the box MA5

The perfect solution to onstage monitoring, small gigs and at home.
As a keyboard player in a busy 8 piece band, I sometimes struggle to hear a satisfactory 'mix'. Having lugged my own combo or speaker + amp for years, I wanted something more portable and flexible. Having researched what's available, I decided on a small 'personal' active monitor. Our backing singer recently purchased one from a well known manufacturer - which performs well, but is very expensive! Having bought a number of items from Thomann in the past, I was intrigued to find a very similar looking active speaker for a fraction of the price - 'the box MA5'.
Having studied the 'specs', I could see that the 'MA5' was virtually identical.
I was not disappointed - in fact I'm delighted!
This little box is very rugged and well made, and performs astonishingly well. The sound quality is more than adequate for my purposes - with clarity in the 'highs' and enough depth in the 'low' frequencies despite its diminutive proportions. The volume - should you need it is incredible! As an onstage monitor, I have it mounted on the 'mic stand' adaptor on top of my keyboard tower stand, facing me. In this location, the volume can be kept quite low. By turning it around it serves as a more than adequate p.a for small gigs. Even at high volumes, the sound quality remains consistently good.
For larger venues, I use the MA5' as my personal monitor and send my keyboard mix to the main mixer via the 'through' Xlr located at the back of the MA5'.
The MA5 is incredibly good value for money, (why spend 2 or 3 times more when you can get this!).
As a well built, great sounding, flexible and portable solution for onstage monitoring - this little box is fantastic!

Bought a single one initially and then bought 3 more, they are a cheaper equivalent of a Behringer model which in itself is a cheaper version of the Mackie SRM150. Very nicely finished and surprisingly effective. Only downside is the delay button which doesn't offer up much of a choice of settings, but for our use that doesn't really matter. Good product at a great price and saves us having to use in ear monitors on stage.

A bit disappointed with this item. My main goal (when I bought it) was to use it as personal monitor like this: Mic -> MA5 -> Mixing. If I connect like this the sound is barely audible and sounds like a thin can. It only works reasonable if I connect from the monitor out of the mixer to the input of the MA5 - but this scenario is not ideal because, as a small band, we use a small mixer with just ONE monitor output and, this way, I hear everybody on my monitor which was not what I needed. I bough this so I can hear my voice properly and isolated from the rest.