Review on Micca COVO-S Renewed Compact 2-Way Bookshelf Speakers - Pair by Jessica Frederick

I am a huge fan of Micca products, I have pretty much everything they offer in terms of speakers so when I was building a garage workbench and needed a reasonably priced set of speakers , I thought a COVO-S kit would be ideal. I don't seem to critically listen to the Echo Dot's streaming equivalent in my garage. While these speakers are said to have been updated, I haven't seen anything to suggest so. They arrived just like any new Miccas I have ever owned and were in brand new condition. If you're hesitant to buy an upgraded one, don't. I guarantee you won't be able to tell them from brand new, and if they break internally for any reason, you can't beat Revain's $3 refurbished return policy. Before moving on to the sound quality, I would also like to point out that the COVO-S that I received came with a 1/4-20 mounting hole in the back. Previous COVO-S products didn't have this, but they do, and that's a big reason I wanted them, as I could just stick a 1/4-20 screw through my desktop's perforated panel to secure them assemble. When it comes to sound quality, I really want to be ahead of the curve. I plan on returning them as they are not good enough to be used as main desktop/desktop speakers. Not only is there no bass (as to be expected), but I felt like there was genuine distortion in what would otherwise be amazing highs and mids. When I removed the bass from my tracks and just played the highs and mids, these were excellent speakers, but once the bass kicked in, things got muddy. I did some A/B testing with a set of updated MB42-X's I had and even listened to them asymmetrically (MB42X on one side and COVO-S on the other) with my sound in mono and just left and track times reversed on the right. and the difference between day and night. Now it's obvious that the difference between the MB42X and the COVO-S *should* be day and night, they are two completely different speakers in size and price. However, at the time of purchase, the difference between the updated COVO-S kit and the updated MB42X kit was only $30 (and about $35 difference for a new one). I find the difference in sound quality to be much greater than the difference in price, which is why I intend to use the MB42X in this setup. HOWEVER I don't think these speakers would be beaten in an audio system where these speakers would not be the only speakers like Atmos type or even better as high front/high rear speakers in a 7.X surround sound system In terms of size and value, I end up giving them 4*. These speakers will never be good enough to be near field on their own with a 2.0 or even 2.1 setting, but as high end surround in a surround sound system you absolutely can't get better value. No way. The mids and highs are great, and the tiny size and 1/4-20 mount make them very convenient to install just about anywhere. I would also like to point out that the speaker and backplate are very easy to take out of the box. So if you want to paint the box the same color as the wall or ceiling and they really disappear, you can do that very easily. Another thing I want to point out about these speakers is that they are oddly difficult to control. I only noticed this when I put the MB42X on the left channel and the COVO-S on the right (using the SMSL SA-50 for testing), the COVO-S was significantly quieter, and no, not just because of mismatches Size. It took almost another 1/4 turn for the COVO-S to reach the same volume as the MB42X with the same amp. While it doesn't really matter in a 2.X setup, in a surround setup with different speakers you should be aware of this and you need to correct this by giving COVO a few dB more. Your main speakers will likely sound much louder without equalization at the same output. In a 2.X setting, this would also give you very little margin between proper listening volume and distortion. The difference between a good volume level and enough power to produce distortion was 20-30 degrees at the volume control. Essentially the difference between 11 and 12 o'clock on the SMSL SA-50, but be aware the volume was way louder than you'd get comfortable at your desk. Feel free to recommend these speakers once you understand what their wheelhouse is all about. There are far too many good, small, fairly cheap speakers better suited for tables, including Micca's own MB42X, but if you need something tiny or need small speakers to complete your surround setup, I recommend these. If I needed front heights for my surround sound system I would honestly keep them but I don't have them right now so I'm sending them back. At some point I will definitely order again.