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"Pro" Active Monitors

What does anyone think about using a pair of active "pro" studio monitors? As a point of reference, I have my eye on a pair of Tannoy Reveal Active monitors ($899 USD Retail).

They are essentially a pair of small two-way montiors, four internal monoblock amplifiers (two per speaker), and each speaker is outfitted with an internal active crossover.

They have XLR balanced inputs for connection to a preamplifier, as well as IEC power sockets for connection of one power cable to each speaker.

Am I missing something, or is this the best "budget" route to go for reference-quality sound? What do you think?
gthrush1
sunnyup
5 posts
 
My favorite speakers are the ATC SCM50 SL actives. They are my 2nd pair of ATC. In a month's time, I will be able to tell everyone the latest upgrade new tweeters on the SCM50 (Seas Excel, like the SCM70), hope they are worth the cost and effort.

The strong reason to go with ATC is that the amps they integrated are of very high quality. For example, the small Active 10 comes with 200W each side. The Paradigm only has 80W. Also, ATC amps operate nearly in Class A (note how hot the sink gets) only till the very loud passage. The mid/high channels remain Class A all the time.

For other ATC owners, try putting Blue Tak in between the speakers and stands, and try a pair of Totem Beak. < $100 but major improvement in finesse and air.

www.extremephono.com
lazarus28
339 posts
 
totem beak? i've got the tak, but what's the totem beak?
hager_charles
51 posts
 
totem beak? Heck where do I get blue tak! I've got 5 ATC 100's coming on Tuesday arriving from England.
hifying
49 posts
 
Blu-Tac is made by Bostik and be had at any large office supply store for around $5.95 a pack, or you can buy it from Audioadvisor for $9.95 and pay $6.95 shipping.. "Man what a mark up" !!!!!. Or you can by the same damn stuff called Tac-N-Stik made by Elmer's for a $1.99 a pack
Not sure what totem beak is. Please en-lighten us on this tweek..
njonker
107 posts
 
Just to give you a different point of reference, I own a pair of Mackie HR-824 active monitors which I have used for a few years now in sound editing and production work. I love them because they are detailed and image beautifully when they are setup right and you sit right in front of them. They are crisp, detailed and the frequency response in-room is amazingly flat, which surprised the fire out of me.

I picked Mackie over JBL, Yamaha, ATC and Tannoy because I liked the imaging of the Mackies best. I could place sounds on them more accurately than on the others.

Oddly enough, the most annoying quality of the Mackies also is their precission. They pretty much play everything on the album, are very unforgiving. In my opinion, they do not make for the best music enjoyment when just enjoying music.

Niels.
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