I bought these for my drummer who wants something really affordable and small to fit in his e-drums room so that he can hear his recordings through something else except headphones... I have to say I expected them to be way worse. Turns out I was wrong. They sound quite good and adequately powerful. As I am writing this I am in the process of breaking them in and so far I am truly impressed! I mean, I can hear my mixes with a 90% accuracy, compared to what I hear on my Dynaudios. That is quite a feat, I think... I suppose they are a bit murky when it comes to their mid frequencies but what can you expect from speakers at this price range? Also, I had to lower the bass a bit so that they would not sound too boomy. All in all they feel like an honest proposal for budget conscious consumers, without massacring the quality of the music they are called upon to reproduce. Way to go M-Audio!!!