CR5BT CR Series 5" Multimedia Monitors with Bluetooth (Pair) (2046563-00)

I have had these speakers for nearly 2 weeks . I specifically bought the CBT 5 inch model with bluetooth. Short review : The speakers sound phenomenal for the price point, and should fit into any setup you are looking for. As far as Bluetooth goes the sound has been great and there has been no feedback from the speakers even with poor placement. I do unfortunately have to leave them too close to each other with my current room setup which can sometimes provide unwanted noise with some speakers, but this has not been a problem. The Bluetooth may drop for a second but that's par for the course with Bluetooth. As far as analogue setup goes I have been using them with my Audio Technica LP120. The sound has been fantastic from them. The bass is punchy, but lacking excessive vibration which is important due to my poor placement of the record player above the speakers. I have not had any rumble shake my player around, which is great for me, but If you're looking for room shakers, you may not want these. This note may be unnecessary but these speakers do not play nice with my DAC. I tried playing FLAC files from my phone through the DAC into the speakers, but the sound was muted and poor quality. I did not find it necessary anyways to run it through the DAC because the speakers do have the built in preamp, but it may be an issue for you if this is something you wanted to do. As a "budget audiophile" I can recommend these speakers for pretty much any setup you could want. They get loud and keep the sound fidelity sounding great. Also with the volume low you will still hear the bass, highs and lows. I see many complaints about the speakers dying an early death, if this is an issue for me I will update the review accordingly.

I bought the 5” version. These monitor housings are a little smaller than I thought they would be, but the sound they produce is quite good even using unbalanced RCA inputs. Highs are clear and articulate, lows are punchy and deep without being obnoxious. The sound produced is very clear and correct - great reference sound when mixing and mastering! Very impressed with just how loud, clear, tight, and correct the sound is from these little things. And I only have the monitor volume knob up about 25% so far. I will say the BlueTooth audio quality is bad. It sounds down-sampled and distorted. Kinda sounds like they used an old BlueTooth standard and/or junk circuits for it. Sound is way way better using actual wired inputs. I would recommend these for anyone that needs great quality reference audio for listening/mixing and doesn’t want to pay a huge amount of cash. Best sound for the buck! Just don’t expect quality BlueTooth. Also, there are reports of the L/R switch going bad. My advice is to set it how you want it, then don’t touch it. And always turn your speakers off when not using them so the internal amp and components aren’t stating hot. That should improve the lifetime of the monitors and maybe prevent switch failure. If they do eventually fail, contact Mackie directly for warranty replacement. Everyone says they are very good about taking care of any issues. 4/5 Stars due to crappy BlueTooth. If BlueTooth wasn’t a feature on these, I would rate 5/5.

I bought the Mackie CR5BT CR Series Channel Studio Monitors, which I use for mixing and mastering sound using SONAR Cakewalk software in my home studio. First, let me say that all-around construction seems to be very hefty and of excellent quality. No cheapie plastic cabinets here, but instead they're constructed of solid MDF, then wrapped. I guess you can't call it true wood, but even so fiberboard is far superior to plastic regarding speaker cabinet sound. My preference is the larger woofer for studio use, 3" and 4" just seem too small for the purpose. While an absolutely "flat" response is impossible for any monitor, I was quite surprised that these seem to be on-par with far more expensive monitors I've used in the past. While mixing, I didn't notice any coloring of sound that concerned me. If anything, they may be a little hot on the low-end, but I'm sure that's due to the fact that they're rear-ported. Moving them further away from the wall and using the provided isolation pads on my DAW table seemed to clear that up almost completely. Bluetooth connectivity originally didn't interest me, but it proves to come in really handy when someone stops by with a demo on their phone or tablet. It's nice that you don't need to hassle with cables for on-the-spot listening in those situations. As a side note, I also picked up a UGREEN 3.5mm to 1/4" TS splitter to go along with these monitors. There really shouldn't be much difference between RCA and TS connectors, but I prefer the latter because they're usually much better shielded, reducing line noise. That's important when working with studio equipment in general. It's a very nice cable for the price: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZKM3SHK/ Bottom line, you can't go wrong with the value these monitors provide. I'm extremely pleased with the purchase. * Note: I strive to write concise reviews with honest opinions to assist you as a potential buyer, and receive no monetary compensation for doing so. If you've found this information useful, I'd appreciate a click on the “Helpful” button below. Thanks!

At this point I dont see myself ever buying another Mackie product. initially I was very happy with the sound quality of these monitors, but after a little over a year of light use the first set I bought crapped the bed. The left channel just went out. I called Mackie and their customer service was very kind to replace them even though they were out of warranty. They informed me that it was a known issue with the series that I had purchased. Rather than recalling the product they just replaced the speakers as people called with issues. After a few months using the replacements the I started to notice a bit of crackling when bass would hit. The crackling got worse over the next few weeks and eventually got to a point that on every bass hit it sounds like the woofer is being violently ripped out. At this point I dont want to have to deal with constantly replacing the product, so I just took it as a lesson learned. The only reason I gave them 2 stars was the customer service experience, but ideally I should never have to contact customer service when I buy a quality product. Replaced them with JBL monitors and haven't run into any problems in a year.

I actually like these speakers - sound good for a reasonable price. I've had 4 pairs at various times. Here's the thing: The L/R crossover switch on the back has failed on 2 of mine. The CR5BTs did last 3 or 4 years before the failures. Found online that this is a common problem. Not really hard to DIY a fix (bypass the switch and lock in the L/R config). It bothers me that 2 pairs bought over a period of years had the same issue. Maybe Mackie needs to find a different switch? I bought a pair of CR4xBTs this year. Has a similar switch. If it fails, I'll go write a flaming review for that pair.

When these first arrived at my home studio, I wondered if I had made a mistake... The sound quality was not what I expected, seemed to be mid heavy and bass shy with obvious compression. Then, I realized, the Bluetooth support must lack the newest codecs or the ones the speakers support don't match the better codecs on either my Google Pixel phone or Microsoft Surface 3 tablet (with dock). So... I switched to 1/8" stereo and RCA plugs... WOW!! Amazing, the sound quality I was expecting from a Mackie speaker, and, at $2xx a pair, these are well worth the price paid! The bass response is clean and not artificial. The mids are clear and fluid, highs are silky smooth. Now, granted, you can get even better sound and volume out of KRKs or JBL Pros, BUT you won't find a better speaker pair for home recording at this price point. While I've seen a number of cases reported where these speakers don't last long, I've noticed that the back of the powered speaker can get pretty hot. So, I don't leave the main power switch in the back on all the time, just when I'm using them. I'll bet that increases the life span, we'll see.

I was on the fence about buying these for a long time and now I am SO glad that I did! First and foremost they sound amazing. Second the connectivity versatility is super convenient and they look great too. We use them for recording, editing and general listening. I really like listening to old recordings that I've heard a 1000 times and noticing little things I never heard before. There's nothing like hearing "Are You Experienced" or "Rubber Soul" with fresh ears. I've only had them a few months but, I think I know what the bad reviews are about. It is tempting to only use the power switch on the front but I recommend shutting them off from the switch in the back. Time will tell but in the meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying revisiting my favorite music! UPDATE. These died way too soon. Actually they are the first pair of speakers to EVER die on me. They only lasted two years and I miss them a lot.

These babies pack plenty of punch. I turn them up barely over halfway when making beats, and they thump pretty hard. The response is not perfectly flat, but they cover all your frequencies very adequately. If you get a nice mix on these, it'll sound nice on anything else, and what else can you really ask for? I very much recommend these monitors for anyone looking to do serious home music production.