Mash
04-30-2007, 01:23 PM
Hey, Skep, I doubt you still bother to lurk here, given the inexorably downward drifting Alexa ratings for this place, but on the off chance that you do I thought I would tell you about a speaker that you should find to be a substantial upgrade to your (aging) AR speakers.
I had wanted a speaker upgrade for our kitchen, a room that is not speaker-friendly. I have a large French Provincial table with high-back leather exec chairs on casters at the end where the fireplace is, while the other end of the kitchen contains the 32 cu-ft side-by-side refrigerator, double wall oven, cook top, dishwasher, granite-topped counters, and so on. The ceiling is cathedral but the acoustics are still a challenge. Magnepan speakers simply wouldn’t fit. But our main system is still the Futterman driven full-range Maggies with a Velodyne Servo-15 in the living room, while the smaller bedroom has a Jolida 302B driving Maggies that are supported with a Velodyne Servo-15. So my standards were high.
What I have found for use in our kitchen is the “reasonably priced” Mackie HR824 “High Definition Studio Monitor”. Mackie lists on their site a few of the folk who use these monitors to produce recordings.
The Mackie HR824 is an active powered two-way speaker, i.e. it uses servo-feedback amplifiers similar to the Velodyne Servo-15, which means the speaker is very articulate. HF dispersion is excellent.
A few of the Mackie HR824 specifications:
LF Driver = 8.75 in magnesium frame mineral-filled polypropylene cone with 16mm excursion;
HF Driver = 1 inch viscous edge-damped AL-alloy dome, ferrofluid-cooled;
Passive radiator is 6 in x 12 in mass-loaded elliptical AL-honeycomb on rubber surround;
Amplifier power….HF = 100 watts, LF = 150 watts;
The frequency response is specified as +/- 1.5 dB 39 Hz to 20 kHz, and each speaker has its confirming calibration curve included;
The max per-pair SPL is 120 dB;
HF & LF Amplifier distortion is less than 0.035% for THD, SMPTE IMD, and DIM 100.
Acoustic space equalization selection is A=1/4 space, B=1/2 space, C=flat;
Crossover is a Modified Linkwitz-Riley, 24 dB/octave at 1800 Hz;
Selectable LF Filters are 37 Hz, 47 Hz or 80 Hz;
Size: 15.75 in H x 10 in W x 12.2 in D;
Weight: 32.9 pounds, each.
Details:
Our kitchen has a resonance slightly below 40 Hz, which these speakers have not yet excited while a powered woofer I was using did excite that resonance. The explanation must either be that the present (temporary) position of these Mackie HR824 speakers does not excite the resonance, or these Mackies simply lack the output power below 40 Hz to excite the resonance. My present feeling is that the Mackies lack the output power below 40 Hz to excite the resonance.
The Mackies reproduce guitars, drums, and piano very well, but they are not forgiving. Many ‘rock’ recordings sound just as bad on the Mackies as they sound on our tube amp / Magnepan systems. The music selections on the Stereophile Test CD #3, track #3 through track #9, do come off quite well even though the bass power on #7 and #9 seems a bit lacking. I would suggest a Velodyne Servo-15 rolled in at 47 Hz or 80 Hz to fully reproduce the lowest octave. I do not think that a subwoofer lacking servo feedback control will have the articulation required to blend acceptably well with these Mackies. I base this on the fact that a Velodyne Servo-15 will blend quite well with our Magnepan speakers while a subwoofer lacking servo feedback control simply would NOT blend with our Magnepan speakers.
The Mackies will accept balanced XLR and ¼-inch inputs as well as unbalanced RCA inputs. I plan to keep the sources on the counter near the refrigerator and place the Mackies on the fireplace mantle at the other end of the kitchen, and I will use Shure 50 ft balanced XLR cables for the connection. There are two advantages to using balanced XLR cables. One advantage is that balanced XLR cables lack a practical distance limitation like the 25 ft length limit for unbalanced RCA connections, and the second advantage is that the Foo-Foo-Dust Mavens have not (yet) discovered the balanced XLR connection cables, which allows us to avoid silly "sounds of different wires" debates.
MusiciansFriend.com has the Mackies for $499 each, as do SameDayMusic.com, AmericanMusical.com, and zZounds.com. ProSound and Stage was still offering these Mackies at $630/each, but I am sure they will soon lower their price if they have not already done so. At least ProSound and Stage had some warehouse-opened Technics SL1200 Mk5 TT for $399!
I had wanted a speaker upgrade for our kitchen, a room that is not speaker-friendly. I have a large French Provincial table with high-back leather exec chairs on casters at the end where the fireplace is, while the other end of the kitchen contains the 32 cu-ft side-by-side refrigerator, double wall oven, cook top, dishwasher, granite-topped counters, and so on. The ceiling is cathedral but the acoustics are still a challenge. Magnepan speakers simply wouldn’t fit. But our main system is still the Futterman driven full-range Maggies with a Velodyne Servo-15 in the living room, while the smaller bedroom has a Jolida 302B driving Maggies that are supported with a Velodyne Servo-15. So my standards were high.
What I have found for use in our kitchen is the “reasonably priced” Mackie HR824 “High Definition Studio Monitor”. Mackie lists on their site a few of the folk who use these monitors to produce recordings.
The Mackie HR824 is an active powered two-way speaker, i.e. it uses servo-feedback amplifiers similar to the Velodyne Servo-15, which means the speaker is very articulate. HF dispersion is excellent.
A few of the Mackie HR824 specifications:
LF Driver = 8.75 in magnesium frame mineral-filled polypropylene cone with 16mm excursion;
HF Driver = 1 inch viscous edge-damped AL-alloy dome, ferrofluid-cooled;
Passive radiator is 6 in x 12 in mass-loaded elliptical AL-honeycomb on rubber surround;
Amplifier power….HF = 100 watts, LF = 150 watts;
The frequency response is specified as +/- 1.5 dB 39 Hz to 20 kHz, and each speaker has its confirming calibration curve included;
The max per-pair SPL is 120 dB;
HF & LF Amplifier distortion is less than 0.035% for THD, SMPTE IMD, and DIM 100.
Acoustic space equalization selection is A=1/4 space, B=1/2 space, C=flat;
Crossover is a Modified Linkwitz-Riley, 24 dB/octave at 1800 Hz;
Selectable LF Filters are 37 Hz, 47 Hz or 80 Hz;
Size: 15.75 in H x 10 in W x 12.2 in D;
Weight: 32.9 pounds, each.
Details:
Our kitchen has a resonance slightly below 40 Hz, which these speakers have not yet excited while a powered woofer I was using did excite that resonance. The explanation must either be that the present (temporary) position of these Mackie HR824 speakers does not excite the resonance, or these Mackies simply lack the output power below 40 Hz to excite the resonance. My present feeling is that the Mackies lack the output power below 40 Hz to excite the resonance.
The Mackies reproduce guitars, drums, and piano very well, but they are not forgiving. Many ‘rock’ recordings sound just as bad on the Mackies as they sound on our tube amp / Magnepan systems. The music selections on the Stereophile Test CD #3, track #3 through track #9, do come off quite well even though the bass power on #7 and #9 seems a bit lacking. I would suggest a Velodyne Servo-15 rolled in at 47 Hz or 80 Hz to fully reproduce the lowest octave. I do not think that a subwoofer lacking servo feedback control will have the articulation required to blend acceptably well with these Mackies. I base this on the fact that a Velodyne Servo-15 will blend quite well with our Magnepan speakers while a subwoofer lacking servo feedback control simply would NOT blend with our Magnepan speakers.
The Mackies will accept balanced XLR and ¼-inch inputs as well as unbalanced RCA inputs. I plan to keep the sources on the counter near the refrigerator and place the Mackies on the fireplace mantle at the other end of the kitchen, and I will use Shure 50 ft balanced XLR cables for the connection. There are two advantages to using balanced XLR cables. One advantage is that balanced XLR cables lack a practical distance limitation like the 25 ft length limit for unbalanced RCA connections, and the second advantage is that the Foo-Foo-Dust Mavens have not (yet) discovered the balanced XLR connection cables, which allows us to avoid silly "sounds of different wires" debates.
MusiciansFriend.com has the Mackies for $499 each, as do SameDayMusic.com, AmericanMusical.com, and zZounds.com. ProSound and Stage was still offering these Mackies at $630/each, but I am sure they will soon lower their price if they have not already done so. At least ProSound and Stage had some warehouse-opened Technics SL1200 Mk5 TT for $399!