magnaton wrote:Hello Dcaton:
I'm anxious to get your reactions and critique on the Monoprice studio monitors. Maybe update this thread as well.
Thanks,
Danny B.
Danny and anyone else that's interested:
I don't know that I have any valuable information to share at this point, but FWIW here goes...
The Monoprice 8" monitors have been compared to the M-Audio BX8 Carbon Black Monitor. If you imagine the center plastic trim of the BX8 removed, that's what the Monoprice units look like. The rear panels are similar but the Mono has a HF level control that the M-Audio lacks. Short of disassembling each to examine their innards, visually comparing the two probably has little real value though. A few reviews also claim they sound similar but I can't attest to that. I could compare them to the monster HC-14's on my ADC-3100, but that probably wouldn't be useful either.
I like the overall appearance of the Monoprice units, without any unnecessary frills or gaudy nameplates (the small Monoprice nameplate is barely noticeable), and they appear to be constructed well.
I'm several months away from having a functional VPO, but I've hooked up two to my HW computer's internal sound card in the meantime. They sound decent, but that's hardly a basis for a meaningful evaluation. I also decided to go with the MOTO 24ao interface. The required Phoenix connectors will be here later in the week and I plan on hooking up several monitors through that. But at the moment my HW setup has no console attached so all I can do is play the demo that comes with the St. Anne's sampleset.
Right now, my opinion is that at $65 each, the Monoprice monitors are a very good value for their intended purpose, which is an entry-level multiple monitor setup. In addition to monitors my budget needs to include an audio interface, midi conversion boards, HW software, etc. I'd love nothing more than to drop 10k on monitors, but that's not happening any time soon. At some point after I have a functioning VPO, I probably will try a pair of higher end monitors to see how they compare. I'd expect something like an Adam A7X to sound better, but at about 12x the cost, would it sound 12 times better? That's highly subjective.
I see another review has just been posted on these as well, from someone who has a lot more experience than I do.
Don