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Head-Fier
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- Apr 2, 2008
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Maybe it has been too long since I heard some new speakers, or maybe I have never experienced truely good sound reproduction.... or maybe I just have a bad memory, whatever the reason I am over the moon with my new purchase.
I have been agonising over what new hi fi set up to go for. New amp? new speakers? Do I really need it? Can I use them for studio work, do I need dedicated speakers for this..... the list goes on....
Anyway, I decided I needed some speakers for both home hifi, and to use with my Macbook with Logic Pro. But what speakers fit both needs?????
I decided on some Alesis Mk1 active mk2s. They are basically Powered studio monitors with an incredibly flat response. They have built in discrete twin aplifiers with passive cross overs. When they first came out they were about £350 back then that was like $1000 in real money. Now you can get them for £200 which is more like $450 in todays money.... a cracking buy!!
Well, as a studio speaker they seem very good, despite not being broken in. They are very neutral and the silk tweaters are not harsh at all, they actually sound a lot more like a ribbon tweater than I was expecting.. very pleasent to the ear. They are quite bass heavy, but having read the instructions and discovering they can be tuned I have dialed this out. The speaker has 2 bass reflex ports, by plugging one or both you can reduce the resonance of the bass and tighten it up... job done!!! (the reason for this is room size and speaker placement)
The construction is surprisingly good for a speaker of this price, far in excess of any 'Hi Fi' speakers I have seen in the $200-400 bracket.
I have always wondered why people would go for Hi Fi speakers over Studio Monitors... what is the diference right? Surely you would want the Studio speakers designed to give a more acurate reproduction? Well, I understood Hi-Fi speakers might sound 'nicer' giving a warmer mid range, but now I have heard these Studio speakers they are a must.
At the moment I have 3 sources for playback.
>Apple lossless from a 5g pod through a C&C plus box used as a line level source
>Stanton Straight180 turntable with the C&C as a line level source (I now understand just how good vinyl can sound!!!!)
>Macbook with C&C as line level source.
The only downside of these speakers is they show up imperfections in the music production much more than a hi fi amp and speaker set up will. This is what they are designed to do.
In conclusion I think these are fapping excellent for mixing, studio production and general listening. The downside is, I cannot listen to badly mastered source material anymore as the noise, inteferance, bad dubbing etc stick out like a sore thumb...... The plus side, when I was listening to Brothers in Arms the stereo imaging was so accurate that when I closed my eyes my brain actually thought Mark Knopfler was in my room. The sound was no longer coming from individual speaker. It was a little strange but increadibly impressive.
If you are looking at some Active monitors give these a try. I also tried some KPKs, a Yamaha monitor for twice the price and some Samson Rubicon R5a. There really was no competition. For clarity, and reproduction these were unbeatable.
As an example, at maximum input gain with no signal source there is 0 signal hum, hiss, crackle or inteferance. I know of no amplifier or speaker set up that has acheived this at almost anyprice. With the C&C box attached at maximum gain/volume but the Ipod volume at 0 there was no also no hiss or crackle. A further testement to the excellent SN ratio of these speakers and the C&C Box.....
PS.. this is with basic interconnects also, some oxide free silver leads are on the way... who knows how good they will sound then!!!!!!!
I have been agonising over what new hi fi set up to go for. New amp? new speakers? Do I really need it? Can I use them for studio work, do I need dedicated speakers for this..... the list goes on....
Anyway, I decided I needed some speakers for both home hifi, and to use with my Macbook with Logic Pro. But what speakers fit both needs?????
I decided on some Alesis Mk1 active mk2s. They are basically Powered studio monitors with an incredibly flat response. They have built in discrete twin aplifiers with passive cross overs. When they first came out they were about £350 back then that was like $1000 in real money. Now you can get them for £200 which is more like $450 in todays money.... a cracking buy!!
Well, as a studio speaker they seem very good, despite not being broken in. They are very neutral and the silk tweaters are not harsh at all, they actually sound a lot more like a ribbon tweater than I was expecting.. very pleasent to the ear. They are quite bass heavy, but having read the instructions and discovering they can be tuned I have dialed this out. The speaker has 2 bass reflex ports, by plugging one or both you can reduce the resonance of the bass and tighten it up... job done!!! (the reason for this is room size and speaker placement)
The construction is surprisingly good for a speaker of this price, far in excess of any 'Hi Fi' speakers I have seen in the $200-400 bracket.
I have always wondered why people would go for Hi Fi speakers over Studio Monitors... what is the diference right? Surely you would want the Studio speakers designed to give a more acurate reproduction? Well, I understood Hi-Fi speakers might sound 'nicer' giving a warmer mid range, but now I have heard these Studio speakers they are a must.
At the moment I have 3 sources for playback.
>Apple lossless from a 5g pod through a C&C plus box used as a line level source
>Stanton Straight180 turntable with the C&C as a line level source (I now understand just how good vinyl can sound!!!!)
>Macbook with C&C as line level source.
The only downside of these speakers is they show up imperfections in the music production much more than a hi fi amp and speaker set up will. This is what they are designed to do.
In conclusion I think these are fapping excellent for mixing, studio production and general listening. The downside is, I cannot listen to badly mastered source material anymore as the noise, inteferance, bad dubbing etc stick out like a sore thumb...... The plus side, when I was listening to Brothers in Arms the stereo imaging was so accurate that when I closed my eyes my brain actually thought Mark Knopfler was in my room. The sound was no longer coming from individual speaker. It was a little strange but increadibly impressive.
If you are looking at some Active monitors give these a try. I also tried some KPKs, a Yamaha monitor for twice the price and some Samson Rubicon R5a. There really was no competition. For clarity, and reproduction these were unbeatable.
As an example, at maximum input gain with no signal source there is 0 signal hum, hiss, crackle or inteferance. I know of no amplifier or speaker set up that has acheived this at almost anyprice. With the C&C box attached at maximum gain/volume but the Ipod volume at 0 there was no also no hiss or crackle. A further testement to the excellent SN ratio of these speakers and the C&C Box.....
PS.. this is with basic interconnects also, some oxide free silver leads are on the way... who knows how good they will sound then!!!!!!!
