PreSonus Eris 3.5BT review

PreSonus Eris 3.5BT: What is it?

Eris is PreSonus’ long established and extremely popular monitor line, and includes midfields, nearfields, subs and compact desktop monitors. The range has had an overhaul and up for review we have the smallest model, Eris 3.5 2nd Gen, which comes in both regular and Bluetooth equipped versions.  

Based on a 3.5” woven composite LF driver and 1” silk dome tweeter, Eris 3.5BT uses Class AB amplification with 25W wper speaker. Much like its predecessor, the left-hand monitor acts as a master, housing the inputs, amplification and controls, while the right-hand monitor is a remote connected via the included 2m speaker wire. 

PreSonus Eris 3.5BT: Performance and verdict

The physical design and layout of the left monitor is similar though not identical to the first version, and sports a new front baffle with a stylish centred indicator LED. Further front panel features include a power button, volume knob, aux in and phones out. Connecting up headphones, as you would expect, mutes the speakers. In contrast, the front panel auxiliary input, rear inputs and Bluetooth connection all work simultaneously, which is handy.

On the back you’ll find both unbalanced (phono) and balanced (TRS jack) inputs, plus connector posts for hooking up the right-hand speaker. There’s also onboard high and low frequency EQ (+/-6dB at 10kHz and 100Hz respectively).

Further features include RF interference protection, subsonic filter, output current limiting and standby mode. This last option kicks in after it’s been idle for 40 minutes, and the centre LED turns purple. It can be deactivated using the rear panel switch.

Pair up

For Bluetooth pairing there’s a dedicated rear panel button, which we found easy to locate without turning the monitor round, and once paired the front panel LED turns from blue to green. While we’re on the topic of colour, the Bluetooth edition also sports a blue shaded tweeter grille, differentiating it from the black grille on the non Bluetooth version.

Much like the Eris speakers we’ve tried in the past, the new 3.5BT has good imaging and is pretty punchy. PreSonus states the Eris 3.5 is aiming for a deeper low end and a more even mid range, and our first impressions are that the low end has plenty of weight given their size. Clearly the rear facing port, although pretty small (30mm diameter), is doing its job. Using a test oscillator we didn’t notice an obvious tail off until about 60Hz, with useful delivery down to around 50Hz. That said, the low mids are subdued, and this is very obvious when you A/B with larger nearfields. This is certainly something to bear in mind if you’re using these to mix or master. What’s more the low frequency EQ, although handy for tackling low frequency build up, doesn’t help with the low mids. In contrast, we thought the mid range and high frequencies sounded pretty good in the default setting, plus the high-frequency EQ can shape this considerably if needed.  

Finally, it’s worth mentioning Bluetooth. As you would expect this does add a small delay and affects the high frequencies slightly. We also found it to be a little noisy. For monitoring this isn’t ideal; nevertheless, you can’t question its convenience, and for general purpose listening it is definitely a handy feature.

All told the Eris 3.5BT 2nd Gen is a solid update for this already popular speaker. 

MusicRadar verdict: The compact Eris 3.5BT delivers decent sound and with plenty of connectivity is ideal for music, multimedia and home use.

PreSonus Eris 3.5BT: The web says

"The punchy low end from these tiny speakers is nothing short of astonishing, and when used as part of a typical desktop system, set up maybe 70cm from the listening position, there’s no shortage of clean volume."
Sound On Sound

PreSonus Eris 3.5BT: Hands-on demos

PreSonus Audio Electronics

iBaxter

PreSonus Eris 3.5BT: Specifications

• KEY FEATURES: Amplifier: Class AB, 25W per speaker Crossover Freq: 2.8kHz Freq Response: 80Hz-20kHz Input Impedance: 10kΩ Acoustic tuning: high frequency ±6dB at 10kHz, low frequency ±6dB at 100Hz Peak SPL: 98dB @ 1m. 
• DIMENSIONS: 140 x 185 x 209mm .
• WEIGHT: 2.95kg per pair.
• CONTACT: PreSonus