PreSonus Eris 3.5 Studio Monitors, Pair

Let me first start by saying that this is not my first pair of small near-field monitors. I’ve owned two other pairs of similarly-sized monitors in the past, both of which sounded like cheap junk. These days, I do my listening and mixing on a pair of Yamaha HS8s on two isolating stands in a very dampened (though largely untreated) bedroom, but I needed a slightly more portable pair of speakers that could accompany my laptop and a small interface to production sessions away from home. I wanted something with above-average sound quality at a price that wouldn’t hurt my feelings if they somehow got damaged during transport.

I read tons of reviews both here and at every reputable pro-audio retail website, and chose these over every other similarly priced and sized model because of their consistently glowing reviews. Of course, I was still skeptical because I have a hard time trusting the opinions and expectations of others when it comes to reviews on entry-level studio monitors. As a self-proclaimed “reasonable audiophile” and someone who has been producing and mixing music for a little more than 10 years now, I’m sure even my credentials (and my ears) will come into question during this review, and they should. It’s always best to be skeptical about the type of claims I’m going to make here, especially when it comes to speakers or headphones that you haven’t personally had the opportunity to audition before buying. Keeping that in mind, here are my thoughts on the Eris E4.5 monitors.

Wow.

At the time I purchased these, they were selling here for just under $200. I feel comfortable saying that these are the unicorn exception to the “you get what you pay for” rule of audio equipment. They don’t blow me away in the same way that larger, more expensive speakers often do, but to say that I was initially stunned by the sound of these speakers would be an understatement. Because I purchased these speakers for mixing, I was most interested in how they perform at low-to-moderate levels. They certainly get loud enough to fill a room with sound, even uncomfortably loud in the right room, but I’ll never need them to be that loud.

At a level just slightly above the volume of the average speaking voice, these things sound unbelievably good for their size. The bass and sub-bass response isn’t going to shake your foundation, but it’s more than good enough for my purposes. They feel sturdy and don’t have a lot of strange resonances that are difficult to work around; they don’t “ring” a lot when you rap on them with your knuckles. The included adhesive foam pads didn’t do anything special in terms of isolation, but they stick well and helps them to not slide around so easily on a smooth surface. If you really need to isolate these from the surface they’re sitting on, just spring for some Auralex or a pair of small desktop stands.

On the whole, they perform well across the frequency spectrum. They’re far from flat, but they’re also nowhere near as colorful as other similar small near-field monitors I’ve used; make no mistake, this lack of extreme coloration is a very good thing. They really shine in the midrange and treble frequencies, though. At low volumes, they deliver audio with impressive clarity. If you’re working a quiet room, you should have no trouble hearing your changes on these little workhorses.

I’ve already traveled with them once; took a trip to a cabin in the mountains and these had no problems keeping up when inspiration struck. I produce primarily electronic rock music, so being able to hear and understand what’s going on at the bottom of the mix is extremely important in most of what I do. Again, the bass won’t rock the house, but it’s there and it gives you just what you need if you know what to listen for.

When they’re at home, they’re hooked up to my turntable; a very modest AT-LP120 and a MicroPhono preamp (yes, the Behringer unit). The manual included with these monitors states that you should use the on-board “low cutoff” control to attenuate the bass frequencies if you plan to back them up close to a wall, but I’ve gotten the best results by ignoring that advice, leaving that switch at 0 and keeping them about 2″ from the wall atop a bookshelf. I’ll need to upgrade at least two other parts of my vinyl chain before I can feel like it has outgrown these speakers.

To sum this all up, these monitors sound far better than they have any right to, considering their size and at the price they’re being sold for. I won’t waste your time waxing poetic about the subjective, unquantifiable aspects of the sound these monitors produce, but I can’t emphasize enough that you’ll get more than your money’s worth out of these. If you have realistic expectations of what near-field monitors of this size and price will sound like, you’ll probably be just as impressed as I was.

Llego antes de lo esperado y era algo mas grande de lo que esperaba pero no me importo, cuando lo conecte retumbaban mis ventanas, lo configure y su sonido es excelente mi estudio es de 3 x 4m y no tengo que subirle mucho de volumen tengo monitores presonus 3.5 y se complementan de maravilla, la mejor compra que he hecho

Pra o valor ela atende bem … tem uma pegada mais grave ..pra um home pequeno vai atender bem demais

Si buscas un buen sonido sin tener que invertir en unos monitores Yamaha HS 5, esta es una excelente opción. Yo los uso para edición de video y me han funcionado bastante bien. Algo que me convenció es el hecho de tener entrada de audio de 5 mm frontal a diferencia de los Yamaha, entonces puedo conectar el audio de la laptop sin necesidad de una consola.