Florin Andrei wrote: > I'm quite familiar with a wide range of high-end studio headphones, but > i'm much less familiar with studio monitors. > > So, what do you guys own or use? What do you recommend? > > I own a pair of near-field Alesis M1 Active MkII. It seems like they're > "value" monitors, which means they're mediocre-sounding (in the studio > monitors league) but they didn't punch a hole in my wallet. > > http://alesis.com/products/m1active/ > > They're bi-amplified and, yes, that you can tell: the transition between > the bass cone and the treble bullet is smooth and there are no > out-of-phase artifacts. There's no smearing like with passive filters on > the output high-current lines. > > They're a bit bass-heavy and i actually think they're intentionally made > like that. Alesis has a weird recommendation in the manual, saying that > you should plug one of the holes with a cloth if bass is too fat, or > even both holes if bass is waaay too big. I kinda feel that they > intended them to typically have one hole plugged at all times. That's > something for a bass-control knob to adjust, i know, but for the price > ($400) i guess i have no right to complain. > It's actually very weird how such a small bass cone can deliver so well > at such low frequencies. Even if i turn up the volume, they're still > crisp and controlled. I never turned it up into the distortion zone, my > neighbours are not exactly fans of electronic music. :-) > > Treble is good, but definitely not as transparent as, say, high-end > Beyerdynamic or Sennheiser phones. They're a bit harsh and lack sparkle > (although certain narrow bands in the mid-high i'm pretty sure are > actually over-emphasized), but not too much. > I didn't see a frequency response graph yet, but i'm pretty sure there's > a "noodle" with all kinds of curls in the treble zone. Nothing > impossible to live with, it's just that it feels like it's there. > > Midrange is ok, but not remarquable in any way. It's not too quiet or > anything, it's just that it's kinda tasteless. > > I keep them in my bedroom (no laughs please) and actually they're close > to a corner (ok, now you're allowed to laugh). > No, the fat bass is not because of that, they're fat anyway (but the > corner may make the situation worse - i'll have to fix that one day). I sadly keep mine on a bookshelf, two feet apart, and have a wad of paper towel in each of the four holes to reduce the bass. I think they're an extremely good deal and I've heard many people say they are the closest thing to Mackies in that price range. As for loudness, the same observation. I think there's a frequency graph that comes with them and they look pretty flat. If anything, the sound on mine is just restrained, if that's the right word. Cheers, Chris
