Micca MB42X

Over the past few months I have been on a quest for the best budget audiophile bookshelf speaker system. So far I have tested the Fluance SX6's, Dayton Audio B652's, B652-AIR's and these MIcca MB42X's. The Micca are an incredible value and one of my top picks. DESIGN Some would call the design of MB42X's understated, boring even, but it's not terrible. They are your typical MDF speaker boxes with a flat, vinyl black coating. The 3.5 woofers step the look up a bit with carbon fiber. The tweeters are behind a vinyl dome and look nice as well. ONe of my favorite design elements is the magnetic speaker covers-which snap into place with a satisfying 'pop' sound. The MB42X's certainly won't win any design awards, but their understated design will look nice on most desks or speaker stands. One final note about their design, I really like the fact that they accept banana plugs. I'm not a huge fan of the spring-type wire jacks on most cheaper speaker (e.g. the Daytons). I was able to easily fit Aurum double-screw-type banana plugs into these speakers. This touch just makes the speakers seem a little more expensive than they actually are. SOUND This is the reason we spend hours researching the internet reading reviews such as this one. What does this speaker sound like? Is it worth dropping the asking price on it? With the MB42X's the answer is an emphatic "YES!" To date I have not heard speakers that sound this good for less than $100, let along $80! They have beautifully crisp highs and get quite low for their size. I was able to get them down to 40Hz with a little distortion, but 50Hz was absolutely spot on! I was amazed at the lows they could produce for such a small speaker with only a 3.5" woofer. I think the fact that they are ported helps a lot here. I had mine about 12" from the wall and I found that was about a close as one would want them in order to get the most out of their woofer and port. Where these types of speakers usually fail is in the mid range. Since they are basically a tweeter with a small sub they often struggle to produce accurate mid-range frequency. Although not perfect the Micca's are one of the better mid-range producing speakers I've heard for this price. Vocals are clear and smooth while tenner and baritone instruments really shine with accurate reproduction. As I type this I am listening to "Born To Run" by The Boss and Bruce's voice sounds like I imagine it would if I was in the studio. The tenner sax is clear and fills my 12x14' bedroom. Beyond this, the MB42X's produce and amazing soundstage. When I played "Royals" by Postmodern Jukebox Scott Bradlee's voice sounds like it is coming from center stage. The band sounds as if it is behind him with the piano on back right and the drum kit on back right. I can close my eyes and just imagine I am at a Postmodern Jukebox concert! Pretty impressive for a speaker of this size and price. The MB42X's aren't perfect thought. They don't get as loud as speakers with a larger woofer and box. Some may feel that they don't push the decibels as much as they would like. I am quite happy with their volume. They fill my 12x14' room with plenty of wall-shaking sound. CONCUSSION If you have $80 to spend on bookshelf speakers the Micca MB42X's should be on the top of your list. Don't be fooled by their size, they sound a bigger than they actually are. Out of all the bookshelf speakers I've testes so far the Fluance SX6's are my favorite, but these are VERY close second. If you don't need extreme volume save a few bucks and pick up the MB42X's.

I got these shipped in to Singapore from the States. I took out the Thiel speakers in my living room and plugged these in. Source was a Mac mini connected to Amperex ECC88 output Non-oversampling DAC, then connected to a dual mono Hypex amp via the anti-cables with wbt plugs to these cheap speakers. The treble was good, but, almost no bass. After running in these speakers for a day, the music began to to open up. Female vocals sound excellent, male vocals were a bit recessed. Bass response was better now after run-in, but nothing compared to the Thiel. Non-fatigue music due to the soft dome and still able to reproduce the airy top end from the amperex tubes. They are unable to fill my living room. But, they are perfect for the study room. I hooked them up to a Win 7 pc with a SMSL 25W dac/t-amp and Canare speaker wires termninated with cheap good quality banana plugs. The t-amp and Micca speakers sound excellent for their price. If you pair the speakers with a subwoofer with a cross over at 60 to 65 Hz, the complete system will make a nice, reasonably priced entry-level audiophile system for a small room. The Thiel speakers are better, but they cost at least 25 times more... ++ Update 21th Dec 2013 ++ It's Saturday morning, I decided to move the Micca 42X back to the living room for more testing. The amp was still the basic SMSL t-amp/DAC and speaker cables were the Canare 4-core. This time, I set them on top of the Thiel speakers - using the Thiel speakers as a kind of solid stands for the tiny Miccas. Fired up the Mac Mini and tested the speakers with/without the grills, & with/without the Audiravana software player. The musical image had a more solid image with the Thiel speakers acting as stands. Bass response seems less boomy. I prefer them 2 feet away from the walls. And they sound better without the grills - like vocals seems to sound better without the grills - especially airy female vocals...grill material affecting freq response from the tweeter perhaps? And finally, with and without the audiravana software. No contest on this one. The software sounds better - more details and less digital sounding. These speakers work very well for acoustic music with female vocals. Not so much for complex music. For complex music, there was smearing in the overall music image. For folks trying to build a low-cost budget system - put the Micca on solid speaker stands, remove the grills, connect them with a good 14 gauge speaker wires, if you have a Mac get the Audiravana player or Foobar if you are on a Win 7PC. Micca, see if you can build a transmission line floor stander with these drivers and sell them for U$250. The bass response from a transmission line design will negate the use of a separate sub woofer. And then put in a waveguide for the tweeters if that is possible, you can up the price to US$270. They will likely be giant killers if you can do this.

I'll use my pictures to guide anyone through this review. A picture is worth a thousand words. I'll be making several references to the last $77 pair of passive bookshelf speakers I bought from Amazon as well, the Singing Wood T25. Let's go! Pic 1. Box is nice and well detailed, see the photos 2. Product features are highlighted and pictured 3. Good for Micca to put a 'new product' seal (merely a piece of paper) on the box. Makes it slightly.... less tamper-proof. Reminded me of my last review (one star) I gave to a center speaker I ordered (Monoprice) that arrived all gunked up as it was opened before and used. 4. Speakers were indeed brand new, even individually bagged. Excellent so far. 5. They don't come attached with rubber feet, you need to put them on yourself. I think it's so you can use those acoustic isolation pads or whatever, if you choose, and the feet won't get in the way. I'm not going to as them sponges gather dust, 'nuff said. 6. Rear of the speakers, binding posts/banana inlets aren't as quality as my Singing Woods. Plastic here feels cheaper tho not that brittle. Disappointing. I know this is a budget speaker but if you want to be king of budget you'll have to pay attention to these things... 7/8. Wah. Build quality is def a little lower than my SWs. There is a vinyl wrap that looks and feels quite ok, but I wonder how it will hold up over time. Considering it will be situated near a window, I'm just crossing my fingers. For my SWs, DVD the lovely beech wood grain wrap looks quality and can fool you as being actual wood. The magnet front grilles also are a little loose, and not quality either. I guess most ppl will remove them but I need them to ward off the dust and kids.... 9. This is where all the negatives end. I hooked them up to both an av receiver and a small tube amplifier. I would say the small tube amp kicked the Pioneer receiver to the curb.... Sound quality was amazing with this speaker! I even did a direct A/B comparison with my SW T25s, the Micca Mb42x, which costed $40 more at $118, truly sounds that much better and even more so! Treble: Good, yet not harsh, unlike the Singing Woods, when cranked up loud. Mids: As good as the SW. Bass: Without a proper crossover, the SW's bass response really gets very unfocused and complicated bass passages just blend into each other. It just comes across as if the woofer can't keep up. But the MB42x, with a properly designed crossover, nailed fast and complicated bass passages excellently. Literally you can hear every note; it's actually like the bassist was playing better, on the same recording! A truly astounding difference! I listened to Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory 20th Anniversary album, comparing both speakers. In conclusion, you get what you pay for, more ex than the Singing Wood and sound is proportionally and also exponentially better. You can't ask for more than that. I'm pretty sure speakers of this caliber would have costed much more years ago. Only con is the crappy build quality. Oh yeah, no speaker wires, unlike the T25, which came with 2x 2.5m 18awg wires, nicely soldered at the tips! Micca could learn a thing or 5 from Singing Wood!! I hope the vinyl wrap won't start peeling off after a few years....

Realmente sorprendido con el sonido de estas pequeñas Micca, por las mañanas las escucho sin el subwoofer y la verdad tienen unos bajos profundos que impresionan. Los medios y agudos también son bastante buenos, las recomiendo, además el precio está súper.

These are excellent speakers for the price and far better than similar ones at the same price point. These speakers look good and sound good (for the price). There are obviously much better speakers out there, but you're not going to find too many that have real crossovers inside at this price point. Pros: Simple black design, low-key simple grills with no stupid lights. Just plain speakers Magnetic grills come on and off easily, and will work upside-down if that's your thing Sound quality far exceeds the "cheap" speaker level Good binding posts on the back that take banana plugs There are more efficient speakers. Cons: 4" drivers don't put out much in the way of bass below ~100hz. Odd peak at 180hz. Port noise when driven hard. Not perfectly flat (but what is). Easily correctable with DSP/EQ settings. Mine are connected to my computer through an Origen+ DAC then an SMSL SA-50. Far more power than I'll ever need with these especially 3ft from my ears. They need to be played around with a bit as far as height and angles are concerned to get the max sound quality, and I hear they need some decent burn-in time, but they're much better than the others I had there right out of the box.

AVアンプのサラウンド用ため値段は倍以上だったけどクロスオーバー対応のXを購入。 躯体はプラスチック丸出しでとても安っぽく軽いけど端子はまとも。 出始めこそ女性ボーカルの広域にシャリシャリ感があったけど何曲か流しているうちに角が取れてきて聞きやすくなりました。 中低音は癖がなく奇麗に鳴ります。 解像度は高めですが、刺さる感じはなく聞き疲れしないと思います。 私の場合アンプ側で60㎐以下はカットでいい感じでした。 音楽メインならコレをフロントにしても十分いけそう。 映画だとさすがにサブウーファーがないときついと思います。 クロスオーバー対応音場も広く置き場所も選びません。（ただ壁掛け用の穴等は一切ありません）

Treble - 7.5 Bass - 7.5 Mid range - 7.5 Quality is good, a bit pricey compared to other Amazon store (country). I'm liking it everyday.