User manual ALESIS MONITORII

[. . . ] 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. [. . . ] 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 SuperPortTM 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. 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. [. . . ] 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. [. . . ]