M-Audio BX8 D3 Monitor Review

[Mikul]

Ok I ordered over the weekend I will report. A few years ago I had an eris e8 and later a jbl lsr 308 and they were fantastic. We'll see how the first impressions are with the bx8

 

[capslock]

Got a used pair in mint condition, manufactured July 2021. Gave them a quick listen (first mono, then stereo) with them sitting on the floor away from the walls in a largish room. I tried no eq but I was defintely not very impressed. Female voices sounded like they were coming out of a tin can. Bass was powerful but not impressively deep. Playing with the -2 / -4 dB switch at the back didn't help the impression.

While my current main speakers are LS 50 with EQ and diy closed box subs in the corners, I have done this quick and dirty listening with a number of speakers so I have some experience. The last speaker that visited me was a diy ported Purifi 8in alu cone + SB tweeter without waveguide. It had none of the tinny sound, and bass sounded more natural to my ears. So its not that I fundamentally dislike a two way with a high XO point.

I will give the BX8 another chance with better placement and EQ, but I am not expecting much at this point.

 

[Gabe33]

I have a pair of these plus the smaller bx5's d3 , the bx8 are flatter with the -4db bass eq at the back , the midrange is scooped in the 2k region . My biggest issue with these pair of speakers is the bass , its not as fast & detailed for an 8 inch monitor , the bass on the bx5's is way too exagerated , exaggerated is an understatement

 

[capslock]

Do you think the broad dip around 2 kHz gives rise to the tinnyness? Amir wrote that the overall sound got too bright when he tried to EQ the dip so he leveled the peaks higher up.

 

[AnalogSteph]

I would:
1. Try taking some FR measurements
2. Verify that woofer cones are moving freely when pushed (power off)
3. Watch for any assembly issues that could compromise the seal - I don't particularly trust things built at the height of the pandemic. You should be able to plug the port tightly and not hear any "farts" anywhere when playing bass notes.

My biggest issue with these pair of speakers is the bass , its not as fast & detailed for an 8 inch monitor , the bass on the bx5's is way too exagerated , exaggerated is an understatement

Seems to be quite EQable though.

M-Audio BX5 D3 | Active Monitor | Measurements, Teardown & Subjective Impressions

The M-Audio BX5 D3 is rather ubiquitous among budget studio monitors, so I thought it only fitting that I purchase a unit and publish the first complete set of measurements. This monitor typically retails for approximately €80 but I paid only €60 for this particular unit, so it has the...

www.audiosciencereview.com

(Note, I would EQ the bass a bit differently and try to flatten them out to about 50 Hz instead of letting them roll off as high as shown. PEACE should be helpful since it can import a FR graph to display in the background as you tweaking settings.)

 

[Gabe33]

Do you think the broad dip around 2 kHz gives rise to the tinnyness? Amir wrote that the overall sound got too bright when he tried to EQ the dip so he leveled the peaks higher up.

Do you think the broad dip around 2 kHz gives rise to the tinnyness? Amir wrote that the overall sound got too bright when he tried to EQ the dip so he leveled the peaks higher up.

Yeah i think the 2k region could be why they sound so thin , i would describe it as lifeless / unmusical . I tried fixing this with sonarworks and it helped but i noticed that my mixes were too scooped in the 2k region and too bassy . Adding eq to the scooped higher mids makes the speakers sound shouty and bright , which is why my mixes were scooped in that region . The bass can also get slow & muddy in an untreated room , a front port would have helped , but i dont think m-audio want to take the risk of designing a front port , i mean they cant even design a good rear port

 

[Gabe33]

 

[Gabe33]

View attachment 317877

 

[SivKiv]

By the way, there are a number of "BX8" speakers for sale out there but seem to be another series with round waveguide rather than the square one in the model I tested.

Those seem to be a new generation of the BX8, likely a replacement, which would explain the discontinuation. Might wanna consider picking a pair up then.
Edit: A close look reveals they may actually be a previous generation.
Edit 2: Yup, they are a previous generation. Apologise for bringing this up then haha. Maybe a D4 next then perhaps.........

 

[dedobot]

Im about to trigger of bx8 d3 + Tangent preamp ii . Will report the outcome.

 

[dedobot]

Im about to trigger of bx8 d3 + Tangent preamp ii . Will report the outcome.

Update:
Ended with Edifier r2850db. Mainly because the front firing port (placement is close to the back wall). The speakers are not for me but for my sister's new apartment.
Very pleasant sound for the money (280euro).

 

[canchet]

I have a pair of these plus the smaller bx5's d3 , the bx8 are flatter with the -4db bass eq at the back , the midrange is scooped in the 2k region . My biggest issue with these pair of speakers is the bass , its not as fast & detailed for an 8 inch monitor , the bass on the bx5's is way too exagerated , exaggerated is an understatement

I have the BX5-D3, do you think is worth the upgrade to the BX8? or better off looking somewhere else? Cheers!

 

[joqueval]

I have the BX5-D3, do you think is worth the upgrade to the BX8? or better off looking somewhere else? Cheers!

Hi @canchet
Let me share my experience with you.
At the time I was looking for an improvement of the speakers used in the pc, and I chose the BX-5 D3, for its size and performance, I had them placed on a side of the living room of 6.2 X 3.5 meters. (I have them in my living room).
I was very happy with their performance but I was looking for a bit more bass and added a subwoffer.
When I wanted a little more presence I activated the sub.
Some time later on one of those days when you get an ad from Amazon, I looked at the BX-8 and ordered them.
When I took them out of the box I thought about returning them, they really are a respectable sized monitor. They have a volume x3 compared to the BX5.
But that volume is compensated by their sound, they have more body than the BX5.
Depending on the space where you are going to place them, if you have room, the BX8s would be a good choice.
I keep the BX-5 for the TV because I often prefer them to the home cinema for everyday use.
I hope you find my experience helpful.
Regards

 

[canchet]

Hi @canchet
Let me share my experience with you.
At the time I was looking for an improvement of the speakers used in the pc, and I chose the BX-5 D3, for its size and performance, I had them placed on a side of the living room of 6.2 X 3.5 meters. (I have them in my living room).
I was very happy with their performance but I was looking for a bit more bass and added a subwoffer.
When I wanted a little more presence I activated the sub.
Some time later on one of those days when you get an ad from Amazon, I looked at the BX-8 and ordered them.
When I took them out of the box I thought about returning them, they really are a respectable sized monitor. They have a volume x3 compared to the BX5.
But that volume is compensated by their sound, they have more body than the BX5.
Depending on the space where you are going to place them, if you have room, the BX8s would be a good choice.
I keep the BX-5 for the TV because I often prefer them to the home cinema for everyday use.
I hope you find my experience helpful.
Regards

They are massive, they seem smaller on other pictures but I never saw a picture of a bx5 vs bx8.
My room is not that big but I kinda feel I need more feeling from low frequencies on my body from what I’m getting with the bx5s.
I have zero experience with other monitors, I normally use headphones, but I find the sound of the bx5s not bad at all. They have quite a lot of detail and they respond good to EQ.
I’m also considering a pair of HEDD Type 07 mk2, I know two totally different segments, but frankly I can’t test them to hear if they are really worth that premium price. Also dealing with DACs and Class D amps is not what’s the best idea.

Cheers!

 

[mjgraves]

Just to add a little color to this thread. At the time the BX Series were launched M-Audio was owned by Avid. The BX5a were for a time the single most popular powered monitors in the world. This is because broadcast facilities used them anywhere they needed a small powered monitor. In my former job, I worked with TV stations and broadcast networks all around North America. From edit suites to master control rooms, they were the most common monitor I would see. Not in main mixing rooms, but everywhere else. They were good enough, practical form factor, and not too expensive.

So, when I set about building a multi-zone audio system for my home, I bought a couple pairs of the BX5 D3 to get started. It's crazy that they were less expensive than Sonos One. And sounded better. I had hoped to try some of their more expensive offerings. They had a 3-way WTW offering with coaxial mid & tweeter that looed promising.

Alas, Avid fell upon hard times. M-Audio was eventually sold off. The product line collapsed, and took on more emphasis on smaller things like the BX3. These are more like PC speakers than anything else. Very small. Very low cost.

It appears that you can still get a verison of the BX8, the BX 8 Graphite for $258/pair. The BX8 D3 occasionally shows up used for under $200/pr.

 

[canchet]

Just to add a little color to this thread. At the time the BX Series were launched M-Audio was owned by Avid. The BX5a were for a time the single most popular powered monitors in the world. This is because broadcast facilities used them anywhere they needed a small powered monitor. In my former job, I worked with TV stations and broadcast networks all around North America. From edit suites to master control rooms, they were the most common monitor I would see. Not in main mixing rooms, but everywhere else. They were good enough, practical form factor, and not too expensive.

So, when I set about building a multi-zone audio system for my home, I bought a couple pairs of the BX5 D3 to get started. It's crazy that they were less expensive than Sonos One. And sounded better. I had hoped to try some of their more expensive offerings. They had a 3-way WTW offering with coaxial mid & tweeter that looed promising.

Alas, Avid fell upon hard times. M-Audio was eventually sold off. The product line collapsed, and took on more emphasis on smaller things like the BX3. These are more like PC speakers than anything else. Very small. Very low cost.

It appears that you can still get a verison of the BX8, the BX 8 Graphite for $258/pair. The BX8 D3 occasionally shows up used for under $200/pr.

Do you know which model is newer, the BX8 D3 or BX8 Graphite?

Cheers!

 

[Pasikonik]

I own this & a pair of t7v's , these sound smoother than the T7V's , the adams sound brighter and abit plasticy (harsh) , but i prefer the bass of the T7V's in my room , its tighter and more accurate compared to the boomy BX8d3 , the m-audio are easy to calibrate with sonarworks but still dont translate well outside of my home studio . I think i should have went for similarly priced jbl lsr305p

Would you be so kind as to share some more details about the differences between the bx8 d3 and the adam t7v? I am now faced with a dilemma of choice. BX8 d3 are cheaper but the difference is not big and I could spend more money on T7V. The speakers will be intended for my office for listening purposes only, no professional sound processing. The problem is that the office is large and the speakers will not have a wall behind them.

 

[ClayR]

How many mv input does it take before clipping? To reaching the rated wattage? What is the SPL at that those points?

This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of the M-Audio BX8 D3 studio reference (active speaker). I purchased it new from Amazon June of last year for $503. It seems discontinued now.
View attachment 279072
Look and feel is excellent. There is rubberized paint around the drivers which gives the unit a luxury feel. The cabinet is quite large and sturdy. Back panel is simplicity in itself:
View attachment 279073

Amplification is class AB (80 watts for woofer, 70 watts for tweeter) which is surprising. Good news is that this brings silence to the tweeter as I could barely hear a hiss with my ear next to it.

Nicely formed waveguides should produce good directivity.

Testing was performed using Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). Temperature was around 57 degrees F. Reference axis was the center of the tweeter.

M-Audio BX8D3 Measurements
As usual, we start with our anechoic frequency responses per CEA-2034/ANSI standard:
View attachment 279075

That sudden resonance at 590 Hz stands out well in addition to somewhat wavy response above it. On the positive front, bass extension is quite good especially given the size and cost of this speaker. There is usable bass down to some 40 Hz! Near-field measurements show that the kink at 590 Hz is the property of the woofer:
View attachment 279076

I expected it to be port resonances but those are quite subdued until you get to about 1 kHz. If someone has a better guess, please chime in.

Early reflections and predicted in-room simulations are for far field use so likely not very applicable in this application:
View attachment 279077

View attachment 279078

I was very impressed with the low distortion, especially in bass at 86 dBSPL:
View attachment 279080
View attachment 279082


As predicted, directivity and hence beamwidth uniformity is very good in horizontal axis:
View attachment 279083
View attachment 279084

Vertical suffers from typical issues with 2-way speakers but there seems to be good control even in that axis:
View attachment 279085

Here is our waterfall and step responses:
View attachment 279086

View attachment 279087

M-Audio BX8 D3 Listening Tests
The uneven frequency response had pre-biased me negatively going into the listening tests. But 5 seconds of listening to my standard test tracks changed my mind and quickly! That deep bass and clean output at that, brings a ton to the table. Speaker sounds like a much bigger one. Frankly I could have lived with the out of box response but still, took a shot at correcting the response with EQ:

View attachment 279089

The correction for the bass resonance should be self-explanatory. I then attempted to fill in the gap between 1 and 2 kHz but that resulted in extra brightness. Instead, I opted to pull down the hills in the next two regions. With all the filters in place, the difference was small but I thought it was more balanced and less brilliant/brittle.

The excellent bass response translated to my "speaker killer" tracks with sub-bass response down to 20 Hz. Many bookshelf speakers fall apart and produce distorted sound there (or none at all). The BX8D3 was different. It simply played those at lower volume but still clean. No doubt this contributed to my impression of the speaker sounding so clean.

While listening to only one speaker, I could easily fill my massive space with plenty of volume withy nary a hint of distortion or speaker/amp funning out of breath. The sound had authority and was quite enjoyable.

Conclusions
I was pretty depressed going into this review with first finding out the BX8 D3 is now discontinued. And then seeing response anomalies. Then I listened to the speaker and that changed my perspective. Not that the subjective impression was different from objective. It was not. You just had to go back and look again, noticing the bass extension and very low distortion. Research shows that 1/3 of our impression of a speaker sound comes from bass and boy was that true in this case. With a bit of EQ you have one impressive sounding studio monitor here which would be good at $500 but far better at the discount prices I see on clearance (as low as $118 on one site!!!).

Note that the extra bass means is that the BX8D3 will charge the room modes so you better have EQ especially if your room is small. Other monitors in its size which lack bass won't be similarly situated.

I am going to put the M-Audio BX8D3 on my recommended list. It is a shame that it is discontinued.

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[mjgraves]

FWIW, Solotech (formerly PSSL) is today offering the M-Audio BX8 D2 (used) for just $175/pr. https://shop.solotech.com/products/m-audio-maubx8d2-8-inch-studio-monitor-pair