Side by Side Comparison of: Mackie vs Pioneer vs Hosa

Been listening to these for about 3 hours and I love them. Retired a set of Altec Lansing that lasted for 15 years or so and I hated having to do that. I deliberately ordered these because I did not want a separate 'sub'. The sound is just great - very 'clear'. They are playing 'Hooked on a Feeling' and the sound is 'crisp'. Spatial separation is very good. Words like 'clear', 'crisp', 'no coloration', and such come to mind. I really, really like these speakers.Hookup was a snap and the ability to switch the powered speaker to left or right channel was very smart as my computer setup here is opposite what Windows thinks should be left and right. These are keepers.

What can I say about these speakers? For starters, THEY'RE AMAZING. Right after unboxing I was immediately impressed by the quality of these little speakers. They are made from sturdy wood and the finish is very nice. I bought these with the intention of using them in tandem with a projector to play movies or video games outside. Now I'm considering purchasing a second pair for my computer. I am a fan of the green accents since I have xboxes and I feel like they will tie in nicely with my gear since it provides a clean, sleek look without overdoing it. Sound quality is very impressive for such small speakers. The low end is, surprisingly, very noticeable and powerful and the high end is very light and clear like it should be. I especially like the option to switch which speaker is powered, aka left or right, so you can adjust based on your setup. The active speaker is noticeably heavier than the passive one, but for good reason that it houses the majority of the electrical components. I can't say enough about these. I'm absolutely amazed something so small can pack that much of a punch. The only gripe I have about these is that the dimensions listed on amazon are incorrect. When I bought them I thought they would be larger, but learned otherwise when I looked them up on youtube. They actually measure 8.2 x 5.5 x 6.2 inches. In my opinion great product for the money and would definitely buy again.

Just plugged them in and tied them into my existing setup of dual KRK Rokit 5's and M-Audio Fast Track sound mixer. They seriously compliment my setup and even though they are smaller than my KRK's they can keep up as far as quality. I did run them on their own as well and they sounded great. Good volume. Great look. Absolutely love the fact of how many connection types and chords that come with these. They do get a little fuzzy when the volume is cranked on very low bass notes but thats to by expected from 3" speakers. Loud and low are best from subwoofers. Overall i already adore these speakers. Every genre and every custom EQ setting i throw at them they sound great and preform exactly how i want them to. A+ In my books!

I recently bought an Audio Technica AT-LP60 turntable and needed some good powered speakers that wouldn't break the bank. WOW, did these ever fit the bill! They're light and compact, yet very powerful. I was blown away after hooking them up. I heard parts in songs I had not heard before on digital versions, and I believe these speakers had a good role in that. All things considered they have a surprisingly awesome range; it's all there: bass, mid, and hi ranges. Everything I needed to hook up the system indeed came in the box as promised. Are there better speakers out there? Sure. But if you're looking for powerful, cost effective, home entertainment bookshelf speakers, then look no further.

I like listening to music, that's all. I'm no audiophile or musician, I just wanted speakers that could play music with great quality when I'm hanging out at home (mainly through Pandora, Spotify or Google Music). So my research began and obviously considered all the big name bluetooth and wifi speakers, such as Bose and Sonos. But then I remembered that Google came out with the Chromecast Audio that allows me to connect to any speaker through a headphone jack and cast music from any iOS, Android or computer device. So ultimately I could buy speakers that are better quality at a cheaper price, and so I began looking into the world of studio monitors which I hadn't considered before.My budget was $200 and luckily you can get some really great studio monitors for this price, such as these Mackie CR4's. They're the perfect size for my bookshelf, had amazing reviews (and rightly so), very easy to hook up, very very good quality sound and look fantastic. My wife was frustrated asking "Why do you even need these speakers when you have your (cheapo) bluetooth one????" but after I played her some music with the Mackies she just said, "oh...yeah these are nice".Overall quality wise, you get to hear all the nice details in the music with very good lows, mids and highs. Some people complained that the bass was not good enough, but I think it's perfect. There's certainly a lot of bass there and you will be surprised at how much you can get out of these guys. The clarity you get, even at low volumes, it simply astonishing. It's not that I've never listened to high end speakers before, but it's that I didn't think (even after reading all the reviews) that the quality would be THIS good.I would recommend these to anyone looking to get a set of quality monitors plus a Chromecast Audio if you want the wireless option. I would pick these over a Sonos 3 or 5 any day, unless I was doing the whole entire home wireless speaker thing, which I'm not.

I very rarely ever leave reviews but I feel like in the case of the CR4 LTDs I need to, as the difference in audio hardware greatly will alter your listening experience.I ordered these speakers as an upgrade to my existing computer audio system, a 2.1 set of 15 year old Logitech gaming speakers. The new build included the Mackie's, along with the Schiit Magni/Modi Uber stack. The CR4 LTD's arrived two days before DAC/amp, so I had around 48 hours to experience what these speakers sound like both when plugged into my computer directly and using the Fiio E07K DAC/amp.The packaging was more than adequate, which is fortunate because Amazon shipped them in a box which was 3x larger than necessary. At this price point the construction of these speakers are punching well above their grade, leaving me nearly completely impressed. While it's completely cosmetic, there were a couple 'pixels' of space on the tweeters that didn't receive the black coating, which reveals a silver, reflective surface. It doesn't impact the performance of the speaker in any way, but it's distracting when I'm trying to admire them haha. The surface space they take up is very manageable; they don't feel excessively large. The speaker isolation pads they provide are a very nice touch.Reading the reviews for the CR4's (there was only one CR4 LTD review before I had made my purchase) gave me the expectation that the bass was lacking, so after plugging the speakers directly into my motherboard's audio port I was prepared for what I heard. The mids and highs sounded fantastic, but the lows felt fairly recessed. I had chalked it up the 4" speaker size, and that I would need a subwoofer to really experience the bass I was looking for. The next day I was able to test the speakers with the E07K and it brought clarity to the softer mids and highs. The bass still felt lacking, but it wasn't nearly as noticeable as before. Still at that point I was convinced I would need an independent subwoofer at some pointAfter having listened to these speakers with the Schiit stack, my thoughts on needing a subwoofer have gone out the window. The bass stepped up in such an incredible way that I can't believe these are the same speakers I was listening to yesterday. You're not going to feel the thump of a bass heavy song in your chest as you would with a dedicated subwoofer, but the sound landscape is so much more balanced with the higher quality DAC and amp. At low volumes the accuracy in sound reproduction stayed consistent, with no noticeable degradation between the lows, mids, and highs. For comparison I also had a pair of Sennhesier HD 598s to compare them to, and the sound coming out of the Mackie's was significantly cleaner. The difference in audio precision between the two was uncomfortably noticeable, as now I can't find many reasons why I would want to listen to the headphones over the speakers.If you're planning on purchasing these speakers to hook them directly into your computer without any additional audio equipment you'll absolutely notice an improvement in audio fidelity, however you're nearly doing yourself an injustice to not have an audio system that is capable of demonstrating what these speakers can do. If you already have an audio system capable of driving the Mackie's though, you're in for quite a treat, especially at this price point.

Very nice and responsive unit for entry level DJing. Only con is the units paint and finish is easily scratched and damaged. Function isn't impaired but looks unprofessional after too many dings. Works great with Serato and Virtual DJ.

Best for the money I've ever used and it feeds from most of your itunes library.

I bought this for my son's birthday, and he loves it

Bought this for my 16 yo son who likes to play around with mashups and he's loving it. Working with it on a Mac and using it with Logic Pro. Easy to learn initially and then enough options to keep him busy and learning new methods.

works really good, many functions and it is almost pro. Plus the price is really good.Works perfect with DJay Pro.

I am a beginner DJ and it is a decent controller for all the research I did. It is designed to be able to upgrade to Serato DJ from Serato DJ intro. It is also name brand.

The sound quality seems quite good. One thing I don"t like is that they don't turn themselves off and they get warm when you leave them on which means they are wasting power and anything that gets warm when not in use makes me nervous that it might cause a fire. They ought to SHUT THEMSELVES OFF after say 15 minutes of non use. I have to remember to turn them off myself.

These speakers sound pretty good despite their small size. They come with all of the cables you need and 2 sets of foam platforms, one flat and one tilted. There are convenience jacks on the front of one of the speakers, one for an aux input and the other for headphones. I would have given these speakers 5 stars but the headphone jack reduces sound quality greatly so I end up having to unplug the speakers from my computer and then plug the headphones into the computer directly which kind of defeats the purpose of the convenience jack on the speaker.

These little speakers sound way better than expected. I hadn't thought I would like these as much as I do. They are very convenient and easy to use. The L/R toggle is great if you are like me and end up moving my computer station around a lot. The ability to use both a 1/4 patch cord connection and/or the AUX is also a nice feature if you "pass the aux" with friends or switch computers often. I'm able to use these guys for light mixing on music (though I wouldn't trust these alone). Overall I am very happy with this purchase. Great for anyone on a budget or for those just looking to play music and watch movies. If you are looking for legitimate studio monitors these aren't the way to go. But if you are looking for a cheaper set of speakers to compliment your Monitors I would recommend these. 4.5/5

I got these speakers because my previous 2.5 computer speakers stopped working. I produce music as a hobby and decided to upgrade to monitors and settled on these due to the price for the pair. I connected them to my computer via a second generation Scarlett solo USB interface and the highs and mids were amazing. They did a good job of highlighting the parts of my songs that needed work. However I like my songs base heavy and these speakers just could not deliver in that regard. I wanted to give these speakers 3 stars due to the lack of base but the speakers are pretty great otherwise, good for gaming and tv/movies. If you are a person that likes to feel the base in your body then these speakers aren't for you. Im returning these for the Mackie MR mk3 Series MR5mk3. For people who really like base 5inch monitors are the minimum size you should get.

I recently bought a turntable and needed some powered speakers to go with it as I didn't want to go the whole amp/receiver route. The price point on these made it a relatively easy decision. I figured for $150, worse case, I'd just relegate these to computer speakers. That said, they didn't disappoint at all! They're great sounding speakers! The bass is surprisingly good fro 4" woofers. I may add a subwoofer someday, but for now I'm quite happy with the sound. Also plenty loud to fill a large living room even full of people.My ONLY complaint with these speakers is the green circles around the cones! While it's a nice green, it's a really bright color and unless you have a green decor thing going already, these tend to stick out visually much more than I'd like. I may try to eventually try to paint them black. (I think Mackie could make a few extra buck by making these rings removable and selling different colored replacements!)

These speakers are amazing. I wouldn't necessarily call them monitors though, but they do a fine job for some one who messes with amateur production like my self. The Mackie CR4's are loud as all get out though. Paired with my s***ty audio interface, these two four inch speakers bang. While the bass coming from these guys isn't really banging, it is still full and sounds superb.

This inexpensive controller is my new favorite. I use it to make all of my mixes and it went from a backup to a primary within a few days. The only issue I have is the headphone jack. I have to wiggle the cords around to get both side of my brand new skull Candy headphones (purchased in the same online order as this controller) to play. Also my left tempo slider was built slightly crooked. Otherwise, great results so far!

Does as advertised. Simple and staight to the point

It's not bad but you do get what you pay for. I was never able to make it work correctly but you might have better luck. The built quality was cheap and the knobs and sliders looked like they wouldn't last a year. I intend to purchase a model above this one.

Pretty good entry level controller. Not really "plug and play" but once you get it to connect with serato it works great.

The only downside is Serato, not because of the charges but because there are better software solutions out there! The MIDI controller is great!

Its ok but a bit flimsy, bpm knob broke after 2 weeks.

Expected more. I shouldn't have considering the price.

Distortion from bass of the Limited Edition CR4 after only a little more than a month of use. I filed a claim with Mackie as they should still be under warranty. I will update later but in the mean time, only 1 star.Update: Mackie was fairly unhelpful/not useful. Amazon was very helpful. After contacting Mackie, they said they could not help me at all because mine set was the Limited Edition CR4. After contacting after Amazon, they were able to get a replacement order shipped very quickly.3 stars for for the speakers, 1 star for Mackie customer service, and 5 stars for Amazon customer service.

I've had these speakers for about 9 months now, and they've been great. Recently the powered speaker started sounding a little bit muddy, but that has progressed to an awful buzz. It sounds blown out, but I never pushed these speakers too loud or anything.They were definitely great while they lasted though :/

These studio monitors work great, except for the fact that they overheat and stop working for 30 minutes, when the weather gets warmer. I rma the first set thinking it was a defect, because the monitors will work for 1/2 a second when turning them off, the light on the front stay on, just no sound but sometimes it came on and off. Now 5 months into the second pair same thing is happening. So it's obvious a quality problem with the build in amp not being able to cool down enough.The audio quality is awesome very clear reproduction, so instead of treating them like computer speakers and leaving them on, turning them off when not used to cool down the buildin amp, makes them still usable.4/28/16 Update: My replacement set is now having the same problem as the first, it's been 2 months since receiving these replacement. This one is only staying on for 15 minutes before the sound starts to cut off. The internal amp is definitely blown again, I leave the monitors on 24/7 which the manual doesn't say it's outside of the normal use. Mackie customer support has been very helpful with RMA this set as well, but they have warned me that the warranty doesn't refresh and is based on the first pair I bought.Although my experience with these monitors hasn't been great with the amp blowing again, so the quality of the internal amp definitely needs to be improved, but I still can not deny the sound quality produced by these Mackies. Sticking with 3 stars, and hopefully these 3rd pair will last me at least 2 years past the end of the warranty.

Upon first getting these speakers, I loved the clarity of the speakers, where the highs and mids are crisp, even though the bass was a little lacking. I got a sub to supplement this problem, and the overall sound output is great for most songs. I had to replace the first pair because I noticed a hum coming from the main powered speaker, from anywhere to it's cutoff point of around 55 hz to around 105 hz, making songs with mainly bass and no higher register to overpower the sound of the hum a pain to listen to. Thanks to Amazon I received a replacement pair when I returned the old speakers, and when I got my speakers enjoyed the sound initially like on my last pair, but when listening to the speakers at a moderately high volume (but still not enough that the speakers shouldn't be able to handle) I still hear that familiar rattle coming from the main powered speaker once again, less than last time but still there on big bass pops or muffled bass. I'm going to keep listening to these for a little more too see if the rattle gets worse like with my first pair of Mackies.The volume I usually listen to is just a little less than 12 o'clock on the speakers as well

Pros:- Excellent sound quality and features for the priceCons:- Stopped working after about 5 monthsMisc Notes:- I have never run these at full (output) volume and they failed after regular use. However, after looking at other "real" studio monitors for professional use, I noticed that every one of them have an input attenuation switch. This is because professional setups can pump very high levels of input to the monitors and having this option prevents input overload, which I suspect happened to my pair.- Given my usage, I'd probably consider these as very high end general listening speakers- They sound great (when working)// EDITSo I left them unplugged for 24 hours and it works again, though the treble doesn't seem as "crisp" as before.

The knobs are getting really loose and don't stop in the middle and I've only had it for 4 months

This is a great controller. However, all great things have issues. Mine has a major issue where you can hear the LED's blink even after getting a ground noise loop isolater. It works great otherwise and could easily be used professionally. I'm personally going to get something else, maybe from Numark.

I purchased this item a few months ago...so far it has been satisfactory but I had a problem with one of the pads .....and will be sending it to a technician...hope it's an isolated issue with just this one item

I still wish I, knew how long it takes to download music, for my serato & vision has changed since my strokes.

Hi I recently bought the Pioneer Pro DJ DDJ-SB2 controller and I can't seem to get it functional, follow the setup procedures and when to connect to Serato Dj intro an error: Faild to connect to audio, keeps coming up, what can I do to fix this problem....

Not exactly plug and play. I had to go on the Pioneer website to install the drivers manually for it to work. I would have liked to see some buttons for sound effects too.

I purchased these as computer speakers for my desk at work, back in January of 2016. I work in an office, where I can't get too loud, so it's not like I was working them hard. I even turned them off every night when leaving the office, so they had a really soft life. At low volumes, I found that they performed very well at providing great sound up close, while still being effectively inaudible to my coworkers. So for my needs, they worked perfect. Then, one day back in June, I noticed that the left hand speaker had no sound. I checked wiring, everything was hooked up, I swapped the R and L RCA inputs at the back of the speaker and the problem stayed with the speaker, so the cable was fine. Then I touched the speaker position selection switch on the back of the RH speaker and suddenly the sound came back. It was clear the selector switch had gone bad. With time, I found that the LH speaker would fall out more and more frequently. wiggling the switch, I could usually get it to come back for a while, but eventually that stopped working too. I was able to flip the switch, so that the channels were reversed and got them to work again for yet a little while longer, but now after 4 more months of trying to finesse it, it's next to impossible to get it playing both channels at the same time. The speakers only carry a 1 year warranty, so I wasn't getting any help from the manufacturer. I was hoping that the switch might be serviceable, but after taking the cover off the back of speaker to look, I found that they glue over all of the components on the board, to ensure that you can't fix anything on these speakers. So instead of being able to continue enjoying the speakers, I'm going to give someone, other than Mackie, my money to replace them. There really is no reason these speakers should have started breaking down so quickly.

I purchased these in 2015 and they worked fine until a few weeks ago. They will now only emit a buzzing noise and no audio will pass through. I contacted customer support and was told there was nothing they could do since they were beyond the one year limited warranty. All of that is fine, but I have never had speakers completely quit on me before. I have 20 year old cheap speakers that will still play sound. The fact that these will not work at all after only 2 years means I cannot recommend these or Mackie for that matter. I would have hoped they would have at least offered me a discount on some new ones to keep as a customer. As a result, I will never purchase Mackie again. They are better options with companies that will take care of their customers.

These speakers are great, especially at around 80 bucks, but on occasion my right speaker will have this hissing sound that is decently loud, it sounds almost like static, but less aggressive. It only comes around now and then, but it started around 4 months into my owning these speakers, so I can't really turn my eyes away from the issue. I don't know if that's due to back quality control or bad luck on my end, but it's enough of a problem that I unfortunately feel the need to drop my otherwise 5 star review down to 2 stars.

after 6 months the power button will not work anymore so don't buy this

At first everything was working perfectly and I loved it but after a few days, it wouldn't connect to the Bluetooth no matter what I did.

I bought these speakers for at work. When I do a lot of computer work, or programming or so I like to listen to music. I hooked it up via my FiiO E10K USB DAC. It did not sound all that great, so maybe the speakers needed breaking in. Well it did not really improve. I gave these speakers who seems to be quite content with it. I then bought the Audioengine A2+. Wow that is so much more enjoyable.For my picky ears the Macky did not do it.

it's a great controller but since i got it some of the buttons weren't working and now all the lights had been turning off! i am very disappointed , i sent an email to the buyer i still haven't gotten a respond! i hope they get back to me as soon as possible

Had to return because it was broken, made hiss constantly through my speakers. Went and bought the DDJ SR instead

My product was perfect but I never got the serato Dj installation disc how do I get this

Very disappointed that it doesn't state anywhere that you have to pay to be able to use it after two weeks!!!!

Gains and faders dont work

Terrible sound quality! Just good looking speakers. I was expecting much more being Mackie create this.

Good sound and features for the money but after 10 months the R speaker blew up. I'm awaiting customer service to reply but be wary of this before buying them. I was actually pretty happy before this happened. Bluetooth in the speakers is not the greatest as you may experience delay and interference, but nevertheless sound quality was good and the bluetooth feature is useful. They sound best when connected directly.

the speakers blew within a month. Not worth the price.

These speakers were awesome until the one speaker started to go out within less than a year. Seems to be the "powered speaker" switch that went out, because when you flip it the opposite speaker goes out. It's also something that comes and goes at random for no apparent reason. I contacted Mackie customer service via e-mail and told them the problem since it was still under the manufacturer warranty. They told me I had to call in with the speakers in front of me for them to determine if it was a product defect. Unfortunately their customer service is only open during the hours I work, so I am not able to call with my speaker set up in front of me. I told them that and they never got back to me. Why I would need to call in to go over something that is DEFINITELY a common manufacturing defect is beyond frustrating. Buy this if you have a disposable income and don't need speakers that last.

Super disappointed in these speakers. First of all, the 4" subwoofer is 3.25 inches. The right tweeter started crackling within a month of purchase. I have these hooked up to my iMac, simply to improve stock computer sound while listening to music/youtube/etc in my home office. Wasn't expecting deep bass, but better than average sound quality should be a given for proclaimed "studio monitor sound" ...for lack of better words, these speakers suck.

Bought these on Nov 2015. I used them sporadically at the same volume level (~75%) all the time as they were used for home automation. The speakers stopped working on Feb 2016. Needless to say very upset and disappointed with the quality of the product. Good for paper weight, although expensive for that purpose. Don't buy this product!!

I buy this pioneer wen it come the box open n it not working

The midi controller is great when Serato recognizes the MIDI device, but I'm having a recurring problem whereby upon Serato shutdown I have to uninstall my device drivers in windows 10 device manger and restart my computer before the midi controller will be recognized. Becoming quite a pain in the rear and I've found limited support online

It's not working at all, probably going to exchange it. Looked at the pioneer forums and it seems many of the people who bought it from amazon faced with the same problem.

I have no idea why this board is a best seller, it has so many problems. This is disappointing coming from a top notch company. The jog wheels stop functioning properly after a couple months. The play button locks up when you try to scratch. The vinyl mode stops functioning during scratching and you end up jogging whenever is being played. There's a firmware update with no clear instructions as to how to go about updating. The instructions given sounds like it's for a completely different controller. This board is just a disappointment.

It worked good but tried to dj Saturday and did not work ..... Please Help

Extremely disappointed in this product, it feels very cheap and poorly built. I have had it for about a month and a half, used it a handful of times, and I already had issues with the buttons registering in Traktor pro 2. Wish I would have skipped on this product because it is a waste of money. Save your money and do not purchase!