Monoprice DT-3BT 50-Watt Multimedia Speakers
Summary
Very good budget speakers that deliver great sound, multiple connections, including Bluetooth® and easy set-up.
Monoprice DT-3BT 50-Watt Multimedia Speakers Review
For many years, my wired computer listening experience was relegated to some $15 speakers picked up from a Black Friday budget bin. And then I went full Bluetooth® for headphones and speakers. However, something was missing in my listening experience. My Apple One subscription brought me a wealth of audio experiences that needed, or well, I needed more room-rattling, bone-reverberating audio adventures. Computer speakers have come a long way, but the latest technology, combined with good sound, need not cost a lot of money. It certainly can, but it doesn’t need to.
Pros
- Great, clean audio
- Budget-friendly
- Can be cranked up, often beyond the capability of the room to handle the sound
- Easy set-up, fast switching between Bluetooth® or wired inputs
- Power, aux and headphones on front panel of main speaker
Cons
- Distort at high volumes
- Would look better, and protect drivers, with grills
Enter the $99 Monoprice DT-3BT 50-Watt Multimedia Speakers. 3.5″ polypropylene woofers and 3/4″ silk dome tweeters are each driven by a dedicated amplifier, with a total of 50 watts of amplification.
Monoprice DT-3BT Specifications
- 3″ polypropylene cone woofers
- 3/4″ silk dome tweeters
- 75Hz ~ 20kHz frequency response
- Class AB amplifiers
- Each speaker and driver independently amplified
- 50 Watts Total Power
- Unbalanced stereo RCA pair, unbalanced stereo 3.5mm TRS, and stereo balanced 1/4″ TRS pair wired input options
- Bluetooth® 5
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- 5.5 x 8.0 x 5.9 inches (140 x 204 x 150mm) and weighs 3.5 pounds
When talking with the team at Monoprice, I didn’t want just to review any speakers. I wanted speakers that fit the multimodal listening experience of modern computing: desktop streaming, laptops, phones and tablets. One pair of speakers to rule them all. Of course, much of my listening now comes in the form of earbuds, but sometimes I want to fill a room.
The Monoprice DT-3BT speakers offer several connectivity options. The 3.5mm unbalanced TRS jack on the front panel accepts output from any device, like a phone or audio player, via a standard 3.5mm audio cable. The unbalanced stereo RCA jacks on the back connect the speakers to devices like DVD players or turntables. The balanced 1/4″ stereo pair on the rear panel offers input from professional equipment, like an audio mixer. For the modern touch, Bluetooth.
Plugging in a set of headphones to the headphone jack on the speakers immediately mutes them and redirects audio to the headphones.
The Monoprice DT-3BT speakers will fill a good-sized room with sound. At full volume, they distort, but in most cases, they won’t get to that level of volume. In my 17′ x 19′ foot office, the sound permeates every corner at a fraction of the top volume.
A power switch on the back of the main (left speaker) manages overall power, while a power switch on the front allows the speakers to be turned off without reaching around. I like that Monoprice thought about what people would need in real use cases, placing power, headphones, and auxiliary input on the front of the right speaker. The front of the main speaker also includes Bluetooth and power indicator LEDs.
I used a 3.5mm to RCA cable for connecting the speakers. There was no confusion about the setup. The speakers connect to one another via standard speaker wire, which made me feel like I was getting a real audio experience rather than a cheap knockoff. And so far, I still feel that way.
I would like to see Monoprice include grills or the option of grills. The black, curvy MDF cabinets have been custom-tuned and ported for superior near-field frequency response, and they look OK, but they feel more gamer room than home office. I think they would look better and protect the drivers more effectively with a grill.
A basic brown box, printed with product and shipping details, wraps around the speakers, holding them in place, and is protected by two recyclable Styrofoam inserts—average for this type of product. I appreciate the lack of plastic anywhere outside of the product itself.
Monoprice DT-3BT 50-Watt Multimedia Speakers: The bottom line
Monoprice’s $99 DT-3BT 50-Watt Multimedia Speakers provide great sound for offices, at home or back in an office building for those on a budget. They may even be too much speaker for a shared environment—but for the home office, they provide plenty of audio for hours of listening to people collaborating or complaining about their work, listening to a favorite work or playing a workout playlist.
The flexible inputs make them ideal for blending contemporary work and life providing audio from a variety of sources. Game, listen, work, consume content. The Monoprice DT-3BT won’t disappoint…except for the sophisticated audiophile with discerning tastes in audio reproduction. For most of us, these speakers will be ideal companions tucked in a credenza or sitting astride a laptop on a makeshift dining room desk.
Monoprice provided the Monoprice DT-3BT 50-Watt Multimedia Speakers for review. Images courtesy of Monoprice unless otherwise noted.
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