Alesis M1 Active 520 Reviews

4.7/5.0 based on 13 customer reviews

Sweetwater Advice

Simon Picazo

These are my main small monitor for my studio and my portable rig. Present, balanced, and surprisingly even across the spectrum. They will even fit in a 4-unit rack bag for portable recording.

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Customer Reviews

Damon Intrabartolo
from Phoenix, AZ
December 5, 2012Music Background:
Composer/Producer

Awesome Monitors

First of all, there's nothing easier or better than buying from Sweetwater. I've tried other companies - never again. Period. These M1s are my new favorite reference monitors. Great mid and high range and the bass evens out nicely. Surprisingly awesome product from Alesis.

Nathan Proctor
from South Florida
October 16, 2012Music Background:
Trumpet Player, Home studio Music Producer and Engineer

An insanely good monitor for an insanely LOW price!

I never thought for only $200 I could get a set of monitors that are built with such GREAT quality (these things are solid as a rock) and sound fantastic at the same time. The M1's make it blatantly obvious when your mix isn't up to par, which is just wonderful. If your your room is treated, (even a little bit!) these guys will shine. Well done Alesis, I am impressed.

G
from
August 28, 2012Music Background:
Professional Recording & Live Sound Engineer, Hobbyist Musician & Composer

Alesis Nailed It.

I've had these speakers for 2 years now. They still don't cease to amaze me. I've worked with Genelecs and Yamaha NS10s in a local studio, and my mixes on these always seem to translate well to both of them. They took me a while to calibrate to my room, but once they were, they were clear and definitively flat. I'll recommend these to anyone: studio engineer, musician, composer, audiophile, music lovers, and people who like music enough to fork over the dough. I even convinced a drummer friend to get these on speaker stands for his electronic drum kit at one point. As far as I know, he plays on that more than his acoustic kit these days. I got mine for $300, 2 years ago, and wasn't disappointed. Now they're $200. I'm considering getting another pair and a subwoofer to start a surround sound setup.

Richard
from E. TN
March 11, 2012Music Background:
Hobbyist

Great buy!!!

Well, took a chance on some inexpensive monitors and am really glad it was these!! Nice tight bass, crisp highs, and you can tweak mid range as well. Everything comes through very clear!!! This is the 1st pair of monitors I have ever owned and certainly didn't drive all over the country testing others. The only thing I can compare them to are a set of KRK;s that a friend of mine uses which are similar as far as size and power (not price), and I must say ,the M1 520's are tighter sounding, perfect for a small studio. Also, the power button is on top of the monitor, not in the back which is very handy. Worth every dime!

from
December 12, 2011

Great first time monitors

This is the first pair of monitors I've owned. I'm very impressed with the quality of sound that come out of them.

Don
from Conway, AR USA
December 1, 2011Music Background:
drummer/guitarist/bassist/sound geek

Look no further

On a budget? Look no further. I bought a pair of these along with an M-Audio Fast Track Pro with Pro-Tools MP software and have been having a blast. These are some great monitors, very true to the source.
Of course like any gear head I would've preferred the best of the best, but I am in no way disappointed. Great low-end handling; clean mids and highs even at max volume. The large clip indicating lights on top are nice.
I'm putting together a pretty cool little home studio thanks to Sweetwater.

Bruce Boatner
from Boise, ID
November 18, 2011Music Background:
Ex-professional musician, engineer.

Bang for the buck, you can't beat these.

If you've shopped around at all for studio monitors, you realize they ain't cheap! Build quality on these guys is great, and they are very handsome looking. I don't know if you can ever get a set of amped speakers that are completely quiet, but these have a very slight white-noise presence. Nothing major, really, and unnoticeable once you put a signal through them. However, several times I had one of the monitors suddenly increase its background noise significantly, but when I re-booted the unit it quieted down again. Not sure exactly what the cause of that might have been, but it hasn't happened again over the last couple of weeks. Bottom line, though: you can't beat them for the price, and I would consider them to be good for non-critical applications.

Walter
from New bern, NC
May 3, 2010Music Background:
Producer, Recording Engineer, Ministrul of Music, Pro musician

Best in class

I was looking for a accurate set of monitors under $500 and my sales engineer Simon Picazo recommended these. At first I was unsure how they would do in my studio because they were only 5" woofers. However, when I received them I still thought man these little speakers are not going to do anything. Hooked them up and man I was surprised at the sound quality and clarity I was getting from them. They are very flexible to because you can cut the bass, mids, or highs and change the accousitcs of the room. They are great monitor for the price and will help you get use to mixing music. I recomend them to anyone who is looking for a good set of monitors that will sound good and give above average flexibility. Once my studio gets bulit I will still use these along with my JBL LSP4300 series and Focals.

John Irby
from Winter Springs, FL USA
February 8, 2010Music Background:
former recording engineer

Good monitors for the $ disabled.

Okay, you are young, talented, but under (or un-) employed. You have a laptop, a cheap DWS and your mind is full of music, but you need a good sonic canvas to put them down.

These speakers, at $200 a pair, will get the job done for you struggling artists, without sending you to the local food bank. They sound clean, loud and reasonably detailed.

The Alesis M1 Active 520 are great entry-level home studio montiors.

ezc86
from Boston,MA
December 8, 2009Music Background:
Musician, songwritter, producer, composer, recording artist

Impressive

i had origonally bought the alesis m1 320s and i was shocked at how powerful they were for their size. So I decided to upgrade to the 520s and i'm glad I did. When mixing, I personally dont like having too much bass frequencies, so what i did was cut the low on my monitors and I did the trick for me. I get a very good natural response from them. They are great monitors and I will recomend them to anyone.

drdiode
from sharon, nd
August 16, 2008Music Background:
pro musician, recording engineer

love 'em

I bought these as I needed some small, reasonably priced monitors for my studio. I have to say that I am quite impressed. Lows are tight and focused, with plenty of detail in the mids and highs. What is really nice is that they can be set up for different listening environments via the switches on the back that allow you to tailor the frequency response to suit your needs. No doubt these aren't the smoothest or most detailed monitors in the world, but I have done a lot of mixing on them and the results have held up very well when listening to those mixes on other systems ie. boombox, car stereo, TV speakers, other reference monitors etc. In other words, they do what they are supposed to, at a very decent price.

Thomas Sneddon
from Toms River,N.J.
January 4, 2008Music Background:
Veteran Recording Hobbyist,Keyboardist & Audiophile

One Of Alesis's Best Products

My purpose for these monitors are for my home theatre set up,but they are amply worthy of a studio enviroment!
A realistic & punchy amount of bass for thier size & crisp highs as well.
The acoustical space switch,coupled with the 3 band EQ switches make these monitors the most versital & desirable montitors you can find for thier price point!
And to top it all off,they are beautiful in appearance,as they compliment my room very well...I am so thrilled with these monitors-definately $200 well spent!!

Leonardo Horovitz
from Montevideo, Uruguay
August 7, 2006Music Background:
Live sound technician, telecomunication engeneering student

Great!

I liked them very much. They sound great for their size. They respond from about 45 Hz.
I bought them to listen to music in my room, because I was looking for good active speakers, in a small size.
They are loud enough, and have an amazing response in medium and high frequencies.