So I'm going to have my own living room soon, and I'm going to put my mackies in there. but I was thinking of getting a budget pair of monitors/speakers for my bedroom.

I got my parents the studio pro 4 a couple years ago, and at the time I thought they were the best speakers I had heard for their price. But now M-Audio has like 5 different monitors all below 200, some of which are the same price, but just a different shape. it seems really silly

Can someone recomend one of them? What's the difference between the studio pro 3 and studiophile av20? and then the DX4 vs. AV40?

here's a list of their monitors, and a link to the page on their website here

studio pro 3- 129$
studiophile av20- 129$
studiophile av30- 149$
studiophile av40- 199$
DX4- 199$


thanks for any help!

I would avoid the studio pro 3 and av20 since you will get almost no bass with a 2 or 3 inch woofer. But if I had to choose, it would be the studio pro 3 since they seem to be more like actual monitors than your standard 2.0 speakers.

The AV30 are a very recent addition to the M-audio line so I haven't heard anything about them yet.

Between the AV40 and DX4, I would go with the AV40 since they are a newer release and seem to be more refined. They generally get better reviews and also have a few more features such as a bass boost switch and an auxiliary input. Also, the DX4 appear to lack protection for the tweeters and woofers which are potentially damageable if they are touched.

I have the AV40 myself and am very pleased with their performance, considering especially that these are considered the lower rung of monitor performance. I advise though that if you do purchase any monitor speakers that you find a speaker stand to elevate the tweeters to ear level, or else you won't be hearing as much detail as you can out of them.

You can get the DX4s for $150 if you shop around some. That's how much mine cost when I got them last year. Of course no grills means you have to exercise some care with them. So long as you don't do anything stupid and make sure no one else does either they should be fine though. They are a good pair of speakers, but they definitely need some burn-in before you'll get decent bass from them.