Okay, a heads up and a question or suggestion to Mad Max.
I have so far on my desk the Focal XS Book, Kanto Ora, Edifier M60 and Edifier MR3.
Look and feel wise, the Focal look the best, the Kanto Ora look premium but out of plasticky platic, the Edifier M60 look rather nice and have a better feel than the Kanto Ora, the Edifier MR3 look and feel utilitarian, could be worse. I prefer the front volume control on the Ora and the MR3 vs the top buttons of the Edifier M60 that though work well. Kanto ORA and especially M60 don't have a very long cable joining the speakers but hey they are supposed to be PC speakers. The MR3 use good old speaker cable between them so you do you. Ora and M60 have USB inputs. Ora, MR3 and M60 have bluetooth. The ORA and M60 are tiny speakers. The MR3 starts being not tiny. Only the M60 include stands, though they all need ones (except the Focal which are already tilted).
Now sound wise,
- The Kanto Ora was the ones I liked the less. Too warm sound, not controlled enough bass, and way not enough resolving (ability to hear details, different voices and articulation of instrument inside the songs). The mids balance is nice, but lacking from high mids IMO. Zero noise when not playing anything. Directivity is stellar you can move all you want they always sound the same (within reason). Soundstage is nice, both inward and outward.
- The Edifier M60 are a bit too bright, and lack a bit of bass extension. I would say they can get fatiguing. The mids are bright coloured and not very much to my taste. But they are resolving, you can hear pretty much everything that you need to hear. The M60 and the Ora are pretty much polar opposites with the Ora being too warm with good mids but lacking precision and the M60 being too bright with less flat mids but offering some precision. Bass wise the Ora have a ton more, but given how lously they are reproduced, heh, they are not of much use. Zero noise on mine like the Kanto Ora. However they are more directivity challenged. The sound will change when you move even within reason. Soundstage, they don't project well a center image, making them sound hollow. However they project very well outward. They have a bit of a Yamaha monitor speaker sound.
- The Edifier MR3 are by a huge margin the winner. They have good mid balance, and good spectrum extension in general, maybe a bit rolled off on the very highs. The highs are a bit less resolving than the Focals which were clear winner in the precision game so far, and they are generally speaking a bit less resolving and impactful on transients but still better than the Ora and M60. Bass is good, with more extension than the M60. I would say they have more bass extension than the Kanto Ora. Though they have less bass quantity but the Ora were too bass bosted IMO. More bass quantity than the Focals also. The bass control is not bad. I could wish more control but I think you'll only get it with bigger speakers. Directivity wise they are OK, their sound will change a bit when you move but acceptable. Soundstage wise, they have a center image and they project outward. I could want a tighter central image and wider soundstaging but I really can do without, they are good enough.
- I was also playing with the Kef Eggs HT3001SE that definately have merit, especially in transient and impact, and soundstage well especially outward and in depth. However bass was lacking and while you could EQ boost it, and the speakers didn't respond with distortion or port noise unlike the B&W M1 Mk1 I tried earlier, you didn't really get much more out of them than what they are capable of. What they are capable of doing is well done. But there's a bit a mid weirdness that I'm not sure about. However they are very placement sensitive. I tried them in a table in the middle of my room and they were awful. They need a wall not too far behind them. They were still in my shortlist until I plugged the MR3 in. The MR3 got them out of there I'm not even sure I'll plug them back to compare them again.
The MR3 are winners by such a margin it is not fair play. And they are the cheapest of the bunch. The Kanto ORA are 400€ in EU. The MR3 where 100€. The Focals were 500€ and they are the only ones that can trade blows with the MR3, winning in the precision, transient, impact from the mids upward, but losing in the bass extension and with an annoying amplifier noise.
My unscientific conclusion of all this would be that you need speakers a bit bigger than absolute minimum if you want good sound.
Now I'm on the fence of either just keeping the MR3 and enjoying them or finding used Focal CMS40 to benefit from improved highs from the mid highs and maybe a bit wider sweet spot. Focal being known for their tweeters and the waveguide seemingly more sophisticated.
But they will be vastly more expensive even if used (and still OK price), and while they might sound better there is no guarantee about it they might as well lose vs the MR3. Will probably just keep the MR3.
MadMaxx if you haven't yet tried the MR3, I encourage you to do so. You might be able to give us comparison to other small studio monitors of the 3 inch class.
As far as studio monitors, no they are not what I recall of my Genelec 8030, but they are not in the same class size and price wise. But from memory I would take the MR3 vs quite a few small monitors I heard. I would put the MR3 in the worthy studio monitors to listen to.
But if you don't like the MR3 I'd also like to hear from you.
) and I like them even more.
