PreSonus Eris E4.5 Review – About As Good As It Gets

Controls:
Features:
Performance:

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PreSonus Eris E4.5 sure took many people by surprise. These speakers have shown to bring a number of qualities which rightfully make them one of the most capable monitor speakers you can get for under $200. Don't let their appearance fool you. The Eris E4.5 speakers are all about business.

Design

On a first glance, Eris E4.5 look a bit underwhelming. If you were to put them next to a couple of pairs of your regular desktop speakers, they wouldn't stand out too much. However, this low profile design makes E4.5 a perfect sleeper set. PreSonus did everything right regardless if you like or dislike the aesthetics. They put all of the most used controls at the front of the active speaker, eliminating any need to reach behind on a daily basis.

The back panel contains a number of controls and a well thought out I/O cluster. Build quality is more or less on point. Once you turn these puppies on, you won't hear any rattling or cabinet vibrations even at higher volume. Overall, Eris E4.5 will fit into just about any studio interior design, but definitely won't be the conversation piece in the room.

Features

Looking at the features, there is a lot that needs to be mentioned. Let's start things off by going over the drivers. Up on top, there's a 1″ super lightweight silk dome tweeter that promises to be pretty quick when you start pushing those highs. More importantly, there's a 4.5″ low-frequency Kevlar cone right underneath it. Straight off the bat you know there's some power behind these speakers. A quick glance at the back panel reveals more goodies.

Acoustic tuning controls are something that you start seeing right around this price range. PreSonus has included Highs and Mids adjustment knobs, a Low Cutoff switch that allows you to anchor that bass at 100Hz if you wish to, and finally the Acoustic Space switch for easier positioning. Combined, Eris E4.5 speakers pack some 50 Watts of power, making them fairly loud for their size.

Performance

Here's where things go from good to incredible. The response you're looking at here is impressively flat. We are talking surprisingly good transparency across the range with variations measured within 2dB intervals. On top of that, E4.5 can go fairly deep if you need them to. Doing actual mixing with these is easy. The only users who will complain of inaccuracy are the seasoned veterans of the business who have honed both their skills and their ears. However, Eris E4.5 wasn't really meant for them.

It was meant for beginners who want to get the good stuff right away. It takes some time to properly position the speakers and set them up for the size of your room. When you get done doing that, you will be impressed by what you are hearing out of these compact monitors.

Conclusion

All things considered, Eris E4.5 really is the king of the budget range. They combine every single feature you would want in speakers of this type. If you have a smaller studio that is in dire need of solid monitoring and you are on a budget, check these out.

For more info about the PreSonus Eris E4.5, click here.
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