First off, I am skipping the "pros" and "cons" parts of this review in favor of deeper explanation than deeming a trait the product doesn't claim to have as a con. I feel this product requires more than, "I like how it sounds," as there are many variables. If you just want a good sounding pair of speakers and don't care to work on audio, then these speakers will work fine. I do suggest EQ'ing the speakers to sound how you'd like.



I have used these for about 1.5 months, and have taken the time to really judge these monitors, as I felt these monitors are not as well documented around the web. People who utilize monitors, for a purpose such as mixing, tend to be really into expensive gear. A lot of the time good audio gear does cost a lot of money, but we are starting to some great cheap stuff.



Notice how I referenced mix engineers using these? Let's take a second to explain why that is important. It is said that if you were to average out the frequency response of all the speakers being used, you would get a flat line. Why would you want to mix with a flat frequency response? It is a reference. This means that anyone mixing at a flat frequency response has a much higher chance at their mix being able to translate to other speakers well. It's because of this that it's extremely important to mix (track, produce, master) with monitors, baring a flat frequency response.



You shouldn't expect to plant these monitors into your room and have them deliver. Your room takes that flat response and colors it. It's because of this fact that most audio professionals and serious hobbyists treat their room. This is a major topic to learn about, and if you care for a truly flat response and your work translating well to the most amount of speakers as possible, then you should take the time to look into treating your room. Maybe you are reading this at a time when Monoprice has their "Acoustic Treatment & Foam" subcategory up and running with more than a mud guard, (AKA isolation shield & reflection filter) and you can take advantage of their awesome quality standard and even more awesome pricing. That'd be even better.



In my room, treated as best as I could get it, these monitors were doing a decent job. It's extremely difficult to get that truly great flat response without calibrating, and I definitely suggest calibrating, even without treating your room. The most notable problem with the response was a pretty big drop off between 100Hz and 200Hz. One speaker lost a lot more in that range than the other, although both dipped. If you do not treat your room or calibrate, you should at least throw a bell between those frequencies, evening out things with an EQ using your ears. Another thing to note is that the high frequency knob did come in handy before calibration. You want to get that line was close to flat as possible before calibration.



Coupled with IK Multimedia ARC System 2, an advanced room correction kit for use in your DAW (Reaper, Pro Tools, Audacity, Cubase, GarageBand, etc), I was able to get these monitors to really shine. I got the frequency response nice and flat, at which point I could mix for maximum compatibility and effectively emulate the EQ characteristics of the kind of speakers people popularly listen through (Car, laptop, headphones, iPod dock, TV) to see how my mixes would effectively translate.



These monitors do not stand out as much better than similar priced monitors, out of the box, when going by the 300 dollar compare price. I have compared them with the most popular 300 dollar monitors, and they are extremely similar. However, by the price these go for and the prices they go on sale at quite often, these things are a steal out of the box. Couple that with a properly treated room, and you will kill monitors at double the compare at price in a room not properly treated. Add in great room correction, such as ARC 2, and you will be getting a lot more than what you paid for.



I give these monitors a BIG 10 for maximizing utility, meaning they are the best bang for your buck.



Thanks for reading,



Jenner B

I bought them for use as basic audio from my laptop while listening to online speach. After using them, I now use them to jam with. These little guys play loud and strong enough to keep up with my home studio bass and guitar rigs.. Being small enough to be placed on your desk, they are a great addition to any home studio or practice environment.

PROS: fast set up
tunable
great sound for the money

CONS: for the price....none
only reason they are not 10 is because I have heard 1000+ monitors.

I was so impressed with Monoprice's 3 inch monitor speakers that I had to give these a try. The problem is that they do not accept RCA phono plugs. So, I contacted Monoprice Tech Support and was told that these speakers sounded about the same as the 3 inch monitors and were intended for studio mixer use-NOT HOME USE. As such, the Tech could not suggest suitable Monoprice cables. If you want to feed these from your computer with a mini phono stereo output, I suggest a mini stereo phono plug to XLR's cable, available from Amazon. However, Monoprice cables can be used. Buy the 7inch Premium 3.5mm Stereo Male to 2RCA Female 22AWG Cable (Gold Plated) Product ID: 5611 and then a pair of Premier Series XLR Male to RCA Male 16AWG Cable (Gold Plated), such as the 3 foot version Product ID: 4776. Note, they come in various lengths. These speakers really impress as desk top speakers with a fuller, more engaging sound than the excellent valued 3 inch monitors. Also, the bass is deeper with much more authority. Highly recommended!

PROS: Incredible sound for the price. Relatively high powered, bi-amped speakers. Apparently Monoprice did not intend these as computer speakers but they are excellent.

CONS: Requires some creativity with cabling.

I used these sparsely for over a year and a half and enjoyed them greatly.
Besides the bright blue LED, I liked the simple low-key look and feel of the monitor speakers.
I'm sure people with better hearing than me have extolled the audio quality enough so I'll skip that.

Recently, one of two speakers suddenly would not power on and my reason for the low review score it's short lifespan.

However, I bought these expecting some measure of longevity and was disappointed for one speaker to fail after only light/moderate use (perhaps a dozen hours a week tops) from July 2013 to Feb 2015.

I understand that Monoprice has listed only a one-year warranty for this and that their product support in warranty is fantastic. However, I'm out of luck as I'm past that.

I want to warn potential buyers to consider the cost of time for products like this that may need replacement when making their purchasing decisions.

PROS: Build quality feels solid
Sounds great



CONS: Bright Blue LED for power on status
A bit lacking in low response

They came in yesterday. My first impressions were that they feel very legitimately made. The weight and feel are similar to other monitors I've used in other places, like Wharfdales.

I set them up in my house, and did a test run, and they are truly flat. What does this mean? There are no frequencies boosted in the speakers themselves. They reproduce however the tracks were mixed. I've heard other monitors that cost more (KRK Rokits) that are supposedly flat, but clearly have low end being cut. I'll run a pink noise test to truly confirm.

The price simply can't be beat. If you go on any other musicians gear website, the cheapest monitor you can find with close to the same specs are: 1) M-Audio BX5 $299 - it doesn't have the HPF knob, and most reviews say they sound terrible.. 2) KRK Rokit 5 $149.50 each! - Remember I mentioned, that these really aren't flat. There are some low freqs that have been cut.

These Monoprice monitors are $165.78 for a pair are seriously have more features and better audio quality than many of ones out there that are twice the price!

Big thumbs up to Monoprice and I would highly recommend these to anyone looking for a some 5inch studio monitors!

PROS: 1) Price!
2) Sound Quality
3) Build and Features

CONS: None!

I AM NOT AN AUDIOPHILE however I am a former percussionist, a former sound technician, a home theater enthusiast, and a lover of truly _great_ music from every genre. Over the years I've been fortunate to have been exposed to a lot of excellent gear and live musicians in a variety of professional, semi-professional and home contexts. In the past couple of years I've bought two "highly rated" consumer-grade computer speakers, paying $100 and $150 (I won't mention brands, but you've heard of them). Both sets were okay, but honestly in both cases I felt let down with the very first track I ran through them. Adequate volume, but just no punch or presence. Finally I decided to take a risk and spend a few more bucks for these Monoprice monitors (approx $200 with the two 15' XLR-to-RCA cables). As soon as I played a track, I knew I'd found what I'd been looking for! In fact right now I am listening to some U2, with the monitor volume at 50%, and source volume at 50%, and they are beautifully filling my 16' x 12' office. I don't mean they are merely loud (though I'm just waiting for my wife to ask me to turn it down!) ... what I mean is that I can finally hear the separation of every instrument, harmony breath, string and brush stroke. I can't stop listening! Amazing. Finally.

PROS: Powerful with incredible sound separation

CONS: Separate power switches on rear can be awkward to access

(but a dedicated power bar solves this easily)

I feel like I've taken a step into the audiophile world. I have used decent headphones, like the Grado SR-80's, and I thought they sounded fine. I plopped these on my desktop to try them out, and, wow. I just spent hours listening to music. It didn't even sound like the audio was coming from the speakers. It was just there. I have a hard time going back to my headphones now.



After that, I promptly ordered more and set up a surround sound system with them. Since the speakers are powered, I can run them directly from my computer with no receiver, so that saves some money.



Here's what I used to hook these up to my computer: 5611 (3.5mm stereo to RCA adapter) and 4777 (6ft RCA to XLR cable).



Setting up the surround system, I originally tried using long RCA cables, then a short RCA to XLR, but I got a lot of buzzing and noise, so I sent those back and got XLR cables instead.



PROS: Very clean and clear sound.

Good volume.

Comparable to $300+ speakers.

CONS: Some very slight noise if you put your ear close to the speaker. Not noticeable if you have the speaker more than a couple feet away.

For long cable runs (more than 5-10 ft), you will need to get decent XLR cables, which are a bit more expensive than RCA cables or regular speaker wire. If you don't, you'll probably pick up a lot of noise.

Great Speakers, Sound and quality can go up against the name branded speakers.

PROS: These monitor speakers are great and for the price. When I was looking for some monitor speakers for home recording setup I was originally looking at the M-Audio BX5 D2 for $299 and located these speakers with the same exact specs and etc.. So I took a chance purchasing these for $167.44 (pair) and got them home set them up and was Very! satisfied with the sound and quality of the speakers. Even suggestion to my friends if they are looking for these type of speakers to purchased them from Monoprice.com.

CONS: I have used the speakers now for a few weeks and have not found an issues.

I'm really amazed by these monitor speakers. They were on sale (30 dollars off) and I just couldn't pass them up as I've been eyeing them for months. I've hooked them up to my computer despite the fact that they are meant for studio work. The sound is great though and they are quite powerful for the size. The bass extension decent but I think they made a good compromise in rolling them off a bit high so they can play louder before any distortion occurs. Let's face it, you can't get huge bass out of 5 inch speakers in a cabinet that size so you should get a subwoofer if you want good bass. With that being said they still have some good kick to them and even without a sub would be perfectly fine for most people (I'm a bit of a basshead).



I just put these in my living room and played some tracks against my swans 4.1 floorstanding speakers and they definitely held there own against them (with the swans probably 5x the size of these) I'd say these were more detailed and accurate while the swans were a bit more laid back and could get a bit better extension. Those are $700 retail speakers though powered by a 120 watt pc amp which really isn't fair. I'm more than happy with house these sound and I can't wait to find a good subwoofer to match them to which will. I don't really have anything else to compare them to and these are my first set of pro monitor speakers but I can't imagine they really get much better than this in the under 200 dollar range (maybe if you spend 500+).

PROS: *Accurate music reproduction

*Great midrange,

* detailed

* smooth

*powerful.

CONS: My wife doesn't like them on my desk (says it looks like a dorm room)

They don't have grills



Who cares though, they sound great

As others have noted, these speakers sound incredible! I thought they were outstanding running off my old ipod, then I ran them on my theater receiver (entry level Marantz) via the pre-amp outs and I was blown away at the sound quality! These would make the ultimate surround sound setup for gaming/etc where your mobo/sound card has 5.1 channel 3.5mm jack outputs and you don't want to buy a receiver/amp to drive the speakers (note you need 3 prong/PSU power at each speaker location, ext cord or some longer Monoprice PSU cables and an under desk surge strip so you have a central power on/off switch). Two things are keeping me from replacing my theater speakers with these, my receiver doesn't have pre-amp outs for center/surround so I'd have to buy a new one and they don't have grills so I'm afraid the kids will poke them.

As far as connecting them I didn't quite know what I was getting into at first so I went with something I knew would work, a Hosa stereo breakout from Amazon and it arrived with a loose wire (still haven't heard back on the supposed lifetime warranty replacement). With speakers in hand, back to Monoprice to figure out a better solution! If you want to use RCA inputs into the speakers get: 7176 (two of them). If you want to use 3.5mm jack inputs: 7167 but you need a stereo breakout that I can't find on Monoprice NOT a splitter (you would end up with two left channels with 667). I went the RCA route so in addition to the two 7176, I also got a 5611 with a couple 6303. With this type of combo you can get what ever length RCA cables you need. You could instead go with a 5599 and split the two cables apart as needed. I really wanted the fancy 9300 but it won't work with these speakers because you can't split the cables at the RCA end. You could also do like one of the other reviews mentioned with the 5611/4776 combo but you don't really need the XLR connectors since you aren't using a balanced signal at that point anyway.


I hope this helps others so you won't have to worry about the connectivity. I've tried these with everything I can plug them into and they make anything sound awesome! The better the source input the more you will be wowed! Get these! You won't be disappointed! Monoprice rocks!

PROS: Outstanding sound!

CONS: Now that I have the connectivity figured out, no cons.