Micca COVO-S 2-Way Passive Bookshelf Speakers, Amplifier Required, Not for Turntable, 3-Inch Woofer, 0.75-Inch Tweeter, Wall Mountable, Pair, Black

What a pleasant surprise these speakers were. Let me be clear...these are tiny speakers, not the best choice for mains or in a big room; they aren't capable of producing extreme volumes or heavy bass. Don't expect them to sound like big speakers, they aren't meant to. They have small 3" concentric (meaning, the tweeter is in the center of the woofer) drivers, in tiny little cabinets. The cabinets measure roughly 4" X 5", to give you an idea. But they sound much, much larger, and produce a very pleasant and balanced tone. The highs are clear, the midrange clean and clear, and they actually have a little bass!! I am listening to music over them without a sub, and it's actually quite pleasant. Add a small sub, cross it around 100-120 hz, and you have a seriously rocking mini-system. Applications: Office or desk speakers, bedroom, and for anyone who is not interested in all-out home theater, but wants a dramatic improvement over their TV speakers (be advised that an amp will be required to drive them), or even as surround speakers so long as it's not too big of a room. These are compact and attractive, and they sound far better than any other "cube" speakers I've heard. I have read that many here have bought the Pyle cube speakers, and weren't happy with them because of their tinny sound and utter lack of bass. These are in a whole different category! These are rear ported, so remember to keep them several inches off the wall for best bass response. By far the best speaker in this category that I've heard. This company continues to produce excellent speakers at budget prices. 5 stars for this cube / mini speaker category. Good listening! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --Update-- I had a little time to play today, so for grins and giggles, I connected these through a small, 6" sub I have. This really fills in the bottom end, and together, they sound like a much larger system. I have it crossed at about 100 hz, and it blends seamlessly. I thought it would sound better at a higher crossover, but it gets a little muddy when set any higher. These speakers seem to be quite strong down to the 90 hz rating, maybe even a bit lower. I also noticed that with the high-pass filter of the sub inline; the speakers can play much louder without distortion. No doubt due to limiting the woofer excursion. I'm playing these in my basement workshop at the moment, and getting some surprising volume out of them. This would be a fine office or bedroom setup where space it at a premium. Even for a 2:1 TV setup instead of using a crappy sound bar. The Dayton 8" sub would be a great match for these; together they would give you a dandy sounding small system for around $110. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --Update 2-7-15-- I had some time to play again today, and I was curious how these would do on the dandy Lepai 2020 amp. They actually play very well on it. It drives them about as hard as they want, with plenty of mid-bass response from them. Music was full and warm with enough bass to make it pleasant to listen too. Of course, you'll need a sub if you want rumble; but these sound nice by themselves so long as you aren't a bass monger. I was pretty surprised at how much volume the Lepai could get from these. These speakers and the Lepai amp would be the ultimate cheap office setup. Much better than most computer speakers. And as already mentioned; you can add a small sub if you want more boom. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, 2.5 years later and I bought another pair of these. We've gotten into the Alexa thing, and purchased a couple of Echo Dots to use in the house. Wifey wanted a stand-alone audio system in the family room where she could play music from the Dot but have something else on the TV screen at the same time (can't really do that when switching everything through a home theater receiver), but she didn't want yet another pair of big speakers in the room (I don't understand her issue; I only have two tower speakers, a large center channel speaker, 2 12" subs and 4 ceiling speakers in there :) ). So I used a pair of these that are small enough to be unobtrusive, and hid a low-profile sub behind the TV cabinet. System is crossed at 100 hz, just above the 90hz lower rating of the speakers. . It sounds great! The COVO's produce the highs and mids cleanly and the sub pics up the bottom end. And wifey likes it. Happy wife = Happy life. Again...these will never match the sound of larger speakers; you can't change the laws of physics. But add a sub and set the system up properly, and they will come very close to mimicking the sound of larger speakers. These are by far the best speakers of this size that I've found. Just for fun...I recently picked up a Bose base module and the five "Jewel Cube" (the ones with a top and bottom speaker that swivel) speakers that come with it at a thrift store. These COVO's beat the Bose Jewel Cube speakers so badly, there's no real comparison. They have better highs and lows, and a much warmer sound. And they cost far less if buying new. Good Listening!

The Micca Covo S's are an interesting speakers. They have some very good points along with some bad ones, and some that are just so so. I will highlight each of these below. Just as a provisor, I've only had these speakers for about two days now and I've only listened to them for about three hours. I've also played pink noise through them for about four hours so they've had approximately a seven hour break-in period so far. The Good 1. NIce design - they are small cube-like speakers that have an attractive, understated appearance. They won't be winning any design awards, but they won't look absurd with most decor either. 2. Five-way binding posts are a welcome and rare feature for speakers this price. They make attaching wires or using banana plugs a snap. My standard double-screw banana plugs fit into them just fine. 3. They really hit low for speakers this size. I was able to get them to hit as low as 60hz, but sound was definitely distorted at this frequency. They sound best with ones 120hz and higher. Still, for a speaker this size, their bass is quite remarkable. I think this is do to the fact that they are rear ported giving their woofer good excursion. The So So 1. I would put their overall sound quality in the 'so so' bracket. It is still some of the best for speakers in this price and size range. I've definitely heard worse for more money. However, If you go up by $20 to the Dayton B652AIRs you'd notice an obvious upgrade in sound. I have both the B652AIRs and the Covo S's, and I definitely prefer the B652AIRs. Having said this, the Covos are not bad if you only have $40 to spend on a set of speakers. 2. Where these speakers really struggle is in the mid-range frequencies. Voices are muffled and a little distorted. Listening to fiddles, guitars and bag pipes on tracks from Skeryvore is a joy, but once the vocals kick in you can instantly hear the shortcomings of these speakers. Again, I've heard worse, but for just $20 more you can get quite a lot better. 3. The grills are not magnetic! This is not a necessity, but is a very nice feature found on the Micca MB42 and 42Xs. Since it's not a deal breaker I put it in the 'so so' section. The Bad 1. My main complaint with these speakers is that they can't get very loud without noticeable, and even painful, distortion. I would not recommend them for a room larger than 12'x12'. My pair is connected to a SMSL SA50 amp - which is rated at 50WPC - and they struggle to fill my 20'x15' living room. You an hear them throughout the room, but sound becomes thing the father away you are. 2. As a bit of an ancillary, but still note-worthy, complaint; You have to bee at least a foot away from these speakers for optimal sound quality. Any closer than that and you lose treble and bass is a little embellished. As I write this review they are about 8" from my face and they don't sound as good as when I back up a foot or so. This is definitely something to keep in mind for your application. So...should you purchase the Micca Covo S speakers? Well, I would say that depends on two factors. 1. What is your budget? If it is just $40 then I'd say "yes." If you can spend just a little more look elsewhere. 2. What is your application? If you plan to use them in a small space where you don't have a lot of extra room and your room isn't too large they will work great. If you have the space and budget I'd definitely recommend upgrading to something like the Dayton B652AIRs or Micca MB42Xs. I've auditioned the MB42Xs and at twice the price of the Covos they are well worth it. They would be my main recommendation for budget hi-fi audio if you have a money and space. They need at least 8" of open space behind them for their rear port to function properly. This is something to keep in mind when choosing speakers for you space. My plan for the Covos is to use them in my bathroom connected to a Lepai LP-2020A+ amp and an Airplay receiver. The total cost for this system will be just under $90. I wouldn't want to spend too much more than this on a system that will be in such a humid environment. They Covos are a great choice for this application because they are fairly inexpensive, compact and sound good despite their price and size. THe reason I have given the Covo S speakers four stars is because of their lack-luster mids and inability to play that loud. Stay tuned for further updates on their long-term use. ONE MONTH UPDATE I just set these speakers up in my bathroom. I paired them with a Lepai 2020A+ amp and a cheap Airplay receiver. For this application they work great! I did not want to spend a lot of money on a system for my bathroom, but I still wanted decent sound. These speakers fit the bill perfectly! I am very happy with this system overall. The total cost was $78 plus the speaker wire that I had laying around. Much better than any iHome system you could get and about the same price. FIVE WEEK UPDATE Even thought It has not been a lot longer I still wanted to share a couple more flaws I've observed as of late. The first observation I've made is that the Covo S's do best with more acoustically based music. Genres such as jazz and big band really shine on these little cubes offering a nice soundstage with plenty of stereo separation. However, where they really seem to struggle is with rock music that is driven by electric guitars. The guitar tones come off a little muted and even distorted at times. I believe this is due to the size of the these speakers. Most smaller bookshelf speakers - and even some larger ones - struggle to properly reproduce the sound of rock music. I've also notice that the bass on these speakers sounds a bit strange. I believe that this is due to the fact that these speakers reproduce bass acoustically - meaning, they use rear porting and sound echoing rather than relying on large woofers with high excursion. This results in a more boomy rather than tight bass. This more evident in genres such as hip-hop, R&B and dance that have a punch bass track to them. Despite these newly observed flaws I'm still giving the Micca Covo S's a four star rating. I still believe that they are an excellent value. They really do work well in my bathroom setup filling the room with warm, pleasing sound. Stay tuned for further updates.

These are a great set of speakers for the price. i bought them for surround sound as the form factor and size is what i needed for my surround set up. After looking through the reviews i decided to go with these and i am glad i did. Build quality excellent. the speakers box looks well made and feels solid in the hand. the terminals accept banana plugs As main stereo speakers I wanted to test these out before i put them away as surrounds.So i replaced my Pioneer BS-22 fronts with these speakers and did a test with my sony reciever.I must say i was pleasantly surprised by the sound quality of these. The sound imaging was great and at times even felt like it was better than the huge pioneers to my untrained average user ears. These uses a concentric/coaxial design so you probably need a good amp to drive it. i will test this with my lepai and update this later. this little guy couldnt go as low as the pioneers in the bass dept but that was expected given the the size is less than an quarter(or 1/8th) of the pioneers As surrounds (my primary use) These work wonderful as surrounds. produces wonderfull presence sounds and it blends into the overall experience . I tested it out with the Saving Private Ryan beach landing scene and it was awesome The only problem i can see with this is lack of mounting options which is a handicap when it comes to use as satelite speakers. I happened to have a tiny stand with a small enough top to fit these speakers and i used some blu tac to fix it . To be fair to micca they didnt advertise it as satelite speakers so i wont reduce any points for that . it would be a cool to have some kind of mounting option with these speakers. if anybody is thinking about buying a Home Theater in a box system/soundbar, please do yourselves a favour and get a decent receiver and buy a Micca MB42x fronts and center with these as surrounds or if you dont have enough money get 3 pairs of these . it will be a much better value and of course you will have better chance of convincing your wife because they are sooo cute :) You can also pair these up with a powered sub to build a nice 2.1 set up . for the price they are a steal Update 7/17/2015 I still use them as my surrounds and they work great. i dont like to have bulky speakers for surrounds and this works good enough for me.I will keep the rating as i am completely satisfied for the price. I tried these with my lepai amp for my desktop setup because of the size factor .(Point it slightly up towards your ear for better sound) . The imaging is wonderful but quality is not as good as its big brothers(MB42Xs). For desktop set up you would be better of with those if you can spend 80$. For surrounds get COVO-S no need to spend more TL;DR :For a desktop setup. You will be much better off with its bigger siblings, the MB-42Xs. For surrounds these are great no need to spend more

I have a relatively "nice" setup normally at my home office setup using the bigger Micca MB42x's, DSP, Onkyo subwoofer, like its a decent piece meal together system. Hooked these COVO-S speakers up to my SMSL AD18 amplifier, and ran an old Altec Lansing 5.25" PC speaker subwoofer off the sub preout on my amplifier (using an 80Hz in line RCA crossover to it), and compared this setup to my current setup. The plan was to put these COVO-S speakers in my bedroom for a new editing station I'm setting up in there. These speakers do exactly what I wanted and then some. They're a very natural sounding (to me) speaker. No highs, no lows.......but actually a very pleasant sounding speaker. The tweeter is incredibly directional on these compared to their bigger brothers. It sounds very clean, and well in tune with the 3" woofer driver, but I wouldn't call it "crisp" or "bright", just a very nice sounding tweeter. The woofer has some excursion to it for its size, and plays well down to about the claimed 90Hz or so. It has fantastic mid-bass reproduction, past the capabilities of its bigger brothers actually in my opinion. Vocals and midrange are absolutely phenomenal. Compared to the bigger MB42x's, I'd say the bigger speakers obviously sound bigger, and they're much brighter with a wider sound stage, almost like they have a 24/7 smile EQ curve. These COVO-S's are a completely different type of "good" sounding, they sound flat. It's actually kind of nice for a change. Pair this with a SMALL subwoofer and an amp capable of at least 20w x2, and you'll have yourself a VERY enjoyable desktop setup. My home has the kitchen open floor with the living room, and I can hear them in the kitchen played at full blast from the living room office corner. But....that's just it, I can hear them. They're not LOUD in the kitchen at all, they're at basically "hey the TV is on and playing" volume level in the kitchen (to give you some idea of SPL at distance). The speakers on their own sound absolutely fantastic on a LOT of different things. You absolutely will notice that they're small though, so keep them in a smaller space and you'll enjoy them too. Overall, I'd say that these are a surprise if anything. I came into these speakers expecting a 3" 2 way speaker was ridiculous. Surely it'd sound like a tweeter only, maybe that plastic tinny rear surround sound speaker from the 1990's sound maybe if I was lucky. But no, these turned out sounding absolutely amazing as desktop speakers and really opened up with a subwoofer that digs down into the 30's gain matched to blend.

I looked a lot into these reviews before buying and let me say.. I agree with most of them (even the critiques.) If you buy these knowing it wont sound like $200 speakers out of the box for $49.99, then you'll be happy. If you add a sub and and EQ, these certainly sound better than some much more expensive speakers for a fraction of the price. And they can take the full 50W it seems. These speakers were perfect for my application as desk speakers. I have them powered on the stereo channels from and old LG mini 500W 2.1 setup. They sound acceptable without a subwoofer and do have the treble rolloff at higher frequencies that people have noted as well as a strong midrange and pretty decent bass. It gives them a very warm sound signature that is great for youtube videos or lecture videos if you're a student like me. I also like a warm sound for music, and many songs sound pretty good with my sub as a 2.1 setup. However, once I adjusted the EQ to add more treble at 2K hz and up, they sounded MUCH better and quite frankly, near phenomenal. Definitely worth the money to fit well on my desk, look good, give good imaging, and sound great. TLDR, if you watch a lot of youtube videos/lecture/podcasts, or you dont mind using an EQ on your music streaming service (to add more treble at 2K hz and up) for this application, you wont regret these for the value. Even better with a subwoofer.

I bought a set of these to run as atmos height channels in a 5.2.2 setup. I just wanted to dip a toe in before committing to buying more capable loudspeakers. I bought these because they were: A. Cheap B. Small C. Had a 1/4 mounting screw I had tested atmos with a pair of now ancient Cambridge SoundWorks Ensemble IV sats but was eager to return those to my other room where I had stolen them from and get something maybe a bit more dynamic. Z Reviews said these sounded good and would play loud so I gave them a shot. I figured they would have to be at least as good as my 20+ year old Ensembles First, the GOOD. 1. These are very well constructed save ONE issue which I will get into below. They are made from sturdy MDF with a decent vinyl wrap and firm fitting cloth grills. Inside you get what appears to be an actual crossover, a nice poly fill blanket and, around back, banana plugs instead of cheap spring clips. 2. They play fairly loudly despite having awful sensitivity (typical of a small speaker like this and not at all a reason I deducted stars). 3. They are actually a 2-way coaxial design and not a single full range driver as you might expect. Though that might not actually be a good thing as we'll see... Now for the BAD. 1. How do they sound? Not great. To be clear: I didn't expect a full range speaker. I expected a little cube to occasionally play effects or the odd voice. These little speakers are trying, desperately, to be full range speakers. They even have a port out back to extend the bass response. The issue is the bass sounds awful. It's bloated and congested and seems to actually harm the rest of the frequency range. If you are connecting these to an HT AVR you should cross them over as high as you can-- 150 is a help but 200Hz is better. Doing that will improve the sound a touch but the irony here is these never sound clear. Micca claims these cover 90HZ to 20KHz. I would have preferred a speaker that covered 150Hz to 18Khz but did so with more clarity and linearity. 2. The 1/4 mounting screw is a joke. It's not fitted securely and will rotate if you attempt to hang the speaker from it. The good news is you CAN fix this but doing so requires you to partially remove the driver with a hex key and then slip a socket wrench down through the opening to secure the other side. I thought maybe I was being too harsh on these. Despite plenty of recommendations for using these in surround / atmos setups maybe they were really not able to perform in that role. Before giving up on these I did connect them to my PC and ran them near field. Same issue as before-- you really need to bass manage these little guys to keep the distortion at bay. If you can cross them over nice and high with a little subwoofer I think they might make a nice desktop setup. The coaxial design does solve the issue of tweeter separation in near field. But my feeling is you could probably spend just a *little* more-- including a little more with Micca-- and get a better sounded speaker. The one thing these really have going for them is their small size. It used to be that you could find a decent selection of smaller satellite speakers but most of those have gone away now. This is one of the few options left and if I wanted to hide some speakers away in a room to play background music at low volume this would be high on my list.

So last week I ordered the new COVO-S speakers because I was curious about this new product from Micca. I wanted to see if these would follow the MB42x's example (especially for the $39.95 price tag) of a great value speaker. Well today they arrived and I have to say so far they are nice tiny speakers. Noticed I didn't say tinny...they actually pretty decent. I only have a few hours on them but so far they do very well for acoustic, jazz, new age and vocals. Let's be honest the low bass is pretty much non existent with a 3" driver but these do try the best they can. The port in the rear helps out some but still can't overcome the size of the driver and enclosure. I mean look at these things... they are a little rectangular box. Speaking of small size lets talk about the size as they are very small. They are very small because they have a "Concentric Driver" arrangement. This means the woofer and tweeter are all together. I guess that's Micca speak for coaxial. These speakers could be tucked in almost anywhere (but you want to give them some space on the backside for the port) you can imagine. Micca lists the size as such Dimensions: 5.1” (H) x 4.2” (W) x 5.1” (D) and I have no reason to doubt them. Just look at that folks I mean that's small. The MB42x speakers next to these look like giants! They also look like the little brother to the X's as they have the same vinyl wrap job and very similar looking grill. The grills are however, non magnetic but that's no big deal as they come off pretty easily and are held in place pretty well. No complaints about the construction especially for a $40 pair of speakers. One of the drawbacks I have noticed is that they are pretty height sensitive. If you want to get the best sound in the nearfield you need to have them at ear level. The MB's aren't nearly as sensitive to height/direction as these COVO's are. One other note so far is the tweeters. They are not the MB series tweeter...not even close. I had to put the high gain up on my receiver to compensate for lack of highs on these little guys. The highs are more subdued. Now this might change a bit as everything gets broken in but for right now they are not in your face like the MB's are. That doesn't mean they are bad just laid back. Overall I'm still breaking them in but for their size they don't sound bad. I really do think these will have to be paired with a sub to get a really good sound. The X's do not have to be with a sub but sound better if you do. I'm hoping after some more break in the highs will come up and the lows will come down a bit. Only time will tell but for $40 I thought it was worth the gamble. I'm hoping these will be the new go to 2.1 solution because of the cost. If nothing else they will do fine as rears in my HT setup. Update 1/6/2015 I played with them all night last night and came up with some new thoughts. * These sound better if you can get them a little further away. Put them at the back of your desk. Leave some room so the port can do it's job though. The lack of highs I noted seemed to go away as I put them further from me. * Bass seems to be coming into it's own as they break in. Classical, acoustic, jazz, soundtracks pretty much anything non bass heavy sound pretty amazing on these guys. * Vocals on the COVO's are very clear and If you wanted they could be used to make a very compact 5.1 system. Just get 3 pairs of these (about $120) with a sub ($100ish) and you're in good shape. * I took them apart and they do have a simple two element xover in them like the description says. They also had some poly stuffing and foam wrapped leads going to the speakers. Overall good construction for a $40 pair of speakers. Update 1/7/2015 * I really like the way these sound for acoustic and vocals . They really shine in those areas. However, they keep getting better and better. * I hooked up the sub to these guys last night just to see how it would sound and I'm impressed. I would have to say these with a Dayton Sub 800 make one heck of a budget combo. For about the price of a pair of BS-22's you can have a killer little 2.1 going on. Update 3/30/2015 * The COVO make great budget surround speakers but the tweeter and bass never really came in like I thought they were going to. These sound almost like full range speakers from a HTiB. * I don't think I would use these in any other fashion other than surround speakers. The MB42X's just blow these away in every aspect. I know they are twice as much but it really does pay off in spades. * I'm going to drop my rating to 4 stars as these aren't as versatile as I was hoping they were going to be. If you need something small and cube like for the rears and don't have a lot of money these are you guys. If you have any more space you'd do better with some BIC DV32's, or even regular Micca MB42's.

So, I'm quite early in my listening to provide a concrete assessment of these little speakers, but right off the bat: I really like them! Speakers, probably more so than any other purchase in audio, are extremely subjective. We all like what we like, often times unexplainable by science and / or what the design looks like on paper. The standard gamut of audiophile terms like "imaging", "sound stage" etc are all "nice", but I'll leave them out for now and just give my simple opinion... :) Of course, the best way to make a decision on a speaker purchase is to actually hear them for yourself first, but at this price-point, I would highly recommend giving these an "ear blind" chance. I did, and am now really glad about it! That said, I just wanted to mention that while researching these speakers, and now after hearing them, I think a majority of the negatives seen by buyers are VERY context driven. Many cited poor bass response, lack of power handling capability, lack of clarity, etc. Okay, quite frankly, these are not akin to a speaker like Cerwin Vega that can handle 500W RMS. Plain and simple, no. Also, this design is simply not meant for a far-field setup IMO. Even with a sub, I would not try to listen to these from any farther than a few feet away. Also, IMO, amplifier topology matters. I had seen some reviews referencing use with Class D amps, and sorry (opinion alert!) I have just never liked Class D, with any speaker architecture. Don't get me wrong, I think Class D can be great for certain applications, but for critical listening, not as much. Hook these up to a Class A or A/B solid state amp (or even a little single ended tube amp as I am listening to them with) in a near field arrangement, and I think they really have a nice natural sound. Now, for CONTEXT :). I tend to like somewhat mid-range heavy speakers (Magnepan etc), so that is my bias. I primarily wanted these to listen to jazz / acoustic / rock at low to moderate levels while working at my desk at VERY close range (~18"). For that, they are great so far IMO. On the other hand, if you are looking at these to listen to heavy metal, R&B, pop, hip hop, etc at near reference levels with a far-field setup, these are likely not going to do it for you. I have yet to try it, but I am doubtful that even pairing these with a sub would yield good results for those types of music / use cases. One last point of reference, my source / signal chain for this review is: Tidal MQA on Mac OS ==> iFi iDSD Black Label (via USB) ==> Musical Paradise MP-301 MK1 Tube Amp (via RCA) ==> COVO-S (16 AWG standard speaker wire w/ banana plugs). Hope this helps some of you that may be on the fence about getting these! I'll try to remember to come back with an update after a few months time.