Dynaudio Acoustics BM5A Active Nearfield Monitor
6.9 in. polypropylene woofer; 1.1 in. soft dome tweeter. 100 watts.
Overall User Ratings (based on 68 ratings)
Submitted July 24, 2007 by a customer from umd.edu
"AMAZING PRODUCT"
Verified Customer
zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
The best investment I've made in my studio so far. If you're trying to design a relatively inexpensive project studio I wouldn't trust anything else. As with anything, there is a rolloff curve with price to performance. If you spend half of what you spend on these, you will have a significantly worse sounding product, whereas if you spend 20 times what you spend on these, the improvement in sound quality will only be noticeable to the most distinguishing of engineers.
Sound
Sound is incredible, I was worried about the bass response since it rolls off at 50hz but the low end is very very clean and transparent.
Features
Has filters on the back that let you get the sound perfect for your situation.
Ease of Use
Plug and play. FYI: get Mogami gold XLR to TRS cables, virtually no degradation of sound.
Quality
From the woofer materials to the casing, it's all top notch. No cheap metal screens here like in the m-Audio models.
Value
They sound like they cost 5 times what they do.
The Wow Factor
Very chic, no awkward bright trim that clashes with your room design.
Musical Background:
Active Musician
Musical Style:
Hip Hop, Electronica, Alternative
27 of 28 people (96%) people found this review helpful. Did you?
Thanks for your opinion!
Submitted February 8, 2009 by a customer from yahoo.com
"Don't be fooled by their size!"
Been using these for a number of weeks now as a second reference set of monitors. I have these hooked up to my general PC where I do most of my casual listening on. I use Behringer Truth 2031A's as my main monitors with my DAW. I was lucky enough to get my BM5A's for $404 each brand new. When you get them it is essential to break them in. When you first hook them up the mid's might sound a little scooped, or different then what you're used to. This goes away and flattens out after playing music for hours over two or three days through them! After the break in period they are perfect. I found in my room, which is fully Auralex treated, that I had to set the switches to: bass +2 and treble +1. With the switches in that position the sound appears to be correct. Don't be afraid to use the switches to boost! With the bass at +2 these things really can kick. A rating down to 50hz doesn't mean you don't get anything lower, it just means it starts to drop below their rating of +/-3db. As I mentioned I use these as a second reference. I love my Behringer Truths and that's why they're my mains. But these are a great set to double check my mixes on and would also make a great set of mains. I highly recommend these speakers, and I've tried so many, even the BM15A's. Just make sure to break them in before you judge them!
Musical Background:
Musician, Recording Engineer
Musical Style:
Industrial, Electronic, Nu-Metal, Gothic
7 of 13 people (54%) people found this review helpful. Did you?
Thanks for your opinion!
Submitted October 12, 2007
"these are sure, not crystal clear!"
I will replace it,
Sound
beautiful.... bass and midrange...But tiring tweeter...all the music has a tendency to be washed in high frequencies rather than crystal clear...the wash of reverb hi's sounds twice as loud on these as on my genelec. whereas some of the mid range seems to be very slightly attenuated. synth flutes and throaty electronic warbles sometimes come across as whispy and relegated to the background and they were clearly mastered to be straight on a level with the rest of the sounds.
altogether I am pretty surprised at the marks this is getting, I have good hearing in the upper ranges so that a lot of music sounds like it is poorly mastered by someone who can't hear the highs properly.
I'm afraid I would class these as having bright and muddy washy upper ranges...to be honest, you might also say that most commercial speakers tend to have a very bright showy hi's , but this is not at all what you call a crystal tweeter. it's breathy wishy and radio-static-noisy. genelec sound like they have some kind of clean hi's filter compared to these, and yet on the genelec you can pick out all the details fine, and more precisely.
maybe I have to blast some sound through these for a couple of weeks to break them in? I think everything is very clear and you can hear all the details, but some of the details are twice as loud as others-what is the point? the sennheiser HD 600 also rock compared to these IMHO...
they are up about half as loud as the genelec, which are sound bombs.
Features
no volume control, no grill, you wouldn't be taking these to a gig or putting them in a bag at any point without wrapping them up for about an hour first.
that said the controls on the back a very high quality, some basic global and frequency selective boosts and cuts.
check out the dimension's.
Ease of Use
perfectly normal except bigger bit precarious and unprotected
Quality
the build quality is perfect really for what is there, considering the materials used, the size, extras, etc.
just high-quality rock solid heavy ported cabinets with the exposed cones.
Value
sorry I was amazed that something with tweeters like this can fetch so much money...where is this hype coming from?
say number three lots of times! That is what they sound like! theriouthly!
Manufacturer Support
one-year warranty, haven't had to call, fairly good packaging, the dinky polystyrene frame inside the cardboard arrived a bit cracked all over it will be a case of keeping it together with sticky tape before it obliterates.
The Wow Factor
who wants mine?
Musical Background:
sound designer
Musical Style:
ALL
6 of 24 people (25%) people found this review helpful. Did you?
Thanks for your opinion!
Please wait.