However, that tiny woofer--half the size of the one on the AV 40--is the problem. The Studiophile AV 20 miniaturized the sumptuous production of "Paper Moon" from Whiskeytown's Pneumonia album. The strings and percussion instruments sounded harsh, and Ryan Adams' vocals were likewise undernourished. The bright sonic character was present regardless of the type of music we played. And since the speakers don't have bass and/or treble controls, we were stuck with that sound (or forced to adjust it at the source).
We did a shoot-out with Creative's GigaWorks T40 speaker, which is about a third larger than the Studiophile AV 20. The differences between the Creative and M-Audio weren't huge, but the larger speaker was less bright, with a bit more bass oomph. We first listened with the T40's bass and treble controls set "flat," and after we adjusted the controls to our liking, the Creative pulled further ahead. Back with the Studiophile AV 20, Tom Petty's "Square One" from his Highway Companion just sounded overly bright, without much bass support--even by PC speaker standards.
We also put the AV 20s up against the $90 Bose Companion 2 Series II--and found the M-Audio product to do a better job. Overall, the M-Audios delivered a somewhat cleaner, crisper sound, free of the noticeable sibilance exhibited by the Bose. That said, the evaluation was more a confirmation of the Bose's weakness than the M-audio's strength. And the Bose models did include the second input and headphone jack missing on the M-Audio.
The bottom line is that we were disappointed. The M-Audio Studiophile AV 20s are serviceable PC speakers, but they lack the capability of their more powerful--and admittedly more expensive--brethren in terms of delivering deep bass. That 2-inch woofer just couldn't keep up in our tests, producing a sound that was comparatively thin. True, not everybody can fit a large pair of speakers on their desks, and the smaller ones deliver comparatively thinner sound. Still, if you're looking for that ideal pair of powered speakers to use with any sort of nonamplified audio device (PC, iPod dock, CD player), we'd stick with the $150 M-Audio Studiophile AV 40s or $100 AV 30s, and accept their larger size as a worthwhile compromise for the improved sound quality.
What You'll Pay
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