Idea behind this speakers is very simple. Take the AV32, a new version of well regarded and very popular M-Audio AV30, a speaker that for many was the first step into high fidelity desktop setups, and add a “subwoofer” to give it more body, punch and depth. At the shop You have to spice it up with good price and Voila! M-Audio AV32.1 is ready!

Welcome on my blog for the first time in 2016. Today we are going to take a look at new multimedia speakers from M-Audio, the AV32.1. This is basically an AV32 with added “.1” that is a subwoofer. For many this could look as a perfect bridge between small and inexpensive AV32 and some big, more expensive and hard hitting pro solutions. This looks like a great option for someone not entirely focused on music, willing too give up some of the fidelity for a bit of fun and rumble with movies and games, and unwilling to spend big money in the process. So what we have here is basically two passive satellite speakers, and a subwoofer with amplification for the satellites and sub. Satellites are exactly the same as aforementioned AV32, so we can find here a 1inch soft dome tweeter and 3inch plastic midwoofer, enclosed in very simple, plain looking enclosures. Those two are connected with subwoofer unit that houses 6.5inch long throw woofer responsible for frequencies from around 40hz up to, what M-Audio said is, 100Hz. Subwoofer size is similar to some 6.5-7inch monitors available today, so it is not very big. Inside the sub’s enclosure are 3 amps. Two of these are 20W amps for satellites (same power as AV32’s bigger brother – AV42) and one 70W amp for the sub itself. Both satellites gets the signal cut out from anything below 80hz so they do not have to work as hard. When You add all amps together You have an ample 110W of power in this speaker which is nice. Satellites as well as subwoofer are bass reflex designs with ports on the back. Overall build quality is good for the money.

There is no volume control on satellite speakers. To control overall volume of speakers and sub we can use cheap, plastic IR remote or digital volume rocker on back of subwoofer. 98% of times I used remote and it is a shame that it is so poorly made. It gives almost no feedback when I press the buttons, and the only way to know if pressing made any effect is to look at backlit M-Audio logo on the front of subwoofer – it blinks when receiving inputs from remote. Next to this backlit logo we also have an IR receiver so You better do not hide Your sub too well, because You will be unable to control volume. This means You will have limited choice when it comes to sub placement. Another limiting factor to subwoofer placement is the fact that there are very short speaker cables that run to each of satellite speakers from subwoofer, but repleacing those cables should not be a problem. On the remote, beside buttons for volume control, we can find power button that puts AV32.1 to sleep mode and a button to defeat the subwoofer and send signal only to satellites. Switch to turn power down comepletly is on the back of subwoofer.

There are two ways to feed the signal to AV32.1. One is a classic analog RCA input and the other is a digital optical input that accepts signal up to 192kHz/24bit. I used only RCA inputs to test AV32.1 and signal was feed from Matrix Mini-I DAC. During the test subwoofer was placed under my desk slightly to the left off the centre with bass reflex port facing a wall behind my desk. Satellite speakers where placed on foam pads for isolation from desk and some books to rise the speakers off the desk surface.

Listetning

When I first turned AV32.1 on and started doing some stuff on my PC with no music playing yet, I quickly realized that I hear a hiss coming from both satellite speakers. It was audible hiss and one that tire my ears fast. Tannoy 402, I reviewed not so long ago, also had this kind of problem, but there, it was even worse than in AV32.1, to the point of being audible over some quiet music. Here, when I started playing music the hiss was gone under that music, so at least I could enjoy them while they do that. When music was not playing I tended to turn AV32.1 off, because of that hiss, and this is not how it should be.