Edirol MA-15D

I'm drooling over these. I love having a ton of input connections, and I love that these have both optical and coaxial inputs. Most standard sound cards have digital out, so you can guarantee that your sound is as clean as possible by doing the D/A conversion in the speaker instead of the electrically-noisy environment inside your computer.

If you're doing any audio recording or video editing on your PC, I would suggest you consider these speakers. Not too expensive, and the multitude of connectivity options including a headphone output will keep you happy.

I bought these to use in a small conference room to play audio from a laptop and/or mp3 player. They sound great and do a great job filling the room with sound. The input options are plentiful!

To avoid any confusion on the part of your readers, I think it's worth pointing out that these are truly NOT "reference speakers". Even the Edirol website calls them "High Performance Desktop Monitors".

The Edirols may be competent speakers for gaming, or other light audio or video editing, but it's definitely inaccurate to call them "reference monitors" in the same product category as the Genelec 1031, for instance, on which a great number of studio albums of the last 10 years have been mixed, and which you'll readily see in most every professional recording studio today.

By the way, the Yamaha MSP5's are a great value in this category and their sound is quite acceptable.

I finally made a decision about my new computer/monitor speakers and I got these. It basically came down to price, quality and the number of input options available. It was either these or the M-Audio Studiophile AV40s. So far I am very pleased.

I have them hooked up to SPDIF digital optical out. At first I was having problems with the signal, then I realized that these speakers are finnicky about 5.1 digital signal vs. stereo digital. I changed the output to stereo and the sound came through crystal clear.

The bass enhancer toggle is useful for everyday listening and there are actually two levels of bass. I prefer the medium setting.

The front 1/4" headphone jack is convenient and the sound on my Sennheiser HD 280s is amazing. No signal noise whatsoever, just pure sound.

Recommend.

Here is how I have my EQ setup in Winamp to get the best sound out of these speakers:

http://s229.photobucket.com/albums/ee189/ekalvi/?action=view¤t=eq.jpg

I listen mostly to Indie rock (think Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse). With the EQ off, the speakers sound very flat, and tinny.

Hey Erik, that is quite a bit of boost on that EQ ;-)

I have a pair of Yamaha NS-10s and Genelec 8050s, which I would recommend you consider for your next set of monitors, especially if you find yours to be flat and tinny without EQ. (they should sound GREAT without any EQ at all)

Incidentally, since the NS-10s and Genelecs are used in so many recording/mix studios these days, listening to music on them is like "recalibrating" your ears: you're probably hearing the song EXACTLY as the studio engineer heard it on the day they mixed it.

BTW are you using the digital or analog inputs?

I got these today and am so far very pleased. They are a definite upgrade from consumer speakers, which color and bias too many frequencies. Having options to tune and adjust frequencies and bass response is a great convenience for a mixdown - if you're doing things the right way, you try a lot of settings and get the mix to work at all of them.

The bass won't get super heavy for parties, but if one really needs that, subwoofer output is included.

I also don't doubt that more accurate/detailed options exist: But detail isn't really helpful for production purposes if your final master is going to cheap stereos, PA systems and headphones.