M-Audio Studiophile AV 30 review: M-Audio Studiophile AV 30

Editors' note: Updated on August 21, 2009, to reflect its new lower price.

7.3

M-Audio Studiophile AV 30

The Good

The M-Audio Studiophile AV 30 is a powered speaker system with magnetic shielding, a solid construction, and a beefy sound quality, all priced less than $100.

The Bad

The integrated amplifier doesn't get loud enough to wake the neighbors, and the power switch is inconveniently located on the back.

The Bottom Line

M-Audio's Studiophile AV 30 speaker system delivers powerful, detailed sound in a relatively compact space, and does it all at a remarkably low price.

The M-Audio brand name may mean more to musicians and music producers than gamers and iTunes junkies, but all you really need to know is that the company makes one of the best-sounding PC and multimedia speakers you can buy. Unfortunately, those speakers are called the Studiophile AV 40, they run $150, and we raved about them back in March of 2008.

The speaker set featured here is the Studiophile AV 30, a smaller set that borrows heavily from the design and sound of its lauded sibling. The AV 30 sacrifices on some of the sonic power and professional features that made the AV 40 exceptional, but it also sacrificed the price--cutting it down to an attractive $99.

There's a lot you can forgive once you reach a price tag in the double digits. For instance, we can forgive M-Audio for using a cheaper amplifier in the AV 30 than the class-A/B amp used in the AV 40. We can also forgive it for ditching the studio-quality 1.25-inch TRS audio inputs and going strictly with RCA ins. These missing features may have audio purists turning up their noses, but those of you simply looking to coax great sound from your computer or MP3 player shouldn't care one bit.

Most impressive about the Studiophile AV 30 are the features it has in common with the knock-out AV 40. Both use the same .75-inch, ferrofluid-cooled, silk, dome tweeters, the same solid pro-audio construction quality, and both include headphone output and aux input minijacks on the front of the left speaker, along with an illuminated volume control knob.

On the back of the left speaker you'll find the Bass Boost switch and RCA inputs also found on the AV 40, along with a standard speaker wire clip for running audio to the right speaker. Any length of standard speaker wire can be used to connect the two speakers (a 6.5-foot cable is included), offering an advantage over many sub-$100 PC speakers that use an attached, fixed-length cable.

The Studiophile AV 30 speakers each stand around 8 inches tall, 5.5 inches wide, and 6 inches deep. Each speaker is magnetically shielded to prevent it from interfering with other electronic equipment (and vice-versa), and each sits on a layer of sonically-isolating black foam rubber that also helps prevent it from rattling against your desk at high volume.

Sonically, the Studiophile AV 30 delivers a type of hearty, well-balanced sound you don't often hear from a pair of speakers priced under $100. The 3-inch woofers combined with M-Audio's tuned-bass reflex ports offered ample low-end while maintaining the punchy bass drum definition easily lost on songs like Booka Shade's electro-infused "Night Falls." In that same vein, we were also happy to see that the AV 30's Bass Boost switch didn't go too overboard and drive the woofer to the booming, bleeding edge. In fact, songs like the JB's "Gimme Some More" really benefitted from the way the Bass Boost feature brought the otherwise-murky bass guitar to the foreground.

Our primary disappointment with the Studiophile AV 30 is the underpowered amplifier. The advertised 15 watts per channel are adequate if you're sitting at your desk with the speakers within reach, but you'll really need to crank the volume all the way if you want to hear them from the next room. Fortunately, these speakers sound their best at full blast, without suffering from the telltale sounds of overdriven pre-amps or overworked speaker cones. Still, even at their maximum volume, the Studiophile AV 30 speakers can't quite match the fullness of the sound we've heard from larger speakers like the AV 40 or 2.1 systems that integrate a dedicated subwoofer.

One last criticism we have about the Studiophile AV 30 concerns the placement of the power switch on the back; the placement is typical of pro-audio studio monitors, which assume you'll either be leaving the speakers on or switching them off from a power strip. But for speakers aimed at the PC and gaming market, it's more common and convenient to control power from the front of the speaker. The power switch location might not be an issue for you, but we feel it's worth noting, lest you find yourself hunching over your desk to switch your speakers on and off each day.