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REVIEW: Event Opal Speakers

Model:	Opal
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$3999
Description:	Two-way Active Studio Monitor
Manufacturer URL:	Event
Model Picture:	View

Review by HotStamper on November 01, 2010 at 10:58:27 IP Address: 184.152.2.165

Add Your Review for the Opal

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The Event Opal is a compact two-way active near-field studio monitor designed for pro studio application and as such, there are no consumer audio reviews that I could find. So I might as well do it. (there are several pro-use reviews available online, however.)
Size is 17.7" high by 11.6" wide by 10.8" deep.
The cabinet is made from a thick, heavy, "injection molded" aluminum, not mdf or wood.
Finish is black powder coat.
Weight is 46 3/4 pounds per speaker.
The driver configuration consists of a 7.1" carbon fiber composite woofer
and 1" Beryllium-copper dome tweeter mounted in a rotatable waveguide. Both magnets are Neodymium.
These speakers are ported with a kind of contoured slots on the front baffle.
The class AB amplifiers and electronic crossovers are rear mounted.
The amps are heat-sinked. Power output is rated up to a total of 750 watts per speaker. They are bi-amplified.
Input is via a rear mounted Neutrik combo XLR-TRS jack. It does not accept RCA connectors.
AC power input is a rear mounted IEC connector.
Frequency response is given at 35-20k.

Extensive EQ controls are located on the front of the speaker, below the woofer, and are hidden by a removable rubber cover. These are extremely useful for tuning the speakers to the room, as well as personal taste.
Since the speaker has no flat or parallel surfaces to eliminate internal standing waves, (the sides, top and bottom are curved) it must be placed on the provided contoured rubber plinth.
Price is listed at $3999 per pair, but street price is advertised at around $2998.

More thorough specs are available on the Event web site.

The speakers are supposed to include room-correction software and a RODE microphone for effective EQ'ing but Event has been slow in providing this package so until I receive it (should be soon) I'm winging it by using my ears.
Equipment used for listening is an EMT 950 (wide-body) turntable with the 929 tonearm and TSD-15 mc cartridge. CD is handled by a Tascam CD-601 MKII broadcast CD player used with a Lavry DA-924 DAC. Preamp is a McIntosh C2200 with NOS Telefunken tubes.
Interconnects are Belden 89207 with ITT-Cannon XLR connectors.
Power cords for the preamp and CD player are the Asylum-Belden 19364 cords, and Cryomax III with Furutech plugs for the speakers and turntable.
The speakers are sited on 24" Sound Anchor speaker stands with a 1"x12"x12" aluminum plate attached the to the top of the stands via Blu-tak. Room dimensions are 24'x13'x9'. Rugs and heavy drapes and soft furnishing provide the acoustic treatment. Speakers are set up 10 feet apart, towed in 30 degrees. Listening position is 10 feet back.

I compared these monitors, using a variety of tube and transistor amps, with other small to mid-size floor-standing passive speakers in the $2k to $35k range, as well as other well-respected active studio monitors, over a period of several months. And I have spent time listening to speakers up to $200k +. I also attend live performances of Jazz and Classical weekly, sometimes more often.

Using a wide variety of Jazz and Classical LPs and CDs, the most obvious thing I noted was the enormous sound stage. Wide and very deep, with a breathtaking 3-dimensional projection. Instrument locations are rock-solid and repeatable, never wavering.
Tonal signatures of instruments are among the most realistic and life-like I've heard. A solo cello sounds like the real thing, not hi-fi-ish.
Massed strings have the natural woodiness and sheen and seamlessness of a live concert.
Brass and woodwinds retain their specific timbres.
Complex orchestrations retain separation and clarity, they never sound blurred.
Dynamics, both large and small, are spectacular.
Upright bass has the clarity and presence and bloom of the real item.
Percussion is punchy, crystal clear and resonant, like the real thing. Using the Sheffield Drum record was almost frightening, you'd swear there was a drum set in the room. Oh yes, cymbals sound like a wood stick on a brass cymbal, not splashy and vague or harsh and spitty.
On piano sonatas, subtle dynamic inflections are clearly heard, bringing out the poetics of the performance.
Vocals, both solo and choral simply sound real and natural and astonishing, you feel like you are in the same room.
Low frequencies roll off at around 35hz or so, but you'd swear there was a sub-woofer in the room.

Ambience retrieval is amazing, subtle sounds and echoes are easily displayed, completing the sense of reality. You can hear the room breathing.
Volume capability is far beyond what my room and ears can handle, and there is never any sense of compression, at any volume level.
The Opals do not display the often flat and rather uninteresting sound that highly accurate monitors often do. Music is exciting, vibrant and deeply involving. Overall presentation is cohesive, never fractured.
The clarity, dynamics and life-like qualities of the Opals make these keepers.

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Product Weakness:	The provided contoured rubber plinth. There is no way to mount the speakers in a rigid, stable fashion. Event should come up with a better solution.
Product Strengths:	Sounds like live music.

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Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier:	None.
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	McIntosh C2200
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Tascam CD-601MKII/Lavry DA-924 DAC. EMT 950 turntable
Speakers:	Event Opal
Cables/Interconnects:	Belden 89207 & ITT-Cannon XLRs.
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Jazz & Classical
Room Size (LxWxH):	24 x 13 x 9
Room Comments/Treatments:	Rugs, drapes
Time Period/Length of Audition:	9 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	DIY power dist. units.
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition):	Yes

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