Mackie MR824 8 Inches Powered Studio Monitor

I use my PC mostly for sequencing/arranging on keyboards, sometimes editing digital audio, sometimes I just want to listen to awesome music that I can just turn up and just about bathe in. I used 2 Alesis M1Active 520 Powered Monitors and absolutely LOVED THEM, until after 10 years of making incredible sound, I'd turn them on, and over the past year they would start making random white noise - it kinda sounded like thunder the way it would creep in. I needed something comparable, and Alesis has discontinued them since, and aren't selling anything similar in terms of size, output and price range.I felt like I was taking a risk with these Mackie MR524's. There very few reviews on line (newly released product?), but the price was right ($119 ea at the time), and the specs seemed just a tad nicer than the Alesis units. I have to say I am a little more satisfied with these than the Alesis monitors. The frequency response is very even, there's no noticeable resonance, their volume is pretty strong, and they have some controls to adjust some of the tweeter/woofer gains. The LED isn't terribly flashy, which is a good thing. It's a single green light on the front (which maybe turns red when it clips? I haven't experieced that yet). They sound pretty great: The highs are crisp, the lows are full-sounding, but everything is very well balanced. If you are one who likes loud thumping bass in your music, look elsewhere, these are not designed for that, but as a reference monitor, they are top-notch. There is also no residual noise like the Alesis units had. That may be because those units were old, but it's almost weired, you can't even tell they are on.My one complaint is, and you should take note of this if it's an issue for you, the power switch is located on the back in a non-intuitive location. Alesis put theirs conveniently on the top surface of the unit, but these have a switch in the back. It's not worth taking a star off for that, but I didn't realize this when I bought them, just a pain to reach behind them to power them on or off.These Mackie MR524s are great, and I am very happy with this purchase.

Very happy with these. Sound good and look really cool. Great value for the price.

I recently DISPOSED of my krk rokit 8 as it died in only 3 days time (PS do NOT buy KRK they aren't built to last nor do they sound very good) and bought the Mackie MR824 studio monitor, and I couldn't be happier with my purchase. The MR824 surpasses the KRK Rokit 8 in every aspect. The sound quality is exceptional, offering a balanced and precise representation of my mixes. The imaging and wide sweet spot are outstanding, allowing me to maintain accuracy no matter where I am in my studio. The bass response is powerful yet controlled, and the versatile acoustic controls ensure optimal performance in any room. The build quality is solid BUT!! the front plate is hard plastic to bear that in mind its not a bad plastic though. If you're seriously Considering anything KRK then DON'T DO IT Do not make the same mistake as me , Anyways the Mackie MR-Series is the way to go. Highly recommended!

Upgrading from Tannoy 402 Reveal speakers. These Mackies are great. Very good bass response and excellent overall sound quality. I compared to several others in this price range and found them all to have pluses and minuses. The Mackie seemed best overall to my ears, but I don't think you can go with Yamaha, JBL, Presonus or KRK. These are relatively inexpensive speakers and compare very favorably in their category.The 1 star off for me is that they sound a bit bright to my ears... maybe too much so. This is quite minor. The bass response is better than others and I found this my deciding factor. Competeing speakers have their negatives that I won't mention here... but the Mackie were my top pick - none are perfect.Overall they are clear, crisp with deep bass and very pleasant to listen to. Would I choose again? Absolutely. They are a really really big upgrade over my Tannoy's that are about two years old.

This review is strictly based on reliability. I've had a pair of MR524s for about 18 months. Lost a tweeter or crossover in one recently and the warranty is only good for one year. These have been gently used in a home studio environment and never abused. I gave them two stars as they did sound great when they worked. Also, I never received a reply from the seller when asking about the warranty period. Mackie was quick to respond though. I'll sell the good-working remaining one and try something different next time.

I had the yamaha hs5's before these and the MR624's blow them out of the water. The low end on these is so good that I don't even use my subwoofer anymore (No it's not a 12 inch subwoofer low end that shakes the entire room but it's definitely heavy enough for me.) You can hear all the sub bass notes that I couldn't hear on the yamaha hs5's. The reason I bought these speakers in the first place is because I could localize the sub with the HS5's since they didn't produce any low end and it was irritating me hearing the bass coming from the left side so I upgraded to these and I'm not disappointed. I also compared the MR624's to the MR524 and they sound pretty much the same except the 624 has more sub bass and hits harder with more punchiness. I also noticed that the +2db treble switch was more pronounced on the 624 vs the 524 for some reason so these get clearer as well in the high end if I want that.The only con I think, maybe not even a con depending on your setup. is that they're pretty deep speakers so they can look monstrous on your desk but that's probably necessary to get the low end these can achieve. If they could make the cabinets a little shallower that would be cool. The soundstage is really good in my opinion as well. Best speakers I've bought so far.