Aimed securely at home and project studios as well as workstations, M-Audio has launched their new affordable Forty Series. With modern appointments and aerodynamic styling, they offer a lot of speaker and features at an entry level price point. Intended for near field monitoring, the Forty Eighty is a bi-amped powered speaker that sends 80 watts to an 8” woofer and 70 watts to a 1.25" high-frequency driver.
The front-panel offers a switch with three listening modes: Flat for reference monitoring, Hype for “consumer-style enhanced listening,” and Custom EQ for personalized audio profiles. The flat setting sounds good on its own and is intended to provide a listening experience for mixing that is neutral so that your mixes translate accurately to the real world. The Hype setting provides a substantial bass boost with a moderate treble boost and is fun for a more beefy listening experience. This setting sounded good on a variety of different styles of music, and the low end was surprisingly deep. You could also use this setting to impress a client for a playback, as the Hype setting really fills the room. The Custom EQ setting is adjustable via Bluetooth 5 through the M-Audio Forty Series Control app. This feature has a five-band EQ that can switch the bands from Parametric EQ or Shelf EQ to optimize the speakers for your listening space or taste. The app was able to scan and find the speakers automatically and quickly with no pairing problems.
The speakers have XLR and 1/4” inputs and can also be paired for streaming playback. The pairing mode is activated by a switch on the front of each speaker and appears as a different Bluetooth device than the app’s Custom EQ feature in your iOS phone or tablet. Again, setup was clean and simple.
The speakers are quite impressive sounding for the price point and offer a positive monitoring experience, clean and clear and not tiring. They are focused and offer precise imaging. Useful from a utilitarian standpoint or to impress clients, their sound transcends their low price.
Also available is the smaller Forty Sixty, with a 6.5” woofer and a 1” high-frequency driver with 60 watts LF and 40 watts HF for smaller studios. Forty Eighty $299; Forty Sixty $199
