Alesis Monitor Two Manuel utilisateur

MONITOR TWO

STUDIO REFERENCE MONITOR

Reference Manual

INTRODUCTION

Your new Alesis Monitor Two™ Studio Reference Monitors will deliver

accurate mixes in near and mid-field digital and analog studio monitoring

applications. The Monitor Two offers wide frequency response, accurate

transient reproduction, clear musical detail and imaging and high power

handling capability. These monitors were designed by experts with decades of

experience in professional audio system design including the award winning

Monitor One™ Studio Reference Monitors and the Alesis Matica™ Power

Amplifiers.

This three-way speaker system uses proprietary 10” and 5 ¼” high power low

and midrange drivers with special mineral filled polypropylene cones, a highly

damped linear rubber surround and large diameter voice coils wound on high

temperature Kapton formers. The 1” high frequency driver employed has a soft

natural silk dome and is ferrofluid cooled. The system’s crossover network uses

unique asymmetrical crossover filters for excellent amplitude and phase

response. Rear panel connections are made via 5-way binding posts suited to

large diameter wires as well as banana plugs.

The cabinet design uses Alesis’ exclusive SuperPort’ speaker venting

technology. Most speakers used for near and mid-field monitoring give

disappointing results in their lowest frequency range. They are either sealed,

which limits the amount of air the driver can move, or have an undersized vent

whose function at low frequencies and high acoustic output is nullified by the

effect of turbulence in the restricted port tube. The Monitor Two’s large

SuperPort overcomes this limitation by minimizing vent turbulence at high air

velocities thereby insuring that the enclosure tuning remains stable, the acoustic

output remains linear during heavy low frequency attack transients, and that the

reactive load above and below box resonance seen by the driving amplifier does

not dynamically shift in frequency. This all translates to tighter bass with higher

definition, a signature of Alesis monitors.

The Monitor Two’s 4 ohm load impedance takes advantage of today’s modern

professional amplifiers which are generally capable of a 1-3 dB increase in

output power with 4 ohm loads over their 8 ohm ratings. The result is a similar

increase in the Monitor Two’s acoustic output over conventional 8 ohm

monitors. This a rugged speaker system designed for serious professional use.

Covered with a non-slip rubber textured laminate for stable mounting, the

Monitor Twos come in a mirror image A/B pair for symmetrical horizontal or

vertical mounting.

INSTALLATION

Like any speaker system, your Monitor Twos will work best when properly

positioned in a suitable acoustic environment. Achieving proper speaker

placement is usually straightforward, but even with near and mid-field monitors,

speaker placement and the acoustics of the listening room itself are too often

overlooked and can become significant contributors to an inaccurate and

uninspiring monitoring environment.

Please take a moment to read this information carefully. It will help you to get

the most use and enjoyment from your new Alesis monitors.

A Little History

In the early days of studio recording, big monitor speakers were almost

exclusively used. Unfortunately, they also required high powered amplifiers and

expensive acoustic treatments (often poorly done) to the entire control room.

Still, a well constructed big monitoring system really was impressive to listen to,

a fact not overlooked by the studio owners who wanted to impress the record

company executives who paid for the big studio’s time.

Fortunately, recording engineers and producers eventually learned that this was

not always the best way to accurately mix music because it wasn’t the way most

people listened to their radios, cassette and CD players. Also, big monitor

systems and the costs for the required control room acoustic treatments were

going through the roof (no pun intended), particularly beyond the budget limits

of smaller project and home studios which were growing in numbers. A new

way of accurate monitoring was needed; near and mid-field monitoring.

Near and mid-field monitors, by their definition, are intended for close-in

monitoring. The idea here is to improve the direct acoustic path between the

speaker and the listener by making it shorter, thereby giving less opportunity for

the always present indirect (reflected) sounds to get back in and muddle things

up. With near-field monitoring, the surrounding acoustic environment becomes

a much less significant factor in establishing the monitor system’s sound

character. The same holds true for mid-field monitoring except there’s a little

more distance placed between the speakers and the listening position. The result

can be a larger sound field along with something closer to that “big monitor

sound”.

A good set of monitors properly located in a reasonably non-reverberate room

and powered by a 100-200 watt amplifier will yield surprisingly accurate results

at budget prices. Even the big studios use smaller speakers to augment their big

monitoring systems today as near and mid-field monitors have become proven

tools in the recording business.

Speaker Placement

While near and mid-field monitors are more forgiving of the surrounding room

acoustics, it is always prudent to optimize the listening environment whenever

possible. First, the user should be aware of the effect that the size of the listening

room can have on low frequency response. In general, the smaller the room, the

stronger the bottom end will be, although placement within a larger room can

also make a difference. This has to do with the way low frequency waves travel

in closed spaces. If you find your monitor system to be either light or heavy on

the bottom, try moving them around within your listening room. Also, because

the Monitor Two’s SuperPort™ tube is located at the rear, position the monitors

at least six inches away from anything that would block it.

You should avoid locating your Monitor Twos near reflective surfaces such as

glass, tile, large open walls or table tops. Still, many rooms used for recording

have these surfaces, so the best way to deal with them is to place the monitors

out in the room away from reflective walls, windows and sizable objects.

Even with these reflective surfaces separated from the monitoring position,

typical mixing situations usually still have the top surface of the mixing board to

deal with. Unfortunately, the board itself can be a major source of reflections

and the additional acoustic conduction into the board can effect your monitor’s

amplitude and phase response. Speaker placement on the console’s meter bridge

provides for two clear acoustic paths between the speakers and the recording

engineer. The first path is the direct one and the second is via a reflection off the

mixer main control panel as shown in Figure 1 below. This kind of speaker

placement more readily couples acoustic energy from the speaker’s cabinet into

the console’s chassis. Both conditions can be reduced by placing the speakers on

their own stands acoustically detached from, and slightly behind, the console as

shown in Figure 2. In this location, the reflective path off the console’s control

panel is now blocked by the meter bridge.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Careful consideration should also be given to the physical spacing between the

speakers and the listening position. Alesis recommends that the distance

between the speakers equal the distance between the listener and either speaker.

In other words, the listener and the two speakers are at the three corners of a

triangle having equal length sides. Figure 3 shows this concept.

In addition, this distance should be no less than about 60” (1.5 meter) per side to

allow the acoustic signals from each cabinet’s three drivers to properly combine

at the listening position. Note that both speakers are turned in somewhat so that

the prime listening position is directly out in front of each speaker. Applications

that require monitoring by more than one engineer are accommodated by a

smaller rotation of the cabinets. This will widen the prime listening position

somewhat.

Figure 3

The speakers and listener should be at the three corners of a triangle having equal length sides

For acoustic purposes Alesis has closely grouped the Monitor Two’s three

drivers together which necessitates mounting the high frequency dome driver on

one side of the mid/low frequency drivers. Therefore, your Monitor Twos are

supplied as a pair of mirror imaged cabinets, called the A and B side. Either

speaker cabinet can be oriented horizontally or vertically as long as a few simple

rules are followed For most near to mid-field monitoring applications the

mounting orientations shown in Figures 4a and 4b below are recommended.

Figure 4

Recommended left-right speaker orientation and mounting elevation

Speaker mounting elevation is important so our “ear level”

recommendations are shown in Figure 4. If the speakers are

mounted vertically as shown in Figure 4a, position the speakers so

that your ears are level with the high frequency dome driver. This

puts the low frequency driver slightly below ear level and the

midrange driver slightly above. If you are mounting your speakers

horizontally as in Figure 4b, the ear line should be centered on the

low and mid frequency drivers. Finally, if you are unable to mount

your monitors at ear level, rotate the cabinets forward or back so

that the points marked “ear-level” are perpendicular to your ears.

The Monitor Two system will produce the smoothest frequency

response when both speakers are perpendicular . In this three sided

triangle, the listener is said to be in the speakers’ “sweet spot”. In

reality, however, the listener needs to move around a bit and

therefore its helpful to know how the speaker’s sound field will

change with other listening positions. Therefore, our last word

concerning speaker placement is about the speaker’s off axis (to

the side, away from the front) amplitude and phase response.

The natural laws of physics cause all speakers having multiple

drivers to exhibit some off axis response changes. This largely has

to do with the way the signals from each driver combine when the

distance from each driver to the listener changes as the listener

moves around. Knowledge of this can be useful for obtaining the

widest listening area. The sides of the Monitor Two having the

most uniform off-axis response are shown in Figure 5 below:

Figure 5

Uniform (smoothest) off-axis response occurs in the direction of the high and midrange drivers

By knowing which sides of the speaker produce the smoothest off-

axis response, you can locate your speakers so that the widest

range of normal listener body motions will keep the listener’s ears

in the speaker’s most accurate “sweet zone”. An example of this

would be to allow for body movement necessary to reach the

controls on a typical console or to permit more than one listener to

critically monitor mixes.

The Monitor Twos are completely covered with a non-slip rubber

textured laminate and feature corner protectors. If you need to

move the Monitor Two cabinets or adjust their position slightly,

lift them off the mounting surface first rather than attempting to

slide them.

Connections

Professional grade 5-way binding posts are provided for external

wiring back to the amplifier. This type of connector can

accommodate bare or tinned wires, banana plugs and even spade

lugs. A lot of hype and confusion exists about the type of speaker

wires to use, most of it created by the wire manufacturers

themselves in an effort to have a unique story to tell. While this

expensive wire will not hurt the speaker’s performance at all,

Alesis does not subscribe to most of this hype and chooses to take

an approach based on science when recommending speaker wire.

Our recommendation is simple; use the shortest length of the

largest diameter wire you can get. #10-14 gauge multi-stranded

flexible speaker wire found at most electronics and hi-fi stores

works very well. This kind of wire resembles oversized lamp cord

and is very easy to work with.

Make sure your amplifier is turned OFF before making

connections to it and be sure you get the + terminals of the

speakers wired to the + terminals of the amplifier. If one of the

speaker’s polarity is miswired, the result will be loss of low

frequency response and stereo imaging when the system is played.

Power and Protection

Alesis recognizes that professional speakers need to be strong to

survive, so the Monitor Two uses proprietary high power drivers

and oversized crossover components, choices made principally to

offer the user an extended margin of safety. Therefore, an amplifier

with a 100-250 watt power rating into 4 ohms, like the Alesis

Matica 500, is recommend for most monitoring situations, but this

can be varied up or down somewhat depending on the size of the

listening room and the engineer’s preference for normal working

levels.

Be sure to verify that your amplifier is rated for 4 ohm speakers.

Some older amplifiers are not and may fail if overloaded. Alesis is

not responsible for any failures caused by the use of the wrong

amplifier.

Also, there are few situations where a very high power amplifier

should ever be used because of the danger of damaging the

Monitor Two. To do so is asking for trouble and may void your

warranty. Finally, the use of a low power amplifier is also not

recommended as it is likely to be run well into heavy clipping and

distortion in an effort to get sufficient volume. This can also lead

to failures of both the amplifier and the speaker, the latter if high

frequency energy sufficient to damage the high frequency driver is

generated.

Alesis does not suggest the use of any external speaker protection

devices, but considers such devices as fuses, lamps and/or thermal

breakers safe to use, so long as they do not cause failures or require

modifications to the Monitor Two’s construction which would void

the warranty. Actually, many such devices are generally

considered ineffective and can additionally alter the speaker’s

sound character, an undesirable trait for a studio monitor.

The best protection against speaker and hearing failure is to mix

with reasonable levels.

Specifications

Drivers: Mineral filled polypropylene cone 10”

low frequency and 5” midrange

drivers 1” Natural Silk dome high

frequency drivers

Crossover: 1500Hz and 5kHz, asymmetrical

combination of second and third order

filters

Frequency Response: 35 Hz - 18 kHz, ±3 dB

Power Handling: 150 watts program, 200 watts peak

(using EIA-426A method)

Nominal Impedance: 4 ohms

Sensitivity: 90 dB SPL @ 1 watt and 1 meter on

axis

Cabinet: Rubber textured laminate over 5/8”

MDF with protective comers Rear

vented

Connectors: 5 way binding posts on 0.75” centers

Dimensions: 14”W x 20”H x 14”D

Weight: 34 Ib. each

Monitor One, Monitor Two, SuperPort and Matica are Trademarks

of Alesis Corporation

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