Alesis Elevate 5 MKII | Powered Desktop Studio Speakers for Home Studios/Video-Editing/Gaming and Mobile Devices

Beautiful sound. Works perfect with my lap.

Very nice. Worth the price. Well built. A year now working great

I bought my first pair of the Elevate 5 (Mk I) about six years ago, purely for personal use at home.I wasn't expecting a lot for the price, but they impressed me greatly.So I started buying them at work for use in our edit booths, as we have rebuilt the whole post side of the studio building over the past couple of years. I haven't gotten a single complaint about them. I'm an electrical engineer, not a mixing artist. I can best describe the sound as almost completely neutral. They have none of the artificial low-end boominess which seems common in low-cost powered monitors, they just deliver a solid, linear sound across the whole spectrum. With near-zero perceptible distortion even when I drive them up to "this is bordering on uncomfortable" levels.Fast forward a couple of years. I just bought a new house, and it has a huge kitchen. I decided that I wanted a good speaker system in there, as I tend to rock out on Pandora when cooking, and wanted to upgrade from my old kitchen / yardwork headphones, as they deprive me of situational awareness such as the sounds coming from the stove.I demoed a few sets of bluetooth-native powered monitors at a local music shop, and just wasn't impressed by any of them.So I decided that I'm just gonna live with using an external bluetooth-to-RCA adapter which I already had lying around, and ordered my ninth set of these (and second for personal use) yesterday.Figured that with that kind of purchase history, I owed them a review.They're just phenomenally great speakers for the price. Are they Genelec 8030s? No, they are not. But they're 90% of the quality for 20% of the cost.

the only reason i knocked off a star is because you have to use 1/4 inch wire to connect them. other than that, i have them hooked up to a scarlett solo and a presonus eris 8 studio subwoofer.scarlett solo -> presonus 8 inch sub -> thesethats how i have it wired and honestly i cant explain to you how good these are for the price. adjust volume on these and your sub, adjust the low pass filter on your sub till you hit the sweet spot and youre good to go. they are great for music production. i used them by themselves with no sub for a year and i gotta say, having the sub makes all the difference. all frequencies sound better when ran thru the sub's amp. of course the bass is better with a sub, but they pair really well with the presonus in my experience. before you spend $300 on one yamaha or krk, i would say get these. great value. alesis is a reputable brand that has been around a long time. if you dont have money to burn on super high grade monitors, these will do just fine. just remember, more expensive equipment doesnt make you a better producer.

Really like them

I had the Alesis Elevate 3 and decided I needed more oomph and upgraded to the Alesis Elevate 5 MKII. I watched several comparison videos to speakers in the same price range and I'm glad I went with Alesis once again. The deciding factor for me is the flat response of the Alesis monitors. As a musician, it's also what I prefer in headphones. Anything with boosted bass or sparkling highs sounds synthetic to my ears and do not represent the original mix (but probably very effective for pool parties). In this regard, the Alesis is spot-on when it comes to delivering a flat-EQ sonic representation without any frills. I did like the Elevate 3s but they would break up on high volume, whereas the Elevate 5s can be cranked fairly high and maintain a nice clarity.One thing that knocks a star off for me is the annoying "sleep mode" the speakers go into if no sound comes through them for a period of time (30 minutes?). I'm not sure if it's some kind of power-saving feature but the Elevate 3 has the same problem. It takes some time for the speakers to "wake up" when the sound signal goes through - so you're sitting there cranking the volume wondering why there's no sound then suddenly the song comes blaring through after missing the first few seconds. I notice a few other reviewers mentioning this odd feature (is it a "feature"?). Other than that I have no complaints at all and would recommend these to any budget-focused desktop musician/music aficionado.

Review-*Volume: Loud- they fill my workspace/Livingroom with sound*Sound: quality: 8/10 - My headphones (Sennheiser) reproduce sound a lot more clearly and crisply. The sounds on these is good for general entertainment and even some hobby studio stuff but I would not use these for professional audio production . The low frequencies are definitely boosted on these (no need for a woofer unless you want to really thump)Build Quality: For the price the build quality is 10/10 . They are heavy, solid and durable.Inputs/Output: The 3.5mm headphone jack is nice to have, the terminals on the back are solid. The included wire to link the two speakers together is SHORT and flimsy - I replaced it with a better one for $10 . Also you will need a male rca to female 3.5mm cable if you want to pull audio from your PC. The speakers are solid but they really cheaped out on the peripherals. at $140 though these are the BEST you can buy.For those of you considering the entry level presonus , mackie or AKG - THESE ARE BETTER. IF you want better quality then the next best option is the KRK5's for $375.