M-Audio®, a leading provider of creative tools for computer-centric musicians, is proud to announce shipment of the M-Audio EX Series EX66 digital high-definition studio reference monitors. Sold individually, the monitors easily integrate into both 2-channel and multi-channel environments.
The M-Audio EX66 uses a midwoofer-tweeter-midwoofer (MTM) vertical array configuration to provide optimal imaging. Traditional 2-way speaker designs can cause significant early reflections from consoles, floors and ceilings, resulting in coloration and smeared details in the audio. In the M-Audio EX66 monitor’s MTM design, the interaction of the two large drivers with the tweeter channels the sound into a much narrower vertical band, thereby eliminating many of these reflection problems. The design simultaneously provides a large, coherent horizontal radiation pattern, giving you and your colleagues a much wider sweet spot.
The M-Audio EX66 monitor’s two 6” linear-piston woofers minimize the driver break-up modes and inertial effects found in traditional designs with moving coils and rigid cones. Our proprietary technology gives the drivers exceptional intrinsic damping characteristics with absolutely no frequency response peaks or resonances in the audible band. The drivers exhibit truly linear pistonic action over the entire musical spectrum, thus bringing all portions of each musical transient into correct alignment and revealing more of music's subtle details.
The M-Audio EX66 monitor’s custom 1” tweeter is crafted from titanium, known in the aerospace industry for its high tensile-strength-to-weight ratio and its resistance to corrosion. In tweeter use it creates a stiff yet responsive piston that moves natural resonant modes well outside the audible range. This allows the tweeters to reproduce every nuance of musical detail with crisp, transparent accuracy without any high-frequency energy smearing or the harshness sometimes associated with rigid high-frequency drivers. The titanium tweeter is a natural complement to the M-Audio EX66 monitor’s unique low-frequency drivers, providing smooth, coherent reproduction over the entire audio band.
Many loudspeaker enclosures use a port to form a Helmholtz resonator to improve bass response. In some ported speakers, however, this has the side effect of an audible friction noise from air moving in and out of the enclosure. Not so with the M-Audio EX66 monitor, which uses a dual-flanged rear-cabinet port to minimize the vibrations normally generated by low-frequency signals. This custom port is extremely efficient in its air transfer characteristics and is virtually noise-free. Rear placement also prevents port turbulence from interfering with the front dispersion of the midwoofer and tweeter.
The M-Audio EX66 enclosure also plays an important role in shaping the overall sonic response of the monitor. In order to provide more stable performance, the enclosure is constructed from special high-acoustic-efficiency medium density fiberboard (MDF), along with interior adiabatic foam reinforcement designed to absorb extraneous vibration, standing waves and even extreme impact. Further, the custom OptImage II waveguide on the front panel minimizes diffraction and dramatically improves stereo imaging.
All speaker cabinets exhibit resonant frequencies that color the timbre of the audio being reproduced. The extent to which they are mitigated is much of what allows critical listeners to distinguish easily between exceptional monitors and mediocre ones. The M-Audio EX66 monitor employs sophisticated on-board digital signal processing (DSP) technology to eradicate all resonances and tune the cabinet with exceptional precision. The M-Audio EX66 monitor also uses DSP to achieve its precise and maximally flat 4th-order Linkwitz-Riley crossover for the smoothest transition between the high and low driver frequency ranges.
The M-Audio EX66 monitor uses two separate 100-watt continuous power amplifiers to drive the 4-ohm woofer combination and 4-ohm tweeter separately in an audiophile-quality bi-amp structure. The low distortion at 200 watts per channel rounds out the M-Audio EX66 monitor’s profile as a truly world-class active loudspeaker monitor.
The M-Audio EX66 monitor features high-impedance balanced analog inputs and digital inputs compatible with up to 24-bit/192kHz bitstreams. Additional features include volume control, Acoustic Space Control to optimize for room placement, a soft limiter circuit to prevent clipping, high-frequency attenuation/boost switch, mid-range switch (low-Q dip or peak) and low-cutoff switch (37Hz, 80Hz, 100Hz).
“The M-Audio EX66 monitor represents the culmination of years of research,” says Adam Castillo, marketing director at M-Audio. “We developed new technology to deliver specs and sound that are unrivaled at any price, let alone this value. The proof is in the listening.”
10 August 2007