Okay…excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor. These speakers are absolutely incredible. It’s hard to describe their sound because they present recordings exactly as they were intended to be heard. If something is well recorded and mixed, they sound incredible. If not, all the flaws are exposed immediately. There is no sonic coloring from these speakers. Incredibly neutral and clear. The top end is smooth as butter and the depth is astounding. The bass goes as low as you’ll need it. I can’t believe they have this extension from a 7” woofer.

I’ve never heard APS speakers but was looking for an upgrade from Adam A7’s and a sub. Something about the lack of aggressive marketing and boutique quality of APS intrigued me. I’m so glad I took the chance. APS is setting an incredible standard for monitoring at affordable price. Just over a 1k for these? Are you kidding? I can’t wait to mix on these. Bravo APS, bravo!

I recieved my Klasiks about a month and a half ago and i feel it's time for my review. I've been able to listen to a lot of music on them and mix with them. I've tested them on different sides of the room, with and without room treatment. For context, i was using JBL LSR305 (for 6 years) and Yamaha HS80M a bit too before this, to give you an idea of where i'm coming from. I can safely say that the Klasik 2020's are in a whole other league when compared to them. They are easily the best speakers i've ever heard.

I researched monitors for about 3 weeks before settling on the Klasiks. I was looking for something that i could mix on, that would present the music in an accurate way, but also something i could listen to music on and it would be super pleasurable and breath taking, to the point of inspiring me to write my own music. But i didn't want speakers that were TOO exciting, cos i don't want to risk my own mixes getting presented as better than they actually are. I wanted something that would aid my "audio imagination". By that i mean, i wanted something that would present music in a sort of visual way in my mind. I also wanted something with a superior build quality. No more mass produced plastic stuff, i wanted something that was made by a passionate boutique company.
These monitors tick all those boxes.

I think the key when researching which monitor to buy, is to ignore all the youtuber style videos that hype up a monitor. Even if the youtube channel is a trustworthy engineer or something, they were probably incentivized to review it. What you want to look for is the passionate user impressions. The old Klasiks had some very passionate reviews, and the new and improved Klasik came out just in time, which had apparently fixed the few flaws that the old Klasiks had. I bought these speakers blind without testing, and i did so with confidence. And they met my high expectations!

It took an hour or 3 for the speakers to break in. Or perhaps it was my brain that was adjusting to the new speakers over that hour or 3? But either way, the full impressiveness of these speakers wasn't immediately obvious. But now i can't believe how i was working with the JBL's and Yamaha's before. Now, every time i listen i smile, and the dopamine flows, lol.

So how do they sound? The keywords here are: Detail, clarity, natural, high resolution, overachiever.

And i don't mean clarity as in "bright". I mean clarity as in "clear".

They are CLEAR. No noise. No augmentation of the source sounds.

And the detail, oh my god. I'm hearing new little harmonics in songs I've known for years. E.g. In a familiar QOTSA song with a fuzz bass, i'm hearing fuzz harmonics WITHIN the fuzz harmonics. To describe it in some kind of analogy, it's like you look at someone's head and they have a hairstyle (how normal ppl hear music), then you look closer and you can see each individual hair (how it was for me on the JBL's/Yamahas), THEN you look closer and you can see little micro hairs on the individual hair strands (what it's like with the Klasik 2020's). I feel like I have x-ray vision into what the sounds are made of, lol. Or at least a magnifying glass. It's as if i've zoomed in a few fractals into music. That's the thing that has stood out the most.

Another example, i listened to a familiar song with piano in it, and i'm hearing new little details in the piano recording i'd never heard before. I can notice the subtle hammer action, i can hear how the neighbouring notes on a piano resonate along with the fundamental note. Not to mention, the deep bass with the bright drums on this song sounds freakin delicious, even more than usual.

Another thing. I feel like I can see the spaces in BETWEEN the sounds. This allows me to get a sense for where everything is in the frequency spectrum & stereo image, because i can hear where they're NOT.

The bass is lean and deep. I like setting "3" on the bass switch (which is the middle bass setting). Feels like the best balance. I'm hearing grooves in a new way, the speakers bounce air in an enjoyable way (but not too much for my small room). You don't expect it for their size (7"), but the sub feels naturally deep, no woofiness or artificial boominess. El naturale.

You can listen to them at very low volume levels and the frequency spectrum stays in tact. You can still hear the bass, you still get full extension.

The 3D soundstage is good. Nice front-to-back depth. It's not a crazy over the top soundstage, but you do forget the speakers are there and the sound feels like it's floating in the air, which is a fascinating phenomena. But as i said, it took an hour or 3 for this element to be fully obvious for me. I'm guessing as they break in the sound "opens up" a bit.
Or maybe the brain opens up.

As far as functionality, I really like this bass switch. As i said, i have it on 3 (which is the middle setting, oddly. "1" is most sub, "2" is least sub, "3" is in between). It's cool because if i want to check what's in the subs i can flick it to 1 and the bass is noticeably more full of weight. You have to be aware that for the extra bass extension to happen it has to take a slight bit of energy away from the mids. Whether that shift of focus is coming from within the speaker or from within my mind i don't know. With that in mind, if i want to shift my focus to mids specifically then i can flick it to 2 and it takes most of the sub away and the juice goes to the mids. Setting 2 is also useful if it's late night and i don't want to bother my roommates or neighbours. We all know sub travels far to other rooms.
I just wish the bass switch was at the front so that i can access it more easily. Not a big deal though. It'll probably stay on 3 most of the time anyway.

As far as mixing music is concerned, I can't imagine how monitors could be any better to be honest. Sure, some speakers probably sound better technically, but from a mixing point of view, how much better can speakers be before it presents the music in an unrealistically awesome way? At a certain point you're losing touch with the common man. These give you such an accurate representation, from frequency to stereo image to front-back depth. And that's the name of the game, after all. I already trust these speakers to be able to reveal the edges of frequency imbalances. If something sounds too harsh on these, then it is too harsh in reality. if the bass is too boomy on these, then it is too boomy in reality.
When you adjust parameters in your plugins, you hear subtle differences way more easily. I can easily hear what a difference 0.5db makes, i can hear what subtle saturation/tone a plugin is giving more easily than i could before. I can hear the differences in the quality of different reverb plugins. Some reverbs sound like they're coming from behind the music (yay), some reverbs sound too flat (booo). I can identify and remove problem resonances in the frequency spectrum more easily. In general, my mind is having to do less guessing/estimating than before, so making decisions is easier, so mixing is less fatiguing and more enjoyable than before. That's key.

But the hidden bonus with these is that my experience of general listening to music is such a pleasure.

Even my girlfriend, who has no interest/experience in audio or music, i sat her down to show them to her, she wasn't that interested at first but once i started playing the music her eyes went wide and she was like "wow". They're universally amazing. I've honestly never heard music sound as good as it does on these speakers. Maybe take that with a grain of salt because i haven't used any high end stuff, but i know good when i hear it and these are really really good.

The best thing about these speakers is they really go as far as the music takes them. If the mixing is bad or raw then the speakers show you exactly why. If the mixing is amazing or well developed then your jaw drops to the floor.

Built with love by a small boutique company in Poland. Best 1000 euros I ever spent. They don't have a distributor in my country (Australia) but i was able to buy directly from Ray (the owner?). We worked it all out through email. I will say, there were a few hiccups doing it this way, but they were willing to resolve the mistakes, and i have no regrets at all. Overall, a very happy customer!

“The APS Klasik 2020s are truly remarkable, even when you don’t consider the extremely high value they represent. I owned the original Klasiks for a couple of years and most every engineer and all my students who have worked at my studio (Sound Temple Studios in Asheville) have absolutely loved them. I compared the original Klasiks to monitors costing four times the price and still preferred the original Klasiks. Well, as good as the original Klasiks are, the new 2020s take things to another level! The mids are clearer and flatter, the lows are extended, tighter and flatter and the sense of depth is increased. The minor criticisms that some people had with the original Klasiks (I didn’t have any) have been addressed. They also seem to pair up better with a sub than the original Klasiks if you like using one. They translate remarkably well and are never fatiguing after a long day of mixing. They are very clear but not bright at all. I highly recommend them no matter what your budget is.”

What can I say? One of the best monitors I've heard considering even pricier options.
I worked a lot with Eve Audio (few models) & Dynaudio (Air 6 + sub), Yamaha's HS7, and many more in different studios. This is remarkable how good Klasiks 2020 are.
For me, they're class better than monitors I've mentioned (even than the Dynaudio Air which were on the higher price level, when they were produced).
Astonishing separation, breathiness, and space on the soundstage. You can simply hear the tiniest nuances like reverb tail or gentle saturation. I have the feeling that I don't hear but I almost can see sounds reproduced by these monitors.
Very natural sounding, transparent and well balanced - beautiful frequency reproduction even in the lowest parts.
Great 3d soundstage. Mixes made on these monitors translating with no problems on many sound systems. You can trust them with no hesitation. And the funny thing is that they sound pleasant but not in a way to cover mix mistakes.
They're very revealing but as I said before natural-sounding. That is the reason why they're no ear fatiguing at all.
You have to test them and you won't be disappointed. The big plus for customer support. You don't have any problem contacting creators, aks questions, and test the speakers. Well done APS. Good Job

I want to start the review with the following as it is really the way i was feeling after 2 mns in listening to those marvelous studio monitors after unwrapping the freshly received DPD parcel coming from the country of Pierogi, Vodka, Gulasz but also talented engineers and developers from APS, Poland !!!

I 'm blown away to find something so balanced and revealing frequencywise in this price bracket.

A little bit of my monitors history, i'm 20 years into music, producing/mixing and mastering (mainly old school hip hop/ g-funk and rnb). G-Funk for hip hop has the particularity to be very musical with both synths and live instruments (guitar, bass+rhodes etc...). So i need something that can go low (I'm not a bass head though) but still retain a good balance in all the spectrum, be natural, analytical with no exagerated frequencies.

It is exactly what i found in the Klasiks 2020. I come from a long list of speakers ranging from 350 to 1500 euros. I owned over the last 20 years, monitors like Adam A7x, Focal cms65, Genelec 8040, Focal Alpha 65, Yamaha Hs50, Yamaha HS7, Yamaha HS8, Yamaha MSP5, JBL Lsr305, Neuman KH80 and more (reason being i travelled quite a lot with every time the obligation to start over again, sell my equipement and buy new gear available in the countries i moved to). And so Far the Klasiks are my favorite without a doubt.

We all have different ears and work in different rooms so a Studio Monitor review is always a very delicate and subjective thing but here is what i noticed so far in my semi treated room (everywhere i went i always semi-treated my room, so no bad reverb and bad frequencies but not a pro room either).

I find them extremely natural, not fatiguing but yet very revealing. The lows are very round but very controlled and dynamic, you have 3 switches to control the amount of bass and even if one fits my room more i like all the 3 settings. I didnt notice any bass bleeds like i call it or tubyness or boominess, it is really excellent like some speakers i could hear before costing way much more.

The mids are exceptional, not harsh , not agressive but super accurate. I learnt how to mix on hs5/hs80 series of yamaha before and I used to love their mids but they were fatiguing and a bit exagerated in the mids range. Here the klasiks are excellent and more well rounded and polished (no pun intended)

The highs are very detailed, clear in a nice way, not too bright, very transparent and pleasing but again in an analytical way.

My opinion on some speakers i owned :

- Yamaha hs serie : i loved them when i went from composing to start learning to mix, but they were fatiguing and not super accurate on the low end but also on the highs which were not precised enough.

- Focal (up to the 1500 euros mark for a pair), i found focal brand super pleasing sounding , a delight to listen to music but not specially analytical to my taste to mix. Now apparently it is another story when you move to more expensive focal above 2k the pair but out of my budget. Im french and i love Focal but i need to stay objective here

- Adams A7x : i kept them 1 week, i couldn't like the highs on their ribbons tweeter, and found the low mids missing, and the lows too boomy. One of the hardest set of monitors to try to mix on i experienced. I often heard its either you liek them or not, i guess i belong to the last category.

- Neumann Kh120 : absolutely love them and still have them they are now my second set of speakers, the Klasiks being my main. Of course for a 5inch set, they don't go that low but still decent enough in the bass , the rest of the frequencies is very balanced, but a lil bit veiled compared to the klasiks, the k2020 being once again more revealing as a whole with better highs and lows. For the mids kh120 vs klasiks it will be only a matter of taste as the kh120 are good in that area.

-Neumann KH80 : best 4 inch monitors hands down to me, but a bit too crispy or harsh in the high mids. You can adjust the dsp but im not really a dsp dude and even after some tuning with it i find them a bit tubby sounding and can see the limitation of the 4 inch woofer but superb monitors for on location gigs or for small rooms or untreated small spaces, once again though the klasiks are better but hey not same size as well.

- Genelecs 8040 : i loved to compose on those before, never could mix accurately though, highs were not my cup of tea, very hi fi sounding, and bass was artificial and boxy to my taste.

So for my taste as a whole and with all the monitors i owned :

Klasiks 2020>Neumann KH120>Yamaha HS8>Yamaha HS7>Neumann KH80>Focal CMS65. My rating is really for mixing music accurately.

I do not put Genelecs and Adams in my comparison as i didnt like their sound signatures to perform such task as mixing and mastering but great speakers to compose and listen to music.

To come back to the Klasiks i'm very impressed and they wowed me straight out of the box which never happened to me before with monitors, usually i m vowed after I'm getting used to them after several weeks/months, burnt them out for 20 hours no stop as soon as i got them and they opened even a little bit more. I didn't speak about the soundstage yet, the soundstage is nice and little better than my kh120 but not by a large margin as the kh120 is already good on this side without having the largest soundstage i experienced either but totally to my liking.

For this price bracket once again it will be hard to beat the Klasiks 2020, i would be just curious to hear the Eve SC207 and Hedd Type 7 which are other direct rivals but not liking ribbons tweeter i didn't really take the chance.

Another thing worth mentioning is the Klasiks have a manufacturer warranty of 5 years which is pretty cool and come very seriously packed.

As a whole I'm more than happy and couldn't hope for more and as natural sounding monitors for this budget.

Hope this review was helpful.

Take care

First things first - these are the best monitors in their price range. Period.

In last 10 years I've manage to produce and mix some records and switch between to many models of studio monitors. Always looking for the best sound for me and for my room.

For years I was using only monitors with 6/7 inch woofer because of the best compromise between sound of mid range, amount of bass and size of monitor.

I've used Tannoy, Dynaudio, Adam Audio, Focals, Genelec, Yamaha, Munro Sonic and recently stayed on combo of Neumann KH120 with KH750 sub.

KH120 with sub was way to go, but 5 inch monitors sounded a little to compressed for my ear (maybe just a taste and that's all) and when I read some reviews I thought that it may be good idea to test new Klasiks.

And they blew off one of the best small monitors on the markets. KH120 is really good speaker, but... as you know now - not the best.

I wouldn't say that these are the most natural-sounding monitors on the market, because I've heard a few much more expensive models, but they do their job well as a studio speaker. They show the errors in songs and their character, they have very good dynamics and separation between the elements. The bass is very surprising (in a positive sense), but this is probably due to the depth of these monitors and the unconventional bass reflex port design that helps a lot. And you can hear it.

The thing that you may like or not is the veneer on the sides, because it looks a little to vintage for me.

But all in all as I mentioned before - these are the best monitors for this price. Really.

A7X couldn't even stand near them.

APS Klasik 2020 is a huge upgrade from previous model (and I also had previous Klasiks for quite some time in my studio). Sound-wise new Klasik 2020 monitors are even more precise and transparent, great stereo and transients, yet the mid-range is very natural and defined. High frequency details are presented in a very pleasing and non-fatiguing way. I can instantly hear if there are any sibilaces or resonance to temper. If you are looking for a natural, detailed sound, APS Klasik is a great choice!

What makes the new model really special is a new design of the bass-reflex – it is now integrated with the redesigned electronics and is totally silent even when playing very high volume low frequency sine waves – brawo! Bass is tight and clear, yet big and heavy enough for electronic music pro-mixing. Even though the technical specification states the frequency range starts from 39 [email protected], in practice speakers play very effectively from 35 Hz up.

Also, I noticed the new amps let the monitors play significantly louder, which is useful sometimes. Plus they are silent – you will not hear any noise even if you get very close (30 cm or so) in the quiet studio environment. Good Job APS!

I also own APS Aeon which I still use in my main studio. Old Aeons definitely have more power and offer slightly deeper soundstage, APS Klasik 2020 are getting remarkably close. I mixed a couple of electronic music projects on 2020’s and they translate really well across different systems.

I remember comparing those side by side with much bigger monitors including KRK V8 and I was surprised there was little or no difference (depending on the materials) in the bass region. Obviously V8 had more power, but not necessarily more bass😉. Of course, if you’re serious about your work and mastering, you can pair 2020’s with a subwoofer, but for most audio editing and mixing APS Klasik will give you more than enough of volume and punch. Also, it is a real pleasure to listen to music on these active speakers.

There is nothing fancy about the design, but build quality is very high quality, and the enclosure is very tight – it does not resonate or vibrate even at very high volumes. All considered, a great choice at 1000 euros! Highly recommended.