A handy way of adding power to your monitors is offered by Artisan, as Danny McAleer finds out...

In a perfect world, everything would be organised and tidy, without amplifiers and cables cluttering up the studio or stage. The solution offered by combined amplifiers and speakers goes a long way to curing the problem, but rarely do you get top-notch monitoring quality.

In a novel attempt to resolve this problem, Artisan have conceived a versatile power amp that affixes itself, limpet-like to any studio monitor. It comes in two guises: 120, and 240 watts (peak), each with a tough black casing and smartly finished in blue stripes.

The 120 version has frontal connections (a female XLR, mains plug, lit on/off switch, and volume control), while the 240's are tucked away underneath. An easy solution to this is to fix the latter upside down, thus making the connections and controls at the top, and easier to use.

The casing has plenty of ventilation, preventing the amp from becoming hot and bothered. A standard three pin continental power plug ensures that where ever you take it, there's bound to be a kettle somewhere which could give up its plug in case of emergencies. And finally, the locking XLR audio connections suit the Artisan to professional applications.

Tying the knot

Attaching one of the amps to a speaker requires a few swift twists of a screwdriver, remembering first to connect the loose wires to the terminals on the monitors. And that's it. The amp and speaker are then firmly secured to each other.

The only problem with the way it's anchored is that when you've finished using the amplifiers, the back panel of your monitors requires some polyfilla to bung up the holes left behind.

It might have been nice to have enclosed the innards in a shell, although it doesn't really matter once the thing is joined to a monitor. Inside, amongst the small mass of components are two impressively, large shielded capacitors, two quick-blow fuses encapsulated in plastic houses, and a huge transformer faintly reminiscent of a Terry's Chocolate Orange.

Verdict

Noise is certainly not in the Artisan's vocabulary, and the sound protruding from the piggy-backed monitor I tested was more than passable for studio monitoring (the 120), or even small venues (the 240). The 120 can apparently generate up to 30 Watts RMS, whilst the 240 can irritate the neighbours still further with more than 70 Watts RMS on an 8Ω speaker.

Adding either of these to your existing monitors is definitely a more fiscally wise manouevre than plumping for a set of altogther new powered monitors. For starters, you get the choice of speakers that you want, rather than a predetermined set that the manufacturers think you might like. It does create a few holes in your speakers, but then if I had one, I doubt if I'd have occasion to remove it.