What We Like
- Great performance.
- Rock solid build quality.
- Lots of power at your disposal.
- Great acoustic and tone shaping controls.
What We Don't Like
- Sporadic quality control issues.
The PreSonus Eris monitor series was mostly designed to answer the needs of the budget crowd in a way it hasn’t been quite done before. This makes the Eris E8 one of the most attractive monitors under $500.
Design
When PreSonus decide to enter the market of low budget monitor speakers, they had to come up with something that would stand out. Their formula for this job was to just focus on the performance and introduce some of the features you don’t often find. So what does that means in terms of design? Not much to be honest.
These speakers are pretty boxy, plain looking monitors. It is all function over form although the texture on the transducers adds a bit of flavor to the whole design. On the other hand, build quality is on point. No amount of components will help you if the cab is falling apart and every joint vibrating.
Therefore, PreSonus delivered a cab that maybe wasn’t all that attractive, but was built like a tank. With that said, discussing tastes is rather ungrateful by default. Some users, like us, will find the Eris E8 to be a beautiful monitor. Others might disagree.
Features
First thing PreSonus did was select two mean transducers for this build. On top of the cab, we have a super lightweight silk dome 1“ tweeter that just shuffles those trebles with little effort. Below it, they have packet a Kevlar 8“ long throw woofer that is capable of moving some serious air. Next step was to ensure these two don’t come into conflict. That required some decent Class A/B bi-amplification.
Combined output per speaker is 130 Watts of nonoverlapping high definition audio. In the back, PreSonus prepared a lot of really good tone shaping and room acoustics controls. There’s an HF and LF EQ as well as low cutoff switch and the acoustic space control. Below these controls, you will see your inputs.
This is another area where PreSonus took it one step further. They have installed the standard balanced TRS and XLR ports, but also an unbalanced RCA input. In this price range, this type of back panel versatility is not that common.
Performance
The main question is, where it stands in practical performance? All of those specs look great on paper, but you will know what this thing is capable of only when you push that power button. Fortunately for us, the results are impressive.
PreSonus went with a fully transparent voicing, which is something the rest of Eris series shares as well. However, having a very fast moving 8″ Kevlar woofer meant that you are now exposed to much better bass response. Going up to mids, there is very little color and flavor as most of the output is flat. Same goes with trebles. In other words, E8 may not be the best speaker to listen to your favorite tunes.
However, it is definitely something you would want to have in a studio when you need to get some mixing done. Things get even crazier when you consider the price of this speaker. Bang for the buck value is just through the roof.
The Rumble:
Every single cent invested in a set of PreSonus Eris E8 is worth it. If you are a producer working with a very limited budget, these are the type of monitors you will want to have on your side.
