My review of M-Audio M3-8 studio speakers

pyrrhon

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Just to let you know, Im not going to hype anything and just give you the whole experience with the bad too. So I am ever unsatisfied with anything audio thats modern or recent. The long story made short is that I love music and love the groove and rythm. That problem I found with hifi is too much treble and cranking the bass more I almost always found the bassdrum kick overwhelming or uneven basslines like a note very loud and some holes at some other notes barely audible. Thats a long story of understanding bass port and hating it. I realized I needed something like a studio speaker with an 8' woofer that move air, got spl.

The perfection by design. The speaker i am going to talk to you is a killler by design! You must believe me, it is! Ok think about it, a 3 way tri amplified with a coaxial mid and treble unit. Inputs rca, mic, xlr. Equalizer for bass, treble and mids and some sonic fiters ! !!!

It grooves like nothing else! My reference system is spendor S6e, arcam dac, nad 165bee and 275bee. Anything that would sound smooth and warm but... It really cant cope with the M3-8 detailed softness. These are real smooth speakers. The treble never screams it gently sings. The worst song I could think about is savages city's full and that song really stands out on the M3-8 If a speaker can avoid screaming this one is the thing. I got them to play every 90's distorted albums and they all sounded much better then I dare say all your 5000$ systems. The bassline is precise, quick and doesnt wake room modes. Spendors are killed, paradigms studio are killed, boston a26, cerwin, vintage technics, all my other speakers are put to SHAME. So yes its awesome, yes its cheap. Yes they kill anything at any price. Its a sweet treble here, sweeter then anything. The bass is a lion on steroid and it move air, its in your chest, in your bones.

Now the bad: They make noise ! Can you get past the noise? Well if I hit stop on the player there is the ISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Thats BAD. If it werent for that noise these speakers would have been the best peakers ever. But It needs to be considered carefully and some may never get past it. I wanted to take them back but just stick with them. There is a volume control on the speaker and at 4 clicks it can make your house lift off the ground and at 3 or 4 clicks the noise is not audible if you stands 3 feet rom the speaker. So remember one thing about these, the issssssssssssss. If you stand 4+ feet aways and put the volume at the forth click, not the defauls, you'll have the best sound. If you use nearfield... pass away, get some Adams. The iss will break your heart. A love and hate story. But frannkly Im just ever so happy I kept em cause everytime the music plays its all so good its just Im a freak and that bothered me much at first.

I have put these on top of my spendors and could not beleive how mush they rendered any rock, prog, electro way better. Switching was really a revelation everytime. From memory they beat harbets 7s on rock or electro well on most style. The only ground they are beaten from my memory is by the totem hawk on acoustics music and thats it.

All this review was writhen with Psychic Darkside album playing on the M3-8 and its been inspiring. This is a revelation speaker, perfect by design and just slightly unperfected by cheaper amplifiers that procuce iss. I cant help but want to tell you they sound great, are cheap and once you really listen over the isss at 3-4 fettes more at realworld level they are incredible. If you want to have old rock sound good again, and think that hifi today dont do music justice, I recommand you to look in that direction: 8' woofer active studio. These M3-8 really make music. They are in another league I would not expect a better sound from anything less then an event opal. All my hifi ventures are destroyed, no amp needed, no wires, just a source and everything sounds great. Have these against any speaker you can tink of if its rock, pop, electro, metal, ambient, they'll just beat the others by a fair margin.
 

pyrrhon

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Just an update:

I have used them for outdoors partys and got a lot of great comments. Some wows ! The front veneer does not have the same color with both speakers and I notice it when placing them close together. The veneer is also fragile along the edges so move em carefully. Otherwise the sound is even better now that they have break in more. The more I spend time with them the more I notice problems with other speakers wich makes me believe they are detailed and accurate. Studio speakers might be my thing. Still recommend after you evaluate the hiss at low volume nearfield !
 

pyrrhon

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pyrrhon said:
Just an update:

I have used them for outdoors partys and got a lot of great comments. Some wows ! The front veneer does not have the same color with both speakers and I notice it when placing them close together. The veneer is also fragile along the edges so move em carefully. Otherwise the sound is even better now that they have break in more. The more I spend time with them the more I notice problems with other speakers wich makes me believe they are detailed and accurate. Studio speakers might be my thing. Still recommend after you evaluate the hiss at low volume nearfield !

Another point, they lack auto power on/off. If thats important for you.
 

peterpan

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Interesting story. And agree with that most speakers have too much treble. Till now i haven't found the speakers for at home. I heard a lot. But all too bright and the treble hurts my ears. And with my music, symphonic metal, i can't find the right one.
 

davedotco

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Regarding the hiss.

Disconnect everything bar the power, turn up loud and check the hiss levels.

You may get some low frequency noise but you can ignore that, report on the hiss levels, that would be helpful.
 

abacus

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M-Audio have cracked it with the M3 range (The previous ranges were just so so) and I have not seen a bad review yet, also everybody has noticed the hiss (Making a Tri-amp 3 way speaker for that price means some compromises have to be made) but all say once the music starts it is not a problem. (Also remember they are Studio not Hi Fi monitors so are designed for accurate (Warts & All) reproduction)

Bill
 

pyrrhon

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davedotco said:
Regarding the hiss.

Disconnect everything bar the power, turn up loud and check the hiss levels.

You may get some low frequency noise but you can ignore that, report on the hiss levels, that would be helpful.

Sorry for the long delay. I found out that my ex computer dac (arcam rpac), despite the player beeing paused and volume muted produced a little hiss too. And suprisingly the hiss seems to be pretty much vanished now. I cant ear it unless its past midnight and the house gets dead quiet.

Something new to mention, I have got a cambridge audio stream magic 6 v2 connected in preamp mode with good balanced cables. It is unbeleivably good. I just tried so many things with my main setup like recently some 600$ bis audio cables but no matter what I'll do Im afraid no 6' woofer speaker can ever sound as good as the m3-8. Time passes and I still recommend it more then ever. Every time I host for dinner I bring these downstair and put em on top of my spendor s6e and just play the m-audio bypassing all my other gear.

Concerning arcam dac its a bit dark and I add a bit of treble on the speaker knob but with the stream magic I just bypass the equalizers its perfectly balanced.
 

Overseer

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You need to think 'Dynamics' not volume. I have the M Audio M3-8's attached to my desk, and they can reach full output with the speaker volume set at just past the halfway mark ... if you're using a pre-amp you've got to get the balance right. These are not hi-fi speakers, they're studio near field monitors designed to tell the truth (musically) Once levels are correct there should be no apparent hiss. Also, use the balanced inputs[/b] ;-)

I work in the media industry creating visuals with great audio, Ads mainly, but in the past I've spent time as an Audio Engineer, and even today I still run two music OMD's for talented independents, so I know 'GOOD' sound, and I consider myself an Audiophile with tuned ears going back to the early 80's.

As an overview, the M-Audio M3-8's are pretty amazing monitors for the money. You would have to spend a lot more on a passive system to get anywhere near the sound quality of these units (if setup correctly) and at least double the cost for an active system to start finding similar quality.

I wonder why What Hi-Fi are avoiding a full review of these monitors ... I miss the old 'audiophile' standards, and I think What Hi-Fi would be rather impressed with these M3-8's ... give them a really good 'balanced' front end and you'll find the jaw starts to drop ;-)
 

lpv

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All you have said in your original ( review) post apply to my Yamaha's HS8... everything ! Great speakers !

Currently looking for a ballanced front end.. I must say I did try Stream Magic 6v2 at store and didn't fall in love but having it now on home demo and it's a different story.. that's a really nice sounding unit.. Matrix Mini-i Pro sits next to it... and It's good.. shame I can't simply try some Schiit products.. they have money back thing in place but all the custom/ tax/ fedex charges from US are too much for just to try...but I like their philosophy and it looks good too, got great user reviews... but their top of the range dac and top of the range pre amp/ headphone amp with all the charges comes at £1200... for that money I can have new Pioneer A-N50a with U-05 with soo much more functionality I'm after.. so will carry on home auditions until I'll find perfect match for studio monitors.
 

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