Micca MB42X Advanced Bookshelf Speakers for Home Theater Surround Sound, Stereo, and Passive Near Field Monitor, 2-Way (Black, Pair)

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.

This "no-name" (maybe I should say little-known) company has impressed me with the MB42X speaker system. I am powering them with the Topping TP22 mini amp, rated at 30 watts per channel. It seems to be a good combination of clean power that can get the speakers surprisingly loud for their size. They also stay quite clear at "loud" volumes- of course I can get them to distort if I turn everything up beyond reasonable levels in my sound card settings. I am using the speakers in a 2.1 desktop system, primarily for music, some movies and Netflix, as well as a small amount of gaming. The complete setup consists of a HP desktop with the ASUS Xonar DX sound card installed, Mediabridge 3.5mm to RCA cable connecting the sound card to the TP22 amp, cheapo speaker wire (will be replaced soon) to the MB42X, and finally the Polk PSW10 powered subwoofer- which has now become the weakest link of my system, as well as the crappy speaker wire. The little Miccas will almost completely drown out the PSW10 when I play them loud, even with bass heavy music. Now keep in mind the small 4" woofers will not go down to sub-bass frequencies, but they play what they can hit with authority and clarity. I am listening to them now and should mention even though I have not played them a full 20 hours or whatever to fully "loosen" the drivers, I am hearing sounds in my music I was not hearing before with a big name branded "studio monitor" called the AV40. I suspect the amp has something to do with that, as the drivers of the AV40 seem of decent quality, but they must use cheaper electronics to keep prices down. The MB42X/TP22 combo is far and away better than the AV40, in my opinion, and with sale prices can be had for not much more than the AV40 and is still cheaper than the next level of powered monitors or bookshelf speakers. The MB42X seem to have a fuller sound across their range, sound just fine and detailed at lower volumes and really start to shine when you give them some power. I like the magnetic grills- makes it easy to remove them and watch the little woofers work (they really like to move when turned up) and the speaker looks very clean with and without the grill as there are no holes on the face of the speaker, but really I don't think one should worry too much about how a speaker looks for obvious reasons. I was trying to keep this short, but if I am taking the time to write a review, I feel it's worth offering all of my feedback to help people make their decision. The build quality seems good, but they are quite a bit lighter than I expected when setting them up and that made me skeptical of their performance ability...until I turned them up. Again, not of much concern but worth mentioning. the 42X is lighter than the satellite AV40 speaker- the one with no amp inside. I think the cabinets are not as thick material. People have talked about box resonance, standing waves, this, that and the other technical terms the hard core "audiophiles" like to throw around. I would not label myself as such, but do appreciate a high quality sound system and this should be more than satisfactory for anyone looking for good sound quality at a reasonable price. Micca got this speaker right and the price is why they get 5 stars from me. I would probably give the speaker itself 4 stars as a 5 star speaker will have even more range. Again, you are looking at $200 or more for just the speakers. This setup was less than $200 for everything except speaker wire since I had some laying around. They need a more powerful sub. I have my eye on the Dayton Sub-1000, which effectively doubles the power of the PSW10, and should be good for a mix of music and movies. The Sub-1200 looks nice as well, but I think the 10" should be a good match for my setup and I don't need super loud room shaking bass, just enough to fill out the bottom end and hit hard in movies or bass heavy music. That comes out to almost $300 even for a very nice sounding desktop or bedroom system- both in my case. Some have said the speaker could even be used as a studio monitor, which I do not doubt. Finally, everything I have mentioned here was purchased through Amazon and the service has always been great. Prices are always competitive and shipping is usually very fast, even the free shipping. This order (speakers, amp and cable) was an exception due to a delay with Amazon and my bank processing the payment- these things happen. One phone call to Amazon got that cleared up and they sent my package over night, which was not requested by me at any time. Mostly, I was just calling to make sure everything was in stock, etc. because the order had not shipped for a couple days after placing it, which doesn't happen often in my experience here. They explained everything to me, then said it would be delivered the next day- still free shipping. Thanks again Amazon for the service and offering so much helpful information through the website itself and allowing us to post our feedback. 5 star service rating for the Amazon team!

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.