M-Audio BX8 D2 8-Inch Active 2-Way Studio Monitor Speakers

Great speakers for my purpose, and greatest speakers bargain to me, what a pleasant surprise!I seldom bother to write review, but I feel I need to offer my experience to pay respect to these great speakers.I had been audiophile playing with high end audio since 1980,s, owned many great speakers,MBL 101ii,Focal Utopia&Grande Utopia,Wilson WP7,Revel Salon,JBL,Thiel3.6,Magnepans, now still own a couple of pairs B&W 800 Diamond, and Focal Nova Utopia..they had been driven by electronics from Conrad Johnson, Audio Research, Krell, Levinson, Goldmund, Classe, Macintosh..Recently I assembled an Intel NUC based PC, moved this small but capable PC to my dining room, then tried to build a PC based stereo system, in a fairly large room.First tried the B&W mm1 that I used on previous setup, ok sound except not enough bass,Also tried Klipsh pro media 2.1 that I used on another setup, these are great buys, for less than 200 bucks including subwoofer, provide pretty good full range sound, good for PC system, I think this is good enough for most people.But this time I try to see how good can a PC system sound, I use iTunes(also trying out jRivers), all music I reaped is .wav format(bit perfect), I compared most other format, like Apple lossless, flac, in my ref system I can hear the degradation, so I use .wav format only,DAC wise I compared Audioquest dragonfly v1.2, HRT streamer iii, PS Audio Perfect Wave Dacii, Bryston BDA-2, also built in Dac of NAD d3202 amp, hooked up to my pc's USB port,will explore some other dacs, like Meridian, Jolida,....Using notebook or PC as music server seems to be the trend, so my effort is trying to find out the truth.Speaker wise I tried Audio Engine A5+ and S8 sub, this company pays attention of detail, very thoughtful, earned my respect, quality product, but to my ear lacked some detail and high freq sparkle I am spoiled by ref system.I gave my B&W MM-1 to my brother, after I tried the M-Audio M8.Also compared Boss Accustmas, KEF LS50, Proac Tablette Anniversary Ref, with my Velodyne mini vee sub on and off, also tried NAD d3020 amp, antique Mcintosh MC-240 amp, will try Krell S-550i, for most people this is over kill, but I am just curious to hear the difference, and keep best setup after the comparison(I have 3~4 places with PC, that could use all these). They all generate pretty good sound, I still own all of the above equipment.Then I bought this pair of M-Audio bx8 D2 self powered speakers, after seeing all the good reviews, connected to Audioquest v1.2 Dac, through Hosa mini to xlr cable, very simple connection, I instantly encountered sound I am very satisfied.The sound has very good tonal balance, detailed but never bright smooth highs, full mid, and very adequate bass, great human voice,there is enough impact so I don't need sub wooferwhat I got is very cohesive enjoyable sound. I am a tube guy, can never stand bright solid state sound, that is why in the past, many high end solid state amp did not last for more than a month in my system.Other review one guy mentioned he is generally happy with these speakers, but sometimes his system a little bright, from my experience I do not think it is from these speakers, rather from the associated equipment, because in a case I heard these speakers in local Guitar Center, going through there notebook and mixer gear, sounds bright and thin and terrible, totally diff from my system, I think it is the equipment they use.The M-audio built in amp,does not have solid state sound in any negative way.And it is well built, not a trace of hum or noise at all, I saw some people encounter some slight hum, I don't think it is speakers, they just have general ground loop problem, most case use 3 pront to 2 prone adaptor will solve their hum problem.Also from other review, I see they mention the speaker sound good but not great, I like to offer some advice, hope no offense,You need to use a good quality DAC between your PC or notebook, built in sound card of a computer is not good enough to get best sound.Also jRivers Media Center sounds a little better than iTunes, seems little more alive, I do not know why, but that is what I preceive.Also you need good data format, like bit to bit perfect .wav.mp3 or other compressed format will sound thin and dry, lack of body.Also these speakers deseve good cable.These speakers are pretty transparent, you will hear associated gear through them, when you upgrade DAC, better cable, you can hear the improvement.I got satisfying result, from a brand name "M-Audio" that I never heard of before, for such low low price, less than $400 from amazon,for my purpose their performance exceed many other more expensive name brand, become the fundation of my PC stereo system, when I upgrade DAC, wire, they sound better, generate satisfying music, and fun in the process, this is what "audiophile" is all about.I will explore more dac and wire, hope to improve further.These speakers is king in this price class, I am sure you can get more high-end sound, but that will cost a lot more.my hat off to M-Audio.Also "Ultimate Support" is a great stand for these speakers. I payed around $230 in guitar center, later found out Amazon sells cheaper, I bought 2nd pair for 2nd system.In my sitting position on dining chair, for tweeter to be same height as my ear level, I got the 36 inch stand, speakers are againt the back wall, toed in, my listening position and two speakers in triangle.Hope this review helps.Revision Sept 19:Tried PS Audio Perfect Wave DACii, and Bryston BDC-2 DAC, replaceing AuqioQuest Dragonfly V1.2 DAC, I heard huge improvement.AudioQuest Dragonfly V1.2 DAC is excellent in its own class, I have no complaion at all, but other two high-end DACs are just much better, everything opens up more, better tonal balance, detail, emotions, air......Try it for yourself you will know.With the new DAC, this computer system generates incredible sound.

I bought this product and it had an audible humm, at first I thought it was ground-loop hum and so I had researched it further, and it turns out other people who have bought this product and used it with power conditioners and ground loop isolators have had the same problem. I heard that this generation of BX8 D2's had this issue, but none of the other models have had reports of this behavior such as the BX5 BX6 or so on. The frequency response on these monitors was incredible though, I tested it for low frequencies at a decent volume and it made me feel like I was going to be sick, or get a headache, very nice. You may want to research if you are going to buy cause they might fix these issues eventually. I just did not like the humm.

If one is looking for stereo speakers for their bedroom or living room, this choice is a little over the top. Each speaker has its own amplifier as well as an individual input that you'll need to match up to your source's line level out. I found that to be the Hosa Cable CPR202 Dual 1/4 Inch To RCA Cable - 6.5 Foot, which worked perfectly for me. The amplifier in each of these speakers is more than adequate to fill a LARGE room with music. I set these two up for a bar and had to par back the volume on the speaker to around 35%, and even that blasted out the room with ear numbing volume when the music being fed from a Mac laptop's iTunes through WiFi to an AppleTV was turned up to about 70%.The bass was deep and rich, and the treble was very strong; a little too strong for my liking, to the point of being harsh. But the iTunes equalizer does a wonderful job of compensating, and I'd much rather have the problem of too much range rather than too little. I suppose that once the speakers are broken in, the range will become more evenly distributed in volume. Can't be sure of that yet, though. Thus the reason for 4 stars instead of 5.If you want power to spare and an excellent reproduction quality, I highly recommend these speakers. Just be prepared to use your equalizer to suppress these very powerful tweeters so that the warmer mid-range tones get to shine through.

Probably one of the worst speakers i've ever purchased. Sounds great, but they stop working after few months. Either woofer blown, or no sound at all. Also just so you know, we bought 3 sets of these for our studio and all 3 have one issues or another

they sound good but as one reviewer mentioned, there is a humming sound coming from the speakers even with the volume all the way down. turns out its the amplifiers. I don't notice my imac running because it is so quiet and I assumed studio reference monitors would be quieter but these proved me wrong.by the way, I said they sound "good" but not "great" or "amazing" which is what I expected for the price. they have a relatively flat frequency response which is what you need for monitoring but they're not quite as clear as what I was expecting. I see the importance of having them at the right level and angling them perfectly because when I stand up from my computer, they sound muffled. maybe i'm just used to my monitor headphones as this is my first pair of reference speakers. i'll probably buy another pair and return these.