PreSonus
Eris Series E8 Studio Monitors – appx $250/each (street)
PROS: Great sounding, easy to tune to music styles and room configuration.
CONS: None.
There are a lot of manufacturers getting into the monitor business; some don’t have a background in professional audio, and it shows. PreSonus has been in the game for years, and their Eris studio monitors prove again why their name is so respected.
Encased in a nice, rugged enclosure are a 1” silk-domed tweeter and an 8” Kevlar speaker for low-end support. Below that, a front-facing acoustic port. The rear panel is loaded with input gain, and high frequency and midrange driver adjustment controls. Low frequency cutoff selection, and acoustic space adjustment controls as well as connections to the usual XLR, 1/4” and RCA connections are also located on the rear panel.
Right out of the box, these sound fantastic, with plenty of range, response and dynamics. The real deal, though, is the tuneability for the room, and the type of music (you engineers and home studio producers are gonna love this). The Acoustic Space setting control can really change the interactions of the frequency driver adjustments, and get the monitors to mimic the responses of other speakers, such as a home audio system, car speakers or even a portable speaker. When mixing tracks, having the option to switch between these settings and adjustments can give a better mix across a broader range of listening devices and settings.
The best word to describe these speakers in a nutshell is, WOW. Even better is the street price. Look, there are other brands out there that cost twice as much, and don’t have the same components and sound quality, adjustability and overall value for the money. These come highly recommended.
FEATURES
-8-inch Kevlar low-frequency transducer
-1-inch (25 mm), ultra-low-mass, silk-dome, high-frequency transducer
-140 watt Class AB biamplification (75W LF and 65W HF)
-Front-firing acoustic port for superior bass-frequency reproduction
-RF interference, output current limiting, over-temperature, transient, and subsonic protection
-Optimized, resonance-suppressing internal bracing
-Balanced XLR and 1/4-inch and unbalanced RCA inputs