I was shipped a mismatched set of speakers. In the box was one MM-5R and one MM-5. It took Monoprice 5 days to respond to any of my contact attempts. By the time Monoprice reached out to me, this item was no longer in stock and replacement speakers would not be available for about 3 months. The rep seemed uninterested in setting up my account to make sure I could re-buy them at the sale price, so I opted to just return the units at that point. The slow response time, lack of back stock to resolve customer issues, and lazy support reps has really disappointed me as a long time Monoprice customer.

In the 5 days of ownership, I did enjoy the use of my new Frankenstein speaker setup. The only noticeable cheap aspect of this set was the provided speaker wire. It looked and felt so cheap that I decided to use my own 12 gauge wire with Monoprice banana plugs. I like that both speakers use 5 way binding posts and not some proprietary connection.

I primarily used the optical connection, but the USB, RCA, and Bluetooth all worked flawlessly. The selector light on the front is perfect, on but not blindly bright. The highs were cleaner and more detailed on the MM-5R versus the MM-5. The bass was surprisingly good for this set, especially considering their size and price.

The MM-5R has one crippling flaw that makes them unusable as a desktop speaker. We all know that powered speakers have a hiss, but these are obnoxiously loud. They hiss, hissss, HIIIISSS, HIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! At over 3 feet away, I can hear them howling. Ran on a separate circuit with a Tripp-Lite line conditioner, the MM-5R still spewed forth a vile hate of silence. Notice I said the MM-5R, the silk dome MM-5 was much quieter. I had to literally place my ear next to the MM-5 speaker to hear the hiss. I am not sure if this is because this speaker was the amp less unit or if it was due to the silk dome, but if I was to purchase again I would gamble on the dome tweeter and not the ribbon. Even if both speakers had arrived matched, I would have returned these speakers due to the hiss issue.

As others have stated these speaker were an upgrade from a previous pair. The MM-5Rs have a much wider soundstage with very natural sounding male and female voices that are always centered stage. Their imaging is great too. The right to left is easily distinguishable although they’re not quite as potent forward to back -- a place the MM-5R come up a bit short. That means you don’t get that all enveloping 3D experience, although to be fair, that’s not something I would expect in this price range.
But don't let that limitation dissuade you. These are fantastic sounding speakers, which still offer superb clarity and realism, not to mention a very impressive bass response down to 42 Hz claim. If I had to describe the sound overall I’d call it bright. I found the low frequencies very clean and punchy depending on how close they are placed to the back wall. It’s not the kind of punchy base that pressurized the room nor are you likely to feel it in your chest, but it is a full and convincing sound, and more than adequate for all but the most demanding audiophile. As for the high, the AMT tweeters can produce some very impressive highs. The best thing about these speakers is that they handle music, effects, and dialogue equally well.
The enclosures is composed of a type of resin that is extremely rigid and does not add any coloration to the sound. The enclosure is a thing of beauty. They have a modern design, but still neutral enough to easily blend into any decor. Whatever support you choose, the MM-5R shine, and strongly resist any desire to be place in enclosure. The box is rectangular in shape with rounded edges. The only thing unusual about them is the square AMT tweeter. Unlike a similar brands there is no magnetic grill. However, the speakers are so attractive with their drivers bare, they don't really need a grill as long as there's no small children in the home.
The speakers come with a pair of wooden isolation stands out of the box so they can be mounted immediately on a desk. In addition, you get pads, speaker wire, and a pair of RCA stereo cables, a 3.5 mm pair and a basic bass/treble and volume remote control. When placed on the included stands, they rest at an angle with the tweeter pointed upward for better dispersion. Their setup is toolless and quick. It took me just a few minutes to get them up and running. Although I do recommend upgrading all the cables with more robust variants for maximum sound quality. I used Monoprice’s own 14 gauge speaker wire to plug into the banana plug binding posts. The MM-5R have a total of 5 inputs (Aux, RCA,BT,OPT, and USB), so you're covered for just about all your devices except a turntable, which would require you to provide a preamp should that be your connection of choice. Unfortunately, I did not test the BT capability since I don’t presently operate any BT devices. From what I understand, it is capable of CD (16/41) quality transmission.
These speakers are a joy to listen to -- which I can do for hours without fatigue -- and the sound gets better the longer you listen to them (especially when you feed them a high fidelity signal), and as they get broken in. I stream via Quboz, and every song sounds fantastic. I can’t seem to get enough of Eugeny Mravinsky, Tchaikovsky Symphonies No. 4, 5, & 6 which steams @ 24/96. I put them through the test with everything I could think of including Michael Jackson, Motley Crew, Marvin Gaye and The Weeknd. Instead of reaching their limits, they just kept sounding better. A prominent indicator of quality. As for those interested in connecting these speaker to their TV, it does come with a subwoofer port for those low frequency effects. I added the Monolith M10-S 10” THX subwoofer (SW) to the pair, and the already great sound speakers became even sweeter. In addition, the SW seems to have freed up some much needed power now shunted solely to the mid-bass. The timpani and kick drums seem to come through more prominently.
Considering their size and cost, these speaker are an absolute bargain. Still, they’re not without cons. For one, I have heard an infrequent but annoying static through the speakers whenever the USB connect is connected. This wasn’t a major issue for me, since my computer also has a 3.5 mm port out, but may be of concern to anyone who relies solely on their computer as the main input source. I can’t say that this issue effects all the units, but it does effect mine.
The other related issue I have was whenever the satellite goes in to standby mode, it transmits a pop noise to the SW which can be pretty startling. I can only hope that this switching sound doesn’t cause any damage to the SW down the line.
In any event, despite these two minor annoyances aside, the MM-5R are easily the best sounding speaker in this price range I’ve ever heard, especially when paired with a SW. Even besting bigger speakers costing twice as much. They are a great value, and highly recommended.

I purchased these bookshelf speakers to use as speakers for my PC. and are replacing a cheap soundbar that I've been using for quite a long time.

These are the first powered bookshelf speakers that I've purchased so I don't have a point of comparison to some of the other powered bookshelf speakers (like Kanto, Edifier, Audioengine, or Fluance) and I don't have the resources to be able to compare.

Admittedly, I was about to pull the trigger on Kanto YU6 but Amazon went out of stock with these speakers. So I searched around the internet to find other speakers and ran into the Monolith series.

From the standpoint of these speakers alone, I love them. The sound coming from these speakers is much richer than the soundbar that they previously replaced.

Games just feel more exciting because of the improved sound quality from the sound effects to in-game music. The speakers make me feel like I am part of the action in a game, especially first person shooters.

When using the speaker to listen to music, I hear other instruments that are so subtle, they don't even register on other types of speakers. My audio experience has greatly improved as a result.

With regards to bluetooth, I don't have any issues with noise. But keep in mind that bluetooth is a wireless signal (obviously) and wireless signals are easily susceptible to signal interference (background electrical or other wireless signals crossing the area like from cell phones, cell towers, or even other wireless equipment).

I think the only way you can grade the fidelity of the bluetooth signal is if you somehow isolate yourself, the speakers, and the bluetooth source in a faraday cage. I guess more power to you if you have a faraday cage built in your home.

These powered speakers are wonderful for the price. I would say they are almost equivalent to the Kanto TUK speakers but at half the price and without the aluminum driver on the woofer. But again, since I don't have those speakers, I can't compare.

I recommend these speakers but I will post an update in a few months.

I want to like this speaker so much, but after trying 2 different pairs, the bluetooth whineing noise that is always there while devices are connected, is a huge design flaw.

I recommended the DT-5BT to a friend who checked and could not hear any noise, so perhaps the aptX chip or how the 5R's cables are routed internally are creating the interference.

Monoprice has a huge sonic winner here, by including a ribbon tweeter. My main speakers are the cost of a nice car, so coming from me its high praise indeed for a $400 self powered speaker to sound good.

If Bluetooth isn't required, then don't hesitate to purchase. I also found that putting a small weight (5lbs) on top of each speaker clarified the bass notes. I also suspect using better speaker cable than what is included might help sonics as well. Plugging them into a good power conditioner and using a better power cable could take these good sounding speakers to the next level.

I'm using mine as drum monitors for Roland v-Drums and they handle the bass transients quite well, and the highs are airey and well resolved thanks to the AMT style ribbon tweeter.

Monoprice is doing some amazing things for excellent prices, but this bluetooth noise issue needs to be ironed out before it can earn a 5 star rating.