Product Comparison: Mackie CR3 vs Mackie CR4

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Mackie CR3 CR Series Creative Reference Multimedia Monitors

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Mackie CR4 Creative Reference Multimedia Monitor

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General Specifications

Brand

Mackie

Model

CR3

CR4

About the Product

Designed for premium sound that won't break the bank, CR Multimedia Monitors deliver the performance you expect from a Mackie studio monitor in designs ideal for home studios, multimedia creation, AV post-production and broadcast. Plus, with user-friendly front panel features and two models featuring Bluetooth® for music streaming, they are great for any desktop in any situation.

Origin

USA

Key Specs

Power RMS

28 watts

56 watts

Sensitivity

97 dB

100 dB

Sensitivity

What customers say about "Key Specs"

Mackie CR3 CR Series Creative Reference Multimedia Monitors

Excellent product with great sound quality/spectrum for such a tiny light weight system with modest cost. Lots of extras-cables and amazingly the deal includes sound proof foam bases to minimize sympathy vibration from contact.
I use these mainly for listening to music and streaming and find the sound to be clear and audible. For the cost they meet my expectations. I would say the response at the low gives you more of a rumble but other than that I use them daily.
As for a movie watcher, I love it, the sound was clear and somewhat heavy, but because of that, the human voice got overshadowed and was not very powerful, so as for a music listener, I think it should be more clean but not that heavy
Bass is powerful which is what I like when watching movies, but when it comes to baritone when I listen to music, it's poor.
I tested these speakers out on my home karaoke system just for the sake of curiosity and the result is incredible. You can belt your heart out and not hold back and you'll continuously get a strong clear tone without hitting any kind of peak.

Size & Weight

Height

8.2 in.

8.8 in.

Width

5.5 in.

Depth

6.2 in.

Weight

4.7 lbs.

12 lbs.

What customers say about "Size & Weight"

Mackie CR3 CR Series Creative Reference Multimedia Monitors

I needed some compact speakers for my laptop so I can watch netfix and these worked out good. And I like that I can hook my cell phone and listen to pandora, this is a very good buy
For the money, these are some decent speakers. I use them to practice mixing with my controller. It beats setting up my "15's". I️ like the weight, size, and quality.
Obviously they're way bigger than normal speakers. Since I use multiple monitors, I had to get wall mounts and angle them downward.
They're the perfect size for my bookshelf, had amazing reviews (and rightly so), very easy to hook up, very very good quality sound and look fantastic.
These speakers sound pretty good despite their small size. They come with all of the cables you need and 2 sets of foam platforms, one flat and one tilted.

Mackie CR4 Creative Reference Multimedia Monitor

The speakers are solid, and have some weight to them
I love the quality of these speakers. You know right away that you are getting solid speakers simply because of the weight of each magnet
When they arrived I was actually surprised at their weight,
If you're just wanting some compact speakers to blow away the family and friends when you have them over for movie night, or have the neighbors calling the cops because they think WWII is going on over at your house. . . then these babies are for you.

Audio

Peak Power

50 watts

100 watts

Min. Frequency Response

80 Hz

70 Hz

Max. Frequency Response

20 kHz

Tweeter Size

0.75 in.

Woofer Size

3 in.

4 in.

What customers say about "Audio"

Mackie CR3 CR Series Creative Reference Multimedia Monitors

I was looking for monitors that were affordable, but did the job of giving a flat, true response, and creating an overall easy experience in mixing and mastering. I found it in this product.
The Mackie CR3 speakers are very good. The Mackie CR3's do pretty good with treble, I would recommend them .
These are made and advertised for "monitoring" which means you get the truest sound signal that is coming into them with as little enhancement from the speakers as possible across the frequency spectrum.
Every frequency below 200hz is a train-wreck. Massive (huge, bonkers) boost at around 140hz. The monitors are rated by Mackie to be -3 db @ 80hz, but honestly 80hz is barely audible.
Even with the individual tweeters these seemed super heavy on the low/mid. Not a ton of brightness at all. Meanwhile my bias against Bose products was quickly eroded when I realized the Companion series is a fantastic value and sound great.

Mackie CR4 Creative Reference Multimedia Monitor

Detailed, punchy, great transient response. The attack on drums, especially toms, is fantastic!
Crisp, clean notes at all volumes. Bass is decent for something without a subwoofer
Right out of the box they sound great, no need to tweak anything, they are small but the clarity of the tone is top notch. Very good amount of bass considering their size.
These sounded good while they lasted. Head the warnings. I experienced the same issues that others have. Eventually, the speakers only play out of one side.
Sound quality is nothing like explained sound horrible

Features

Color

Black

Tweeter Material

Silk

Woofer Material

Polypropylene-coated

Extras

Professional-grade components for optimized sonic performance, Ultra-wide frequency range perfect for full-range multimedia, Convenient speaker placement switch

Studio-quality design, sound and performance ideal for multimedia creation and entertainment, Choose which side of your desk gets the volume knob with CR4's convenient speaker placement switch, Convenient front panel volume knob with lit power ring gives you on/off/volume control and power indication where you need it

What customers say about "Features"

Mackie CR4 Creative Reference Multimedia Monitor

Ascetically pleasing, hint of green around speaker elements (woofer/tweeter) and light around volume knob when powered
Powered speaker is selectable as left or right speaker Balanced input
The speakers also come with an aux input as well as a headphone out on the front of the powered speaker.
Bluetooth connectivity originally didn't interest me, but it proves to come in really handy when someone stops by with a demo on their phone or tablet
The included cables may be fine, but they are thin and unremarkable looking, so I immediately set them aside for known high quality cables of my choosing
Included speaker wire much too short for my needs.

Warranty / Certifications

Manufacturer Warranty

1 year(s)

Certifications