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For reasons specific to my control room’s acoustics and ergonomics, I placed the Monitor-8s about two feet from the nearest wall. D.A.S. recommends you orient the monitors vertically, and the nonconcentric arrangement of the drivers suggests this for optimal imaging. However, ergonomics directed me to orient the monitors horizontally in my control room. Nevertheless, stereo imaging was spectacular.
The Monitor-8s were installed into my Acoustic Sciences Corporation ATTACK Wall, a modular arrangement of cylindrical bass traps designed to soffit speakers and neutralize the acoustic signature of the front of the control room. Because the Monitor-8s are ported in the rear, the sidefill ASC Studio Traps™ and top Monitor Trap™ for each speaker were removed to allow low frequencies to vent back into the room to the mix position.
For my critical listening tests, I listened to many of my recent mixes and favorite outside CD releases that I was intimately familiar with, spanning rock, pop, country, techno, grunge, folk and Celtic music styles. I was immediately struck by the Monitor-8s’ rock-solid stereo imaging, profound soundfield depth, open clarity and articulate detail. It was as if a veil had been removed from the mix, revealing hidden subtleties. The silky-smooth high end was sweet yet eminently articulate, without a hint of stridency. Vocals sounded startlingly realistic, brimming over with unfettered nuance. Chimes and strummed guitar sounded downright palpable, with transients accurately and sweetly reproduced. Overall, the mids and highs were beautifully balanced and smooth.
The only downside of how the Monitor-8s performed in my setup was that lower bass frequencies—below roughly 80 Hz—were reproduced rather weakly. No doubt this could have been improved by placement closer to a wall. And it must be said that most close-field monitors suffer the same weak bass, if often with a somewhat lower cutoff. Switching in my Tannoy PS-88 active subwoofer (a discontinued model) completely corrected the imbalance, and the Tannoy perfectly complemented the Monitor-8s. In fact, the Monitor-8s’ relatively high-bass roll-off kept interference with the sub to a minimum, creating a more seamless coupling of the two systems.
With the sub added to the mix, drums sounded extremely realistic. Stick and kick drum beater strikes were beautifully defined and the traps’ timbres perfectly balanced. Heaven.
I found the Monitor-8s to be very nonfatiguing without sounding even slightly dark or veiled. Of course, the timbre was understandably darker outside of the sweet spot, but the balance was nevertheless easily workable.
ON
THE BENCH
Figure 1 shows the Monitor-8s’ frequency response (green trace) to be approximately three dBs down at 78 Hz and dropping off rapidly below 50 Hz. Over most of its response range, the Monitor-8s are flat to within +1/-3dB tolerances, the most noticeable exception being a hump centered around 135 Hz. Linearity is especially impressive above approximately 1.25 kHz. The response is down only a fraction of a dB at 18 kHz. Data on the graph above 18 kHz is not meaningful due to incoherence with the source signal (as indicated by the red trace in Fig. 1). Continued on next page.. |
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Reprinted with permission from
Magazine, February, 2001© 2000, Intertec Publishing, A Primedia Company All Rights Reserved
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