AvantoneAudio MixCubes Full Range Mini Reference Monitors - Pair

The guy before me says these things sound great. Yeah right, these are the worst sounding speakers ever. They make me ill. I have to take a break from them at times and gag. They have no bass, no treble. They reveal everything bad in the mix like a magnifying glass. Your gonna try so hard to make your track sound good through these when mixing, your end product will surely sound great on good, full range speakers. These speakers don't sound even close to as good as ipod docks, computer speakers, boom boxes, stock car stereo's, or even the p.a. speakers at your high school. Just what I needed, speakers that don't flatter me.I've been spending my first few days with these just comparing my mixes with some friends of mine, and of course commercial, pop stuff. These things really reveal the differences in vocal recording quality. I can hear a real difference from studio to studio, mic to mic, preamp to preamp and mastering jobs. They seem to reveal differences in dynamics especially well.On the construction side, good looks, great binding posts, good color. I wish the speaker cones had some kinda protection tho. I'm really paranoid about the them being so venerable. I had thoughts of adding my subwoofer to them, but i probably won't. I just can't hardly stand to listen to these things but i know there good for me like brussel sprouts.I was hoping they would have came with individual frequency plots and maybe some t/s parameters. Individual testing and pair matching would be nice.This is my first purchase from Avant Electronics but it won't be my last. I'm lookin at their mics now. I think these guys got somethin' special goin' on over there.

I had been looking for a pair of studio monitors. I found these at a good price, and, since Amazon works with my bank's reward points, I could get them for (practically) free. So I ordered them.Wow. Totally mixed feelings about this order. On the one hand the speaker was just as advertised: small, beautiful, sounded fantastic.But there was only ONE! Nowhere did it say that this passive speaker was a singleton. Not in the picture, not in the description. In fact, it is labeled as being a "(pr)". It is referred to as "MixCubes," not "MixCube" and "pr" to me means "pair." Doesn't it to you too?The price of $269 is for ONE?? At Sweetwater.com that's the price for two. I went to Ebay, bought the same thing for $200.Beware of this seller.

Reviews of the avantone audio mix cubes seem very comparable with the legendary Auratones of the mid 70s. Are there optional colors other than yellow?

Hi Joshua - I'm sorry about the mess with your order. The product you ordered is sent to us boxed as pairs. Your order was shipped from Amazon's warehouse and I guess they opened the boxes at some point. Nonetheless, the refund for your order has been processed already Again my apologies for all of the hassles, and I look forward to hearing back from you. Sincerely, Tim BrownTim and I talked on the phone and worked out everything. They gave me a one time better price for my troubles.

I grew up using Auratones, having been taught to use them for setting levels, especially for vocals. When Auratone went out of business, I still had two pair, but the cones eventually wore out. I was hesitant to buy Avantones, but glad I did. I've now been using them for six months, and they are really an excellent, fully functional substitute for the classic Auratone cube. They're just a bit warmer in the low end, which is good. I have no reservations about using and recommending these.

Naked music, nothing added. No better or worse than the truth you produce. If you sound good through these, you sound good!

Back in the heyday time of audio recording where you had to take live players into a recording studio, one of the biggest joys was hearing music on the huge soffit speakers that were super amplified by great amplifiers. And...it was always loud. What a treat.Stereo had been around for a while, but FM radio was still a novelty. AM radio was the major method of listening to music so every mix had to be checked for mono compatibility. The sound quality of the old AM radios really sucked (although no one knew it at the time) and the radio that came standard in your car was even worse. To make sure your record was going to be as good sounding as possible, most every studio had small speakers sitting on the mixing console that only had one driver, usually about 4-5 inches and powered by a small power amplifier. The philosophy was, if the mix sounded good on these little speakers, it would sound great on a true "Hi-Fi" outfit (Hey! That's what they were called back then.). This was also the test when the audiocassette hit the market and became even more popular when "boom-boxes" were the current rage. The choice of "test" speakers for most studios was a small product known as Auratones. The company, and the speakers, are both long gone.Technology has changed a bit since then and the quality of the car radios has greatly improved dramatically (some are even better than the old home systems). Stereo is now the norm and surround is the next big change on the horizon. With the move to home recording, using a DAW loaded with great software, everyone wants the best monitors they can afford. Great! The home studio now sounds nearly as good as the old analog joints where we used to hang and make music. Vinyl has virtually disappeared, you really can't find a pre-recorded cassette in any store, and portable CD players are being replaced by the iPod. Most new cars even have jacks on the radio that allows you to plug your iPod into the factory system. What's a guy to do?While the iPod is much better quality than AM radio or cassettes, it does lack the quality of most CDs. So, how now to get a great sounding mix that is compatible with the mp3 format? Aha, he exclaimed. Check your mix on the new MixCube monitors from Avant Electronics. They are the closest monitors to the old Auratones imaginable. The quality is higher than the old jobs, but it matches the mp3 quality very well and will provide a very accurate example of what your mix will sound like on an iPod.I used a pair on my home system (PC running Nuendo and ProTools LE) and ran them through an old Crown amp with 60 watts per side. Wow! These babies sounded great and gave me the right perspective for an mp3 mix. I took the MixCubes over to my buddies professional recording studio and we hooked them up to his QSC amps at 200 watts each. I was floored by the sound and my buddy John smiled and nodded his head to the beat. He happens to be a singer-songwriter, so he pulled up one of his latest recordings in Pro Tools. He stopped smiling. He realized he needed to touch up a couple little items that now glared in his face (or ears, as the case may be). We made the adjustments to his mix and played it back through his Genelec system. His smile returned and he nodded his head once again. A happy man. We copied the mix to his iPod and played it back in his car after playing his original. The MixCube mix sounded much better than the first and proved to be more accurate (his acoustic guitar sat much better and his vocal was out front at a good level).In my music career, I've been privileged to record in most of the world's finest studios and have worked mostly at EMI/Abbey Road Studios in London. I always walk away with the greatest mixes and they are always tested on an old pair of Auratones. At many of the small, private studios I've used over the last couple years (my home rig included), I've been terribly disappointed when playing the mix in my car, on an iPod, or at a friend's house. It just never quite sounds right. I've added the MixCubes to my kit.Whether you're working at home, using a professional recording studio, or you are a studio owner, if you're serious about your mixes you really owe it to yourself (and your clients) to have a pair of MixCubes on your meterbrdige. You'll be very glad you did.Anthony Adams - Producer/Engineer (Feb., 2007)