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| | Product Details | | Product Length: | 25.25 inches | | Product Width: | 16.5 inches | | Product Height: | 19.5 inches | | Product Weight: | 54.3 pounds | | Package Length: | 25.6 inches | | Package Width: | 20.0 inches | | Package Height: | 16.7 inches | | Package Weight: | 55.8 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 28 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 28 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
83 of 84 found the following review helpful:
 Great product - but high failure rate Feb 15, 2009
By J. Pankow
I picked up a pair of BX8a Deluxe speakers on Amazon for a great price. I did some reading online and read about speakers randomly dying after purchase, but the price was just too good and I decided to roll the dice.
Well, 2 months in, my right speaker went bad and never would work properly again. When I would turn it on, the woofer would pop, go full throw, and emit a 60Hz hum. Very bad stuff. I looked at my return / repair options and found I had to return them to M-Audio to get it repaired.
I looked at the M-Audio forums and read quite a bit more about M-Audio speakers failing, and decided I'd take my chances and crack open the speaker to see if I could figure out what was wrong instead of suffering through a potentially long and painful RMA cycle.
3 hours later I had discovered the problem: a short circuit on the main amplifier board, underneath the tweeter's power amplifier chip. The amp is a TDA2052 made by STMicroelectronics. You can look at the datasheet here: http://www.st.com/stonline/products/literature/ds/1585.pdf
The short was between pins 4 and 6 of this chip, so it was connecting the negative power supply voltage to the audio input pin on both the tweeter and woofer amplifier - very bad! This explains why I could hear 60Hz power line noise on the speaker every time I turned it on.
I was about to start probing each pin on the TDA2052 to see if I could figure out what wire on the circuit board had a problem when I discovered the short between pins 4 and 6. I carefully removed the solder flux and other debris between the two solder pads and plugged the circuit board in, and the problem was gone. You can see a picture of my circuit board and the location of the short here: http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/3357/img0054un5.jpg
As to why the short-circuit suddenly occurred 2 months after purchase - I can only speculate. One possibility is the dreaded "tin whiskers" problem that has been plaguing electronics manufacturers for years. You can read about it here: http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/
Since lot's of people are reporting random failures of these speakers, this is a possibility. There are a couple ways to remedy this, but they all involve tweaking the manufacturing process of the circuit board, and this might not be an option because it would impact the cost and profit margin on these speakers. The other possibility is that the assembly quality control is not good enough on these circuit boards and they are not adequately stress tested / verified before being put into the finished product. Again there is a cost issue and I'm just speculating.
Overall I must say the speakers are an excellent value for the price. The speaker box construction is solid, the speakers are decent, and the electrical design is good enough - simple and effective. I am impressed with this product, and it is unfortunate such a great product is subject to such a high failure rate from what looks like a manufacturing/quality issue and not a design problem. I just hope M-Audio can remedy the issues long term as I'd like to see them continue to develop quality products.
20 of 20 found the following review helpful:
Good sound on a budget Sep 07, 2008
By Kevin McMurtrie
I looked at many options for covering a 40Hz to 20KHz range in a home studio. That's the frequency response of the PA equipment I'm producing MIDIs for. All things considered, the Studiophile BX8a met those needs at the best price. There's no subwoofer to buy. This one box is it.
The frequency response is very smooth but not reaching as low as I'd like. Bass clarity is moderately good, perhaps hampered by the ports facing my wall. The rest of the frequency response has excellent clarity. I can now hear mixing and EQ problems that I was missing before. It helps get the production right the first time.
I have only a few gripes. The power and gain controls are in back where they're difficult to reach on such a deep speaker. There's no protective cover for these very fragile, close-range speakers. Both speakers have some background buzz regardless of gain and input.
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
 Great Sound - While They Worked Feb 27, 2009
By Michael D. Blair
These sounded great for the first day but then one of the speakers developed a crackling sound - sounded like it was coming from the high frequency speaker - I e-mailed M-audio to get their support and to this day (e-mail sent 3 weeks ago) have not heard from them. Ended up sending them back to Amazon for refund. Amazon was fantastic in their support - credit came quickly.
11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Good value for the $$ - but high failure rate Mar 24, 2009
By Bernard Reagan
I ordered the 8a after living with the M-Audio AV40 monitors and loving the sound, but wanting 'upsize' it with a bit more bass. These speakers deliver the bass in spades, but minus the directionless and china-rattling vibration that accompanies sub-woofers. I've only had them a few days, but even not fully broken in they sound great. I'm hesitant to award 5 stars only because others have reported reliability issues, so I'll report back in a few weeks and amend this review appropriately.
After waiting a few days for break-in, I started trying to identify the reason the sound seemed off-center, even with careful setup measurements. Turned out no upper frequencies were coming from one speaker. Could have been the HF amp, crossover, or a blown tweet. I hated having to return, but Amazon gets a gold star for making it easy to get a quick refund. Very rare these days
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 IMPORTANT INFO VOLUME CONTROL - Be careful!! M-AUDIO BX8a Feb 02, 2012
By MP-Studios NJ
BX8 DELUXE
I'm surprised to see several people complaining of blowing these speakers and one of the main problems is that it's very easy to brush-off the volume knob in the rear which should be exactly in the center NO HIGHER, to give you 0.00db and control your output right from your PC/MAC audio console or the DAW/recording software being used by you.
These monitors are not meant to be used for its loud performance or for partying, although if used properly they can pump all night for fun... I have done it, and I've had two pairs with no issues. As with any monitors, they are used for the re-production of accurate sound; like listening to vocal pitch correction errors and artifacts that would otherwise be missed or not be heard with regular desktop speakers or headphones. Utilized greatly for the mixing of choral harmonies and adlibs in reference to each other's dynamics (volume in the mix) while putting these in reference to music mix volume. Also for accurate vocals or instrument panning/surround placement in the mix, as well as capturing when certain lows or highs are too rich or too weak in a mix.
If you increase the volume more than the CENTER POINT, which is where they should be, THEY WILL BLOW, guaranteed.
I have had the original M-AUDIO's Bx8a from 2005 and passed them on... Now I own the new model which is the one I'm posting the review for; the front on these looks slightly different (all black) where the original Bx8a where almost identical but with a gray accent in the front. Now they are "Bx8a Deluxe" THE KNOB IS IN THE SAME PLACE, and they SOUND THE SAME AS THE ONES I HAD.. SAME SOUND DRIVER - PHENOMENAL for the price. I do own several high end monitors like Mackie, JBL's and an old pair of Yamaha's from early 2000's which work incredibly well when I compare my mix between them, helping me single out certain differences which get me to perfection. The M-AUDIO's are rock solid!
!!!Keep their rear knob in the center, or 3 quarters to the end at the very MAX, and that's only in some occasions, it being the exception and not the rule; and of course that would be depending on your project and the amount of bass it exerts and at what frequency decibels/Hertz... If its a very deep base the M-AUDIO's will handle them perfectly, but the knob must remain in the center... With the volume centered they will still perform very loudly and accurately,I promise they won't blow. - DON'T BLOW THEM, GOOD LUCK
FYI: the volume in the center is the key, that's where you will get maximum performance and quality, although you'd think you're getting 50% capacity with them in the center, when you MAX OUT your PC volume, you will get them to almost 100% power capacity, because the CENTER is 0.00, and anything pass that is GAIN..! is that clear??? increasing the volume in the rear is what blows the Kevlar lining, thus ruining the circuitry located behind it.
This would be in my opinion the most helpful review, and I'm sure some of us experts knew these answers, but no one bothered to take the time and post this to help the novices building these home studios.
See all 28 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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