phraseland
Published on 12/05/08 at 04:47
They have been on the market for years now and when I started my research on good monitors with a decent price tag this name always popped up. I am not quite sure anymore why I originally chose the passive versions (I also bought an Alesis RA-100 Amp).
There is nothing much to say about these speakers - two separate drivers for highs and lows and connections on the back for speaker cables. I would have preferred to have a couple of Jack inputs as well. Also in the version I own (I bought them about 9 years ago) they had little protective covers on the corners that fell off by just looking at them...really annoying. I think they fixed that though with the 'mkII' version.
I use them mainly for mixdown at home.
SOUNDS
I think these speakers are quite accurate. They lack a bit of low mids so when mixing down I have to be careful to not add too much around 200Hz. I also always thought that the stereo image could be a bit broader - I believe this issue has been vastly improved especially with their active speakers.
As I said - the sound does not get enhanced (unlike a lot of other monitors) and you have a pretty good picture of the sound you are mixing. I sometimes wish for highs to be a bit more airy and the lows to be a bit more present.
OVERALL OPINION
After nine years of use I am still quite happy with them although I am planning on having them replaced by their active counterparts here pretty soon. I believe that there really isn't the perfect studio monitor as they all do have a certain character. The more you mix with one the more you get to know it. The Monitor One does not really sound 'nice' but that is a compliment because I can have that later on my stereo. I want a good representation of the sound I am working on and the Monitor One does deliver just that.
I could have done with a few more connections on the back. Also the way they were built back then was not as good as it could have been. Again - this has been vastly improved.
There is nothing much to say about these speakers - two separate drivers for highs and lows and connections on the back for speaker cables. I would have preferred to have a couple of Jack inputs as well. Also in the version I own (I bought them about 9 years ago) they had little protective covers on the corners that fell off by just looking at them...really annoying. I think they fixed that though with the 'mkII' version.
I use them mainly for mixdown at home.
SOUNDS
I think these speakers are quite accurate. They lack a bit of low mids so when mixing down I have to be careful to not add too much around 200Hz. I also always thought that the stereo image could be a bit broader - I believe this issue has been vastly improved especially with their active speakers.
As I said - the sound does not get enhanced (unlike a lot of other monitors) and you have a pretty good picture of the sound you are mixing. I sometimes wish for highs to be a bit more airy and the lows to be a bit more present.
OVERALL OPINION
After nine years of use I am still quite happy with them although I am planning on having them replaced by their active counterparts here pretty soon. I believe that there really isn't the perfect studio monitor as they all do have a certain character. The more you mix with one the more you get to know it. The Monitor One does not really sound 'nice' but that is a compliment because I can have that later on my stereo. I want a good representation of the sound I am working on and the Monitor One does deliver just that.
I could have done with a few more connections on the back. Also the way they were built back then was not as good as it could have been. Again - this has been vastly improved.