Eris E7XT £170 each

We reviewed the larger E8XT in 280 – the XT series being the latest incarnation of Presonus’ popular series of monitors launched back in 2013. It was a thumbs up for a great value monitor on which we said “they really are an excellent buy for the budget producer, even though said producer might need a bigger room than their bank balance!” The smaller 7XTs, then, might well be the XTs we’re looking for, packing in the power and design, but their smaller size perhaps offering serious monitoring for smaller music setups.

As with the larger 8, the number in the title refers to the size of the bass driver/speaker, so is seven inches in diameter, the high frequency tweeter being the same 1.25-inch silk-dome design found in the rest of the range. Together, they deliver a impressive frequency response of 42Hz to 20kHz. (The 8s went down to 35Hz, pretty much what you’d expect given the larger woofer size). Power-wise 75W from the LF driver and 65W from the HF. That’s more than enough power for the smaller studio space that these monitors are designed for.

Their dimensions (240 x 242 x 365mm) and weight (8.6kg a piece) also back this up – the depth in particular means that these will be more comfortable in a smaller space. That said, these are still not the kinds of desktop models that the likes of IK, JBL and Genelec have become famous for. You’ll still need a fair amount of room and ideally stands to put them on.

Other features include the new EBM (Elliptical Boundary Modeled) waveguide – that widens the sweet spot of the speakers – plus Low-cut, Mid, and High controls to tune the speakers to your room plus useful acoustic position controls for placing the speakers against a wall, away or in corners.

Performance-wise, that wide sweet spot shines through again, as it did with the 8s, meaning you get much greater listening position flexibility or can have a couple of people monitoring together. The bass response evidently doesn’t give you as much oomph as the 8s, but at close monitoring doesn’t sound lacking; still controlled and non flabby. In fact, given their lower price and less physical impact, we’d easily recommend these over the 8XTs for smaller spaces, and if you are new to ‘proper’ studio monitoring, these are a great entry point to that pro world which will ultimately lead you to better results for your mixes.

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