Recording - January 2016 - 24

B Y M I K E M E T L AY

Senal ASM-6 Active Studio Monitor
A sound you'll dig from a name you might not know
If you've never heard of Senal, you
can be forgiven; it's a relatively new pro
audio brand with an ambitious product
range that includes install speakers,
headphones, mics, and even a singlechannel USB interface for microphones. The firm also makes a line of
monitors for recording studios, and
that's what we'll be discussing here.
The ASM line of active studio
monitors includes four models primarily differentiated by their power
ratings and woofer sizes. We
received a pair of ASM-6 monitors
for our review; they're the largest
of the line, which also includes the
ASM-3, ASM-4, and ASM-5.
On paper
The ASM-6 is not biamplified; its
110W power amp drives both
speakers, with an active crossover
frequency of 3 kHz. The spec sheet
mentions a >94 dB signal-to-noise
ratio (unweighted), and I believe it
from my listening sessions; these speakers are wonderfully quiet when not passing audio, and you don't get a feeling of
underlying hiss or hum when using them.
The ASM-6's frequency response is worth
a bit of special attention. When we opened
up the boxes of the speakers we were sent,
we were surprised to discover a pair of
individual frequency response plots, labeled
by serial number and referenced to 85 dB
SPL. Both speakers' plots, while subtly different, followed the manufacturer's claimed
frequency response of 38 Hz-20 kHz
±2.5 dB in free space. The plots were effectively flat to about 41 Hz and then dropped
smoothly and sharply below that; significant
bumps (rather than the small fluctuations
one would expect from real as opposed to
marketing-smooth plots) were at 600 to
1200 Hz and at 12 kHz to 20 kHz.
Out of the box
The ASM-6 is a very imposing speaker
when it comes out of the box; it's a 22.4
lb. smooth ovoid of aluminum alloy, 9.5"
x 9.8" x 13.8" with nary a sharp edge
to be found anywhere. Each speaker
comes with its own custom-fitted rubber
24

RECORDING January 2016

and Treble (-1/0/+1 dB at 10 kHz), as
well as a highpass filter with settings of
38/48/58 Hz. The sole input is a balanced XLR, and the lower rear panel has a
jack for a standard IEC power cable.

stand that allows the speaker to be
angled up or down by up to 15º depending on your installation needs; optional
brackets for wall mounting are also available, and the bottom of the enclosure has
a threaded mount for a speaker stand.
The ASM-6 sports a 0.8" metal dome
tweeter in a shallow waveguide and a
6.5" composite woofer, both hidden
behind protective metal grilles. The same
tweeter is used in all of the ASM speakers,
which have 3", 4", and 5" woofers respectively. A power switch with blue LED and a
flush-mounted volume dial are placed in
easy reach on the right side of the cabinet.
Around back, there's a huge bass port
above a set of four 3-way tone control
switches. There's Bass (-2/0/+2 dB at 200
Hz), Mid-low (0/-2/-4 dB at 500 Hz),

Into the studio
I burned in the ASM-6 at moderate
volume for about 48 hours before
beginning my listening sessions. The
speakers were set up in a roughly
50" equilateral triangle with the listening position, using their included
rubber stands but no other isolation
products. Playback was through an
SPL Creon interface/monitor controller (review forthcoming), and
included everything from severely
compressed MP3s to 24/192 files.
With all tone controls set flat and
the highpass filter at its lowest setting,
the ASM-6 presents a surprising
amount of bass, with fairly good definition and a lot of moving air. I could
easily see these speakers filling a small
control room or home studio with little
or no need for a subwoofer, although the
higher filter settings are available if you
do elect to pair them with a sub.
At the other end of the frequency spectrum, the metal dome tweeter offers some
serious treble extension in the air band;
there's a lot of content above 10 kHz,
enough so that the speakers flirted with
spittiness at high listening levels in our
room. The detail on cymbals was exquisite
and unmistakable; alas, the high-end artifacts of MP3s were also unmistakable
(although I wouldn't call them "exquisite").
What I found particularly interesting on
my initial listens was the way midrange
was delivered on the ASM-6. That lowmid bump is very audible, pushing guitars and vocals noticeably forward in the
mix. That's great for homing in on problems in these most critical tracks, but
could be a bit obtrusive when working
with full mixes. Senal recommends cutting
the mid-low by 2 or 4 dB if the speakers
are mounted on a tabletop or over a mixing console, to lower reinforcement of
those frequencies by immediate reflection
to the listening position.

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