These are good.I had previously mixed on various hi-fi speakers through an old amp.Now I've got clarity and detail I never had.I was a bit surprised by by how flat and undynamic my old mixes sounded when I played them through the new HS80m speakers.I've got them 3 weeks now and everything is sounding much better and there's loads of new ground to explore.I love the control they give me.They are exactly the tools I need.

I know that ten is a very high rating seen as though I have even played on one but if I was voting on just looks alone then it deserves a ten.
The neon green will make you stand out when your playing with people who have Gibson SG's or something like that.
But also the spec is very good at this price.

awesome!!!

fantastic amp

Does make me laugh reading all these reviews about people not being able to program this drum machine. It's you've ever programmed ANY drum machine (not software S***) it's the most intuitive drum m/c ever. The SR despite being nearly 20 years old (bear that in mind as some of the sounds are 80's) is still being sold as a new product - that says something! Depends what you want to do with it - if, like myself, you're a regular pub performer needing straight drum kit sounds, nothing touches these largely due to the 100-song capacity. ALL THE PRESET BEATS ARE RUBBISH you need to program your own from the minute you take it out of the box. Three critisms: you run out of pattern memory before you run out of song memory - the handclap sample is dire! - and you can't change tempo mid-song. The "NEW" SR-18 is basically a repackaged SR-16 likewise the "Performance Pad". I use two live on stage as part of a duo (again, I ran out of memory with one!) and we have over a 100 song repertoire. £90? Jesus, get one - what else can you buy for £90? :)

fantastic hardware for budding musician ,,now let me explain the benefits of this unit .its usb compatible just plug in you sound equipment and conect to your computer record all that noise yes noise not music becouse this comes with cubase 4 le .its nearly worth the purchurse just for cubase .its not the full progrme that cost £400 but a version scaled down.so what can you do well all those dud notes record them re sync them upto 8 channells of noise mix then play reshuffle play again then just add mike what you got is the basis of music .....this aint fast process but you can achive miricles in quite short time .back to the unit itself it has 4 mono inputs 1-4 and two stereo 5&6 7&8 all with equalizer high gain for low input pre and post aux for enhancment but to top of it able to make sound changes upto 100 in all like hall room stadium but allso have you ever heard you self speeking or singing like a dylak ha ha you can input music lik cd or ipod then play along this box of trics is a must for the music beginer or more advanced ,,,but what i found best of all i could sit back with a set of headphones pluged in and play my guitar full blast as if i was in a studio but without anoying anyone in the house .no more amplifier just this great box of trick and headphone and adjust to what i want it to sound like alesis also make a ipod version little bit more in money take a look at ther site and choose which version would suit you best and your pocket both versions are capable of producing great sound but the ipod version has the advantage of recording without the aid of a computer if thats what you want alesis products have been made of a very high standard and you would be forgiven if you thought it was made 10 years ago becouse its not plastic junk it looks and feels as if it was made for a professinol as may be you are that so this woul suit you dowto the ground input range from acusti electric guitar to keyboad or mike violin as long as you are able to electricly conect or play into a mike this is a must musician dream piece of equipment all possative coments except youll have fun in getting it to work on a computer be patient and all will fall into place also that computer needs to be powefull enough and a good capacity hard drive worth investing externall drive to save your work bye bye cheap as chips when you relise what you are getting for your money both unit alesis 8 usb and cubase 4 le how can you go wrong ....make them sounds now sound like music

First tried this thing on my laptop's stock Vista Premium installation, which yielded slightly flaky results. Using XP instead seemed to help, what with the apparently superior drivers. The ESI forum is home to a few similar tales, suggesting that Vista might not be the preferable environment under which to run this interface.

Installation is painless and the unit produces a good sound. DirectWIRE, while fairly unsung in the product description, is very handy for recording one internal audio source directly into another. It resembles the "What U Hear" technology offered in some of Creative's products; for my purposes, that clinched the deal.

The build quality of the physical box itself is generally very good, sporting four rubber feet and a rugged metal shell.

Cakewalk Sonar Producer (v8), my DAW of choice, seems to run fairly well under this interface, although more solidly on a desktop machine than a laptop of similar spec (as you would expect with the faster buses and such). I wrote to ESI support asking for advice on what could be done to boost performance, and they gave me some useful information but not really enough to achieve a tangible difference. They didn't respond the second time around, so I'm on my own now! Overall, I get the impression the drivers could be better - for starters, being able to set a latency value of > 10ms would be nice. That and the addition of virtual metering in the control panel, as mentioned in the Sound On Sound review.

I can't pass comment about what performance might be like on Mac - when I ordered there were 4 of these in stock, whereas now it looks to have been depleted. If you're running the DuaFire in Logic, please write a review for the benefit of others!

My biggest criticism is the lack of a volume knob with which to control the main output level - you must grab your mouse and reach for the control panel in order to do this. Can get a bit tiresome and sometimes terrifying if you suddenly switch from a gentle recording into highly compressed trance. I suppose if you had accessible controls on your speakers, it wouldn't be too bad, and of course there's a gain control for the headphone socket already present.

Other than that, worthy of the asking price. By the way, it only comes with a European 2-pin power socket, so be sure to have a UK adapter or spare C7/C8 lead to hand.

Full machine specs:

- Acer TravelMate 5720 laptop: XP SP3, Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2Ghz, 2 GB DDR RAM, 160 GB 5400rpm SATA HDD.
- Desktop: XP SP3, Intel Core 2 Duo 6400 @ 2.13 Ghz, 2 GB DDR RAM, 160 GB 7200rpm SATA HDD.

Lovely definition and wide sound, just what you'd expect from Sennheiser. Well-constructed enough that I don't feel the need to handle them like radioactive waste.

It feels like you're doing something right when you use these!

These strike me as being pretty good value for money. Very nice definition on the high end, and the low end is perfectly satisfactory when you take into account the speakers' size.

They also go impressively loud, as mentioned in a previous review.

Buy these if you're on a budget!

Ok, so i bought my Musicman Stingray, 4 string, 3EQ, Black body, black pickguard and maple neck back in 2004. Since then i have been in a few bands and also done many sessions (live and recording). In a band situation i honestly dont think anything comes close... any style... you will cut through! I started off playing a classic 60s/70s style of rock, then i moved on to an indie-pop band, then i went through a phase of sessioning including pop, rock, jazz, funk and even reggae! Im not kidding when i say every rehearsal/gig i did with the bass people commented on how good it sounded! I have recorded a lot with this bass, and everytime the sound guy always ends up taking a straight feed from the bass and using that in the final mix (DI). Im now in a heavy rock band (The Rocket Dolls) and the bass... 4 and a half years on is still shocking me everyday on how versatile it is! Through anything... Ampeg, Trace, Fender, Ashdown, EBS and even Hartke... it sounds great... Buy it!

I usually use an Ampeg 15" cab, but when I moved temporarily to the UK from Australia last year I needed to sort out a new cab fast and cheap. The more I looked the more I realised that to get a similar sound I would need a front ported cab. I run my trusty old Gallien Krueger 200RCB, 100w "travel amp" through the Marshall and it sounds sweet! No loss of lows, no annoying highs, just pure classic tone. The Marshall has a switchable horn as well, which I generally tend to run off, but it's nice to know its there. Overall build quality is exceptional and the weight is reasonable but not light. I would recommend the MBC115 to anyone, whether amatuer or pro, you can't go wrong!

after months of saving.. i can finally afford one of these little beauties!!

Bought a TH-15A for use with a new Roland V-Drums kit (TD-9KX).

I was looking for an active speaker that could be used for low-level monitoring as well as for sound-reinforcement on stage. Ok, let's throw the occasional neighbour-hated houseparty in there too.

The Thump does exactly what it says on the tin. It's 15" driver reproduces the kick with style. There's no real need for a sub here. The midrange is nice and clear and the treble carries well whilst still being nicely defined.

EQ on the back (high, sweepable mid and low) is useful, but not really necessary as the speaker response is already nice and flat and I adjust most EQ settings in the drum module.

The housing is nice and sturdy, whilst the whole unit is very light for a speaker of this type (around 17kg). I believe the digital amplifier helps in this department. However, I also believe the amp is responsible for the one slight drawback to this speaker - when listening at what are relatively very low levels, there is a slight 'fizzle' at the end of any input when transitioning to silence. This does not exist at any higher volumes. I think it may be to do with impedance - I will connect a mixer and report back.

In short, if you're looking for a high quality item (Mackie engineers, no less) that can play loud whilst not making people's ears bleed, this is the way to go.

Sound tested against: Shure SE320 direct from kit, Roland/B&W hifi, Mackie PA

I purchased the Power Slinky strings from Dolphin Music in Liverpool.
After putting them onto my bass, I immediately noticed an improvement over my old strings (as would be expected). They play and sound like I would expect from something costing near enough £20.
The price is actually my only problem.
I feel that £20 is rather a rather steep price.
But aside from that, I am very happy with the product I bought.

I bought it and i recieved it last morning.
I am very satisfied about the quality and tha price.
This product is what I have been searching and I found it in the lowest price

Dimitrios Kakouris,
Agrinion, Greece

Iv used this product for a couple of years now for home recording. and there's not allot i can say apart from, brilliant. its a great amateur device that allows allot of flexibility. on the negative side it only has 2 input sockets at the front which makes it ok for a while but if u need more than 2 it becomes frustrating. so overall get it if your just going to record some vocals and a guitar, but if u need more that two inputs get some thing bigger.