Speeddemon
New member
As some of you may know, I own(ed) M-Audio's SP-8B monitors. I was very happy with the way they sounded (although suffering from a slight scoop in the low-mids), but the fact that their sweetspot was so damn small, really bugged me. When I moved my head from left to right just a few inches, I could hear quite big differences in the sound and imaging.
Ofcourse another problem was that my speakers and my ears make a too small triangle, due to space limitations. The speakers were only 3,3' (or about 100cm) apart from eachother.
So, tired of their small sweetspot, I called the store I got them from (Dijkmans Muziek, Breda) and asked if I could change them for the newer BX-8's. The salesman agreed, he said "Take the BX-8's home, check 'em both and keep the ones that work best for you, no additional costs!" I was very happy with this, since I WAS using the SP-8B's for more than 6 months now.
The speaker's design:
A link: http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/studiophileSPBX8.php
The monitors are just a hint smaller than the SP-8Bs (• Dimension: 14.97 in. (h) x 9.85 in. (w) x 11.82 in. (d)) but they are a bit more powerfull. Whereas the SP-8B's had a 45W amp to drive the tweeter and a 55W amp for the driver, the BX-8 has a 65W amp for the tweeter and a 65W amp for the driver. The crossover frequency is lower at 1,25kHz (SP-8B=1,8kHz), but I'm not sure whether this is an improvement, since it now sits directly in the vocal range.
They no longer have the movable tweeter, that the SP-8B's had, but now they have incorporated 4 'tailoring switches' on the back, so you can make a 'presence boost', a high-end scoop (which these monitors REALLY NEED), a low-end cut-off at 37,47 or 80Hz (for when working in conjunction with a subwoofer) and an 'acoustic space' switch, which basically relatively boosts anything under 500Hz.
By listening to a CD on the SP-8B's and the BX8's, and covering both their tweeters, I found out that the driver of the BX8 was better designed, it sounded more defined. It seems as if the SP-8B's rely too much on their tweeters.
The sound:
Well, first the similarities with the SP-8B's:
-a nice, defined low-end, with maybe a slight bump around 100-120Hz. But on the whole, the low end sounds tight, kickdrums and bassguitars are produced very good.
-a 'open/clear' high-end. Cymbals and acoustic guitars really 'splash', without sounding harsh.
-Good imaging.
The differences between the SP-8B and BX8's:
-The BX8 are quite a dash brighter than the SP-8B's. That's why one should really set the "High Freq" switch to -2 or -4dB. The provided frequency response charts also show this brightness. Whereas the freq. plot of the SP-8B was a pretty even, waving line (within 4dB boundaries), you can see on the BX8-plot that there's a 3 to 5 dB rise after 5kHz. Also it rolls off pretty fast after 16kHz, whereas the SP-8B plot continues pretty normal to 20kHz. Ofcourse, this is paper, not real sound, but the BX8's do sound brighter. It's a pretty nice 'bright' as in 'it's not really harsh', but when having worked with these monitors for more than 10 minutes, and then listening to other speakers, everything seems to sound a bit dull.
-You can really tailor the sound with those switches on the back of the BX8, which have a far greater impact, than moving the tweeters of the older SP-8B's.
-The BX8's sweetspot is indeed bigger, which impacted my decision the most.
-Although the BX8s are brighter than the SP-8Bs, vocals seem to stand out less on the BX8s, they are more buried in the mix. Not a bad thing, but the SP-8Bs would almost seperate the vocals from the rest of the music, making it easy to use compression and reverb on them.
All these differences aren't really big, but they were there nonetheless. A smaller, but still noticable point (duh!), was that the BX8 are shaped more attractively and less 'finger-cuttey'. The SP-8Bs have really sharp edges and corners, as it's a totally 'square/rectangular' box, whereas the BX8 have rounded edges on the top and bottom sides.
Conclusion:
So, switching back and forth between the SP-8Bs and the BX8s, the versatility of the BX8 won me over. Still I think that the SP-8Bs are a little bit better focussed on the vocal range (which probably has to do with a differently chosen cross-over point), so in the end, I kept the BX8s and returned the SP-8Bs.
As I didn't have to pay anything extra, I basically have the BX8s for $650, which is quite a good deal in The Netherlands. For any US inhabitans it's an even better deal, as most stores sell them for $479, which is just an outright steal!
Highly recommended, when buying your 1st or 2nd set monitors, unless you have more than $800-900 to spend. Then you'd be wise to save up a little for some more high-end stuff, like Mackie, Blue Sky or A.D.A.M.
________________________________
Ofcourse another problem was that my speakers and my ears make a too small triangle, due to space limitations. The speakers were only 3,3' (or about 100cm) apart from eachother.
So, tired of their small sweetspot, I called the store I got them from (Dijkmans Muziek, Breda) and asked if I could change them for the newer BX-8's. The salesman agreed, he said "Take the BX-8's home, check 'em both and keep the ones that work best for you, no additional costs!" I was very happy with this, since I WAS using the SP-8B's for more than 6 months now.
The speaker's design:
A link: http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/studiophileSPBX8.php
The monitors are just a hint smaller than the SP-8Bs (• Dimension: 14.97 in. (h) x 9.85 in. (w) x 11.82 in. (d)) but they are a bit more powerfull. Whereas the SP-8B's had a 45W amp to drive the tweeter and a 55W amp for the driver, the BX-8 has a 65W amp for the tweeter and a 65W amp for the driver. The crossover frequency is lower at 1,25kHz (SP-8B=1,8kHz), but I'm not sure whether this is an improvement, since it now sits directly in the vocal range.
They no longer have the movable tweeter, that the SP-8B's had, but now they have incorporated 4 'tailoring switches' on the back, so you can make a 'presence boost', a high-end scoop (which these monitors REALLY NEED), a low-end cut-off at 37,47 or 80Hz (for when working in conjunction with a subwoofer) and an 'acoustic space' switch, which basically relatively boosts anything under 500Hz.
By listening to a CD on the SP-8B's and the BX8's, and covering both their tweeters, I found out that the driver of the BX8 was better designed, it sounded more defined. It seems as if the SP-8B's rely too much on their tweeters.
The sound:
Well, first the similarities with the SP-8B's:
-a nice, defined low-end, with maybe a slight bump around 100-120Hz. But on the whole, the low end sounds tight, kickdrums and bassguitars are produced very good.
-a 'open/clear' high-end. Cymbals and acoustic guitars really 'splash', without sounding harsh.
-Good imaging.
The differences between the SP-8B and BX8's:
-The BX8 are quite a dash brighter than the SP-8B's. That's why one should really set the "High Freq" switch to -2 or -4dB. The provided frequency response charts also show this brightness. Whereas the freq. plot of the SP-8B was a pretty even, waving line (within 4dB boundaries), you can see on the BX8-plot that there's a 3 to 5 dB rise after 5kHz. Also it rolls off pretty fast after 16kHz, whereas the SP-8B plot continues pretty normal to 20kHz. Ofcourse, this is paper, not real sound, but the BX8's do sound brighter. It's a pretty nice 'bright' as in 'it's not really harsh', but when having worked with these monitors for more than 10 minutes, and then listening to other speakers, everything seems to sound a bit dull.
-You can really tailor the sound with those switches on the back of the BX8, which have a far greater impact, than moving the tweeters of the older SP-8B's.
-The BX8's sweetspot is indeed bigger, which impacted my decision the most.
-Although the BX8s are brighter than the SP-8Bs, vocals seem to stand out less on the BX8s, they are more buried in the mix. Not a bad thing, but the SP-8Bs would almost seperate the vocals from the rest of the music, making it easy to use compression and reverb on them.
All these differences aren't really big, but they were there nonetheless. A smaller, but still noticable point (duh!), was that the BX8 are shaped more attractively and less 'finger-cuttey'. The SP-8Bs have really sharp edges and corners, as it's a totally 'square/rectangular' box, whereas the BX8 have rounded edges on the top and bottom sides.
Conclusion:
So, switching back and forth between the SP-8Bs and the BX8s, the versatility of the BX8 won me over. Still I think that the SP-8Bs are a little bit better focussed on the vocal range (which probably has to do with a differently chosen cross-over point), so in the end, I kept the BX8s and returned the SP-8Bs.
As I didn't have to pay anything extra, I basically have the BX8s for $650, which is quite a good deal in The Netherlands. For any US inhabitans it's an even better deal, as most stores sell them for $479, which is just an outright steal!
Highly recommended, when buying your 1st or 2nd set monitors, unless you have more than $800-900 to spend. Then you'd be wise to save up a little for some more high-end stuff, like Mackie, Blue Sky or A.D.A.M.
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