Home > Consumer Reviews > M-Audio BX8a 8-inch BiAmplified Studio Monitor Speakers

I bought this monitor set to use as a computer stereo system. It replaced a Logitech 5.1 computer speaker system. These speakers sound terrific! The sweet spot is huge and the clarity is amazing. If you now have conventional computer speakers (Logitech, Creative, etc.)and if you have the space, the BX-8a will enhance your music listening experience 100%, guaranteed.

Over the years my ears have been getting better and better, moving up speaker by speaker, getting better at recording, and i am finally at the point that i think i have a very good grasp on how to record/mix and how speakers should sound.

That said, I bought these M-Audio 8" near field monitors a few days ago, after tearing my hair out looking for a (mainly) computer listening speaker for my itunes, and secondly to do some casual guitar/voice recording when i was bored or felt like writing a song. I've heard monitors from Mackie, M-Audio, plenty of Genelecs, and heard differences in too many $30,000+ loudspeakers that many people only pretend to.

These 130 watt self-powered monitors are the best sounding speakers under $1500 easy. The stereo imaging when used for nearfield listening is simply incredible, and the sheer audio resolution of these speakers will put a big smile on your face. Most people get lost in finding the speaker that is ultimately "technically" perfect at re-creating a sound wave. These speakers don't necessarily do that but they do sound incredible. Much like Bose's idea about what makes a good speaker. If it sounds good, it's a good speaker.

I'd be careful when using these as actual studio monitors in a critical mixing environment. Mainly because bass is a bit heavy. Don't get me wrong, during playback it will make most songs sound like a million bucks (even some encoded at 128kbps) but take into account that if you mix to make your bass sound even, then your recording will lack bass. Best to listen to other monitors or otherwise get a baseline of how the speakers perform compared to how the flat recording sounds.

I've had these for 2 months now and I like them very much. For the price they can not be beat. The sound is very rich and can be a bit bottom heavy, but I've learned to mix rather effectively. I use Pro Tools LE and an MBox 2. I pulled a professionally mixed track (3 actually) into a new Pro Tools session and used those tracks as a reference to get used to how the monitors will represent the sound. It works well and I got used to mixing my own music rather quickly with them.

Word of warning... one day I was mixing and stopped for a while. I shut down Pro Tools but left the monitors on as I was intending to return to mixing later. Meanwhile, a software update came in and rebooted my PC. Upon restart, when my MBox 2 powered on, a loud pop came out of the monitors and one of them failed. It produces sound for a few seconds after power on, but then fails and stops producing sound at all. It's in route to being repaired by M-Audio. M-Audio Customer service has been very good as far as I've experienced. I'll update if anything changes.

When using these (or any other monitors) its a good idea to power them down when not in use and be sure to power them down BEFORE powering down recording/PC equipment and power them up AFTER powering on recording/PC equipment. I always did power them on after other equipment, but I will no longer leave them on when I'm not actively using them.

Well I bought these speakers for my boyfriend for his birthday, i did my research and these appeared to be the best for him. He loves them, they sound really good so he's happy, therefore I'm happy with the product.

These speakers do not disappoint. They have unbelievable clarity and accuracy. The volume level they are capable of could easily cause hearing loss after long exposure. Turning them up all the way will cause a bit of distortion but that could be from my brain attempting to shut my ears.

I was looking for a speaker that could do it all and I think I might have found it.

After listening to these I'm uncertain why I spent thousands on home theater speakers when a set of these and a nice sonic maximizer (BBE 362SW) would have done the job far better and been more cost-effective.

I've used these for DJ'ing in partnership with a sub and they are loud enough to fill a large dining hall with sound while 200 people are in it. In order to accomplish this I did have to fashion some pole mount brackets so they would be above head level.

I do have some nit-picky comments about them but they still deserve a 5 out of 5 rating. These are powered speakers and as such they stay on all the time, there is no auto-sensing feature that I've noticed that will turn them off. So to power them down I've plugged them into their own line conditioner along with a powered sub and the sonic maximizer. Flip one switch and they all shut off now.

They will become distorted during busy music if you do not have a low filter (like that in a sub or crossover) or equalizer hooked up.

There are no grills or protection of any kind over the drivers; fine for a studio, not fine for DJ'ing. I had to make a grill part of the pole-mount encasement.

I have used these for movies and they're almost too good. I had to crank down the volume on these and crank up the gain on the remaining system speakers (center and rear). The blue lights are annoying if you want to use these for movies, but that's easily fixed with a bit of electrical tape.

I don't understand why studio monitors or powered speakers aren't hailed in audiophile circles. These things easily deliver sound that can't be had for less than a few grand in speakers, and amps to bi-amp a similar configuration.

M-Audio has changed my perception of what is possible from a 2-way 'bookshelf' style speaker. They sound incredible and tight given the right cutoff for the low frequency. I recommend cutting these off at 130-150 Hz if you want to be able to hear multiple voices and instruments clearly at very high volume.

EDIT (a month later):

There are some places where these speakers will NOT sound good. First, you can turn them up all the way when you directly connect them to an audio jack like a laptop or real studio equipment. But if you hook them through traditional DJ crossovers those crossovers often come with anti-cliping circutry ... great for conventional speakers but not for self-amplified monitors like these. The result of such a device in the sound chain is cliping at high volume levels. It's not a good thing, it causes these speakers to sound poor. This is not the fault of the speakers.

Potential Issue #2 if you're using these things to DJ. They NEED clean power, and lots of it. If a venue you play at has sub-par power plugs and you plug in your lights to the same plate you plug these speakers into you're going to have some pretty nasty results at high volume levels.

The comment about the sound field being more narrow than DJ speakers is also correct. But when DJ'ing weddings and the like it's not often nessesary to blast away grandma in the back corner of the room with high volume sound. These things will fill a medium sized dance area but any futher off axis and they do show some shortcomings in comparison to the traditional DJ carpet-coated loudspeakers.

For home use, and studio use these things are still amazing