. I mainly mix classical and acoustic guitar solo and ensemble recordings, live and multitrack, so the bass range is perfect for me. The bass extends down to a clear 60Hz, so plenty ump for drop-D and drop-C tuning. If you mix bass guitar and kick drum you'll want larger speakers (BX8) or a sub but these are great for guitar. I'm used to mixing with neutral speakers and headphones but it would be nice if you could adjust bass, mid and highs for different room responses and taste. Oddly, the PDF instructions show EQ switches for the prior version of this model but they are missing from my speakers. I assume they were omitted as a cost cutting measure. RFI RESISTANCE: I'm an inner city dweller and live in a high RFI area. Cheap audio gear acts like a radio receiver and injects a local classic rock station into my mixes. So one of the major selling points for me was M-Audio's claim of RFI shielding. Luckily that was no mere marketing jive. They really are well shielded against RFI. Not a single wayward drum loop or DJ in my tracks, not even when cranked. I can't make that claim for prior speakers I've owned. HEAT: These speakers run on the warm side: the upper back is fairly warm just idling and can get hot to the touch after a long session. Not egg frying hot but a wee bit uncomfortable to the fingertips. It has a sensor to shut it down in case of excessive heat. However I have not seen it shutdown even after all day editing sessions. I live in the balmy tropics so cold weather dwellers may not see as much heat build up. Not a deal breaker but it's wise to turn them off when not in use (I use a power strip so I don't have to flip two separate switches). CONSTRUCTION: These are handsome units in a blend in your your gear sort of way: the black finish matches perfectly with my black trimmed Cinema Display and MOTU Ultralite. Construction appears very good with dense particle board (MDF) cabs, metal back plate (heat sink benefit) and matching plastic front molding around the drivers. The cabs are covered with a satin black vinyl. These monitors are petite and smaller than most speakers with the same sized bass driver. The bass drivers are Kevlar with rubber surrounds (tougher than foam!) and the tweeters sport silk domes. No protective grill or covers as usual for mixing monitors. So the nekid drivers can be easily damaged by a careless finger or chopstick. CONNECTIONS: Like most studio monitors, the BX5 comes with pro audio style jacks for 1/4 inch phone plug/TRS and XLR. If you're a novice recordist or a civilian buying these for general computer use, be forewarned there are no stereo mini jacks, RCA or USB. So you will need to pay extra for a set of special cables and adapters. If you're an experienced recordist, you should have plenty of these cables laying around but, otherwise, be prepared to reach for your wallet. One of the things I like about the BX5 is both the TRS and XLR connections are active at the same time, allowing the monitors to receive signals from two different sources without messing with cables or switches. I have an Audioengine D1 DAC connected to the TRS/phone input (for iTunes, movies, games, etc.) while a MOTU Ultralite (for mixing & tracking) is plugged into the XLR connection. LAST BLURB: Yes, the small Focal speakers I listened to were better sounding and louder than the BX5 but cost a couple toes and a month of lunches. However, a perfect monitor for a home studio isn't only about a good neutral sound, but also about compactness, appearance and value. And the BX5 nails all of these while still sounding pretty dad burn fine.

I've been shopping around monitors for about 6 months now, 6 months because I've been saving up money to get some decent speakers as well as fully make a recording studio at home/school. I was set on the Yamaha HSM50 since they were what most studios used, but then listened to the M-Audio Bx5-D2 at my local guitar center and was blown away by how close they sounded to the HSM50, they had them on sale at 280 down from the normal 350 they were selling them for because of 4th of july, I was gonna pluck my money down and take those suckers but they didn't have any in stock. So I went onto their computer and checked Amazon's prices and low and behold it was at 200 smackeroos! I ordered these with one day shipping since I had to have them fast and they arrived swirly and quickly! Sure the one day shipping brought the total up to 220 but that's still a lot cheaper! Well these speakers are plenty loud, maybe it's cuz I'm in a small dorm room/apartment but I can balst these suckers and I usually just ouptu at 50%. They have a nice strong bass and high end along with a clear mid-range, but do note that their is just a little extra kick in the bass, at least in my case since they're so close to the wall. The less on the front of the speaker make it really easy to set up for optimal referencing, but even if your outside of the holy triangle that is recommended for referencing you can still hear a lot of the detail in songs and mixes! These are also awesome general purpose speakers, I use them to play back music and also as a sorta mini home-theathre system when couple with my projector! I use the desktop konnect 6 as the monitor control/sound card so that may contribute to the stellar quality I get from these babies. And these babies are the next version of the BX5, the first being the Bx5a Deluxe, though those were decent monitors they colored the sound a bit too much, the D2 are highly improved, I noticed a dramatic difference when listing to both of them. But in short: they have a flat response, the casing is also solidly built and rather attractive, they are definitely understated with the nice premium felling cabinets, the LED light that shows they are on and that help you place them is wonderfully helpful especially for people that are learning of these things, and I think they are comparable to the Yamaha's but that's just me. And if your an audiophile wanting the best for your music these are surely the ones to go for especially at the attractive price of 200 bucks!

Pure Bliss! As my computer speakers. I will come out and say it right now, I am not an audiophile, not even an amateur enthusiast, I am just your regular Joe consumer of music. And my review is primarily to describe my experience and in the hopes that it may help out others that are just like me. A few years ago, I had bought into the advertising of the Asus Cine5's apparent ability to Up mix 2-ch sound to 5- ch sound, was running it with a creative X-Fi 5.1, but it never really made me happy. I found myself wanting something better. I thought I would change my speakers out first. After scouring through reviews, suggestions from friends, I made a short list (I wanted to stay below $200) - HK SoundSticks III Antec Soundscience Rockus 3D NHT SuperPower (With PVC-PC) hivi 1010d, 1080d Fostex pm0.3 Behringer m16 Edifier e10 Pioneer SP-BS22-LR with an Amp. M-Audio BX5 D2 I listened to them in stores, at friends' places, on YouTube video reviews and tried to read up on them as much as I could. I could not decide. Going through this exercise helped me discover my needs in a way. I realized I cared about the true audio quality more than I cared about sound effects or bass that colored the music. Slowly it became clear to me that I wanted a studio monitor, not a 2.1 or 5.1 speaker system for my home office. I was a little scared too, because studio monitors are for the pros and here I was a mere mortal daring to want one to just listen to music in my home office? I thought if medicines could have off label use, then why couldn't I have a pair of studio monitors for my computer speakers? I worried about durability, are these things meant to be kept on all the time, like the regular computer speakers? Some of the reviews complained about these failing rather soon. As I listened to the speakers and worried, to me the clear winner was the M-Audio BX5 D2! Found them on sale for $161, and took the plunge. This is my current Setup: Intel Desktop Motherboard LGA1155 DDR3 1600 ATX - BOXDZ77GA-70K - Realtek ALC899 Sound Card (MusicBee, FLAC and 320K MP3 files) via optical out -> FiiO D3 (D03K) -> M-Audio BX5 D2 5" Active 2-Way Studio Monitor Speakers , connected into the line out using Hosa CMP159 Stereo Breakout, 3.5 mm TRS to Dual 1/4 in TS, 10-Feet Listening to music now is a blissful experience for me. I keep the volume on the speakers halfway and then control it through my PC. I find that works best for me. Apart from sounding heavenly, they also look gorgeous on my desk. There are two tiny blue LEDs in each of them, not distracting at all. I am rediscovering my music collection with my current setup. I am noticing little subtleties that I have never heard before! Apart from vocals, instruments sound so much clear. I look forward every day now, for the opportunity to close my study doors and play some music and drift away....

Shipping Service Complaint Forward Let me start by saying that I received my package in the worst possible conditions. Big snow storm is coming so it is cold, I get it. I paid for next day delivery and it actually beat the storm and made it in town, but it was not delivered. I had to go pick it up next day at the FedEx distribution center, otherwise I would have to wait 2 extra days. On top of that, the FedEx employees were idiots and could not even pass a third grade spelling test when trying to describe my package, which was also heavily damaged. I asked for a refund on the expedited shipping and I was told that weather delays wont get me a refund, even though my place is less than 3 miles away. There was zero precipitation, granted it was 32 degrees, but the postal service was making runs like normal. Both days. The damage to the package was unacceptable, huge gash in the side of the box. I have worked in a receiving bay before and I have never seen such carelessness for something so clearly delicate. I will be contacting FedEx to complain some more, because I have nothing better to do but listen to these sweet ass speakers. Speaker Review TLDR; Buy these damn speakers! And if youre rich, get the 8" ones! Also, sub-woofer.*** ***get one, but youll be fine without one. Firstly, I have pretty good hearing. I pay attention to all ranges of sound and musical tones. I pay attention to what instrument is making what sound, even when synthesized. I can hear distortions in s***ty speakers and the clarity of really nice ones. That being said, I know nothing about making music or how one would describe musical tones and "mids" or whatever. Im just a normal guy who wanted a upgrade from a 5.1 computer speaker system that my dog chewed up. About the Speakers Oh my god. Such clarity. So much power. So filling. I have these playing right now and I cant stop! I want to turn them louder but Im afraid my neighbors would kill me.Even though the box was damaged, the speakers seemed to work fine. You know you have some good speakers when you plug it in, hit the on switch and you hear that electrical thud that lets you know shes ready to be played, hard. Plus they look great too. Ive never owned studio speakers before, but these babies know how to cry! They have some weight to them, with a good casing, each with individual power switches. I am very pleased with my purchase. More Thoughts*** These are great speakers, but they do lack a good ground shaking thud like a sub-woofer would give you. I like rumble, and if you want to have that, then I would add a sub about 8" maybe 100w or more. I am using the sub woofer from the old computer system, its small but puts out some power and it really completes my set up. Complaints Each speaker has to be plugged in separately both for power and sound. So, where as my 5.1 system only took 1 outlet, now I use 3 including the sub. The sound input isnt too big of a deal since you can buy a cable that converts a 3.5mm male to two, left and right, TRS male ends, costs like $8 at Best Buy.

One of the speakers died after only 5 days of very light use at very low volume. Blown fuse, dead transformer and at least one of the capacitors cracked and leaked out (C20). The quality of internal amp components is atrocious. My experience is not unique, take the time to google "BX5A dead" or M-Audio Capacitor problem. Be aware that these speakers may fail sooner or later, so keep original packaging, and be prepared to pay for the return shipping. If you have a choice, get these at brick and mortar stores and do buy warranty so you can easily return them. On a positive note, these sounded very good when they were working. It's a shame that M-Audio chooses to cut corners with the quality of their components in order to make more money; especially when you have such an excellent sounding/well designed product such as this. UPDATE: I have ordered and replaced the transformer ($35) for my broken speaker, and so far there are no issues after 4 months of heavy use. I will however not upgrade the rating since I had to pay out of my own pocket and do all the repair work myself. Meanwhile I also bought JBL LSR305 and had an opportunity to listen to them side by side. M-Audio sounds better to my ears. JBL has deeper bass, and the "waveguide" on the JBLs is not a gimmick, it does provide better stereo imaging. However M-Audio sounds much more natural than JBL. JBL's mids feel recessed and the vocals (especially female) sound terrible compared to M-Audio. The highs can also be a bit piercing on JBL.

It really bugs me that such a great speaker with mostly quality parts uses horrible transformers and capacitors. The speakers sound great while they last but you'll end up getting thumps when you turn it off and on as well as persistent buzzing. Funny how a set of speakers from the 60's will work and sound great even today, but this speaker can't last for the price you pay.

The BX5 D2 is an outstanding value for the money. The sound quality is natural, imaging is pretty good if you triangulate carefully, and the footprint is small enough to flank your monitor. Couple the speakers to a AQ Dragonfly with Tidal HiFi delivery off your PC and you will be very impressed. If used with a PC, you will be doing near-field listening so there is no need for bigger more powerful speakers that probably won't fit on your desk anyway and require more energy and volume to sound good. Also DO NOT forget to buy Audioengine desktop speaker stands for vertical sound alignment. The only funky thing about the BX5 D2 is that the cable from the speaker requires a balanced connection instead of an RCA and the number of options for a cables with a balanced connection on one end and a stereo mini jack on the other (if you are using an AQ dragonfly DA converter) are limited with no high quality offerings available. But it doesn't really matter because after all, this is a solution for good sound on a budget while you are working on your PC.

Returned the product. The sound quality and lack of a single volume control didn't justify the extra price avocwe the M-Audio AV-40's.