Akai Professional RPM3 Production Monitors with USB Audio Interface

I bought these looking for an upgrade to basic PC speakers. The build quality is nice. Mid and high end seem just right. The bass is too much, though. The generated bass sounds very artificial and can overwhelm the higher frequencies. The funny this is that these come with a switch to add even more bass. I ended up plugging the ports with foam. Helps with the loudness of the bass, but makes it sound real hollow. Although I am let down a little bit, they're still a huge upgrade from my old stuff.

I purchased a nice pair of M-Audio BX5 D2s and I was super stoked to recieve them. M-Audio recieved RAVE reviews and their name was unparrelled. Once I plugged them in I became instantly disappointed!!! There was a high pitched humming sound coming from one monitor and the monitor was unresponsive. I sent them back. I recieved a second set and I had the same issue!!! I decided to pay the $70.00 for the Akai RPM3 monitors instead. I was not disappointed!!!For the price these are effective and versatile little monitors. They are very loud for the size of the monitors and think they have a perfect sound for reference monitoring your music. People complain these are too "boomy"...honestly I think they are nothing compared to the M-Audio speakers...those were REALLY "boomy". Turn off the bass boost switch in the back and these should do good for you. They are small, but the sound delivers a very satisfying sound. These are also ONLY 110V, so I had to use a transformer while I am in Europe...but a 100W transformer is super cheap...so no problem there.If you are looking for an inexpensive monitor at a great price...these little monitors deliver!!! You will not be unsatisfied!!!

I thought these would be good for desktop video editing. I was replacing a pair of M-Audio AV40s that I thought were broken. How do they compare with the M-Audios? A little cleaner, less bass, less punch. In the end, I'm not thrilled with either one. So what do I think of the Akai RPM3? A good value, but not great sound. I've decided I need to go up the price scale to find something I'll be happy with. The quality available at this price point just doesn't do it for me. But - here's the great news... USB audio!When plugged into the computer's sound card, the audio was pretty bad no matter how I tried to tweak the EQ. Very colored sound, bassline in most music missing. But, I tried the USB connection - quick setup in Windows 7 - and to my surprise under Control Panel>>Sound>>Playback>>USB Audio>>Properties>>Enhancement, a utility appeared called "Room Compensation"! Very much like most AV receivers, you can plug a mic into the computer (I just used my webcam), and Windows will run some test tones and calibrate the flattest eq curve possible! The results were astonishing!!! Still no weight to the bass at all, but the bassline was audible, at least and the midrange revealed very nice detail.I've decided I need to look for a better quality monitor with USB interface. The ability to calibrate the speakers using Windows 7 is too good to be true.

I have used MAudio AV40s for my home PC for four years, and love the sound fidelity and power, but I admit that I am rather suprised that my 40s lated as long as they have, as the rear of the speaker with the amp in it gets hot enough to fry an egg, and there is a doubt producing "THUMP" whenever they are powered off. Nevertheless, they are impressive speakers.When my old Creative T20s at work died, I considered getting an AV30 to replace them, but the many complaints of sudden death from users of that product and my own concerns over the AV40s created some doubts. Even worse, some reviews mention the new 20 Watt AV30s sound worse than the older models do. I decided to try somemthing from another maker, especially since at 10W per channel, the AV30 Mk II has no power advantage over its many competitors as the older 15W per channel MkIs did. (Though what's 5 Watts anyway, but that's another topic...)The Akai RPM3s are an excellent buy, and indeed appear to be the exact same speaker as the Alesis M1 Actives 320 USB, rebadged, in a different color scheme, and without selectable voltage, so check reviews for those speakers for other perspectives.Akai has minimal specs on their website, a trait shared with Alesis, and is sadly unresponsive to product inquiries. What I can discern from what is offered and my own observations is this: 10 Watts X 2, 3" woofer, 1" tweeter, speakers appear to be MDF, weigh about 3 lbs apiece. Amplifier class not identifed, minimal heat production suggests a Class D (no more egg frying as with MAduios A/B amps...)1 year warranty (though hopefully Akai responds to warranty claims with greater attention than they do to product spec inquiries...)Subjectively, these sound great, though the much vaunted USB interface did not work. On my PC, using the USB codec produced huge difference in sound from left speaker to right, to the extent that I though the right speaker had come out of the box blown. Switching over to the usual 1/8" inch plug produced normal balanced sound. No idea what the problem is here, but it could well be my junky work supplied PC, but USB use enthusiasts be forewarned...Similarly, as I did not use the USB recording interface, I have no idea how that works. The speaker has a full roster of inputs on the back of the right (amped) satellite. The included cables are very short. The speakers are connected with 1/8" wire, not speaker wire, and the cord is only about 2 feet long, so near field only use is the deal unless you get a longer 1/8" cable. Also, there is no PC to speaker 1/8" included, so if the PC USB to speaker interface does not work for you, as it did not work for me, you will need another 1/8" cable to make the alternate soundcard connection.Sound (once properly connected) is excellent. I played everything to test these little guys from death metal to jazz piano to classical guitar and it was all impressive. These are near-field speakers, so they have a sweet spot and will not fill a large room with thunderous sound, but if you are sitting at a desk and do not want to deafen yourself, these are plenty loud. (I like my music louder than most, but use these at only 30% volume and is more than enough for me.) Bass is a bit less than the AV40s, but midrange and treble is roughly comparable.If you are buying PC speakers to listen mostly to music, I doubt you will be unhappy with these. With Logitech's spurious claims of 200 RMS watt plastic speaker based systems that produce 75% of their sound from the sub, you may be tempted to go with something that costs more, thumps more, and is all plastic, but trust me, a real woofer / tweeter 2 way wooden speaker design with 20 honest watts of output will amaze you. Especially if you mainly listen to music. Compared to the Creative T20s, the Akai's beat them in all areas of sound, and cost 20% less. The Logitech Z623 (which I owned briefly) costs close to twice as much as these, and though it produces more thumping, is certainly much worse for musical playback.I would highly recommend these for people looking for speakers less than a C note, and for music fans. Akai loses points for not giving full specs or responding to customer emails, and the non-working USB output issue (which may not matter to many) is the only reason why I did not give these 5 stars.

Alot of the other reviewers give a good description of the product so I'll cut to the chase. At first these were decent speakers, decent price, decent sound. But after having them for less than 3 months I go to turn them on and I was welcomed with a very loud POP, and then they ceased to work. I take very good care of my electronics, I have a very good clean power surge protector, and never left them on when not in use. To have a short after 3 months is garbage! Save your money and buy the M-AUDIO MK40's, you will thank yourself later. side note: AKAI is a great company for contollers so dont let this reveiw carry over to there other products.

A lot of wires to and from . I have a laptop, so the usb and other plug in sites are cumbersome. You need a power strip to plug everything in.. . . These are better for a desktop application. They sound great however and provide good clear range of sound from low to high end .

I had the behringher £99 usb speakers and they failed after 1 year, these smaller speakers have a nicer sound I just hope they last :) so far so good (got these end of feb I think and its now mid august) I dont need to turn on the bass boost ever for music production, I used my own (decent) jack cable as the one provided was really short length (about wide enough to fit either side of a laptop) but I have them either side of 2 large screens now and they are amazing.

Very good sound quality and powerful sound

Lieferung gut Verpackung, na ja! Hatten wohl keine geeigneten Kantons mehr. Aber unbeschadet angekommen. Große Überraschung, weil kleine Monitore. Mit Skepsis sofort getestet. Diese kleinen Studioboxen leisten sehr viel. Sauberer Klang, kein Verzerren, kein pappiger Bass. Diese AKAI Professional RPM3 Monitore sind mittlerweile in meinen Schnittstudio fest installiert. Ich hatte vorher andere Studiomonitore. Doppelt so groß und deutlich teurer aber im Klang sehr schlecht. Ich hätte gleich auf AKAI setzen sollen. Meine volle Empfehlung!!

要エージングです。バランスの良いモニター、ステレオピン入力とUSB入力が同時に使えるのは便利です。

Arrivate 1 giorno prima del previsto,imballo originale AKAI.Questi monitor danno una risposta perfettamente lineare e grazie al collegamento USB tramite PC rende il suono pulito ( infatti questi monitor hanno una sua scheda sonora ).Ora le sto' testando oculatamente,purtroppo pero' le dovro' rendere in quanto hanno un difetto di stampa molto visibile ed essendo una persona precisa le voglio perfette.Una volta masterizzato una mia composizione la testero' su vari apparati quali: PC portatile,cellulari ecc.ecc.,in questo modo testero' l'effettiva funzionalita' di questi monitor,cioe' avere un punto di riferimento sonoro sicuro per le proprie produzioni,seguira' un'altra recensione.Grazie Amazon.