I have had my Acoustic Studio Monitors 3311 for about 18 years. They have moved with me all over the U.S. I have had them hooked up to bad and good stereo systems and surround systems and I have always been pleased with them. Right now I have them hooked up to a high end high current Yamaha 7.1 surround system with a Yamaha center channel and Boston Acoustics in the rear with a powered Polk Audio 12" subwoofer and this system kicks butt. These Studio Monitors seem to be un blowable and sound great. I also frequently crank up CD's loud enough to play my drums to and these speakers never let me down. I don't know where they originally came from, I bought them from a friend many years ago, but have never regretted it. Rock on...

I was unable to find this speaker being sold out of the back of a white van, but I did find 3 of them at goodwill for $10 each. They looked nice....very nice....The first thing I did was read these mixed reviews. Next I took them apart. No there is no crossover, just a capacitor ahead of the mid and tweeter. The woofer does indeed appear to get the full spectrum. There are potentiometer adjustments for the mid and tweeter. The internal wiring is of suspiciously lightweight wiring. There is no insulation (to absorb sound...no suprise for bass reflex system) The magnet structures looked OK, about average. I did notice the rear of the enclosure behind the port was painted black like I read. I should say that I repair stereo ststems for a living, and have probably "disected" 20 pairs of speaker brands this last year. I did not really expect much but was suprised how well they sound. The mid and tweeter sounded fine adjusted right in the middle.
I believe the more "natural" a speaker sounds the better. The best brand I have found this last year is KEF. I have a pair of 2 way KEF speakers that sound as nice and smooth as any I have heard. A few speakers sound good without a subwoofer, but it is rare to find any with less than a 10" woofer that do. Most speakers are "allowed" to do what they do best with one.
I have often wondered just how a larger magnet structure helps performance? In my experience it doesn't. The largest structures I knos of were made by Speakerlab. Their crossovers weighed about 5 pounds, so I guess quality weighs more.
To sum it up, I think about 95% of people would be thrilled to listen to these. And look at them too. About 2% of those have biased opionions and the remaining 3% just care what good music should sould like.

I have a pair of acoustic studio monitor 3311 series. the first day i connected my onkyo amp to it, i was very disappointed cause i could have buy a pair of good kenwood speakers for that amount.
but later after thinking how to improve it further the first thing i did was to remove the metal grills from the speker fronts. then i connected the amp out put wires directly to the speakers withou0t going through the the cross over circuit. now it sounds absolutely good

Hi..Pay no attention to people who diss these speakers... but there are a few qualifiers. I paid £30 the pair off ebay. I actually wanted the 3322 speakers which my sister-in-law has... THEY are the carpet covered ones with the tweeter horn and cage. They are pretty damned good speakers too.
But back to the 3311s. I've had them 3 years and I've pumped out a lot of good and loud sounds. I had to replace the tweeters and midrange cones after one particularly good party a few months ago.. This was cheaply done on e-bay and i paid £20 for all four. While I had the speakers apart I by-passed those gold coloured knobs.. another easy job and this improved the sound even more. those potentiometers get crackly over the years and just get in the way. I recommend that you do this as well !!!
Someone posted that there is no cross-over... what a load of bull!! Those crossovers are on the inside of the back of the speaker... the inside of the exterior speaker connections if you see what I mean. If I was looking to see if I could improve the sound even more I might try replacing those, but why bother?
The most annoying thing about these speakers is that all our friends come around with their laptops etc. and want to hear their music through a decent system for once, instead of their own bookshelf speakers with sub-woofer. They are ALWAYS blown away! Not having any immediate neighbours helps, mind.
Pay as little as you can, bypass those goldy-coloured knobs, and cherish these speakers is my advice.

I found these speakers in the basement of the house I moved into. I've actually lived here for over a year and finally decided to pull them out, dust them off, and see how they sound. I hooked them up and realized pretty quick the bass woofer was the only thing making noise so I opened them up to see what was up. The other speakers weren't even hooked up, I'm not sure why but if you look inside these speakers you will realize what you have. The woofers are made in Taiwan and have got to be one of the cheapest looking woofers I've seen. The major problem with these speakers is that there is NO CROSSOVER!! The two smaller speakers have resistor type low frequency filters then they run in to two independent volume controls, but the 12" woofer is running full range! I'm sitting here listening to them through my Denon 3805 and the longer I listen the more irritated I get. I'm so glad I didn't pay money for these speakers or I would be very disappointed.

If you have the opportunity to buy these, DON'T DO IT!!!!!

Price Paid: $40 from craigslist

Summary:
When I saw them on craigslist and I was like thats it I will buy them. I picked them up right away from the guy who was selling them(he lived like 17 miles away)! The speakers look like DJ speakers and have the carpet box! They look very nice and powerful! I hooked them up and they have a lot of power and very nice bass! I was very happy with my new find! Later I found out they are the white van scum speakers! I still have them home! For $40 you will never find anything better than that! The speakers were like new!

Strengths:
sound great and a lot of bass

Weaknesses:
White Van Speakers

I bought mine in a Goodwill store for 19.99 for the pair. At first i was was curious as there is no I.D. on the black mesh cover...and it being easy to pop off i took a good look...I saw it said Acoustic Studio Monitor Series 3311.
I have heard of Acoustics before so i knew i may have found something decent...Bought them and took them home to check them out. I didn't test them at the store based on the fact that the case and speakers looked mint. I hooked them up to my little 240 watt Sony shelf stereo system. Mine say they are rated for 125 watts each so i was not going to blow them up. turned on Def Leppard's Hysteria album and gave it the "Test". The resluts were quite pleasing it did very well. in fact my wife ran out of the house and told me to turn it down because she heard it from the garage into the house.(with the doors and windows closed). Very clear sound overall, however they seem to drop a speaker at lower volumes. I'm not quite sure if it's because it needs a minimum of 5 watts to drive them, or if it's an ohms issue from not using the right stereo for them. So i figured at 125 watts each max i don't think they were meant for extremely low volumes(kind of like buying a Semi tractor just to drive yourself to and from work...kinda silly ya think?) so at 5% power they do have problems...but at 10% and higher no problems at all. I keep the mesh cover on them to protect the cones since i have dogs and teenage kids.Later on i expect to still own them....then i will hang them up high and pop the mesh covers off...and really blast em on a regular basis. I will experiment and try adding an amp to drive them past the 125 watt threshhold and see how they hold up. but i have to say i got my money's worth without having to deal with those shady guys with the white van..(yes i have seen em too once or twice every summer it seems in Milwaukee, WI) a little tip...when your near a thrift store...stop in and peek at the speakers. You will be surprised and it only wastes a little of your time...and possibly help a good cause.

8-)

sound great

Big Bulky Speaker Box

Kid you not...was returning movies to Blockbuster one afternoon in the early 90's & was confronted by a couple of youngsters in a White van. Same deal showed me these speakers, gave me the same speel about these speakers that were overstocked on the dock, & even showed me the paper work. They tried to claim they were worth $899.00 and offered me them for $400.00. I was not in the market for speakers so I said no thanks. They kept going lower and lower until I invited them over to hear them on my system. I gave them a beer & smoked a joint with them then listened to the speakers. By the time they left I got these speakers for $150.00...although I was sure they were stolen I 've had them for at least 15 yrs and they do not sound bad at all

Great for loud music!

you must find 2 men in a white van to buy them it seems!

I have been reading the reviews here with great amusement. I bought my speakers mid 90's from 2 men in a white van in Brighton, England. The story is so identical to those quoted here, I can't believe it! They showed me the shipping papers with these two extra speakers - they offered to drive me to the ATM (we did not do this!). Needless to say I purchased them, wondering if I was the biggest idiot out there. Once I hooked them up I was blown away by the sound (and hugely relieved!). And the story of my purchase has been one I have been dining out on all these years! To find out that I am part of a scam is both hilarious, and a bit of a disappointment! However, these are great speakers!

Price (for me) low bass response

no acoustical foam, thin enclosure walls, woofer handles way too much range, bad box build.

I found these speakers at a local thrift store, needed another pair of speakers, and went with these. I tested them in my car, but only using the subwoofer line, and it gave me wierd results, as if the internal wires were not fixed together correctly. consequently, i got the speakers for free (I knew people that worked at the store) and was surprised that they worked correctly when I brought them home. Today I was amused at the findings of their only point of sale is through scam artists. If you look into the port tube, you can see what looks to be acoustical foam, however when I removed the woofer I found that the color was merely paint that was painted around the area of the panel visible through the port. Not just the salespeople were scammers! The woofer's magnet was absolutely tiny for a 12", and oddly the cone was translucent, which has become popular in contemporary car subwoofers. "1993" was stamped on the back panel. The tone knobs on the face give static when i move them, but not if left alone. I ran some frequency range tests and its really fun to give this woofer a 6hz signal, its excursion is rather large. The foam surround on the woofer was still in great shape after these 11 years. I just did a comparison of these speakers to my bose bookshelf speakers, (two 2" tweeters, one 8" woofer) and found the 3311 much muddier and lacking defined highs. The bass response of the 3311 is impressive for such a crappy woofer though. It seemed that the woofer was covering way too large of a range for a three driver speaker. If they used a higher quality woofer, these speakers might have sounded much better. The four perimeter enclosure pieces are of a decent 3/4" mdf/chipboard, but the rear panel and front baffle are very thin. Also, the front baffle is only secured to the other walls by glue, and is set inside a recessed level (i dont know the proper term for this) so that the front baffel is flush with the sides. This glue has seperated on both the cabinets in the exact same place, and causes a very loud resonance at many lower frequencies. I'm going to put a few screws through the front baffel and the walls to fix this. Note: This will look absolutely horrible, but i'd rather have a bad looking decent sounding speaker than a decent looking bad sounding speaker. The size of these cabinets is enormous, but that's what is needed for a flat QTC when you use cheap woofers. I would not recommend spending more than $30 on a pair of these speakers (used of course), just get some decent bookshelfs and a sub if you want bass. yes, these speakers can get loud, but their sound quality is still bad. I doubt the two seperate tweeters are needed, they could have used one with the crossover system they used.

Similar Products Used:

smaller and superior bose bookshelfs.