Great Monitors!

These things are perfect for my needs. I needed some monitors to double for my pc and korg sv-1 without needing a separate device in between. I was skeptical about the built in usb interface, but it works great. Very flat and clear sound. I am really not sure what the other reviewer's reference point is. These aren't genelecs, they are 200 dollars and do wonderfully at that price.

Alesis M1 Active 520 USB

Very happy with the 520 usb. I don't even use the bass boost switch, just the right amount of bass without it. The mids, the highs, seem to be all here. I get my sound close with my headphones, then fine tune the mix with the 520 s. In use in a small studio(11x12) just the perfect set of monitors for me. For $200.00 and three payments, awesome.

Good But bass does drop at 56hz range

Good for the price, but cant punch out low bass tone. being an amateur hip hop music maker, this was supposed to be the center piece for my mobile setup. disappointed. purchase krk's or look for a separate sub!!!

Not so great monitors

I was excited to got these but soon disappointed since when listening to them everything seemed dull. So I ran a set of test frequencies through them. Wow! Alesis claims 56 to 20,000Hz but in reality they start dropping off significantly below 85Hz and above 7Khz.

In my opinion, that makes them very expensive for quality akin to a $30 pair of desktop speakers.

Also, be warned that since they are veiwed as direct speakers by your PC, you have no way to EQ anything. My built in 7 band eq works on outboard speakers but not on USB speakers.

I sent several emails to Alesis asking about the por performance but never got a response.

I obviously returned them and won't be looking at Alesis speakers again.