Pro quality, small size. The Yamaha MSP3s have been around for 10 years, and they're still a favourite for space-challenged set-ups.
There’s lots of interest in small, self-powered monitor speakers among Digital DJ Tips readers, and not surprising – we’re all it seems increasingly “space challenged” nowadays, and if you’ve got a laptop, a compact DJ controller, and some nice, small-folding headphones, my bet is your “studio” at home is, in fact, a desk – thus room for monitor speakers is going to be limited.
One company we’ve not featured in these pages until now is Yamaha, that absolute giant of the music production world. They have a set of speakers called the MSP3s, which are the babies of their studio monitor range, and thus ideal for the space-challenged digital DJ.
These speakers have been around since before digital DJing was a glint in most DJs’ eyes, but speaker technology doesn’t change much, and they’re as worthy of a review today as when they first came out exactly ten years ago. Let’s take a closer look…
First impressions and setting up
These are a “serious” little speaker; quite traditional in appearance, and heavy for their size. Their price point puts them squarely in the category of speakers for “prosumer” users.
The casing is heavy duty plastic, with a metal plate at the back. The tweeter is protected by a small plastic moulding, and the woofer by an indented black metal grill. There are four controls on the front: low and high (ie bass and treble), and two independent volume controls for the various inputs. There’s also a small green LED at the middle bottom of each monitor to indicate that it’s switched on.
These are a “serious” little speaker; quite traditional in appearance, and heavy for their size.
Round the back is a power switch, the AC cable (it’s wired in), and three inputs. There’s an RCA unbalanced input (“line 1″ on the front), and a choice of XLR or TRS balanced inputs (“line 2″ on the front).
They would look equally fine in a tiny home studio or sat either side of a computer – which as I said at the start, is where I suspect many people will use them.
They are “powered”, which means that there’s a single amplifier in each speaker, and that means you need to split your output from, say, your DJ controller or mixer into two mono inputs – one for each speaker. This is often achieved by buying a stereo cable and simply pulling the twin leads apart, or of course buying two mono cables to start with.
In use
I plugged these in to our workshop set-up, which is currently a Rane Sixty-One mixer controlling Serato Scratch Live, and listened to a variety of electronic music on them.
The Yamaha MSP3 rear, showing the three available inputs.
They performed exactly as I expected they would on first listen. There was not a massive amount of bass; however what there was clear, the front porting (the two holes mid-top of the speaker you can see in the pictures) helping with that.
Small speakers don’t deliver the same amount of bass a larger speakers – it’s physics – and if you are lucky enough to practise your DJing in a room where there are no neighbours or family members in adjacent rooms or apartments, you may want to add a sub-woofer too; these are, in fact, pretty ideal as satellite speakers.
The low and high EQs are good to have for adjusting the sound to room characteristics (why do I always want to boost the bass whenever given the choice, though?) – although they don’t boost or kill by a massive amount. Think of them more as “fine tuning” rather than all-out EQs like you find on a DJ mixer.
Continued listening revealed a definite step up from other similar-looking but cheaper speakers we’ve tested recently, such as the M-Audio AV40s (a good value little top-end computer monitor speaker). The sound felt “refined”, with crisp, extended highs and no hint of harshness.
Conclusion
For their size, these are competent little powered monitors. While you wouldn’t want to use them to power a party (you’ll break them, even though their quotes 20W output was painfully loud a fair way before being turned up full), or as your only reference monitors in a studio set-up (not accurate enough), they are a great all-round speaker for DJ practice, computer audio and even small DJ booth monitoring.
They’re a highly useful, professional, well-made little speaker, and they deserve their success over the years.
The three inputs and two line controls on the front mean they’re practical, because you can leave a few sources plugged in and even mix those sources from the front panel – great if you want to plug in your DJ controller, computer’s internal sound and even a third input too all at once. Having an aux in the front like the M-Audio AV40s would have made them even more useful.
Overall, then, you get what you pay for here: they’re a highly useful, professional, well-made little speaker, and they deserve their success over the years. If size matters to you (and we’re talking “as small as possible” here) and you’re not impressed with pseudo-pro computer speakers, take a look at these; within their limitations, they’re a workhouse that won’t let you down.
Video
Summary
We like:
- Professional-feeling design
- Independent volume controls for two inputs
- Useful low & high trims on the front
- Good sound quality
We don’t like:
- Size means they lack a bit in bass
- An aux 1/8″ TRS stereo in on the front would be good
Star ratings:
|
Features: |
|
|
Build quality: |
|
|
Sound quality: |
|
|
Ease of use: |
|
|
Value: |
|
|
OVERALL: |
Product details:
Size & weight: 9.3 x 6.6 x 5.6″ (236 x 167 x 144mm), 9.7lb (4.4kg)
Price (per speaker): US$150
Buy from: Amazon.com
What do you think?
Are you in the market for a pair of pro compact speakers? Do you already have these, the M-Audio AV40s, or another similar solution? Let us know your thoughts below.
Now go to:
Computer Speakers For DJing: 5 Top Pairs Reviewed & Rated
Over To You: Should I Buy A Sub-Woofer?
From YouTube: Learn to DJ #8: All About Home DJ Speakers
Want to escape the bedroom and play in public - fast?
Our 1000s-selling How To Digital DJ Fast video course shows you how.
Learn to DJ Free - email course plus bonus PDF book
Sign up for our weekly email course for beginners now...
Trouble choosing a controller? Visit the web's #1 guide!
DJ Controllers: The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide 2013.
Tags: dj monitors, MSP3, speakers, yamaha
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
So you would not recommend these for a home studio because they are not accurate enough? What if you get a woofer too?
[ link ]Forproduction, you need better, and a sub-woofer won’t mask that – transparency is key for production monitoring.
[ link ]Which of these inputs I should plug my computer or mixer? Which one is better? You could write a new post about connectors.
[ link ]It doesn’t really matter. Some will say use balanced, but unless you’re getting noise issues (humming, interference) which is unlikely, any will do the job. (Balanced is best over long distance.) Having said that, as better DJ controllers have XLR and TRS outputs, you may as well use them.
[ link ]Thanks Phil, as always.
[ link ]May be a bit off-topic, Phil but what kind of speakers are they in your new space? the black and yellow ones.
[ link ]They’re currently KRK Rokit 10.3s.
[ link ]Ahh, thank you
[ link ]good review, but i’m pretty sure that theses speakers can be used for production, in complement to a good hearphone, because even if it’s a low cost and low performance speaker, according to the manual, the frequency coverage seems to be very near from a hig end speaker.
in my mind, it is design for production, without take a huge space, when you don’t have a big office or don’t need a super powerfull tool (98 db is relly good enough when you work near to the speakers). save space is sometimes more important than a very high end quality speaker. it don’t seems necessary to watch very big and expensive speakers when this small one do the job perfectly.
you can complete it by a subwoofer on the floor who will not takes spaces on your desk. but with the “+3db bass”, with response from 65-70 Hz, the subwoofer don’t seems to be very necessary. for 300 $ (the 2 speakers) on amazon in seems to be the best choice for all yamaha’s fans like me. I definitly think it as my next purchase on the internet.
[ link ]