All cheap studio monitors are unreliable?

I was going to purchase an M-Audio AV 40 before I realized just how bad its build quality is. Pretty much everywhere on the internet user reviews complain about its reliability. These monitors have a very contrasting user review score on amazon compared to the hugely positive critic reviews. When looking into the matter its obvious that's all got to do with the fact that AV-40 simply doesn't last long enough.

Then I thought about getting the Samson Mediaone 5A but once again I encountered a more than usual proportion of reviews complaining about reliability.

Now that I look at some of the computer speakers that audiophiles loathe I see none of these issues on them. Well obviously issues exist for any product but it has to be a usual fail rate number which is supposed to be quite low for speakers.

I think before you guys go on recommending alternatives to mainstream speakers its important to check on the reliability of said products.

I actually agree with you [looks at dead JBL "studio monitor"].

However, the KrK Rokits are sounding very good, I like the build quality and mine show no signs of trouble.

I also have a set of those 8" M-audios. Not sure about them to be honest. I wish they were easier to ship then somebody else could enjoy them.

If you want quality, KRK is your best bet.
I'd also recommend a pair of passive bookshelf speakers and get a separate amp or use a regular a/v receiver if you have the space.

I have owned a pair of AV40's for over 5 years (bought them refurbed) and I've never had a problem.

uOpt said:

I actually agree with you [looks at dead JBL "studio monitor"].

However, the KrK Rokits are sounding very good, I like the build quality and mine show no signs of trouble.

I also have a set of those 8" M-audios. Not sure about them to be honest. I wish they were easier to ship then somebody else could enjoy them.

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I dunno overall about JBL but the LSR305 seem to be quite reliable from what I have searched. Unfortunately they are not exactly cheap monitors.

to add my own anecdotal evidence my m-audio BX8 are also rock solid and they belong to the budget category

to be aware when comparing the frequency of complaints of skewed demographics, it could be that people that buy monitors simply are more stringent/complain more/use them more heavily

one thing that i do notice, it seems a lot of monitors (even some expensive ones) have a low hiss at idle (i presume it has something to do with amp design in active monitors)

Neutrino said:

to add my own anecdotal evidence my m-audio BX8 are also rock solid and they belong to the budget category

to be aware when comparing the frequency of complaints of skewed demographics, it could be that people that buy monitors simply are more stringent/complain more/use them more heavily

one thing that i do notice, it seems a lot of monitors (even some expensive ones) have a low hiss at idle (i presume it has something to do with amp design in active monitors)

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Well you make a reasonable point but then again we have studio monitors with little to no complaints and consumer speakers with a lot of complaints.

Yes I have read that problem in a lot of user reviews, surprisingly critic reviews don't have the hiss problem mostly so maybe the users are doing something wrong? What makes this an even bigger problem is that power buttons are on the back of a lot of monitors.

if you are using monitors with balanced inputs and a source with unbalanced outputs depending you can wind up with hiss pretty easily

seems irrelevant to the AV40's however since they have unbalanced and balanced inputs


personally I'd rather find used bookshelf speakers and a amp than use monitors but too each their own...

my luck is pretty astounding on finding good deals on equipment / speakers however

my humble set up...



some of the pictured items

Sony ES stack (TA-N77ES, TA-E77ESD, ...etc ) $75 LOL (look it up...200watts @8ohms).. nobody will probably ever match this score however... ever...

DCM timeframe TF250 speakers $20 , Monitor Audio Silver S1 speakers ($12~) , NHT SuperZero's $50

I use a pair of Alesis M1 Active MK2 monitors on one of my systems.
I got these used 10 years or so ago and they have been great, but they do have a flaw with the power supply. one of the caps is too close to a transistor and over time dries up from the excessive heat causing the speaker to not power on all the time, all you get is a flashing blue power light.Flipping the power on and off a few times may make it power back on sometimes.
2 years ago the right one went out and I replaced the cap and it works great, earlier this year the left went out and I swapped out that cap and all is good.
Other than the cap issue, these are excellent sounding speakers and can play very loud and clean.
I am using onboard audio with this setup as well.


I went with a pair of M-Audio BX5 D2's for my newest machine, mainly for size and they were on sale for $75 each. They sound very good and can play loud and clean but the Alesis do sound better.


My brother and I got my father a pair of AV-40's 2 years ago and they have been performing great.

Gambler_3 said:

I was going to purchase an M-Audio AV 40 before I realized just how bad its build quality is. Pretty much everywhere on the internet user reviews complain about its reliability. These monitors have a very contrasting user review score on amazon compared to the hugely positive critic reviews. When looking into the matter its obvious that's all got to do with the fact that AV-40 simply doesn't last long enough.

Then I thought about getting the Samson Mediaone 5A but once again I encountered a more than usual proportion of reviews complaining about reliability.

Now that I look at some of the computer speakers that audiophiles loathe I see none of these issues on them. Well obviously issues exist for any product but it has to be a usual fail rate number which is supposed to be quite low for speakers.

I think before you guys go on recommending alternatives to mainstream speakers its important to check on the reliability of said products.

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You are talking about a very well selling speaker and need to keep in mind that people that are happily using something do not usually go out and review the thing. If you went by complaints on the internet about every popular product you would be scared away from buying anything.

http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-Studi...1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419916500&sr=8-1&keywords=av40

over 500 reviews going back as far as 2011 from what i see and its maintained 4 stars. You dont usually pull that off with super unreliable things.

My old AV40s i bought from computer Renaissance going out of business are still kicking ass for my sister in law. My wife has a pair that are only a couple months old and are doing just fine.

I will say though bookshelves are the way to go if you can swing it but sets like the AV40 are pretty compelling when you can find them on sale. We found my wifes pair at BB for $50 and you simply cannot do better for that price.

If you want something that'll last I have a pair of these that are nearly as old as I am, though mine are active/powered not passive. I can't recommend them enough for durability. I felt they were lacking some mids pretty badly but they worked great and they survived a pretty harsh car accident (see pic of car) The speakers were wedged between the back of the vehicle and a little wooden rack that you can see has been pushed up by the frame. They came out with some surface damage but worked perfectly.

lilfiend said:

If you want something that'll last I have a pair of these that are nearly as old as I am, though mine are active/powered not passive. I can't recommend them enough for durability. I felt they were lacking some mids pretty badly but they worked great and they survived a pretty harsh car accident (see pic of car) The speakers were wedged between the back of the vehicle and a little wooden rack that you can see has been pushed up by the frame. They came out with some surface damage but worked perfectly.

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Not to rain on your parade but 'lacking mids badly' doesn't sound like working to me. It's another issue if the thing still powers on lol.

B00nie said:

Not to rain on your parade but 'lacking mids badly' doesn't sound like working to me. It's another issue if the thing still powers on lol.

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Its more of a design issue imo, it was just a 6.5 woofer and a tweeter, there was a bit of range that needed boosted. One could probably have delt with it by turning up the mid on their mixing desk. I never really bothered since I mainly used them for music, but in movies/tv some voices were just quieter because they fell in that range. I feel a 5 1/4 woofer and a tweeter works better for day to day use but that's me

krk, all the way

lilfiend said:

Its more of a design issue imo, it was just a 6.5 woofer and a tweeter, there was a bit of range that needed boosted. One could probably have delt with it by turning up the mid on their mixing desk. I never really bothered since I mainly used them for music, but in movies/tv some voices were just quieter because they fell in that range. I feel a 5 1/4 woofer and a tweeter works better for day to day use but that's me

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The size of the driver does not matter at all. There are 2-way speakers that have a 12" mid-bass and a coaxial tweeter and they don't lack midrange.

What I wanted to say is that if the speaker 'seriously lacks' something, it's no good even straight out of the box. It becomes a moot point if it continues working longer or not.

I have been using a pair of Behringer active monitors as my TV speakers for years, they worked without problems. The worst you can do to an amp is to leave it unused for years and the second worst you can do is switch it on and off frequently. My monitors are always powered, so is the pre-amp.

I don't know why people buy such cheap monitors. Spend more and you'll get better sound quality and reliability.

B00nie said:

The size of the driver does not matter at all. There are 2-way speakers that have a 12" mid-bass and a coaxial tweeter and they don't lack midrange.

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The size of the driver factories heavily into the frequency response and sensitivity. It is not the only factor but it does matter. There are larger speakers with other parameters optimized for a higher-end response; maybe what you mean is that the frequency response of a driver cannot be characterized by only its size. It is much easier to design a speaker with lower frequency response using a larger driver than a relatively smaller driver. There are tricks for smaller drivers to get more LF response, such as tuning higher than normal (which gives a false effect of more bass - more midbass, less deep bass) or filters (which lower efficiency/sensitivity). Filters could include Linkwitz Transform which, again, reduces efficiency. Larger woofers also have more output capability. You can boost the bass frequencies of small drivers but they will run out of displacement much sooner. Makes them easy to blow.

Personally, I think 5.25"-6.5" is the sweet spot for a woofer in a 2-way.

I am really not a fan of those cheap "pro" audio 12" woofers + horn tweeters. Maaaaybe if it were really quality like Acoustic Elegance AV-series woofers w/ the Apollo upgrade and... well, not sure what horn tweeter I might like... but the typical stuff you might hear in a club or even auditorium - yuck.