Emotiva Pro airmotiv4 Loudspeakers Review - Page 3

I've owned a pair of the HSM50's, they're very mid centric, but can sound hi-fi if you need them to by playing with the hi/mid/lo trims on the back. The KRKs (rokit) are more hi fi sounding and have more of a punch and mid bass hump, people usually have those to reference how their mix downs would translate to everyday audio gear vs using them as reference. To me the rokits sounded like the Audioengine A5s when I spent some time with them at a friend's place.
I now own a pair of M-Audio DSM2's (wanted the DSM3, but they were gone very fast with the current closeout prices). And as I have stated before, I don't think anything can compare to them at the current price(s). These are not strictly M-Audio monitors that carry a bad rep amongst studio pro's, instead these were a collab with digidesign and everything about them screams quality, from the aluminum woofer and the ferrofluid cooled tweeters, to the class D bi-amplification, to the optional digital inputs and dsp dip switches for trim. At this point I don't think there is much of a step up until you start looking at Focals, Opals and the like. Also to note, I do not use these in a professional setting, just casual listening.
Lastly, there are a lot of reviews for the HSM series, a lot of people own them, as they were supposed to replace the NS10s that were so famed and relied upon for production/mixing. I think best bet would be to check out gearlutz for more insight on studio monitors.

There is a clip on youtube where the emotiva4 are used, while we cannot get a true sense of the sound of it nevertheless it is a good start. I like how they sound, I would love to try it one day. The price range is spot on. I hope the amp section is quiet. 

Steve must have done the review during the time the speakers were on promotional price before the holidays. They are now back to full price 399 / 599 / 799 just like you very well noticed.

Has anyone compared this to the Swan M200MKIII? they have the same price and I was wondering which to get.

Supposedly these are just rebranded qmsaudio pc speakers. Emvotia claims they tweaked the crossover to their specs but they are essentially importing this ODM design and reselling it for North American market (with some markup of course)

 

http://www.qmsaudio.com/

 

 

 

Edited by warpdriver - 1/9/12 at 7:58am

Nice catch.

I can't speak for the 4's but have the 5's and have been blown away by them.  I have been going through my whole collection to hear what I have been missing.  See my mini review here: 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/EmotivaPro-Airmotiv-5

 

 

@audionewbi...they are quiet.   I have them flanking an iMac so theres some noise from the computer and at my seated position about three feet away I can hear nothing from the Airmotivs. I can just start to hear a faint hiss about a foot or so from them...so really not bad at all.

Nice catch indeed. 

Please do Steve, I'd love to hear it.

 

 

Steve's statement that lossless compressed files don't sound as good as uncompressed files is one of the most ridiculous things I've read in a long time. The explanation better make some sense otherwise Steve will cease to have any credibility as a reviewer for me

Edited by warpdriver - 1/9/12 at 8:44pm

Hey all, just wanted to chime in on the AirMotiv 6's. Skylab reported that these sounded "killer" at RMAF which got my attention. I've had a lot of powered monitors over the years with the best being a Dynaudio 2.1 set-up consisting of first BM5A's and then BM6A's coupled with the BM9S. So we are talking in excess of $2K.

 

I picked up the AirMotiv6's for the holiday sale of $679. The rep said they wouldn't need a sub, and on paper they don't for what I listen to. That said I was unconvinced.  I was sure I would need my 10" JBL with these because I'm a bit of a bass junkie at heart. Well, ultimately I got rid of the sub. The JBL actually degraded the sound and I had to unplug it during testing because the AirMotiv's bass kept tricking me, making me think that the sub was still on when I had shut it off. The Heil/ribbon tweeters are very impressive as well.

 

My Dynaudios are gone now, but from memory I can tell you that I don't miss them even though they sounded quite good. As a bonus, it's very liberating to lose the sub as well!

 

My 2 cents

 

 

Edited by lmswjm - 1/9/12 at 10:25pm

Steve, how do these stack up against the PSB mini's?

Anyone have info on QMS Audio?

 

I was set on getting some new headphones but if these perform as well as reviewed and at that price point I'm interested in trying them out.

I haven't been looking for new monitors in quite a while (I still use some Tapco's S5 --> http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb04/articles/tapcos5.htm  )

but have heard offerings from KRK and Mackie and thought my Tapco's outperformed all of them.

 

Emotiva is a company I like.

I have one of their subwoofers for my 3.1 setup at home and it kicks butt!

 

If their monitors show the same kind of quality as their subs, I might try these but the rebranding... hmmmm not so sure now...

Still, they do offer good warranties and service...