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Honey, I Shrunk The Monitors | |
Revox Mk1 NF Near Field MonitorsArticle from Recording Musician, March 1993 |
These tiny speakers are ideal for the task of home studio, near-field monitoring.
Derek Johnson studio tests a diminutive pair of hi-fi speakers and finds them surprisingly useful as near-field or home recording monitors.
Technical specifications are all very well, but in the case of loudspeakers, they are meaningless unless backed up by a listening test. Fortunately, the Revox MK1 NFs came through rather well. As with many a small pair of monitors, the MK1s found themselves up against my pair of JBL Control 1s, and a variety of mixes and CDs were auditioned. On the whole, the Mk1s presented a fuller sound, making even more obvious the Control 1s' tendency to a middly, slightly boxy sound. The MK1s top end is controlled, and the overall sound is warm, which is in contrast to the rather aggressive sound of my JBLs. This augurs well for long work sessions where bright speakers can become fatiguing.
I was surprised at the bass response of these monitors: it sounded very real and relatively unhyped, though anything below 50Hz or so does tend to be a little recessed. Revox's MK1s have a restraint that is particularly suitable to classical or acoustic music, and they are brilliant for assessing vocals. Perhaps they lack the attack of the Control 1s, but that may be no bad thing given that Control 1s are voiced to be deliberately over-bright.
During my listening tests, I had the opportunity of using the MK1s alongside Revox's Piccolo Bass subbass unit; the Piccolo Bass features a pair of 8-inch drivers in a ported cabinet and has a nominal power handling of 100W. Using the sub-bass unit takes the MK1s into a different area completely. The bottom end of mixes is suddenly really there with more perceived, but controlled and well-balanced, bass. Since the MK1s don't have to struggle with the bass (the Piccolo Bass crosses over at 110Hz), they can project the mid-range and top with integrity, making a very musical full frequency range monitoring system. Stereo separation was good, with no immediately audible phase or stereo imaging problems arising from the assymetry of the speakers' design. Most of my comments for the system without the addition of sub-bass still apply: acoustic music is served best, but the increased definition in the bass end makes dance mixes more lively.
Value-wise, the MK1s are fairly attractive, although by no means the cheapest monitors in their range. Their power handling is good — I drove them with a 100W a side amp, cranked them up and reached a fairly painful volume level before they started struggling, in spite of their nominal 60W handling capacity. At normal listening levels, these are musical and relatively accurate monitors that are nice to mix on and also sound pretty good if you're sharing them with your hi-fi.
Further Information
Revox Mk1 NFs £289.46 per pair; MK Piccolo Bass £230.71. Prices include VAT.
Studer Revox UK Ltd, (Contact Details).
Review by Derek Johnson
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