Avantone Pro MixCube Active Powered Studio Monitor | Single, Creme

I'm now purchasing a second MixCube to use as my new stereo mains, replacing my much bigger M-Audio M3-8 3 way speakers, after thoroughly enjoying using it as a dedicated mono speaker for six months. What led me to this decision is as follows: As a producer/mixer just starting out the past two years, I've come to realize that the pro audio world is extremely expensive and full of companies trying to sell me snake oil hardware and plugins that I don't need to be successful. I (with some skepticism and doubt, which my suspicions turned out to become reality) originally bought some M-Audio M3-8's two years ago, which seem awesome on paper (they're a 3 way speaker!) at a decent price and sound great (if overhyped a bit) one was a lemon (had significant buzzing) on arrival, then its replacement began suffering intermittent static randomly then now has a persistent high pitch sequel. Funny thing is, M-Audio warranty is only a year, that's right, ONE YEAR, which I think is absurd for something marketed as professional audio. So I'm going to have to figure out what's wrong with the m-audio and fix it myself, they're being nice enough to sell me whatever needed part I need once I figure that out though, but haven't yet provided me an electrical diagram to remotely help me for troubleshooting. Anyways, given the failures of the M-Audios and realizing that they were hyping up my mix a bit too much mentally, and how the MixCube ultimately made my mix translate better, I decided to just replace the working M3-8 and put another MixCube in to use them as my stereo mains (Maybe I'll use the M3-8 as my new mono check speaker or as a buzzy boombox for my tv). I realize that these aren't nearly as 'fun' to listen to, but with how much they translate better to the real world for what consumers listen to, they can't be beat. What really sold me on it was the 5 year warranty and their ethics in approach to making, pricing, and selling their products (they rely on word of mouth instead of blowing a bunch of money on marketing). It's extremely refreshing to come across a company that seems a lot more genuine than the BS companies out there pandering to recording studios with unlimited budgets or to novice producers (like me) that are more easily persuaded by flashy specs of cheap hardware when just starting out but won't stand by their products. Again, M-Audio only has a (very upsetting to find out the hard way) 1 year warranty. What further gives me confidence is the oversized industrial type power supply that looks like it could survive anything, it's the biggest I've seen of any consumer electronics, and I've been working in IT for 16 years. The MixCube is also small enough to easily place anywhere (especially with the built in mic thread, which works awesome), and the lack of bass response makes acoustic decoupling less important than a more bassy speaker. Having only one speaker and one amp means less to go wrong It's about as smooth and flat as you can get for the midrange and is very revealing, Not going to hear bass or high end on this thing, and it's definitely not as 'fun' to listen to, but to me mixes translating better is more important. Looking forward to my new workflow with these in stereo. Also found a picture today with Skrillex using one of these and figured if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me.

Well I've had this thing for one day now and I am in love with it! I mostly produce at night due to my work schedule. My wife and son are sleeping when I come home so I can't really crank the monitors which leaves me producing with headphones. Although I can do a pretty decent job with headphones I always have to tweak it using the monitors the next day. Following that is the ultimate test which of course is the car. I often find myself going back and forth between the car and my studio making slight adjustments here and there. It can get pretty old. I pretty much hate all of my songs by the time I'm done with them because I have to do so many revisions. I tried the Presonus VRM Box first which really did NOTHING for my mixes and it made my master soundcard very upset after about 40 min of usage. Finally got one of these bad boys after using them for a bit at my friends studio. I just re-did the mix down on an older tune of mine (that I actually like) utilizing only my Sennheiser Headphones and ONE Mixcube. The mix sounds 1000 x's better!!! This thing will not tell you squat about sub bass, it just doesn't pick it up which is to be expected. The idea is that this mimics most of your lower quality speakers such as computer speakers, cheap car audio, or maybe even a phone...a good phone. This will not help with your super high end either, it doesn't have that air or crispness that your actual monitors have. However, when it comes to everything inbetween...ITS AMAZING!!! In my headphones I thought that my hats, rides, shakers, percussion, etc sounded pretty balanced but when I switched over to the Avantone it was a totally different response. I balanced all of that on the Avantone and then switched back...SHABANG! Sound perfect now!!!! Same thing for the vocals, pads, and mid bass. Mid bass for me is between about 100 hz and 500 hz. I could really hear the click and punch of the kick and snare too or lack there of and made adjustments while using the Avantone. Again; AMAZING results!!! One final great attribute i will mention about the Mixcube is that I can turn it up a fair amount at night and still not wake anyone up! The lower frequencies are generally what everyone upstairs can hear and this thing does not produce any of those frequencies so I'm good to go! :D As of now I am working with only one Mixcube. I'm not so sure that you need two. I suppose if you want a real stereo image than two would be necessary but...I don't think you need it. I would just use your actual monitors for stereo work and then switch over to this for mono and balance checking. If you are having any of the issues that I mentioned in the beginning...BUY THIS NOW AND LEARN TO LIKE YOUR SONGS AGAIN!!! -T- AKA: LOGAM Drum & Bass Producer

I was sold on the idea of the MixCube by the fact that its predecessor was used as a referenced while mixing Thriller. I am not a Michael Jackson fan but it's difficult to deny the impact of his music. More to the point, this speaker is supposed to replicate "lower quality" speakers on which most music is heard: televisions, computer monitors, cheap headphones, without crossovers and aggressively shelved highs and lows. The concept is brilliant: if the mix sounds good here, it will probably sound good anywhere. I purchased only one, so it doubles as my mono mix reference. Unfortunately after hooking it up, the speaker had no power even the though power supply (transformer) was hot (dissipating heat). My day job is a military radar technician, so I pulled out a multimeter and noted that the power supply was not outputting AC voltage. Opening the power supply, I noted no visual anomalies but rotated the output cable 180 degrees, which restored the output voltage. I *am* now a little concerned about the electrical safety of the power supply, which I will investigate in detail later. I am stationed overseas, so the turnaround time for a replacement power supply isn't practical for me. Once I got it running, it sounded quite a bit worse than I expected, which was awesome! NO bass, very boxy low mids, pretty decent presence in the upper mids, and what sounded like absolutely no information above 10kHz. I haven't officially run a mix on this yet, but I can already tell that this is a handy B speaker to your A speaker(s). I sincerely hope that I'm the only person who has had the power supply problem, as it seems like a legitimate safety concern to me; otherwise this box is 5 stars for what it does.