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anonymous 6 April 2005

I have designed/built a lot of very nice speakers, I measure them and even sell them on occasion. I have excellent acoustic treatments in my studio - I know the frequency response of each wall. - so this is not a naive question (I hope :).

I just bought some Mackie 624's because its hard to build a speaker that flat yourself. They measure relatively flat in the room. BUT when I give them just a little gain I start hearing odd low mid coloration. Now, mackie's MO is fairly obvious - they use cheap components (The vifa driver in an 824 is like a 40 dollar driver), but compensate for the inevitable issues towards flatness because you can do a lot with active eq in the amplifier section with quality.
They derive margins by substituting engineering for raw material, as it were. A cheap driver will still ring at various resonances once you give it a certain amount of power - so I'm guessing their claI'm to flat is only real with white noise (which is a lousy test for a lot of reasons), and with the drivers not working very hard.

Can anyone validate this? The 624 (and I assume the 824 too) is only flat at low volume and suffers from ringing in the low mids due to using cheap components? If anyone tells me "yes" I guess I'll have to bite the bullet, return the 624's, and get something with real quality. (Suggestions under $2000 welcome). Thanks. ted.

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KurtFoster Wed, 04/06/2005 - 23:40

Yes, I have heard that before. There's a lot of talk re: Mackie monitors from a couple years ago in the RO archives ... do a search for more on this.

I have also heard that the Mackies are not very liniar and that you can attain different results depending on how loud they are when you perform the measurement.

TeddyG Thu, 04/07/2005 - 07:35

I have only heard the 624's at rather "normal" (For me...) volume and they sounded OK. VERY OK, compared to all "lesser"(Priced) speakers I've heard.

That said, has anyone heard the EMES BLACKS? Maybe along with the AMBER "sub" woofer? Without the "sub", they are in the 1500 dollar(pair) range...

I believe the EMES website does tell what drivers they use(Though that may have been in the SOS review?). I believe they are Vifa's, as well, though Vifa specs/prices are not known to me.

TG

TG

anonymous Thu, 04/07/2005 - 08:33

I have some 824's (which work for me-not making any comparisons), so I hope this is applicable...

I recently moved the speakers off the stands (with mopads) and onto the desk which caused a horrible coupling, even through the mopads. The LF became pure mud, so back to the stands they go! Maybe experimenting with how they are mounted? Again, this is with the 824's, so sorry if this is not applicable to the 624.

Best,
H

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