[RonaldDumsfeld]

 
Quote:

Are these really smaller than the AV40s? I find that hard to believe.
 

 
Dimensions in inches HxWxD
 
 ADAM    A3X -  10 x 6 x 7.5
 
M-Audio AV40 -  9 x 6 x 7.25
 
So. Yeah. My bad - The ADAMs are actually an inch taller. They seemed smaller to me because they have front as opposed to rear ports and all the controls are in the front panel so I find they are more convenient to position.
 
The point is there really isn't much in it. The AV40 go down to 85hz flat vs 60hz for the ADAMs. Decent deal for an extra vertical inch.

 

[ClieOS]

Just got the T40 Series II last week directly from Creative's Singapore store and S$50 off from the regular S$250 price tag. Seriously good sounding 2.0 speaker and I even pickup a small Creative sub to pair with it as well, totalling around US$210.

 

[Defenestrator]

My apologies if I should have started a new thread for this, but I've heard in a few reviews that the M-Audio Studiophile AV40s have an buzzing/humming noise, is this the case with all of them? Is it bad?
 

 

[wgb113]

If you like the sound of the Quad Studio 11L/12L Active but want to save some coin and don't care about plain black boxes definitely check out the Wharfedale Pro Diamond 8.1/8.2.  They use the same drivers and amps as their Quad cousins.
 
Bill

 

[ccbass]

Quote:

My apologies if I should have started a new thread for this, but I've heard in a few reviews that the M-Audio Studiophile AV40s have an buzzing/humming noise, is this the case with all of them? Is it bad?
 

I have nothing like that. Even with volume max'ed out and connected to an RCA source.
 
The people having issues probably have a ground loop or interference.

 

[bixby]

Most of what you will find under $500 is fairly inaccurate and have some warts.  I shopped and heard lots of actives in your price range and above.  I ended up going passive.  
 
My advice if you care is to try and find a used set of active speakers.  Something like the the Mackie HR624mkII for example should go for around $500 used.  Another option might be new Adam A5s if you like a very detailed sound.
 
Next stop would be Dynaudio bm5 mkii, but even used they may be closer to $700.  I also might check out the new Adam A3x.
 
Skip Yamaha, JBL, KRK, M-Audio, Swans, etc in this price range as all have significant flaws
 
oops almost forgot the Focal CMS 50s.  I have only heard the CMS 65 and rank it up at the top of my list for the price.  If the 50 gets close it could be a great monitor to use for years.

 

[AhhHoNG]

Quote:

Most of what you will find under $500 is fairly inaccurate and have some warts.  I shopped and heard lots of actives in your price range and above.  I ended up going passive.  
 
My advice if you care is to try and find a used set of active speakers.  Something like the the Mackie HR624mkII for example should go for around $500 used.  Another option might be new Adam A5s if you like a very detailed sound.
 
Next stop would be Dynaudio bm5 mkii, but even used they may be closer to $700.  I also might check out the new Adam A3x.
 
Skip Yamaha, JBL, KRK, M-Audio, Swans, etc in this price range as all have significant flaws
 
oops almost forgot the Focal CMS 50s.  I have only heard the CMS 60 and rank it up at the top of my list for the price.  If the 50 gets close it could be a great monitor to use for years.

 
Have you heard the Mackie MR5/8 series? how isit? i read it is 1 of the best under the 500 price range
 

 

[bixby]

 
Quote:

 
Have you heard the Mackie MR5/6 series? how is it? i read it is 1 of the best under the 500 price range
 

I did hear the MR5s a while ago.  They sounded fairly thick like someone else mentioned above.  Perhaps it was because they were sitting right on the desktop and not up off of it.  This is a common mistake when using nearfield monitors and makes speakers like the MR5s and Audio Engines sound even more bloated on the bottom than they already are.  
 
As for the 6 series, I suppose you mean the 624s?  Yes I have heard them and although the Dynaudios would be my preference, I think I could probably settle for the 624s.  You will get good bass from these and the mids are not nearly as colored as the KRKs.
 
Hope this helps, but do try to hear them on your own and form your own opinion.  There is no substitute for that.
 
EDIT:
 
I see you edited your post on the mackie to the 8 series.   Come to think of it now that I looked them up I do believe I heard them too and did not care for them.  Same bass issue.

 

[AhhHoNG]

Oh maybe the MR5 you heard was eq-ed in the bass section ? to be frank my budget would only allow me up to 400. Other than the bass bloated issues, are there any positive impression? Those you recommended are very expensive to me

thanks !

 

[Kawai_man]

Ok maybe I can shed some light on this subject, I've been researching monitors and the best ones almost always use torroidal transformers, in fact the first three from the list use torroid transformers the rest as far as I know use regular EI transformers. Usually only higher end monitors like genelecs and dynudios use them because torroids are more expensive, only a few monitors under 500 use them which I will list below. The audioengines and swans are overated IMO, not that they are bad and these also use torroid transformers, but they use passive crossovers to separate the highs from the lows and use one amp to power both speakers. Active speakers use active crossovers which don't suck clarity from sound like passive ones do and each speaker has its own amp and power supply, as some of you may know in audio getting good clean power and good power distribution is like 50% of the battle to getting good sound. By design an active speaker is always going to sound better.
 
These are the top 4 best sounding monitors IMO under 500 in ranking order these all use torroid transformers as well.
 
JBL 2325p
Tapco S5  ( identical to MR5's)
Mackie MR5
BX5a

 

[AhhHoNG]

what do you mean by, identical to MR5's? the ranking?

 

[bixby]

If I were doing a decent desktop system for $400 I would buy this 
 
Qinpu 6000
 
http://www.head-direct.com/product_detail.php?p=62
 
and something like this: PSB Image 15
 
http://www.psbspeakers.com/products/Image-Series/Image-B15-Monitor#product_detail
 
or something similar from Energy or Paradigm.  Another possibility would be Klipsch although I am not sure how accurate the lower end models tend to be.  
 
 
You can get quite a good sounding system for $400 now.  This little amp sounds great and can be used as a headphone amp as well.  And the PSB speakers are the model down from what I use the PSB 25s.
 
The recommended system above will do much better than most $500 a pair actives, except for sheer loudness.
 
I am sure not all of these brands may be available in Singapore but you should be able to source something like Wharfedale or Quad passives that may get close to the PSB in neutrality.
 
Good luck in your search and let us know what you choose!

 

[Kawai_man]

Quote:

what do you mean by, identical to MR5's? the ranking?

Tapco is owned by mackie the Tapco S5 are pretty much the same as the MR5 with just different looks, I've heard both and they pretty much sounded identical i couldn't tell them apart. They are in racking order.

 

[ThinJ]

I went through a bit of a quest for a 2.1 setup for my computer recently and came to similar conclusions, though I didn't get to test any KRK or Swan stuff. I found a place that had KRK's monitors but couldn't test them, and nobody local carries Swan.

But Audioengine and the others were fairly easy to locate dealers for and test.
 
I ended up with a pair of BX5a's and have been pretty much ecstatic ever since.

 

[wgb113]

I'm telling you, they're not much to look at but for $300 they're definitely worth your consideration:
 
http://www.wharfedalepro.com/Home/Products/STUDIOMONITORS/DIAMONDSTUDIOPRO8/DiamondStudio82ProActive/tabid/277/Default.aspx