Recording - September 2014 - 50

R E V I E W S B Y M I K E M E T L AY

M-Audio BX5 Carbon and M3-8 Powered Monitors
Two very different approaches to studio speaker design
The waveguide and fascia surrounding the 1" silk dome tweeter
and 5" woven Kevlar woofer have been tweaked for a wider sweet
spot, and are colored a handsome contrasting silver-grey. One interesting note about the front panel: the blue power-on LED has been
recessed behind a pinhole between the tweeter and woofer, so it
shines most brightly in a narrow beam directly in front of the speaker. This is a handy visual indicator for the novice who's never set up
monitors before: if the LED is at its brightest when you look at the BX5
Carbon from your listening position, then it's optimally aligned.
The rear panel sports XLR and 1/4" TRS balanced inputs, an
Acoustic Space switch to compensate for tight placement near walls
or in corners (0/-2/-4 dB cut, no corner frequency or slope specified), a Volume knob, IEC power jack and power switch, and a large
rear-facing port. The monitor is quoted as having a 56 Hz-22 kHz
frequency response, again with no tolerances specified, and sports
40W of power for the woofer and 30W for the tweeter with a 2.8
kHz crossover frequency. The speakers weigh about 11 pounds
each, thanks to reasonably dense and rigid MDF cabinets.

It's been a while since we've featured
M-Audio monitors in our pages, and
2014 has seen some intriguing new
designs introduced. We auditioned the
BX5 Carbon, smallest of the three new
BX Carbon speakers (the BX6 Carbon
and BX8 Carbon sport larger woofers
and increased power, as you might
expect). In addition, we received a pair
of M3-8 monitors; this is a 3-way studio
monitor with an unusual speaker layout
and a fair bit of user tweakability.
The BX5 Carbon-on paper
The BX5 Carbon is a small biamplified
2-way monitor intended for desktop use in
smaller rooms. It sits nicely in the near field
and is designed to provide a wide and forgiving sweet spot for musicians whose listening spaces are less than ideal.
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RECORDING September 2014

The BX5 Carbon-in the studio
I set up the BX5 Carbon speakers in my usual "unforgiving" setup,
with tight positioning against a back wall. They did receive the benefit of IsoAcoustics ISO-L8R200 isolation stands; I didn't use the selfadhesive foam bases included in the box.
I wasn't a big fan of M-Audio's old Studiophile BX monitors; they had
a very "smiley" EQ curve and it was hard to trust their mids. It was a relief
to hear that the response of the BX5 Carbon is much smoother and more
believable above the lows. There was fairly little inconsistency at or
around the crossover frequency, and mixes were presented with a good
balance between the mids, which were present without being tubby, and
the highs, which were clear and present without being brittle.
The lows were present and clear but lacking in oomph, as one
would expect from a speaker with a woofer of this size; they rolled
off politely and the overall impression was simply
that what you could hear was accurate. Although I
didn't get to test them in a satellite/subwoofer configuration, I get the feeling that these would be
dandy speakers to pair with a sub.
The overall impression was of a speaker that works
hard to give an entry-level user a believable and
usable stereo image of his or her work in progress, as
long as placement is reasonably close and one
remembers to check mixes on larger speakers for
bass balance. You could do a lot worse than the BX5
Carbon when choosing a small monitor for a small
room, even spending a fair bit more money.
The M3-8-on paper
The M3-8 features what M-Audio calls a Twin-Line
design. Two of the three drivers are coaxial: the 1" silk
dome tweeter is embedded in a plastic waveguide that
is itself embedded in the center of the 5" woven Kevlar
midrange driver, with the 8" woven Kevlar woofer

Recording - September 2014

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