EVENT ELECTRONICS Studio Precision 6 Active

Oct 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Rusty Cutchin

           
 

Event Electronics' Studio Precision 8 Active studio monitor was an EM Editors' Choice Award winner in 2005 (see the January 2005 issue of EM, available online at www.emusician.com), and although siblings of champion speakers don't always share winning ways, Event's Studio Precision 6 Active (aka ASP6) gets a blue ribbon from this reviewer. The ASP6, a biamplified close-field (Event calls it “Direct-Field”) monitor, offers pristine high end, natural midrange clarity, and surprisingly strong bass.

FIG. 1: Event Electronics’ Studio Precision 6 Active monitor gives you clean highs, clear midrange, and outstanding bass response.

Sibling Symmetry

Like the ASP8, the ASP6 is striking to look at (see Fig. 1). The front panel sports a high-gloss black finish. The cabinet's top, bottom, and sides are made of a black vinyl laminate that looks like painted wood. Behind the front panel is a 6.5-inch woofer with a neodymium magnet. A magnetically shielded 1-inch ferrofluid-cooled soft-dome neodymium “radiator” is positioned directly above the speaker. (Event uses the term radiator for its high-frequency driver because of the broad, flat pattern the component generates without requiring built-in — or external — corrective equalization.) The radiator is surrounded by an elliptical backplate.

At the bottom corners of the front panel are dual 3-inch-diameter “linear-flow” bass ports, which were designed to eliminate port noise. This type of port is unique to the Studio Precision series, as are the monitor's power capabilities, custom transducers, and other cabinet-design aspects. According to Event, these features account for the line's high performance.

The ASP6 has the same power amplifier as the ASP8. It provides 200W to the low-frequency (LF) driver and 80W to the high-frequency (HF) driver. The crossover point is 2.6 kHz. An LED power indicator is positioned underneath the woofer.

A number of inputs and controls are included on the ASP6's rear panel (see Fig. 2). A single ?-inch TRS input is labeled Line Input 1. A female XLR connector is Line Input 2. Either input can accept unbalanced or balanced signals. Continuously variable HF Trim and LF Trim pots cut or boost frequencies by 3 dB, and both trims have detents (0 dB) at the 12 o'clock position. Fully turned, the LF trim produces ±3 dB at 100 Hz and ±2 dB at 400 Hz. The HF Trim produces ±3 dB above 2.6 kHz.

FIG. 2: The control section on the rear panel features XLR and ¼-inch inputs, high- and low-frequency trim controls, an Input Sensitivity (level) control, and a highpass filter.

Next to Line Input 1 is a highpass switch (80 Hz) that can be used when a subwoofer is connected to the ASP6s. You also get an Input Sensitivity knob, which attenuates incoming signal from Max at the fully clockwise position down to -20 dB when it is fully counterclockwise. At the center detent position, the attenuation is -5 dB. A power-on toggle switch and power-cable receptacle for the included line cord complete the rear panel.

The highpass switch is a bit hard to access; it's practically flush when in the off position, and its surface is concave. I had to use the tip of my fingernail to engage the button. Similarly, the control knobs are raised only about ? inch from the rear panel and are about the size of a ?-inch input. Nevertheless, I had no trouble grasping them with a thumb and index finger to make adjustments. According to Event, the knobs and switches were designed to be a little difficult to access in order to prevent inadvertent adjustments, which could be disastrous in a mixing situation.

Event Planning

I bypassed my 2.1 system and fed a pair of ASP6s directly from the Control Room outputs of a Mackie Onyx 1620 mixer, which is connected by FireWire to my dual-processor Apple Mac G5. I then began my listening tests.

I started with some AAC files from iTunes, which I knew to be fairly good representations of their full-resolution equivalents. Because I was familiar with the sound of these files on my everyday monitors, I could make a fair judgment about the ASP6s' handling of them. The acoustic guitars in Coldplay's “God Put a Smile upon Your Face” and Bruce Cockburn's “Wondering Where the Lions Are” were clean and crisp, with no upper-midrange bump, even if the files exhibited the usual dynamics flaws and inaccurate stereo imaging that plague AAC and, worse, MP3 files.

Next, I checked out some cuts from several recently purchased CDs, with the CD player connected directly to the mixer. On Patty Loveless's “Keep Your Distance,” the ASP6s gave some extra bite to the snare drum that drives the tune. On Marc O'Connor's Live in New York CD, I was very impressed with the overall smoothness with which the monitors reproduced his fiddle. O'Connor's range of tones is staggering, and the ASP6s exhibited no breakdown in response even during the breakneck multi-octave soloing on “Cherokee.”

Having satisfied myself that the ASP6 was as dependable in the high end as other Event monitors I've regarded highly, I moved on in my testing to my standard search for low-midrange muddiness in bass parts that I know to be well defined. These included Jaco Pastorius solos and the mellower but distinct sound of Verdine White of Earth, Wind and Fire. The ASP6 shone here as well. When a bass note had a high-end attack, it was present but not overpowering. When a part was distinct amid other low-end content, the ASP6 put it across without descending into a sea of mud.