I have a nice warm pair of these glowing in front of me right now. I can tell you as a musician of 15 years, they are without question the best sub $100 set of self powered speakers you are going to find. Do they run hot? yes. Are they the best speakers in the world? no.

I got them as refurbs from Amazon a few months back for $100. They are perfectly new in terms of cosmetic condition. Anyone looking to get a great set of speakers to fill a room with clean balanced sound, these are an absolute no brainer.

ceejatec wrote:Anyone have any experience pairing these with a subwoofer for a 2.1 monitoring system? (For audio production use, not desktop/gaming/etc.) Any recommendations?

you will definitely need a sub with any setup if doing any production work and these will make your mixing easier and more accurate than standard bookshelf speakers, but you really need to spend a bit more for even amateur home recording.
I would recommend the Alesis 520 M1active for good,accurate budget monitors with plenty of power.It was what I used when starting out and they still hold up to my more expensive KRK monitors.

A most excellent product write-up today, Woot. And an enlightened discussion too, Wooters. I am another happy owner of the smaller AV30's, refurbs from Woot last year. They sit on a shelf alongside $800 studio monitors in my video edit studio - for the sound from a 37" LCD TV. That's a great use for these, or for your computer, but not for seriously mixing music though the sound is very nicely balanced. Hot? A little, but I hardly ever bother to turn them off. I bet these AV40's go up to 10.5 if not 11.

phacopida wrote:What is the difference between the M-Audio professional speakers and these professional REFERENCE speakers? What makes it a reference model?

First bullet in features says:Built with the same quality materials and precision electronics as the acclaimed M-Audio professional studio speakers

Sounds like a replica of the original.

I'm not knocking any audiophiles in here, but I've met too many "audiophiles" who buy the best speakers they can afford (or even the best they can't really afford) and then listen with so much background noise that it makes no difference. I even know a guy who swore up and down that FLAC sounded better than MP3, even though he was listening to the audio while driving down the freeway with his windows rolled down and his MP3 player hooked up to his stereo via FM transmitter. He didn't understand that in those conditions, even a wax cylinder recording sounds good.

So, if you're planning on plugging your iPod into these so you can throw a party and listen to lossy compressed audio while trying to hit on the girl from the apartment across the hall, these speakers are more than sufficient.

In other words, these aren't the greatest speakers, but for most people, they're still great.

tdurden wrote:Frequency response always has been the "contrast ratio" of the audio world - i.e. it is total BS in that the way it is specified for audio products makes it almost completely meaningless and certainly nothing to make a buying decision over

Well put. And to reiterate other people's input, I would easily pick crisp clean bass that doesn't go really low or rumble a room, over a lower frequency response on the spec sheet that in reality is so garbled you can't even tell what instrument is making those low notes.

And maybe I'm opening myself up to a slew of comments, but as far as I understand there is a limit, based on the laws of physics with regards to moving the large amounts of air required to make low notes, to how much bass you can get out of speakers small enough to be used in an office setting, though sealed vs ported can affect this. Now the quality of the bass is another matter and is more of a reflection of the design and engineering (ie ported vs sealed) and components (cone material, magnet).

Also apples and oranges, but if anybody is thinking of going the earbud route at work instead, I highly recommend the Klipsch S4s. May possibly get better sound quality for a very similar price, pretty clean low bass and highs that aren't harsh. But as I have not heard these AV40s, just a guess that the S4s may be better in the bass department if that is what people are concerned about.

bmw66x wrote:I'll ask the question on everyone's mind: These any good??

You can't make a pair of 'reference speakers' if the woofers are 4" unless your room is in a doll house or about 4 feet by 3 feet b 3 feet tall.

Stop 'buying into' the marketing language and start 'thinking' and making thoughtful brain activity.

How can $90 worth of speakers be 'reference' standards? Look up a reference standard for something like a 1 meter length for measurement. It's cost? Over $1M for a piece of metal exactly 1 M long.

If you keep buying crap.. someone will keep making. Stop buying crap and eventually everything will be of excellent quality.

I'd suggest, for sure, a sub woofer. Their design is a good start. 2 speakers carrying 80Hz mounted in a box sitting on it's narrowest edge is the stupidest design to carry bass into a room.

Being to use your brain.

alcalaaa wrote:yeah i like these speakers too. btw anyone know how to change your avatar picture?

Go to Gravatar.com for more info. Also click on your Woot name just after welcome at the top of the page.

Nice call, w00t...keeping then guessing.

i'm not much of a technical enthusiast, sorry if my question is (mod note: circumventing filter) or whatever but...

how would one go about connecting a subwoofer paired off with these speakers whilst the input is coming from a computer/mixer?

Edit: the subwoofer from a 2.1 speaker system.

(now that i think about it, it doesn't seem possible lol)
(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

andrelook wrote:You can't make a pair of 'reference speakers' if the woofers are 4" unless your room is in a doll house or about 4 feet by 3 feet b 3 feet tall.

Stop 'buying into' the marketing language and start 'thinking' and making thoughtful brain activity.

How can $90 worth of speakers be 'reference' standards? Look up a reference standard for something like a 1 meter length for measurement. It's cost? Over $1M for a piece of metal exactly 1 M long.

If you keep buying crap.. someone will keep making. Stop buying crap and eventually everything will be of excellent quality.

I'd suggest, for sure, a sub woofer. Their design is a good start. 2 speakers carrying 80Hz mounted in a box sitting on it's narrowest edge is the stupidest design to carry bass into a room.

Being to use your brain.

I just can't help it.

Being that your rant is about using your brain, you must proofread the rant closely. I don't care if it's a dyslexic error.

Also, bringing in the meter reference bar is ridiculous. Even the pickiest audiophiles don't need that level of precision. Not to mention that the cost for that reference bar is all about the longevity of the bar; in terms of "lifespan," not it's length. Oh, and let's not forget that the reference has been replaced with the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.

You are correct though. There is some hype involved with these types of speakers. However, they blow away most anything else you would normally use for computer speakers and many other applications.

I have these speakers. They sell for $95-120 used on ebay. They are well worth the money and are the best sub-$300 powered speakers I have used.

I have these at home and they're decent for the price.

timmyd24601 wrote:Lower isn't always better, for instance I know KEF products and the speakers you mentioned, yah they might "go lower" but their low end is muddy and slow...

for 4" drivers, 80Hz to 90Hz is where you should be in a ported system, anything lower will over tax your drivers and result in horrible sounding low end...

Well, you could be quite right there. (Castle stuff's much better ;) You really need a physically larger box for proper extension, but still specs can b enlightening nonethleless ... if only to elicit some good opinions from everyonne whqt REALLY makes things sounds good. Thanks all!

bluesportxls wrote:I just recently went through the process of researching and purchasing studio monitors for my home studio. After trying many different monitors and deliberating endlessly, here are my two cents:

For use as casual speakers for music/movies, they are going to be more than suitable, but if you are looking for good studio monitors for audio mixing then you should hold off and save up a little for a pair of KRK Rokits. While the M-Audios are great quality for the price range, just remember that you get what you pay for. Also, without a sub, you are going to be looking at limited bass (especially if you like to bump your beats). I personally was not willing to make the compromise in quality to save a few bucks when it came to my audio, but thats just me...

Agree, for this price I feel like there are other speakers that are comparable or better, if you truly care about audio you are going to be running far better speakers, or running audio through amp/receiver with digital outputs

josephraa wrote:
EDIT: BTW, anybody still curious about TRS and TS connectors . . . please turn on safe search before searching google images for either.

Huh? What search phrase did you use that you could possible pull up anything but a ton of connectors?

Hmmm, for about $20 more... would it be better to get ones that have not already broke once? (being that these are refurbished?)

Bought a set of these last year and love them.
Nice rich sound, decent bass and good highs.
I have been very happy with them.

powersmp wrote:Huh? What search phrase did you use that you could possible pull up anything but a ton of connectors?

Of course, I just had to try it. I didn't see anything nasty for 'TRS.' However 'TS' did eventually bring up some unexpected images. In retrospect, it wasn't very surprising. However, my mind didn't immediately come up with that interpretation of 'TS.'

I'll let you figure it out on your own.

I have pair of older Yamaha "reference" speakers that I always used when editing audio. It IS important to use the same sources (as opposed to different speakers or headphones each time) if you want a consistent sound to each of you recordings.

I've been rocking out on these for around 3 years. They sound great and have good functionality.

AmandaGeorge7 wrote:Hmmm, for about $20 more... would it be better to get ones that have not already broke once? (being that these are refurbished?)

That was my thought. If I'm going to buy a refurb, I want a bigger discount.

After some research, I decided to buy the Behringer MS40 new from Amazon.

The use of the word "Reference" is pure advertizing BS. True reference speakers cost thousands. Studio monitors are speakers meant to be listened to at close distances to a mixing board, the are not studio monitors because they have limited low end response.

I bought these for multiple edit systems that we have (Avid Media Composer). They sound pretty good. but we've had multiple sets die, one speaker at a time. Very odd.

AmandaGeorge7 wrote:Hmmm, for about $20 more... would it be better to get ones that have not already broke once? (being that these are refurbished?)

Sure, but where would one find these speakers for that price? Woot's price with shipping is $95. The closest I could come up with is Amazon's $133 with free shipping. Most any other place that appears to have a cheaper price has costly shipping that pushes the price way up.

I've been looking at these for at least a year as eventual replacements for my beloved Cambridge 2.1 system. Far and away the most highly reviewed PC speakers I've found. Not wild about refurbs but still in for at least a pair at this price.

I have a 15 year old surround sound system with "huge" speakers. Would these work well to replace them?

While not necessarily their intent, I use these for my home theater setup, and absolutely love them. I used to have a decent, but not great logitech surround setup, but these blow that away. They pack a surprising amount of bass in them for their size.

That said, if you're picky about refurbs, I caught mine on Amazon for a little over $110 new, but even then, I haven't heard better speakers that cost less than $250.

Also of note, they have RCA input on the back, with 1/8 in. (i.e. normal headphone plug) headphone and aux in jacks on the front, but they also come with an RCA to 1/8 in. cable.

Lots of talk for using these for a computer...how about with a TV in a smaller apartment, such as that 42" Westinghouse sold here earlier which (according to reviewers) has sound quality similar to a litter of kittens crying for their mother?

I've owned these for about 6 months now and I'm very pleased. You can't beat the SQ for the money (especially at this price). No other computer desktop speaker is even in the same neighborhood. As to them getting hot, never had an issue, I leave them on 24 hrs a day and occasionally jam on them pretty good. I'm you're considering it, grab'em you'll be happy!.

I bought a used pair of these from a guy on Ebay for about $50 a couple of years ago (he said they may not work sometimes), but they have worked great for me. I bought a second pair as a backup when Woot had them a while back and I have never even opened the box.

These are about the best computer speakers you can buy. They really are monitors, and they may not be "boomy" like some speakers, but they reproduce music like it was meant to be heard. They are a good value at the retail price, but they are a steal at this price. Believe me, don't hesitate.

I got these the last time Woot had them 6 to 12 months ago, but I don't remember if I got AV30 or AV40. But they sound great, I leave them on all the time. I could not tell they were refurbished.

They even impressed my teenage son, which is kinda cool when the old man can impress the kid every once in a while. Then again, what do today's MP3/earbud kids know about good sound?

The features I like are front volume control, so we can easily adjust volume. The front headphone jack, which shuts off the speakers, is handy when someone is sitting at the computer and wants to listen to something the rest of the household does not particularly care for.

TRS is tip ring sleeve, which describes the connector at the end of the cable. It is the standard method of connecting stereo audio over one cable. All headphones/earbuds are TSR.

These are great sounding speakers at a good price.

I've heard these speakers and they sound pretty good (which is totally subjective)... for what they are. They are amplified 4" speakers. That's it. The sound quality will diminish as the room size grows. 4" speakers can move only so much air. Put a pair of these in a fairly open 15' x18' room and they will sound a little better than a pair of laptop speakers... well not quite that bad.
85hz is near the top of the bass band, meaning that they have basically no bass, especially since they are bass reflex design which has dips and valleys in the bass response anyway.

For a set of very overpriced speakers, the Woot price makes them about on par with what they are actually worth.

I'm sure they sound better than my speakers that came stock with my computer.

In for one.

I have the AV30 and they just stopped working one day. It was within the one year warranty and could not find anywhere on their website about warranty information. Only information I could find was if I was a paying them for service and parts on their equipment. They are now sitting in the storage area in my apartment with the Logitech back on my desk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19CvEO3Riy0

I have these monitors, and they sounds great! They work really well for recording and mixing, especially considering the price. Very well balanced. Even if you don't produce music, they sound way better than a typical set of PC speakers, and don't have a Sirius GPP sub woofer to mess with.

I bought a pair of these and a year in they burned out. Very disappointed, I googled around and it's a very common problem. I got them for my wife, who doesn't even turn them up very loud at all. The customer service for trying to replace them was terrible.

Remember, anything that touts itself as "audiophile" means "we used ordinary materials, but marked it up heavily to create an overpriced item."

"Studiophile" counts as well.

Don't be fooled. If you order these, do double-blinded testing against them and a pair of $5 speakers from your local Goodwill hooked up via lamp cord.

You might be surprised how little difference there really is once you no longer know which you're listening to.

Hey guys do you know if I can hook these up to a sub-woofer I have via RCA cable? I have an old Creative I-trigue 3300 which came with two tweeters and a bass with all the controls on it. The tweeters are all fuzzed out and I was wondering if I could replace them with these...I know they both take RCA connections would there be an impedance problem or would it just sound bad? Also, I noticed that these are powered speakers, I think my bass is powered as well, would that create a problem? Thanks this is a big help!! I owe ya