monitor opinions?

well just reading on them I saw 44.1k sample rate by 16 bit depth. thats the same settings a audio CD has, I also saw something saying 320 when ever I see that I think mp3 (the worst audio codec ever).

studio quality monitoring has the ability to go 192k sample rates by 32 bit floating. not that a lot of studios use that extreme of settings. what the M1's make me think is the USB has a D/A converter built in but its limited to what audio engineers where using 20 years ago. normally this wont be an issue so long as you where recording at 44.1 16 bit but these days cheap interfaces can record 48 to 96 sample rates and its standard to record at 24 bit since that extra few bits increases your head room by A LOT.

When you convert higher sample rates and bit depths to lower ones with a D/A converter you're effecting what your speakers will tell you about the mix. you could have the perfect mix but because of the conversion you hear the distortions cause from down sampling.

What I would look for is first a A/D D/A converter, a cheap interface will be fine and give you the ability to record good quality and have same quality play back. Now depending on what main outs your interface has will determine what kind of cable you can use to connect to your monitors. The norm is XLR cables but its not uncommon to see TRS cables used for monitoring. good thing about these 2 cables if you need XLR for your monitors and TRS for the interface you can get that kind of cable.