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In Reply to: RE: hi-rez acoustic suspension minimonitors? posted by budget minded on August 05, 2014 at 15:41:54
You might do well to check out The Rock professional monitor from Unity Audio. Though I have not yet heard them personally, I've read many reviews on the pro sites, and all have been raves. In particular, I would direct you to the review on TNT, a website for audiophiles.
TNT's major domo owns a pair of sE Munro 150s (the Eggs), which also received the highest praise from pro audio reviewers. The Eggs and Rocks cost the same.
One of the major differences between the Eggs and the Rocks are that the former are ported, and the latter are sealed. TNT's reviewer doesn't mince words in expressing his strong preference for the Rocks in every area of performance, but was perhaps most impressed by the difference in the bass, the superiority of which he attributes to the Rock's sealed design. As he did in his earlier review of the Eggs, he concludes that the Rocks are the best speakers he has ever heard in his home, and bought them.
At $2,500 a pair, they ain't cheap. But when you factor in that the price includes four channels of carefully optimized amplification and a highly sophisticated active crossover, the price is way south of ATC territory.
Follow Ups:
i'm one step ahead of you. i've already read reviews for them and am put off by a few things
- they're expensive at $2,000+, but i do like the sound (figuratively0 of their folded ribbon tweeters that i bet are super fast
- they're powered monitors which would require buying a pre-amp and as such can't be upgraded down the road. before stopping back here, i tried to see if they offered a cheaper passive version.
- they're very imaging and positioning fussy which make them sound overpriced to me. a good minimonitor should excel at imaging. imaging is one of my highest priorities in music and it was hearing a talking heads album throwing a small, but very precise image on infinity minis that also had lightning fast uncolored if rolled off bass that turned me into an audiophile.
for the $2,000 price of "the rock", ATC's SCM 11s sound more appealing to me as they're passive and universally praised for their resolution. those are my "dream" speakers, though i'm still trying to find out about role kayak MDF thickness. to me, it's unforgiveable to use anything less than 3/4" MDF on any speaker over $300. in that regard, superzeros are still the best i've owned even if mission, celestion and especially energy spank them for resolution and extension.
If it's ported, it's distorted.
As you may be aware, Unity makes a smaller, less expensive model called the Pebble. It uses a dome in place of the air motion transformer in concert with a smaller woofer.
But you have made it plain that you do not resonate with the concept of active speakers. The reasons you give are the very ones that are often cited when the industry attempts to explain why active speakers, which have almost completely displaced passive models in the studio – all of ATC's professional models are now active – have never caught on with audiophiles. A chacon son goût.
sure, there are potential benefits to using internal amplification, especially bi-amping and tri-amping active speakers, but you're always going to be stuck with whatever amplification is being used. i like the idea of modular systems because you can always keep upgrading every part of your system as finances allow.
amplification makes a huge difference. i hated the "muffled wet blanket" sound of my NHT superzeros on NAD and only really started liking them on my ruthlessly revealing panasonic class D receiver, but THAT receiver proved almost too clinical for my super revealing energy RC-10s that might have gotten along better with the softer sounding NAD. i was amazed at how much more liquid they sounded on cambridge audio DAC and receiver.
some day, i might try tube amplification or some high end amp when i can afford one. an active speaker is a closed system that can't be upgraded.
regarding ATC SCM 7 & 11 speakers, those are passive.
If it's ported, it's distorted.
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