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 | | | | Sep30Written by:Rip Rowan
Sunday, September 30, 2001 6:00 PM  The last three years have been exceptionally good for powered loudspeakers. This is good and bad. Good, because there are so many excellent choices now. For the most part these speakers all sound great, and they're generally better than most of the midfield monitors available ten or so years ago. Bad, because it's so damn hard to choose.
I chose ten of the more well-known speakers to review. All of them are biamplified systems with between 90 and 250 watts of total system power. Eight of them use 8 inch woofers. All are ported systems: nine conventionally ported, one with a passive radiator. Most utilize liquid-cooled metal dome tweeters with computer-designed tweeter waveguides. All are approximately the same size and weight, give or take.
Are you starting to see a pattern emerge?
The real differences are differences in price – which varies widely – and details of quality and design. Most of these systems are really excellent. However, as I studied and listened to these systems, I was able to find and define clear preferences. Hopefully, my findings will coincide with yours.
A word needs to be said about the way I evaluated these speakers. As a mixing engineer, I am primarily concerned with getting mixes that translate well outside of the studio. Monitors should tell me if there's too much bass, if the sibilants are harsh, if the sax is ringy, or if any instrument is too loud or quiet in the mix. To me the best monitor is one that lets me get the perfect mix – the one that sounds exactly the way I expect both IN and OUT of the studio. The best compliment is when the mastering engineer tells me, "I really didn't need to EQ anything at all."
This is a listening test, not a scientific evaluation, using ears, not scientific equipment. The tests were performed primarily in my control room, the most familiar place for me to listen to a speaker. I also listened to all of these speakers in at least one other room besides my control room in order to get a better basis for comparison. And I listened to a variety of CDs, including rock, pop, jazz, and world music. I also listened to some CDs that I mixed and with whose deficiencies I am intimately familiar.
Since I used my ears as the primary basis for gathering information, there's a fair chance that you'll disagree with some of my findings. It's unreasonable to expect everyone to share my experiences and tastes. Hopefully, though, the information I present here in the review will tell you what you need to know in order to choose the right monitors for you and your work style.
I used a 10 point scale to subjectively rate factors such as imaging, dynamic performance, frequency response, and high-volume performance. I also subjectively graded the overall sound quality and the price / performance score of these speakers. We then created an overall composite grade which weights sound quality twice as heavily as value. In the end, this approach provides some insight into how I interpreted these speakers, and the final grades correspond closely to my personal preferences.
How to interpret the scores: | | Imaging | Ability to accurately position sound sources in space | | Dynamic Performance | Ability to recreate fast, punchy transients | | Frequency Response | Ability to reproduce all frequencies without misrepresentation | | High Volume | Ability to play loud without damage or excess distortion | | Sound Quality | Sound quality composite, includes all dimensions of sound quality | | Price / Performance | Direct ratio of sound quality composite to price | | Overall | Weighted ranking, weights sound quality twice as high as price, shown as a percentage and letter grade. |
Why did I factor in price? Simple. Some of our contestants are value-priced, and yet competitive with luxury-priced monitors. I think its more than fair to give the value-priced, strong performers an extra lift in their grade. Yet sound quality has to come first, so in the overall score, the sound quality is weighed twice as high as price. So if you're looking for excellent sound with the best value, trust the Overall score. If you're looking for a flat-out bargain, trust the Price / Performance score. And if you're looking for the best sound at any price, evaluate the Sound Quality score.
Tags:2 comment(s) so far...
The links to the rest of this article are dead! By benny on
Thursday, September 06, 2007 8:46 PM
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benny,
do what i did, use internet archive's way back feature (archive.org) and type in prorec.com ... then you can view this page on the Dec 2001 link with all the working links. By brg on
Thursday, October 25, 2007 2:56 AM
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