PreSonus Eris E8 XT Active Studio Monitors Review

Eris E8 XT Active Studio Monitors

Continuing our series of reviews of studio monitors, we have the PreSonus Eris E8 XT. Like many of the other monitors in its class, it is a self-amplified design using an 8” woofer and a tweeter loaded into a waveguide. It has a lot in common with the Kali Audio LP-8 including similar size and weight, a slot port under an 8” woofer, an elliptical waveguide around a dome tweeter, and a host of response-shaping options on the amp. It is among the more popular monitors for online retailers of pro-audio gear so we thought it would make for a good inclusion for our look at monitors. PreSonus has been around since 1995 where they started manufacturing studio gear such as compressors, limiters, audio interfaces, and mic preamps. They started producing loudspeakers in 2014, and the Eris line was one of their first series. In the short time since their launch, the Eris series has become one of the best-selling studio monitors on the market. This brings us to the question of what the Eris series has done to garner that level of success in such a short time frame? What is so special about these speakers? Let’s dig in to find out….

Appearance

Among monitors, the Eris E8 XT monitors look pretty darn good. Looks shouldn’t normally be a high priority for selecting a studio monitor, but in reality, appearance does affect the purchase, and as monitors go, the E8 XT is pretty slick looking. It has a smooth front baffle with no screw holes and gently sculpted curves for the waveguide and woofer mount. A blue woven-fiber woofer cone adds a cool and distinctive touch. A small PreSonus logo below the woofer glows when the speaker is powered. I think this speaker looks as good as many home audio speakers I’ve seen. It is so minimalist there is not much more that I can say about its looks. If PreSonus made a white version of this speaker, that would actually have a very high ‘spouse approval factor’ for a studio monitor. What is holding it back from having a place in a living room is the dark grey color.

Design Analysis

The Eris E8 XT occupies the 8” woofer range of studio monitors that have a bit more dynamic range and extension than their 5” or 6.5” counterparts, so it is a somewhat large speaker and a bit hefty at 23 lbs. The cabinet is made from ⅝” MDF with a vinyl laminate and a molded plastic front baffle mounted on an MDF face. There is a thick layer of polyfill lining the interior. It has a 1.25” silk dome tweeter with a rear-mounted heatsink set in a waveguide that PreSonus calls the EBM waveguide (where EBM stands for Elliptical Boundary Modeled). This waveguide is designed for a 100°x60° coverage which provides broad horizontal dispersion and narrow vertical dispersion. PreSonus doesn’t mention directivity control in any discussion about the waveguide, but the shape of the waveguide looks as though that could have been a guiding principle in the design. The measurements will tell us what PreSonus’ priorities were in the waveguide design when we look at the test results.

 

PreSonus Eris E8 XT 8" Woofer

The 8” woofer uses a woven composite cone that has a beefy-looking surround. It uses a ¾” thick, 4” diameter magnet on the motor that is vented through the pole piece. Underneath the woofer is a slot port. PreSonus claims a 35Hz low-frequency extension but doesn’t give a window for that figure. That extension spec needs more context to be meaningful, but we will get a look at the extension in the measurements. The woofer is driven by a 75-watt amplifier and the tweeter is driven by a 65-watt amplifier for a combined total of 140 watts of amplification using a class A/B amplifier (although none of that is specified as peak, RMS, or continuous). The crossover frequency between woofer and tweeter is listed as 2.2kHz. The specs also list a 105dB maximum peak SPL at 1 meter, and that should be adequate loudness for pretty much anyone.

 

Internal look at the Amplifier of the ERIS E8 XT

Connectivity is comprised of balanced XLR and TRS inputs and an unbalanced RCA input. There are a host of controls that can alter the frequency response to compensate for different acoustic conditions. A boundary gain level switch can cut the low-frequencies by 2 or 4 dB which can come in handy where the E8 XT has to be placed near surface boundaries which can disproportionately boost bass. There is a high-pass filter that can come in useful if the E8 XT is paired with a subwoofer in a system with no bass management. It can set the filter frequency at 100Hz, 80Hz, or let the speaker go as low as possible. That high-pass is a really good idea since most ‘prosumer’ audio systems don’t have an easy way to blend a sub in with the speakers; this allows the speaker to cross over to the sub in a much more controlled manner, especially since most subs have adjustable low-pass filters. The E8 XT also has knobs that can boost or cut the midrange frequencies or treble by 6 dB. Along with these response shaping controls, there is a gain knob. 

The overall design suggests a high performing monitor, but let’s set theory aside for now and see how it all adds up in practice by giving the Eris E8 XTs a listen…

Listening Sessions

I used the PreSonus Monitors in two different rooms with different conditions to see how they could cope with different environments. I set them up on my PC desk which is essentially a quarter space, or a space enclosed by two boundaries. This desktop environment puts the listening distance at about 2.5 feet. I also set them up in my home theater room which gave them lots of breathing room and a nearly free-space environment. This is a far more acoustically friendly environment for sound quality. The processor used was a MOTU 828x and MOTU M2 on PCs with Qobuz as the source for music. No subwoofers were used. I used these monitors to listen to completed recordings rather than content creation since this is a home audio publication, and we are more interested in seeing how these fare in a home audio application.

Music Listening

As always, I like to start off my evaluation of a loudspeaker’s sound with orchestral music. If something is off or wrong with the speaker, it is easier to catch in orchestral music on account of our familiarity with the sound of these instruments as well as the breadth of frequencies that can be used simultaneously. If there is an over-emphasis on some frequency range, it can be readily discerned on a good orchestral recording. For this purpose, I selected an epic new collection of recordings of all of Beethoven’s symphonies released on the Ondine label in high definition that I streamed on Qobuz in all of its 96kHz sampling rate/24 bit depth glory. This collection is entitled ‘Beethoven Symphonies Nos 1-9 (Live),’ and the performances were conducted by Robert Travino and played by the Malmo Symphony Orchestra. Needless to say, the production and recording quality are first-rate.

I managed to listen to the entirety of this nearly six-hour collection of recordings over the course of several days. Every symphony here was a pleasure to listen to, and part of that enjoyment was due to how well the sound system reproduced these performances. The Eris E8 XT monitors gave these lively performances the vivacious presentation that they demanded. These monitors were able to transform my living room into a concert hall, and the scale of the performance venue was immediately recognizable. This recording put the listener at relatively close proximity to the performance, and I would guess that it was recorded with microphones hanging above the orchestra, which is the case with many other concert hall classical recordings. This could be heard in the vivid soundstage that the E8 XT monitors presented. It was as if I had the best seat in the house. Instrumental sections were clearly placed, and the occasional solo instrument had a well-defined position. Tonal balance was very good, and nothing stood out as sounding abnormal. The bass was good for speakers of this size, and if I didn’t know better, I probably would have assumed these were modestly-sized tower speakers if I had only heard the sound without seeing the speakers. The E8 XT’s were not hindered by louder levels on moments when I cranked the volume in this recording, and everything sounded as unperturbed as they did at more reasonable levels. The E8 XTs gave these Beethoven Symphonies an appropriately high-fidelity presentation that was commensurate with the quality of the recording.

For something that is focused on a human voice and which should have more precise imaging, I gave a listen to Norah Jones’ latest album, ‘Pick Me Up Off the Floor.’ Norah Jones’ albums always have top-shelf recording quality, and this 24bit/96kHz album promised to continue that tradition. This recent release is still very jazzy but it is a lot more pop-oriented and a lot less bluesy than I expected (excepting the fourth track ‘Heartbroken, Day After,’ which is very bluesy).

Spinning this album up on the Eris E8 XT monitors, the first thing that leapt out is how meticulous Mrs. Jones’ voice was rendered. It was a lifelike reproduction, and it imaged at a dead center position in the soundstage. She was accompanied by percussion, piano, bass guitar, and a host of other instruments, and each was given their own precise locations within the soundstage. Norah’s singing along with the instrumental playing all sounded very natural and well balanced. ‘Pick Me Up Off the Floor’ is a beautifully detailed recording, and the E8 XTs were able to convey the richness of Jones’ voice and the nuances of the instruments- and they did so without any obvious boost to the midrange frequencies or high frequencies that some home audio speaker manufacturers do in order to artificially convey detail. And detail is not the most important attribute a speaker should have, in my opinion. Tonal balance is much more important, and here is where the E8 XTs shined. Nothing sounded disproportionate, and the album sounded natural. That is what one would expect in a studio monitor, of course, but in home audio, getting a balanced sound can be a bit more of a hit-or-miss proposition, since home audio speakers aim merely to sound ‘good’ instead of accurate, and ‘good’ can mean different things to different people whereas ‘accurate’ has a stricter definition, i.e., a neutral frequency response. If you ask me, ‘accurate’ sounds good, and research into sound quality indicates that ‘accurate’ sounds good to most people, both trained and untrained listeners. For this reason, speakers like the Eris E8 XTs should appeal not just to those doing content creation, but to anyone simply interested in good sound.

One album that has been a favorite of mine for some years now is ‘Parikrama’ by David Parsons, which was released in 2000. ‘Parikrama’ is the name of a journey taken by some Buddhists around a sacred mountain in western Tibet. The sound of this album is meant to reflect this spiritual journey; it is meditative and introspective yet also rather cryptic. It is an instrumental album made with the lasting ringing of large bells, the sustained shimmering of a sitar, and underlined with the plunderphonics of synthesizer drones. It is too abstract to be classified under the label of ‘World Music’ but too dark to be blithely written off as new age music. It is very gradual and deliberate music that develops a long-form composition so it is more than mere mood music for meditation. The soundscape presented is vast, encompassing, and multi-layered, and I thought it would be interesting to see how the E8 XT’s would image this sonic voyage. 

Listening to ‘Parikrama’ in my theater room with the E8 XTs, I realized how positively cinematic this album sounded. It was like the score to some Buddhist IMAX movie, and it was a striking difference from the headphone experience that I bet is how this album is ordinarily heard by most people. Headphones can transport a listener to another place, but a good pair of speakers can transform the listener’s environment into another place, and these speakers do that. The E8 XTs projected a big sound. Drones and ringing bells had an enveloping effect that projected an endless forward space, while sitars and lead synth sounds swept across the soundstage like slow-motion waves. This continuous sound extended beyond the width of the speakers’ positions. On moments where low-frequencies became more pronounced, the E8 XTs were able to supply a solid foundation of bass which negated any need for subwoofer assistance. Instances that called for precise imaging within this expanse of sound were given clear placement. ‘Parikrama’ isn’t an album for everyone, but for those who do take the plunge, I would recommend a good speaker set like the Eris E8 XTs over a headphone experience for this journey if possible.

Switching gears, I decided to listen to something that was a lot more energetic and which also taxes low frequencies significantly more. I was in the mood for something different, really different, and an album that had caught my attention recently which comes from way out of left-field is ‘Planet: Loria’ from CREME RINSE すすぎとリピート (yes, that is the artist’s proper name). I am a sucker for far-out science fiction, so I couldn’t resist giving this album a try after catching a glimpse of the album cover a little while ago, knowing nothing about the band or music. I don’t know anything about CREME RINSE すすぎとリピート, except that this artist or artists hail from Japan and have a handful of releases on the Seikomart label. ‘Planet: Loria’ is a highly experimental album that is like a prog-rock concept album but with a very idiosyncratic kind of vaporwave music instead of prog-rock. The music is like an ‘80s sci-fi soundtrack layered with vaporwave irony and threaded with fictional media snippets from the plot of a cyberpunk novel. There is nothing else quite like this. If that sounds appealing to you, give it try on bandcamp, and if you end up enjoying it, consider making a donation to the artist to encourage future madness along these lines. 

Listening to ‘Planet: Loria’ is a lot like listening to a movie. It is mostly music but has much of the soundstage that you would expect from a movie sound mix, and the Eris E8 XT speakers were able to adeptly convey this experience. Precise effects noises imaged from all across the soundstage with the intent of painting an image of an environment, and there was no mistaking what was intended with such a capable sound system. Some passages of this album are quite bass heavy, but the E8 XTs managed to reproduce that bass with authority. I suspect that the addition of a subwoofer might have added a bit more meat in deep bass, but the E8 XTs surely caught the vast majority of the low-frequency content in ‘Planet: Loria.’ I listened to this album at a louder level and didn’t sense any strain in the form of compression or distortion from the speakers. The music was largely electronic, and the E8 XTs were able to throw a punch even in my theater room with an 8-foot listening distance. The E8 XT’s helped to make ‘Planet: Loria’ a blast to listen to once again and made a solid case for those looking for a set of speakers for electronic music.

Movie Watching

While it made a splash at the box office, I hadn’t yet seen the new movie ‘Joker.’ I didn’t really have a strong interest in seeing it, because it looked rather humorless for a movie named ‘Joker’ and I am rarely in the mood for anything that dour and angry. Nonetheless, I decided to watch it to see how the Eris E8 XT handles movies that are heavily dialogue-based since I had easy access to a copy of it and knew that the movie would be more dialogue-driven than action-driven. On the count of dialogue intelligibility, the E8 XT monitors had no trouble, and all of the dialogue was clear. One thing I was surprised about was the number of golden oldies from crooners such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Fred Astaire, among others. On the occasions where this music wasn’t played diegetically, it was a refreshing respite from all the gloom, even if that wasn’t its intention, and those classic recordings were a delight to hear on the E8 XTs. Hildur Guddnadottir’s original score was bass-heavy, moody, and made extensive use of the cello, and the E8 XT speakers reproduced it marvelously. That unsteady cello main theme was sharply realized, and the heavy bass drums provided gravity and tension to the main character’s situation. I don’t think subwoofers would have made a great contribution beyond the capabilities of the E8 XT speakers for this sound mix. 

The bleak atmosphere of Gotham City was brilliantly portrayed by both visual set design and also sound design, and the sound mix was rich in cues that imparted this character of the environment. Passing sirens, muted shouting matches behind doors, sickly coughing, barking, overheard car radios and TV broadcasts; these ambient noises suffused the sound of ‘Joker,’ and the imaging and detail abilities of the E8 XT speakers put all of this sound together to make a convincing world that could breed a character like Arthur Fleck. These surroundings were genuinely unsettling, as they were intended to be, and, while I admire the technical and artistic skill in creating such a vivid setting, I was sure glad to be out of it once the movie had ended.        

For something with a more fantastical and effects-driven sound mix, I decided to watch a movie I had long been curious about but had not yet taken the time to see, a movie entitled, ‘Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole,’ released in 2010. I didn’t know a whole lot about it except that it was a fantasy movie where the characters were owls instead of people. It was such an odd premise that I wanted to see what that was like, but I wasn’t so strongly interested as to make the time and effort to purchase and watch it. I had the opportunity to borrow a Blu-ray copy recently, and I thought it would make for a good demonstration of how the Eris E8 XT monitors would handle something that would have a lot more effects sounds with a lot more grandiose sound mix in general.

With a lot of battles between talking owls with an epic orchestral score, there was plenty for the speakers to do, and I can report that the sound mix was reproduced well. Effects noises such as swooping sounds and clashing talons were given impact by the E8 XT monitors, and the music score shined. The E8 XTs had real bass ability that belied their size, and there was a storm sequence in particular in which they impressed me from the nearly subwoofer-like ability. The dialogue was clearly rendered, and the only moments that I had trouble understanding dialogue is when I caught myself laughing at the absurdity of the premise; ‘Legend of the Guardians’ is really just a standard fantasy story but with owls instead of people. How did this get made? Whose idea was it to make a movie but with owls instead of people? Not that it was a bad movie; ‘Legend of the Guardians’ was fine, but the idea is bizarre. In any case, the Eric E8 XT speakers did a commendable job for home theater in my viewing of ‘Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole.’

PreSonus Eris E8 XT Monitor Measurements & Conclusion

 

The PreSonus Eris E8 XT speaker was measured in free-air at a height of 7.5 feet at a 1-meter distance from the microphone, and the measurements were gated at an 11-millisecond delay. In this time window, some resolution is lost below 250 Hz and accuracy is completely lost below 110 Hz. Measurements have been smoothed at a 1/12 octave resolution.

 

The above graph shows the direct-axis frequency response and other curves that describe the speaker’s amplitude response in a number of ways. For more information about the meaning of these curves, please refer to our article Understanding Loudspeaker Measurements Part 1. Overall, this is a good showing, with a flat response that falls within a +/-2dB window up to a peak around 15 kHz. The peak in high treble isn’t likely to be an audible issue, as many people have trouble hearing that high and there is not much content that high anyway. The only thing that might color the sound is the wide but shallow dip centered around 7 kHz. That might slightly recess treble a bit, although I didn’t notice the treble to be at all recessed during my listening. We can see from the directivity indexes that directivity is pretty well-controlled until high treble frequencies. The blip around 700 Hz is likely just a port resonance and shouldn’t do much to color the sound.

The above graphs depict the speaker’s lateral responses out to 90 degrees in five-degree increments. More information about how to interpret these graphs can be read in this article: Understanding Loudspeaker Review Measurements Part II.

What are the most notable features that we can see from these graphs is just how well directivity is matched between the drivers and also how well the waveguide is working over the entirety of the forward direction of the speaker. The overall directivity control is excellent with a high correlation between the on-axis response and off-axis responses. That is abetted by the generally good linearity of the response at pretty much every angle. This speaker should have a tonally balanced sound over a wide angle of area, so you don’t need to be listening with the speakers facing you directly to get a good sound. Acoustic reflections should also have a similarly good tonality so that users will not need acoustic treatments to secure a good sound. It also allows for predictable equalization for those who want to adjust the sound character for something they may prefer more. A speaker with this flat of a response both on and off axis should do well in its task of being a studio monitor as well as listening at home for enjoyment. It largely sends out what is put in with not much deviation, and that is as one would hope for from a studio monitor.

 

The above polar map graphs show the same information that the preceding graphs do but depict it in a way that can offer new insight regarding these speakers’ behavior. Instead of using individual raised lines to illustrate amplitude, these polar maps use color to portray amplitude, and this allows the use of a purely angle/frequency axis perspective. The advantage of these graphs is they can let us see broader trends of the speaker’s behavior more easily. For more information about the meaning of these graphs, we again refer the reader to Understanding Loudspeaker Review Measurements Part II.

First of all, yes, I know what this graph resembles, so you can stop snickering. It’s just a plot of the acoustic performance of a loudspeaker, so stop being such a child about it. OK, look, I will admit, it is a little funny, but if we can grow up a bit and just assess the loudspeaker performance here, this does show the same excellent directivity control that was seen in the above graph. We can see very little drop-off in output all the way out to 50 degrees. Thanks to the waveguide, the treble doesn’t even begin to beam until it gets near 20 kHz. That gives these speakers a 100-degree angle of coverage over the forward direction with little change in loudness or sound character. This is terrific performance for monitoring or home audio applications.

 

The above graph shows the E8 XT’s response behavior along its vertical axis where the zero degrees angle is directly in front of the tweeter, negative degree values are below the tweeter, and positive degree values are above the tweeter. Something a bit unusual can be seen here, and that is where the cancellation null begins below the on-axis angle. All two-way loudspeakers where the drivers are separated by any distance will exhibit a cancellation null at some point. Normally, loudspeaker makers try to keep that point as far away from the on-axis angle as possible, but in the Eris E8 XTs, the null begins at just 10-degrees below the on-axis angle. That is a bit of a problem, and the reason why that is a problem is that often monitors are mounted at a higher position than the listeners in a mixing console setting, so there is a chance that the sound engineer could be sitting in a spot below the on-axis angle, even though recommended industry practice is that near-field monitors be at ear level. That puts them in a position where there is a response hole centered at the crossover frequency.

While the response below the on-axis angle is a bit worse than usual, the response above the on-axis angle is better than normal. The E8 XT monitor holds a flat response out to a 20-degree high angle. This means that the lobe where the drivers’ sound integrates is tilted upwards a bit more relative to typical speakers. If you have these mounted above the listening position, make sure they are angled downward so that the tweeter is aimed at or just below the listener’s ears. So long as you are listening on-axis or within 20-degrees above, you will be met with a very neutral sound. If you are setting them up for home use, try using a somewhat smaller bookshelf speaker stand that puts your ears slightly above the tweeter to get an optimal sound. Once the E8 XT’s lobe is understood, it can actually be leveraged to give these speakers better placement flexibility than normal speakers.

 

The above graphs show the Eris E8 XT’s low-frequency responses that I captured using groundplane measurements (where the speaker and microphone are on the ground in a wide-open area). This is another terrific showing, a superbly neutral response that is flat down to 50 Hz with a strong response down to below 40 Hz. This is the type of response one would hope for given that these are studio monitors. If the response was exaggerated or ‘hot’ in bass regions, content creators would be mixing in less bass than they think which would result in an inadvertently thin-sound in the end product. Port tuning looks to be maybe 37 or 38 Hz. PreSonus claims a 35 Hz extension, but they didn’t specify a window for that frequency, and looking at our measurements, that looks to be a -10dB point. So the E8 XT’s have very good extension but not quite flat-to-35 Hz extension, which isn’t very plausible given this speaker’s design anyway. However, room gain can shore up the low-frequencies so it should be fairly common to get a flat response down to 40 Hz in-room, especially in medium to smaller rooms.

 

The above graphs exhibit a few of the changes that can be made to the response using some of the controls on the amp plate. There are a lot of different ways to alter the response, and these are just a handful of some of those altered responses. The default settings seem to result in the flattest response anechoically, except for the “acoustic space” switch, where the ‘-2dB’ setting seems to be more in line with the rest of the range. Low frequencies, which are very subject to in-room acoustic effects, are better changed through room measurements along with a capable equalizer, although if these speakers are going to be placed near a boundary such as a wall or especially a corner, users should probably set the “acoustic space” switch to ‘-4dB.’

For monitoring purposes, the “Mid Frequency” knob and the “High Frequency” knob should be left at the 12 o’clock position where they provide the most neutral response. The ‘Mid Frequency’ knob may seem like a strange way to be able to adjust the response since changes from the 12 o’clock position could only result in a bad sound, but PreSonus explained to me that is basically the point of that control; it is for recording engineers to check how their mix translates to cheap speakers that can often have a peakish midrange response like clock radio speakers or older car speakers. The “High Frequency” knob is useful for those who want either a more mellow sound or a slightly more aggressive sound for recreational listening, but it shouldn’t be used for monitoring at anything other than the 12 o’clock position.

Conclusion

Let’s quickly go over some of the pluses and minuses of the PreSonus Eris E8 XT before wrapping this review up. As usual, I will start with the minuses since I am the kind of guy who wants the bad news out of the way first. The good news about the bad news for the E8 XTs is that there is not much bad news about these speakers. My only complaint is that the usual cancellation null that occurs between the woofer and tweeter in a two-way speaker occurs a bit higher in angle than is ideal in this speaker. That means users should not be listening to them at an angle lower than the tweeter axis. This may be something that is easily fixed by PreSonus by making a small timing change to one of the drivers to bring down that vertical lobe. 

One thing that isn’t a complaint but simply a suggestion for improvement is I think it would be nice to see this speaker available in white. The industrial design shape for this monitor is quite good, and I think it would be a shame for it to be relegated to studio settings when it is nice enough to have a presence in home audio if it only came in a less drab color. Come on, PreSonus, the Eris speakers would look a lot less boring in some more pleasant colors!

Moving on to the positives about the Eris E8 XT first and foremost is their performance, which is very good as an accurate sound reproducer. We get a nicely flat response with great off-axis correlation. If you are creating content, you can be confident that what you are hearing from the monitors is what your mix sounds like with little coloration from the speakers (so long as you are listening at or somewhat above the on-axis angle). For the most neutral response, I do recommend the “acoustic space” switch be set to -2dB, but the room acoustics will do far more distortion to the low-end response than any onboard setting that a speaker could use to fix it, but that is a problem that isn’t within any loudspeaker’s power to solve. For those who prefer a different sound in their listening, there are a host of changes that can be made to the sound character of the E8 XTs, so their sound can be easily tailored to taste.

Along with the nice on and off-axis responses, the E8 XT has a good dynamic range and can get loud without any problems. Furthermore, the background noise that is present to some extent in most powered speakers is very mild in the E8 XTs and isn’t very audible even in near-field listening. The bass extension is very good with a strong response all the way down to 40 Hz, and the E8 XTs make it easy to incorporate a subwoofer into a system without any bass management since these monitors have high-pass filters that can be set to 80 or 100 Hz. Not only is the overall performance quite good, they look nice for studio monitors as well, but, as I said before, they could look much nicer in a less drab color.

I didn’t know quite what to expect from the Eris E8 XT when I asked PreSonus for a review sample. I had not seen any real data for it and had only heard some glowing reviews from some Youtube reviewers, but effusive praise from Youtube reviewers for anything isn’t exactly a rarity. I knew that the Eris monitor series are hot sellers from studio gear retailers, but just because something sells well does not guarantee an actual good product. So I was pleasantly surprised when they turned out to be such well-engineered products. These monitors could easily be used for home audio as well as studio applications.They would be great for a 2-channel bedroom or family room system and would work very well in home theater too. If you have the desktop space for such large speakers, they could work well as PC speakers for gaming or other computer uses. They are powerful, accurate loudspeakers that are very competitive in their price and monitor class. I wish there were some similarly-priced passive home audio loudspeakers that had the sound quality and dynamic range of the Eris E8 XT monitors, but these are very usable as home audio speakers, and anyone looking for simply good sounding speakers ought to give these guys serious consideration.  

 

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Dynamic Range
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value