Pre-intro
This is a quick little review that I wrote of some speakers for a computer forum. Most people there have logitech speakers for their computer hifi setup, so I wanted to review these speakers as an alternative.
The review is not really suited to headfi so try and take that into account when reading it. It's meant to be simple review for people with no experience in hifi. It was written for a whole different audience. Also, I'm not a huge fan of writing.
Oh, and also the review is generally written from the perspective of "for the price" rather than absolute. So if I say it's "good" i mean that's good for the price, not that you can throw your ESLs out and replace it with the VALs.
The important thing to take away from this review is that I really like these speakers. They're not perfect, but for the price they are really awesome. They're a real solid, nice sounding pair of speakers WITH an amp for $300 AUD (~$220 USD).
Background
I have been into hifi audio for a number of years. I have a decent personal setup but have also spent a lot of time listening to very expensive gear that belongs to other people or at audio stores. My “reference” rig is probably both Alessandro MS-2 headphones which is what I listen to the most, and some Dali speakers that are my reference for speaker characteristics.
The M20 are connected to my computer with an external USB DAC. This DAC is somewhat harsh and somewhat thin, which is important to keep in mind.
I listen to hiphop, rock, classical, jazz, indie rock, some electronic. I don't listen to country music or techno.
Introduction
I became aware of the V.A.L. M20s as an object of moderate interest at COEM Audio. I have never had a particular need for PC speakers (since my main setup is based around my PC anyway), but since I'min the process of creating a dedicated listening room, a pair of decent PC speakers would be useful.
The M20s drew me for 3 main reasons. They looked nice in the photos, they have built in tube monoblocks, and they're not small silly looking PC speakers. They actually look somewhat closer to hifi speakers than toys. What a nice change..
First Impressions
The M20 come in a pretty simple box decorated with photos, specifications and typos. Yes, these little things are Chinese. However it's not the old case of “made in China”. These are made and sold by a Chinese Hifi company as a real hifi product. Although we in the west like to use China when making cheap and nasty products, they are not incapable of producing actual quality products when they want to.. we just don't usually want them to. Opening the box, the M20s are protected with a lot of foamish stuff. There are a pair of white cotton gloves in the box, some cables and some tubes.
Build Quality
The first thing you notice even before they're all the way out of the box, is these things are heavy. In a good way. A good solid box is important to good sound, and the weight and solidness of them relieves concerns about them being cheaply made. They did not scrimp on the materials for them. I have a pair of Sony bookshelfs which I'd say are probably about twice as big (when taking into account height/width/depth), and probably weight half as much.
The front panel seems to be wood with a black piano gloss finish. It appears to be flawless so I don't have much to say about that. The knobs appear to be made out of metal. Metal. Again, the finish is not cheap. The top plate appears to be metal with a black piano gloss finish painted on.
Putting the pieces together..
The M20 comes with the tubes packed separate. This is where the white gloves come in. Put them on and install the tubes. If you've never done this, it may be scary for about 10 seconds. It only takes around 5 minutes to unpack the tubes and install them. Each speaker gets one RCA lead plugged into it.
The sound
The m20 are powered each by an inbuilt (well, sitting on top) 8w tube monoblock. These small amplifiers are more than capable of powering the M20s to loud volume. I listen to them with the volume knobs at around 10 o clock. At half volume they're screaming. No one should ever have volume concerns with them.
When they first arrived the bass was somewhat boomy for my tastes which had me a little concerned, however after a break in period of 50 hours the bass has tightened up considerably. The bass of these things is really quite pleasant. I was a bit worried about it since they're reasonably small, but the bass is just about right in quantity. They confidently play the intro to “Angel” by Massive Attack. I've heard full sized speakers struggle with that task, but they don't even seem to hesitate. Similarly, “Hyper Ballad” by bjork is presented fearlessly.
Similarly, the treble is surprisingly good. Admittedly, they don't reproduce violins fluidly, but very few speakers do.. and none at this price range. I suppose the fair way to put it is that the highest highs seem somewhat restrained but otherwise the treble is very fast and “punchy” (to the extent that treble can be called punchy). On the bright side, this would be my biggest complaint, and this is only really when comparing them to multi thousand dollar speakers.
The soundstage is surprisingly big and extends to beyond the speakers. When listening up close (since mine are sitting on my pc desk) this is reduced but when you sit back at a distance and close your eyes the soundstage extends which aids to transparency.
The mid range is reasonably fluid and very attractive. Listening to Cat Power her voice sounds soft and quite natural, if somewhat forward. Guitar really comes alive.
The speakers have a very “fast” presentation. This really helps to make guitar come alive. I imagine it would help electronic music also. The reproduction of drums etc is quite realistic due to this fast presentation. The speakers have a lot of “kick” to them.
Surprisingly they don't seem to get confused and muddy too easily on complex musical scores. Due to their size and price I expected them to fall apart (metaphorically) when the music became overly complex. The end of “I want you (she's so heavy)” by the Beatles is reproduced without problem. Bjork is reproduced fairly effortlessly. In the climax of Beethoven's 9th symphony finale some of the instruments can get lost in the commotion though.
I get lost in the commotion of Beethoven's 9th.
Detail is always such a hard thing for me to judge for some reason. For this reason, I usually use a few obvious indicators of detail. In “within you without you” by the Beatles, you can hear George Harrison counting to himself if you have the right gear. I can hear them with headphones but have yet to hear it properly on any speakers (even electrostats). With the m20, listening to the instrumental version of the song I can't really hear it. At the end of “A day in the life” by the Beatles (yeah I'm a fan, okay) you can hear people in the orchestra being restless in their chairs, if you have the right gear. This is audible with the m20. (as a side note, at the end of “day in the life” there's also a 15khz tone. i've heard some speakers which were unable to reproduce this. The m20 can). Listening to Dr Dre's “The Chronic” I've heard some details that I've never head before even on headphones!
One of the most important things in reality is the sound signature of the speakers. No matter how nice the detail or the soundstage is, if it feels out of balance then it will quite frankly sound like ass. Someone has put some thought into this because really the balance is great. I have 2 other pairs of bookshelf speakers (neither particularly good) and one has way too much treble, and the other has considerably too much mid bass. The M20 has the balance just about right which makes the overall sound of them really pleasant.
Other Stuff
One thing to note with these speakers are that the have monoblock amps built in. This means that there are two volume knobs (one for each speaker). This has the advantage that they can be tweaked individually for volume, but has the disadvantage that if you want to change the speaker volume you have to change it on both. Since these are useful as PC speakers, i imagine that most people will just be able to set the volume to a certain level on the speakers and then adjust the volume in winamp/windows/whatever rather than using the actual volume knobs. In the end it's not a big deal, but it's worth mentioning.
Pros
*Good balance of sound
*Good solid build
*Attractive
*Cheap
*Good bass
Cons
*Two volume knobs
*Treble is somewhat.. not perfect
*Detail could be better
Conclusion
Overall I'd say that these are very good speakers. I've really been enjoying listening to them. When reading the above review try to take into account that i rarely listen to speakers that don't cost several thousands of dollars (not that i have awesome speakers, I just listen to other people's gear lots!). The fact that I find these $300 speakers listenable is pretty amazing to me. The fact that i actually LIKE them is even more surprising.
For the price I'd really have to recommend them to anyone who likes audio and wants some affordable speakers for their computer.. or anywhere else. Unlike most PC speakers these are only 2 channel rather than 5.1.. but music is 2 channel, so adding more speakers will only serve to damage the sound.
I'm left curious if the tubes can be upgraded (it never ends!)
some photos stolen off the internet
This is a quick little review that I wrote of some speakers for a computer forum. Most people there have logitech speakers for their computer hifi setup, so I wanted to review these speakers as an alternative.
The review is not really suited to headfi so try and take that into account when reading it. It's meant to be simple review for people with no experience in hifi. It was written for a whole different audience. Also, I'm not a huge fan of writing.
Oh, and also the review is generally written from the perspective of "for the price" rather than absolute. So if I say it's "good" i mean that's good for the price, not that you can throw your ESLs out and replace it with the VALs.
The important thing to take away from this review is that I really like these speakers. They're not perfect, but for the price they are really awesome. They're a real solid, nice sounding pair of speakers WITH an amp for $300 AUD (~$220 USD).
Background
I have been into hifi audio for a number of years. I have a decent personal setup but have also spent a lot of time listening to very expensive gear that belongs to other people or at audio stores. My “reference” rig is probably both Alessandro MS-2 headphones which is what I listen to the most, and some Dali speakers that are my reference for speaker characteristics.
The M20 are connected to my computer with an external USB DAC. This DAC is somewhat harsh and somewhat thin, which is important to keep in mind.
I listen to hiphop, rock, classical, jazz, indie rock, some electronic. I don't listen to country music or techno.
Introduction
I became aware of the V.A.L. M20s as an object of moderate interest at COEM Audio. I have never had a particular need for PC speakers (since my main setup is based around my PC anyway), but since I'min the process of creating a dedicated listening room, a pair of decent PC speakers would be useful.
The M20s drew me for 3 main reasons. They looked nice in the photos, they have built in tube monoblocks, and they're not small silly looking PC speakers. They actually look somewhat closer to hifi speakers than toys. What a nice change..
First Impressions
The M20 come in a pretty simple box decorated with photos, specifications and typos. Yes, these little things are Chinese. However it's not the old case of “made in China”. These are made and sold by a Chinese Hifi company as a real hifi product. Although we in the west like to use China when making cheap and nasty products, they are not incapable of producing actual quality products when they want to.. we just don't usually want them to. Opening the box, the M20s are protected with a lot of foamish stuff. There are a pair of white cotton gloves in the box, some cables and some tubes.
Build Quality
The first thing you notice even before they're all the way out of the box, is these things are heavy. In a good way. A good solid box is important to good sound, and the weight and solidness of them relieves concerns about them being cheaply made. They did not scrimp on the materials for them. I have a pair of Sony bookshelfs which I'd say are probably about twice as big (when taking into account height/width/depth), and probably weight half as much.
The front panel seems to be wood with a black piano gloss finish. It appears to be flawless so I don't have much to say about that. The knobs appear to be made out of metal. Metal. Again, the finish is not cheap. The top plate appears to be metal with a black piano gloss finish painted on.
Putting the pieces together..
The M20 comes with the tubes packed separate. This is where the white gloves come in. Put them on and install the tubes. If you've never done this, it may be scary for about 10 seconds. It only takes around 5 minutes to unpack the tubes and install them. Each speaker gets one RCA lead plugged into it.
The sound
The m20 are powered each by an inbuilt (well, sitting on top) 8w tube monoblock. These small amplifiers are more than capable of powering the M20s to loud volume. I listen to them with the volume knobs at around 10 o clock. At half volume they're screaming. No one should ever have volume concerns with them.
When they first arrived the bass was somewhat boomy for my tastes which had me a little concerned, however after a break in period of 50 hours the bass has tightened up considerably. The bass of these things is really quite pleasant. I was a bit worried about it since they're reasonably small, but the bass is just about right in quantity. They confidently play the intro to “Angel” by Massive Attack. I've heard full sized speakers struggle with that task, but they don't even seem to hesitate. Similarly, “Hyper Ballad” by bjork is presented fearlessly.
Similarly, the treble is surprisingly good. Admittedly, they don't reproduce violins fluidly, but very few speakers do.. and none at this price range. I suppose the fair way to put it is that the highest highs seem somewhat restrained but otherwise the treble is very fast and “punchy” (to the extent that treble can be called punchy). On the bright side, this would be my biggest complaint, and this is only really when comparing them to multi thousand dollar speakers.
The soundstage is surprisingly big and extends to beyond the speakers. When listening up close (since mine are sitting on my pc desk) this is reduced but when you sit back at a distance and close your eyes the soundstage extends which aids to transparency.
The mid range is reasonably fluid and very attractive. Listening to Cat Power her voice sounds soft and quite natural, if somewhat forward. Guitar really comes alive.
The speakers have a very “fast” presentation. This really helps to make guitar come alive. I imagine it would help electronic music also. The reproduction of drums etc is quite realistic due to this fast presentation. The speakers have a lot of “kick” to them.
Surprisingly they don't seem to get confused and muddy too easily on complex musical scores. Due to their size and price I expected them to fall apart (metaphorically) when the music became overly complex. The end of “I want you (she's so heavy)” by the Beatles is reproduced without problem. Bjork is reproduced fairly effortlessly. In the climax of Beethoven's 9th symphony finale some of the instruments can get lost in the commotion though.
I get lost in the commotion of Beethoven's 9th.
Detail is always such a hard thing for me to judge for some reason. For this reason, I usually use a few obvious indicators of detail. In “within you without you” by the Beatles, you can hear George Harrison counting to himself if you have the right gear. I can hear them with headphones but have yet to hear it properly on any speakers (even electrostats). With the m20, listening to the instrumental version of the song I can't really hear it. At the end of “A day in the life” by the Beatles (yeah I'm a fan, okay) you can hear people in the orchestra being restless in their chairs, if you have the right gear. This is audible with the m20. (as a side note, at the end of “day in the life” there's also a 15khz tone. i've heard some speakers which were unable to reproduce this. The m20 can). Listening to Dr Dre's “The Chronic” I've heard some details that I've never head before even on headphones!
One of the most important things in reality is the sound signature of the speakers. No matter how nice the detail or the soundstage is, if it feels out of balance then it will quite frankly sound like ass. Someone has put some thought into this because really the balance is great. I have 2 other pairs of bookshelf speakers (neither particularly good) and one has way too much treble, and the other has considerably too much mid bass. The M20 has the balance just about right which makes the overall sound of them really pleasant.
Other Stuff
One thing to note with these speakers are that the have monoblock amps built in. This means that there are two volume knobs (one for each speaker). This has the advantage that they can be tweaked individually for volume, but has the disadvantage that if you want to change the speaker volume you have to change it on both. Since these are useful as PC speakers, i imagine that most people will just be able to set the volume to a certain level on the speakers and then adjust the volume in winamp/windows/whatever rather than using the actual volume knobs. In the end it's not a big deal, but it's worth mentioning.
Pros
*Good balance of sound
*Good solid build
*Attractive
*Cheap
*Good bass
Cons
*Two volume knobs
*Treble is somewhat.. not perfect
*Detail could be better
Conclusion
Overall I'd say that these are very good speakers. I've really been enjoying listening to them. When reading the above review try to take into account that i rarely listen to speakers that don't cost several thousands of dollars (not that i have awesome speakers, I just listen to other people's gear lots!). The fact that I find these $300 speakers listenable is pretty amazing to me. The fact that i actually LIKE them is even more surprising.
For the price I'd really have to recommend them to anyone who likes audio and wants some affordable speakers for their computer.. or anywhere else. Unlike most PC speakers these are only 2 channel rather than 5.1.. but music is 2 channel, so adding more speakers will only serve to damage the sound.
I'm left curious if the tubes can be upgraded (it never ends!)
some photos stolen off the internet
