Price Paid:  $600.00 from Used/Craigslist

Summary:
My friend composes music with these, ever since I saw & heard them, I fell in love. These monitors have a very unique sound, very clear... very natural. They do exactly what they are advertised to do: reproduce sound accurately.

I've had my share of high-end audio and still have nice equipment at home. However, I needed something for my office. I know its overkill, but thats just me. I decided to pick up a set as you just cant go wrong with these monitors.

Strengths:
Excellent Clarity. Powerful. Not tiring to listen to, very easy on the ears. Fairly compact and efficient. Excellent build quality, design and layout.

Weaknesses:
Honestly, I really cannot think of any way to improve this design. Mackie recently came out with the MKII version of these speakers and I dont care for their modern appearance. The classics work like a charm and are SUPER easy to disassemble (if need be).

Price Paid:  $1000.00 from Dolphin Music

Summary:
I'd been extremely impressed with Mackie mixers which are incredibly clean sounding units which are ideal for digital studios - so I was confident that these active monitors would sound better than the Alesis Monitors that I'd been using for some years. However I was not prepared for quite how astonishing the difference was when I first powered these babies up. Albums that I thought I knew well were like listening to them fresh - instruments which were inaudible previously now all leaped into focus and the clarity across the entire frequency spectrum was a true revelation.
These near field monitors are by far the best investment I've made in my studio - and everyone who listens to them is amazed at how their favourite tracks are suddenly given a new lease of life.

Strengths:
Incedible clarity across the frequency range, bargain price, matched monitors when you get a pair. Active so no amp to speakers compatability issues. Great options for matching to your room placement.

Weaknesses:
Only weakness is these are near-field and I've not managed to find anything as good as these for general music listening in the living room. As with all near-fields if you go out of the sweet spot you don't get the full effect - but for a studio or either side of your monitor you will be impressed.

Price Paid:  $1158.00 from AMS

Summary:
When critical listening is paramount, these speakers get the job done. I used them for years in College (go Columbia!) along with speakers twice their price or more--Genelecs, Tannoy, Adam audio--and these baby's held their own. They are considered the minimum for professional mixes with their transparent high's and fairly flat lows. It helps that the woofer is 8.75 inches across and it goes flat down to 37Hz! + or - 1.5db 37Hz to 20Khz.

Strengths:
ruler flat response.
Major power-two amps in each speaker 100w rms to woofer and tweeter.

Weaknesses:
Made in China, used to be made in America. Shame on you Mackie.

Similar Products Used:
Genelec, Tannoy, Adam Audio, Yamaha ns10m