Eve Audio: New Monitors with An Impressive Heritage

It is not every new company whose founders can boast an impressive history and experience in their field before they even begin manufacturing, but such is the case with EVE Audio, maker of professional audio monitors, in Berlin, Germany. Owner, founder, and electrical engineer Roland Stenz may not be a household name (even among many audio professionals), but his designs and work in another company he co-founded, ADAM Audio, certainly are.

 

Stenz left ADAM in the summer of 2010, but he did not leave his passion for creating accurate and translatable monitoring at the ADAM offices. EVE Audio is the result of Stenz’s desire to create a new line of monitors and subwoofers based on his experience in the audio industry. As you might expect from someone with a background in electrical engineering, EVE Audio’s product line began by examining monitors at the component level. Rather than designing speakers based around off-the-shelf, pre-built parts (an all-too-common practice), EVE Audio’s lineup was created from the ground up.

Another core motivator that would come to shape EVE Audio’s monitors was keeping the end user in mind. Striving to provide more than just an incredibly linear frequency responses, Stenz, along with the rest of the design team at EVE Audio didn’t just lock themselves in an anechoic chamber with test equipment and their speakers; they performed critical listening sessions in recording studios with pro and hobbyist users alike. Taking both technical and subjective feedback into the design process, EVE Audio’s speakers provide not only critical listening, but translatability and consistency.

 

At first glance, the lineup from EVE audio looks strikingly similar to Stenz’s past work at ADAM, due in no small part to the very familiar-looking tweeters. While again employing a ribbon tweeter design, EVE Audio’s philosophy of using no off-the-shelf parts mandated the company create the tweeter from the ground up, too, which is exactly what it did. The result is the proprietary Air Motion Transformer (AMT) ribbon system tweeters.

 

Another feature you will find common to every system in EVE Audio’s lineup is integrated digital signal processing, or DSP. While some purists might find objection to having their analog audio converted to digital, processed, and then converted back to analog before it comes out of their speakers, the benefits greatly outweigh any potential drawbacks, especially considering EVE Audio’s use of Burr-Brown 24-bit, 192 kHz quality conversion chips. Why use DSP at all? It provides both multiple filter settings (helpful for less than ideal working environments) and accurate volume control.

 

So, now that we have talked about some similarities that occur across EVE Audio’s product line, let’s discuss the different options that are available. The line is basically broken down into 2-way systems, 3-way systems, 4-way systems, “main” systems (featuring larger woofers), and subwoofers.

 

2-Way Systems

 

Eve Audio offers 2-way systems (meaning one low-frequency driver and one tweeter) in four configurations; the 4-inch SC204, the 5-inch SC205, the 7-inch SC207, and the 8-inch SC208.

The SC204 is EVE Audio’s smallest monitor, and geared toward home studios or post-production facilities. It features a 4-inch silver cone woofer with a honeycomb-structured diaphragm and a 1-inch voice coil, and can produce up to 100 watts. Jumping up to the SC205 gives you a similar design to the SC204, with the added benefit of a 5-inch woofer for added bass response with the same power output.

 

The SC207 sees a jump to a 6.5-inch woofer with a 1.5-inch voice coil, while featuring the company’s AMT RS2 magnet system, giving you an increase in output power to 150 watts. Their largest 2-way speaker, the SC208, gives you (as you may have guessed) an 8-inch woofer that provides a frequency response all the way down to 36 Hz while pumping out up to 200 watts of power.

 

3-Way Systems

 

The company’s has two 3-way monitors to choose from, the SC305 and the SC307, each sporting two low-frequency drivers and a voice coil. The SC305 gives you dual 5-inch speakers and their RS3 tweeter, with one 5-inch speaker handling frequencies up to 350 Hz, while the second produces the mid-range up to 3 kHz. Giving you improved bass response down to 40 Hz, the dual 7-inch equipped SC307 also provides a bit more overall sonic output, producing up to 250 watts of power to the SC305’s 150 watts. Both 3-way systems can be used for either mid- or near-field monitoring applications, as well as serve as the center channel in a 5.1 mixing set up.

 

4-Way Systems

 

EVE Audio’s 4-way systems work on the same basic principle of their 3-way systems, adding a fourth driver and speaker to help handle mid-range duties. The SC407 gives you dual 6.5-inch drivers (one for bass and one for mid-range), a 4-inch driver to help with the mid-range, and a 1.5-inch tweeter[JT1] [h2] . The SC408 ups the game with a pair of 8-inch drivers and a 5-inch driver to accompany its 1.5-inch tweeter. The monitors put out 600 and 800 watts respectively, and are geared toward studio use.

 

Main Monitor Systems

 

If you have ever spent time in a professional recording or post studio, the largest and most powerful speakers employed are affectionately referred to as “the mains,” and can be a key component to mixing and mastering. EVE Audio produces 2 speakers for these applications, the SC3010 and the SC3012. Both feature low, mid, and high-frequency drivers, and provide you with an impressive 1,000 watts of output. The SC3010 features a 10-inch woofer, while the SC3012 gives some additional bass content, thanks to its 12-inch woofer.

 

Subwoofers

 

Tuned to pair with their entire line of speakers, should you find yourself needing more bass response in your mix (a must for many pop and EDM producers), EVE Audio also has a few subwoofer options for you. Ranging from 6.5- to 12-inch woofers, the aptly named ThunderStorm subwoofers can provide the extra low you might need for mixing or 5.1 applications.

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