M-Audio Studiophile AV 40 Powered Speakers Hands down, M-Audio’s AV40 speakers are the best bang-for-buck self-powered speakers I have heard to thus far in my continuous quest for audio bliss. I’m running them through a 24/96 DAC and I am thoroughly impressed with everything these offer. They had a hard target to match, as I’m an avid headphone junkie. The clarity headphones bring in comparison to speakers is just plain unbeatable. There’s a pair of headphones for almost any audio junkie, which is why I purchased my Beyerdynamics for sub-0. I’m not a perfectionist in any way, I go by trial and error methods to match my sound tastes. These speakers, undoubtedly, match the details presented through a headphones/headphone amp/dac setup in every way with a just a few equalizer tweaks.
Looking around for speakers, one thing was on my mind. Power that doesn’t leave out the details. In the past, I’ve dealt with the usual 2.1 computer speaker setups, cheap and not so cheap. Every 2.1 speaker setup on the market cannot surpass the quality presented at this price, and that is no joke. There’s always going to be better performance if you’re willing to throw down the extra cash, but I am almost certain that the AV40 speakers can’t be beaten at this price.
As the title states, near-perfect with adjustment sums up perfectly what I’ve came to find over about a month of listening. At first I ran these directly through the USB DAC (emu0202 usb) stereo input without any equalizer adjustment within Foobar. I’d often find that the lows were too overpowering, especially due to the fact that I’m often around genres that tend to push the bass a little too much (DnB, dubstep, electronica, etc.) I found that bringing down the lows provide another nifty feature to be utilized – that bass boost on the back. I normally find these switches a bit lame, usually they don’t bring anything to the plate by more clutter on the mids, but surprisingly the AV40 in combination with some EQ tweaks will allow music great along with the extra energy boost from the bass boost. As long as the lows were tweaked properly, you will still be able to hold true to the details. I’d say my listening is about 75%/25% (bass boost/no bass boost.) It’s fairly annoying to have to reach behind the speakers, but it’s only a couple of seconds as they’re out in the open perfectly. Minor nitpicks like this one really don’t matter to me, and I don’t even know why I’m mentioning here.
Don’t be hesitant to lay some money on these, they get the job done at a low price. The amount of clarity and details available to listen to is literally comparable to a pair of solid headphones. This is coming from a fond music lover who also loves to breakdown and game for hours at a time. These speakers fit the bill in both cases. M-Audio: 9900 52155-00 The compact Studiophile AV 40 powered reference monitors deliver the same proven M-Audio technology favored by top producers, recording engineers and musicians around the world. The combination of 4″ polypropylene-coated drivers and 3/4″ ferrofluid-cooled silk dome tweeters provides punchy lows, crisp highs and a balanced, uncolored response. Custom cabinets with dense wood construction deliver more accurate bass response than you could ever get from plastic multimedia speakers. The Studiophile AV 40 reference monitors are the perfect solution for traveling musicians or anyone who wants top-notch sound from their desktop multimedia system. M-Audio Studiophile AV 40 Powered Speakers