Review on Monoprice Ribbon Tweeter Bookshelf Speakers by Kiesha Williams

I wanted to compare them directly with the Dayon B652-AIR. Both have custom tweeters and both sell for under $100, both are designed for low to medium volume listening. All of the above points should be considered with this in mind. The Monoprice speaker is all about Twitter. The ribbon tweeters are very, VERY powerful in the mid to high range - 8kHz - 12kHz, with a sharp roll off around 17kHz and narrowing to zero around 20kHz where the more expensive true aluminum ribbons are the ones designed to do it will not simply be mass-produced in a Chinese factory - is only just beginning. (While these frequencies are above what even the best human hearing can discern, they still affect the lower, audible frequencies.) The result is a very bright sound that needs correction. Your horns and guitar plucks will be strong, but your guitar strings and cymbals may lack that smooth ringing rhythm you may experience with other flat or fluted aluminum ribbon tweeters. In some places, the quality is more like a horn tweeter, in places even a bit fat, but this can be edited with an equalizer. Overall I would have preferred the bands to have a higher crossover point (smaller capacitor capacitance) and a 6.5" midrange rather than a woofer. With ribbon, the goal is subtlety and nuance, not boldness. Maybe they'll improve over time with a few breaks, all this suggests that the high frequencies are quite pronounced, removing one of the tweeters revealed an extremely light plastic case, an isolation transformer is missing but honestly it doesn't have to be needed for low power levels used in loudspeakers. Compared to the Dayton Audio B652-AIR, I feel the Daytons have less high end, but what's there is subtler and more subtle than the Monoprice product. On the Daytons, I increase the high end in the EQ; Monoprice, I decline. For the price, a pair of Monoprices produce good sound quality paired with a decent subwoofer. Please note that the Monoprice requires you to add a sawtooth picture hanger to the back if you want to wall mount them, don't necessarily try the Daytons. In summary, I like my highs and sit squarely between them and the Dayon B652-AIR - both are good value for money.