M-Audio StudioPro 3 Desktop Audio Monitors

Have had these for more than a year now. They do sound great, and sounded great for a little longer than a year. Then suddenly a permanent rattle started from the left speaker, even when not playing music. I realized when putting my hand on the back panel the rattle stopped, so it seemed to be something loose attached to the panel. I opened the panel and saw a screw was indeed loose, tightened it, and the rattling stopped. Didn't touch anything else and then surprise, when reconnecting everything, right speaker has no sound. Weird thing is, I played a little with the volume knob and sound reappeared on the right speaker. After that, its sound goes on and off apparently at random every once in a while. I'm not even sure it's the volume knob. Whatever it is, the sound is lost from the right speaker every so often, and it is not related to the cable between them. It seems something inside the amplification circuitry within the left speaker. This suggests a really poor build quality. I'm familiar with DIY electronics, and I did not touch anything at all in the electronics, just opened the back panel and tightened a loose screw.After realizing that problem I researched online to see whether some other people have had any similar problem, and found all these negative reviews about sound going off from the right speaker, rattle noises and what not. When I purchased them, these negative reviews were nowhere to be seen. It seems enough units got sold to statistically show the results of a low quality control in the construction of these units.The speakers do (did) sound nice. I don't use the bass booster because it makes the sound too boomy and boxy. The sound is overall lean, bass lacking a bit, but you wouldn't expect subwoofer-like bass from small speakers anyway; the sound is really adequate for the size and price. Yet this unreliability of the right speaker going on and off is truly annoying. Had I seen these negative reviews before I certainly wouldn't have purchased these speakers.PS. An extra comment: the back panel of the left speaker (where the amp is located) gets warm at all times whenever plugged to the power outlet, regardless of the speakers being turned off. I personally dislike audio products (speakers and subwoofers) that do this: consume electricity even when fully turned off. That only means the on/off switch doesn't really interrupt completely the supply of electricity; for whatever reason the design keeps consuming electricity even when these speakers are switched off, warming up the electronics inside, which in my opinion is a suboptimal design.Update Feb/2012: I can report that I opened the left speaker and properly disconnected/disabled all the wiring related to the headphone out, aux in, and even the power off and led on the volume knob. The right speaker still goes mute some times. The right speaker is perfect, I can tell by measuring the voltage that reaches the right speaker, it goes mute because some times the left speaker sends nothing on the wire that drives the right one. So the problem on these speakers, at least in my case, is not at all related to loose or lame input/outputs on the left speaker, or a problem on the right speaker. I believe it's a faulty component on the amp board. Basically, either a poorly built amp board, or a (few) crappy component(s) on it.Update Jun/2012: once again opened the left speaker and before looking for any faulty component, followed some online advice and first looked for possibly problematic soldering joints on the board. In order to do so, kept the left speaker open while sound was playing, and waited for the right speaker to go mute. When that happened, I started poking the little joints on the board with a little wooden stick, and even with my finger, to see if any such poking made the sound on the right speaker come back. Well, how about that, when poking one joint near the relay area, the sound did come back. Happened twice, and (alas!) it was the soldering joint of the wire between the board and the connector where you plug the wire for the right speaker, definitely a candidate joint for the culprit. The joint looked perfect, however, and didn't move at all when poking it, yet the sound on the right speaker crackled and came back when pushing it. So I melted it, removed the wire, shortened/cleaned up the tip, reinserted it and re-soldered the joint, and the problem seems to be gone for good (writing this two days after the fix). So in my case the problem with these speakers was not crappy or faulty component(s) after all, it was crappy/faulty manufacturing as far as soldering goes. Fortunately, and finally, I'm enjoying sound from both speakers again.Update Dec/2013: left speaker suddenly completely died. Right speaker still sounds though. Opened the left speaker once again and checked, nothing looks clearly burned, but there seems to be no loose connection so far, so it looks like amplifier for left channel is probably dead. Will check a little more, but if it doesn't come back alive shortly, at this point I might just throw them away. Disappointed.Update May/2014: After not being able to find the problem, I took them to a local electronics repair shop. Left channel dead indeed. Problem is, in Venezuela where I live it's not easy at all to get suitable electronics parts. Neither the entire amp board again, nor the little components required to attempt a repair. The only option left is to get rid of the amp, and transform the pair into passive speakers. I can do that myself, don't need the repair shop to do it, but I decided it's not really worth it. Eventually I'll get some other decent sounding active speakers for my PC, so I will throw these away. I doubt I will ever purchase M-Audio stuff again.

I've tested a number of speakers for there different areas: Living Room, Office, and my Desk at Home.After trying (and returning a number of well reviewed choices) I settled on the following:Desk at Home - M-Audio StudioPro 3 Desktop Audio MonitorsThese simply have the best sound and imaging of everything I tried except the higher end M-Audio reference speakers. No MP3 is going to sound ever as good as a CD through a component stereo(or an LP, but don't get me started). But I am amazed at the quality of these speakers. They wouldn;t have the power to fill a living room, or even an office. By the time you're 6'-8' away from them, the imaging settles out a bit. But for your desk or as satellite speakers for a TV that didn't come with great ones already, they are perfect. They are a little bigger than many desktop speakers overall, but since many desktop speakers are oddly shaped with leaning towers and wide stands, they actually don;t take up as much more footprint comparatively. The volume and headphone jack and aux in are all on one of the speakers, very handy for access and for plugging in your iPod at your desk. I tried several of the higher end M-Audio speakers, and while I found them to be even better with more power and clarity, it just wasn't enough better to justify the additional size and expense.Living Room - Logitech Z-2300 THX-Certified 200-Watt 2.1 Speaker SystemThis system had the best overall power of everything I tried. Everything else sounds good when you're close enough to the speakers, but as you move away it gets pretty weak. For the living room you definitely need a 2.1 system. Even the M-Audio StudioPro 3 Desktop Audio Monitors, which seem the be the best of the 2 speaker systems couldn't handle a real room. As mentioned in a number of other reviews, the subwoofer unit is larger than others out there. I expect that's part of the reason these have good power. Make sure you've got a good place to hide it. Sound is very good comparatively. Nothing is going to sound like a real 200w component stereo, but this comes pretty close. I find that the imaging, or perceptual soundstage is a little lacking, not as clearly defined as with the JBL Creature II 3-Piece Powered Speaker System or the M-Audio Studio 3. This got better when I added 6' RCA cable extenders to the satellite speaker wires which allowed me to separate the satellites a bit. But still not great. The volume knob thing is nice, and it's nice to have both volume and bass adjustment handy. I guess you could have easily put the controls on one of the satellites like everyone else though. The headphone jack on the volume control seems pointless to me, but maybe you'll like it. What I wish was that you could have an aux input on the volume thing to plug in your ipod or something else.Office - JBL Creature II 3-Piece Powered Speaker SystemThese 2.1 speakers don't have the total power of the Logitech Z-2300, but they have much clearer and better imaging. Since my office is smaller than my living room, and shares a wall with someone, I don't need as much power. These were perfect. The high end is crisp, and the subwoofer clean. The volume control on the satellites is handy, but the bass adjustment is on the subwoofer. I thought this would be an issue, but you actually kind of set it and monkey with it a bit in the beginning, and then leave it alone. The satellites are much smaller than the Logitech and less cheesy looking, which makes them nicer on your desk. I have to say again how killer the sound is. Imaging is great, and it's crazy how they manage to do it with those tiny satellites.There you have it. EnjoyMichael Peachey