Thanks for the fair review. I think you nailed it. The Genelecs are clearly the best here. Not surprising. They are professional studio monitors with separate amps. The other two are kinda semipro speakers. They have, like, 80% of the clarity of professional monitors. That said, I would definitely prefer the Yamaha HS3 over iCloud. The Yamaha monitors are slightly bigger and should deliver a better "stereo/3d" sound picture. However, iCloud speakers have more bass as they have holes at the front. So most people will prefer the iCloud for listening to music, I believe. Personally I'd prefer the Yamaha HS3 even for listening. If more bass is needed, there's a Yamaha HS4 and the toggle for bass at the back. I don't edit or master music. So, I use them mainly for listening to music and other stuff, but I don't like consumer grade speakers. They are bass heavy, even hi-end speakers. It is tiring when used for a prolonged period of time. So, I prefer listening to music on flat speakers or headphones. I'm glad that Yamaha and others are coming up with small semipro models which have one volume control for the both speakers instead of the dB knob at the back of each speaker. It's nice to use with a PC at home. I think I might buy Yamaha HS3/HS4 because my PC speakers are very old. Now I'm gonna make the right purchase, hopefully. The Yamaha HS5 or KRK or Adam are too cumbersome to use with a PC for general purposes IMO. One last point: I'd prefer Yamaha or Adam cabinets over Genelec. I think they should produce a more 3d sound (effect of presence at the live performance), as their cabinets have more depth (from front to rear), although I never compared professional monitors by listening to them side by side. I just think the result should be similar to that of consumer speakers--they have a more 3d sound when their cabinets have more depth, i.e. when they are somewhat elongated from front to back.

Yamaha has so much clarity in the mids and highs

Do you think the Yamahas could be a good as just a digital piano monitor? Would it decay much on the lower end (around A1)?

What about icloud micro?