So I walk in to Sam Ash with no real intention of buying anything. I will be buying stuff eventually, but I figured I would just do research today. This way whatever I learn has a chance to sink in before I put down up to a grand for near-field monitors. Which I would actually be using in the mid-field.

I've been hearing so many great things about the Event 20/20bas monitors that I wanted to hear them for myself. It was fairly busy, but I was able to get personal attention from one of the salesmen. I had brought some CD's with me - Madonna's Ray of Light as a modern production that I'm familiar with and whose production I like, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magic as a down and dirty rock type CD.

After some fiddling the salesman was able to get the CD to come out of the Event PS8 speakers - the 20/20bas' kid brother, the ones I'd be likely to be able to afford. Same box, same speakers, less powerful amp. I stood there listening to them and had two comments.

"The bass is hyped because they're on this shelf right next to the wall right?" and "The high end seems to be lacking clarity." I told him my price range - up to $800 and he showed me a few speakers in that range. The Mackie's, which also seemed to be lacking clarity, and the Tannoy's, which were a little more expensive (at the blowout price of $900). He also played some other disc for me. I don't remember which band, a very modern rock band with all sorts of synths going on.

The Tannoy's sounded the best to my ears, but when I closed my eyes and imagined the mixing decisions I'd be making I found myself wanting to add mids. I promised myself I'd bring in Coldplay's Parachutes album next time. I'm very familiar with the extremely extended upper range on that album and it seemed that that was an area that really needed to listen to when evaulating speakers.

Then the salesman remembered the Studiophile (M-Audio / Midiman) speakers he had swapped out to let another customer try something else. These tiny little $300 speakers sounded great. The real lows were represented but not hyped. The lows themselves were surprisingly well represented for speakers of this size.

I closed my eyes again and tried to imagine the mixing decisions I'd be making based on these speakers. I imagined I'd be making less drastic changes than with the other speakers I heard. Mostly to the lows and low mids, but since I know what I'm listening to, I can compensate and try mixing those frequencies in headphones. Whatever that modern/metal album was that he played for me, when I went back to the 20/20bas, the bass and guitar became a solid wall of sound, lost in mud. With the Studiophiles I could differentiate between them. I listened carefully for the kick drum to ensure that it sounded good and I would be able to mix kick drums on these speakers, and it was there. Since I wasn't really familiar with the CD I was listening to, I don't know whether it sounded right, but it was there, and I remembered the Red Hot Chili Peppers album sounded fine.

For the price, about a third of what I was looking to spend, I figured I couldn't go wrong. If I ever bought larger speakers, these would serve as a good second pair. I bought them and brought them home. On my way home I was wondering if I had decided to get the speakers that "make everything sound good" rather than the speakers that would help me make good mixing decisions. I don't really think that's the case, but only time will tell.

Since I don't have my home studio yet, I plugged them into the audio out on my TV. I'm sure the TV colors the sound a bit, and the D/A converters in my PS2 aren't the best, but I took it for a spin with some familiar material.

Marvin Gaye's Whats Going On sounded great. James Jamerson's bass playing was front and center. Marvin's vocals were clear, everything was spot on. Led Zeppelin I sounded good, but the bass wasn't as prominent as I remembered. I remembered a clearer distinction between the bass and guitar on Good Times Bad Times and Jonesy's walking lines didn't really pop the way I remembered them. I turned the volume up and they did come out more, but I would have to remember that for the future.

Due to the way we hear, we should always mix bass frequencies at higher volumes... we don't hear bass well when at low volumes. In any case, where on What's Going On the bass was very up front, on Good Times Bad Times, it was a little muddled. I'll have to be careful when dealing with the lower mids.

Update July 28: It's now the third day and I noticed that bass sounds great at the far end of the room. Whatever frequencies are missing up close (4 to 10 feet) exist farther out in the room (13 to 15 feet). This is either a phenomina of the room, or the long bass frequencies blossoming out farther from the speakers.

I tried a few other CD's from Jaco Pastorious The Birthday Concert to Metal Gear Solid 2... My CD player is a PS2 after all. Everything sounded great. My ears were fatigued a little - I was tired, I just bought new speakers that I couldn't possibly expect to hear objectively for long, and I only had a couple of hours before I had to head out again to catch a show (Wilson Pickett!). I was also a bit hyper from the walk from the bus stop and carrying these things home in a plastic bag. They're not exactly light. At least, not when together in the box. Good thing I've been going to the Gym.

The smaller size is also aesthetically attractive. My girlfriend, I'm sure, is happy that I didn't get bigger speakers. I showed them to her and she said "You mean these are the small speakers? They're so big!" At least she thinks they compliment the TV nicely.

I won't bore you with technical details, other reviews will probably concentrate on those and specs should be on the manufacturer's website. A couple of interesting things, the tweeter can be pivoted so you can change your soundstage. Currently I have my speakers facing straight ahead, not angled in, but the tweeters are angled in a bit. I can angle them out for a wider soundstage and more 'wall noise' as opposed to direct noise.

The screws that hold in the speaker are four alan key style screws, and they marked the inside with black dots so you know just how much to tighten them again. Well, I think that's why they did that. I haven't had occasion to really crank them yet. In fact, I've set the volume to half on each speaker and have it tied in to the TV's volume control and it gets plenty loud. I may want to turn it up for DVD's because they have a wider dynamic range and are much less compressed than TV. I plan on using it as my main speakers for TV and music so I can get used to their sound.

Assuming the same input/sound source going in to all of the speakers, it's amazing the range and variety amongst speaker sounds. A lot of speakers sounded like the Events, the Tannoy's had a completely different sound, and these Studiophile speakers another sound yet again, even though I'm sure all of their specs will say they're 'flat.' Flat does seem to be the buzzword with speakers.

The fact that the Mackie and Events sounded similar, and they're highly reccomended by a lot of people tells me that they're both probably good speakers. I didn't like them because they seemed so dull - lacking high end detail to the point where I was wondering if the tweeter was working. The Tannoys had a better high end, but did seem to be lacking in somewhere in the mids, but I liked them better than the Events.

Since the Studiophiles' sounded so different and to my ears, they sounded good, and I think I'd make better mixes on these than on the Events. I guess only time will tell. My next speaker purchase would probably be a sub woofer so I can really hear what's going on in the low end, though I'll have to be careful with it, living in an apartment and all. Then after that, I may look at the Events again, since those were a very different sound form these, and they're so highly reccomended. Maybe then I'll audition the 20/20's and not the PS8's. Most online reviews I've seen seem to be of the PS6 and the 20/20. I'll try to audition them all.

Update July 29, 2002: Found this review on digit-life.com which confirms a lot of what I thought about these speakers. It even includes frequency response curves for this speaker side by side with the Event 20/20bas. They compare rather favorably.

Update August 1, 2002: Found this review on Sound on Sound, which wasn't as nice as the previous one. Their recommendation is to save up your pennies and buy a more expensive system. Oddly enough none of the Events or Mackies, which are probably industry standard by now, aren't the ones they recommend. Perhaps across the pond they like Gelenec and Tannoy over than Event or Mackie.

Update August 25, 2002: I was at a party last Saturday. An outdoor pool/barbecue thing, and we were listening to music through this beat up old stereo hooked up to an old PA speaker. The whole thing was very mid-rangy and not at all, uh, professional sounding. The thing is, when Good Times Bad Times came on, I heard Jonesy's bass very clearly.

Listening to it again, Jonesy's bass tone is really down there. Really one of the more bizarre bass tones I've heard on an album. I'm fairly sure it's below the 200hz point where these speakers start to drop off. Still, it bugs me that these frequencies aren't reproduce that clearly. Maybe I'll pickup the M-Audio sub some time, it's designed to reproduce frequencies up to 180hz.

I'm going to run a frequency analysis on his bass tone in that song. When I get my studio together, I'm going to do another one on my whole setup - room, speakers, everything. I already did a sine wave sweep from 200hz on down, but I don't have a graph to show for it since it was done using a handheld SPL meter.

Update September 24, 2002: A review by Candace Horgan in a magazine whose name slips my memory, (I'll let you know when I figure out which it was) reviewed these speakers. The reviewer compared them favorably to Genelec 1029's. The Genelec's obviously sounded better, "but the M-Audio monitors were by no means lacking." So, in short, they don't sound as good as the monitors that cost 3 times as much, but they hold their own in their price range.

Update December 23, 2002: The new Event TR5 monitor has the same price point as the SP-5B, and their published specs say "53Hz - 19kHz, ±3dB, ref. 500Hz" which is a lot more specific than the M-Audio specs, and very nice for monitors in this price/size range.

Update January 30, 2003: M-Audio announced the new BX5. It looks like a sleightly redesigned SP-5B with a new box shape and switches in the back, much like the Mackie HR824 designed to help shape the speaker's frequency response to your environment.

Update March 06, 2003: Find other reviews or write your own here: www.ProSoundReview.com

Discuss this article in the Forum.