Drop BMR1 Nearfield Monitors

$129

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... / AUDIOPHILE / SPEAKERS / DROP

Drop BMR1 Nearfield Monitors

Name: Drop BMR1 Nearfield Monitors
Brand: Drop
SKU: drop-bmr1-nearfield-monitors
Price: 129 USD
Availability: PreOrder
Rating: 3.055944 (143 reviews)

143

$129

Product:

8 days left

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Frequently bought together:

Massdrop x Sennheiser HD 58X Jubilee Headphones

EPOS B20 Streaming Microphone

Audioengine S6 Powered Subwoofer

overview

details

story5

reviews143

photos20

q&a143

discussions431

Customer Reviews

3.1

(143 reviews)

(14)

(38)

(51)

(22)

(18)

61% would recommend to a friend

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mophones

Oct 2, 2023

Verified Buyer

It's about aesthetics.

As expected by many, the sound you're getting here isn't top-tier but rather on the "good" side. These speakers do pretty well for their form-factor and aesthetics but unfortunately physics can only do so much.

Recommends this product? Yes

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parker760

Oct 1, 2023

Verified Buyer

A minimal pick with a part trick

I can't really say these are an amazing value for what they are, but these certainly have the budget audiophile in mind. There's a few noticeable features missing that we've taken for granted (like... A VOLUME ADJUSTER?). Not to say these sound bad, they sound "good," just these are incredibly circumstantial.

Recommends this product? No

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desutruction

245

Keyboard Club Member

Oct 1, 2023

Verified Buyer

It's.... Fine

Maybe even good? I haven't tested for long but they get decently loud and the sound isn't bad. Pretty good for small spaces. Haven't experienced the heating issue (yet) but I also haven't used it for much (only about an hour). Will tentatively recommend for those with space constraints.

Recommends this product? Yes

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SuperDave531

Sep 30, 2023

Verified Buyer

Pretty good for the space I have

I really like these because they work really well in the space that I have 😄 I don’t really mind the no power button nonsense because I just use a smart plug to turn it on/off. I also place them into headphone mode when I’m away from my desk so that it doesn’t heat the right monitor. I use my Korg Nano Kontrol 2 as volume adjustment through a windows applet I really enjoy the soundstage they provide when paired with my turntable and little tube amp. not an audiophile but they work super well for what I ask of them 😄

Recommends this product? Yes

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Kurosu

Sep 29, 2023

Verified Buyer

Hissing is still a thing even with a DAC

My Bose had a bad hiss issue so when this drop came around I thought it would be a good time to make an upgrade. These get very loud. Easily fill a decent living room. I agree that not having a volume control is a mistake. Windows is stupid too since you can only change volume by 2 only. I added and Polk Audio PSW10" sub (overkill) to this setup and I personally think it's amazing! The base gets incredibly deep and adds a feel element to games and music now. My Bose in comparison has a very muted bass and completely lacks the feeling component. The temperature is definitely a concern. At low volumes I get 115f (46C) and when I listen to music at 4 to 6 click higher volume the highest I've seen was 128f (53C). There's no noticeable sound issues but I have long term reliability concerns since I want to hang on to these for 10 years and more. These have bad hiss when directly connected to my motherboards DAC. As soon as I paired this to an SMSL SU-1 DAC the hiss dramatically dropped. I only had to sit 3 feet away at 30volume with no audio to hear the hiss and now it's needs to be at about 50 volume for the hiss to be heard. Still the hiss from my Bose, BMR1, and BMR1 + SMSL SU-1 at 100 volume with no audio is bad. There's many variables to blame when it comes to my setup since I'm no expert, but I wish I could eliminate the hiss.

Recommends this product? Yes

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•

MartyM

Sep 30, 2023

KurosuAdd few ferrites on most cables (on each cables, and close to the speakers) It can help greatly lower the unwanted hiss.

(Edited)

Ryune

Sep 27, 2023

Verified Buyer

Great stealth pick

So I got these specifically for their form factor. I had a desk that had a premium of space what with two monitors and and PC on it and these fit very nicely on either side of one of them. So for me, the unique form factor was a real selling point. As others have said, the always on light, short L-R cable and heat generation are issues but I can live with those. I work a night job and while I do have a nice set of headphones for at home so I don't disturb my family, as anyone can tell you, wearing them for a few hours can get very uncomfortable. At low volumes, these don't lose a noticeable amount of sound stage and they fill my office without carrying outside of it. So yeah, I'd rec these if you needed to be able to listen to stuff at a low volume in your own room.

Recommends this product? Yes

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harryoui

Sep 27, 2023

Verified Buyer

Stylistic but unfinished product

Cons

Can't turn off the front LED
No off switch... so they pop loudly every time I turn on and off my computer
Cheap feeling plastic frame and stand
One speaker arrived with a large scratch on front, which shows up as white because of the plastic
Stand does not offer a large amount of adjustment (no up/down tilt, etc)
One speaker arrived with a large scratch on front, which shows up as white because of the plastic
Proprietrary cables
Grills are not expected to ship for a while, would appreciate if this was communicated better

Pros

I like the industrial/brutalist aesthetic of them, but the plastic detracts a lot from that in person
Sounds ok, no issues there

Recommends this product? No

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cy3brdream

Sep 27, 2023

Verified Buyer

No instructions

If you are looking for speakers that have a clean look and great sound then look no further. These are reasonably priced and have a studio-quality sound to them. My only issue is that they don't come with any directions on how to install the speakers on the stands. All you get is a bag of washers and a couple of screws. If you are not tech-savvy and have no knowledge of input and output. You WILL be frustrated when getting these.

Recommends this product? Yes

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SGva

Sep 25, 2023

Verified Buyer

Where are my grilles??

I have now been waiting over 3 months for the grilles I paid for back on 1-31-2023 when I bought the speakers. The speakers are ugly without grilles so they remain in the box, unused. Drop apparently has a problem with their supplier. I'm getting mighty irritated that there is no clear date for resolution. This may turn me off to any future purchases with Drop. Too bad, I've spent a fair amount of money with these folks. When will the grilles ship?????

Recommends this product? No

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Jyri_Drop

399

Outreach

Sep 25, 2023

SGvaThat's a fair point of frustration. We apologize the inconvenience. We are actually expecting to start shipping this week. Please give us few days to finalize receiving.

SGva

Sep 25, 2023

Jyri_DropI'll try to be a bit more patient provided you folks are able to begin shipping this week. Thanks

•

DocQuantum

Sep 25, 2023

Verified Buyer

Proprietary cables, lack of power switch/button, non-adjustable stand

The main reason I went for these was because they are able to fit under my monitor setup when in horizontal mode. Not very many speakers marketed as "audiophile" are designed in that way, so these piqued my interest, especially considering the price point. Overall, without a sub, the sound quality and frequency response is actually very acceptable considering these are $130 monitors. As expected, the bass response is cut off and so kicks and bass lacks oomph, but that's not why I bought these. I may opt for a sub in the future if I end up using them for general listening more often. There are some major drawbacks however which makes them very inflexible.

I normally use my headphones so I often do not need my monitors. Having the ability to easily turn them off with a button or simple power switch would have been very useful. The lack of one means these are powered on all of the time drawing power and keeping the bright LED on. I will be looking into a way to more easily switch the speaker's power via switched power cable or mod of some sort.
The monitor to monitor interconnect is a proprietary two pin cable which is only about 3ft long or so, which makes it difficult to move these around into a desirable position, as well as cleanly hide the cables. I have barely enough room with my setup given the cable length. A Q&A had mentioned that DROP is working on a 3 meter long cable however, which they plan to sell separately. Hopefully that gets released soon to give people flexibility. This would have been easily fixed by simply making the input a 3.5mm jack. It seems like this is what it already is, but broken up into a discrete 2-wire interface.
The speaker stand has no way to angle the speakers. I'm sure it works well in vertical mode, but in horizontal, the sound is angled at my torso and away from my head. Because of this, and the directional nature of these speakers, the audio quality is not as good as it can be. I plan to 3D print a few angled washers for the stand so that I can get them angled the way I need to. The lack of anything like that from the get-go is a miss in my opinion as the default angle of the speakers, considering how low they are, means that audio is almost always going to be sent towards the listener's torso in most horizontal setups.
Recently, one of the drivers on my left speaker has started to create a resonant buzz at certain frequencies. I'm hoping this is just some sort of setup issue which I can mitigate or fix, but it makes these speakers a whole lot worse and harder to listen too. Makes them sound more like cheap computer speakers or worn out car speakers. I haven't used them at very loud volumes except for the first time I set these up to get a feel for what they're capable of.

Until at least 1 and 2 are addressed, it makes it hard to recommend these speakers. Both of those issues are very easy to fix, and hopefully they release aftermarket parts/mods to address them. 3 is a personal gripe and something I think will be easy to fix with my own mods. 4 is hopefully just a flaw in my setup or a poorly manufactured speaker I can maybe use my warranty for. There are other speakers out there which I probably would have liked much better, although would have been a little harder to fit into my setup due to my size constraints.

(Edited)

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