As you may know, I owned M-Audio's SP-8B reference 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.
Of course another problem was that my speakers and my ears make a too small triangle, due to space limitations. The speakers were only three feet (or about 100 centimeters) apart from each other.
So, tired of their small sweetspot, I called the store I got them from (Dijkmans Muziek) and asked if I could change them for the newer BX8, which replaced the discontinued SP-8B. The salesman agreed, he told me to take them home and keep the pair that worked for me. I was very happy with this, since I had been using the SP-8B monitors for more than six months.
The BX8 monitors are just a hint smaller than the SP-8Bs They are are 14.97 inches high x 9.85 inches wide x 11.82 inches deep. But, they are a bit more powerfull. Whereas the SP-8Bs had a 45 watt amp to drive the tweeter and a 55 watt amp for the driver, the BX8 have a 65 watt amp for the tweeter and a 65 watt amp for the driver. The crossover frequency is lower at 1.25 kHz where the SP-8B crossover is 1.8 kHz. I'm not sure whether this is an improvement, since it now sits directly in the vocal range.
The BX8 do not have the movable tweeter that the SP-8Bs had, but now they have incorporated four 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 80 Hz (for when working in conjunction with a subwoofer) and an acoustic space switch, which basically relatively boosts anything under 500 Hz.
By listening to a CD on the SP-8Bs and the BX8s, 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-8Bs rely too much on their tweeters.
How do the BX8 sound? Well, first the similarities with the SP-8Bs: There is a nice, defined low-end, with maybe a slight bump around 100-120 Hz. But on the whole, the low end sounds tight, kickdrums and bassguitars are produced very good. There is an open and clear high end. Cymbals and acoustic guitars really splash, without sounding harsh. The imaging is good.
The BX8 are quite a dash brighter than the SP-8Bs. That's why one should really set the high frequency switch to -2 or -4dB. The provided frequency response charts also show this brightness. Whereas the frequency plot of the SP-8B was a pretty even, wavey line (within 4dB boundaries), you can see on the BX8 plot that there's a 3 to 5dB rise after 5 kHz. Also it rolls off pretty fast after 16 kHz, whereas the SP-8B plot continues pretty normal to 20 kHz. Ofcourse, this is paper, not real sound, but the BX8s do sound brighter. It's a pretty nice bright, 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-8Bs. 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 cookie cutter. 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.
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 focused on the vocal range (which probably has to do with a differently chosen cross-over point). 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. In the United States, it's an even better deal, as most stores sell them for $479, which I think is a steal.
Bottom Line: Recommended as a first or second set of monitors. Street price is $479.
Links relating to this review:
