EQ Magazine - February 2009 - (Page 51)

BAG END PM6 TIME-ALIGN Bag End is a household name in live sound reinforcement. EQ-reading bass and keyboard players have probably come across the company’s instrument amps, as well. But they also make near-field monitors for audio and video suites. The PM6 is about the same size as the ubiquitous Yamaha NS-10, and at first glance it looks like it’s missing the tweeter! Actually, the design is built around a 6-inch 2-way coaxial driver. If you’ve never seen one of these beasts in person, they’re kind of cool. Instead of the round dome you normally encounter at the center of the woofer, the tweeter is built into a pole that extends through the middle of the cone. (The outer driver can move independently from the tweeter unit.) But the physical proximity of the two units means the high and low frequencies hit the listener’s ears at the same time. Bag End has licensed the Time Align trademark from E.M. Long Associates, the original inventor of Time Aligned loudspeakers dating back to 1976. Other vendors have there own various implementations. For a while, most speakers were not time-aligned (unless is was by accident), but modern designs have done a better job addressing this issue. Companies such as Dunlavy, Lipinski, and Earthworks have made “stepped” monitors, where the tweeters are recessed further into the enclosure, while other companies have incorporated delay-adjustment features inside the monitor’s internal crossover. Nonetheless, time-corrected speakers tend to have great imaging, and the Bag End PM6 is no exception. You can mount the PM6 vertically or horizontally, and it comes with a removable speaker grill. A blue LED illuminates to indicate the speakers have power, which is provided via a Speakon-terminated power cord. There is no power switch, so unless you have the Bag Ends on a switchable power conditioner, the units remain on. In use, the PM6 provided the tightest transients and most separated stereo image of the bunch. Mixes with extreme stereo panning, or percussive instruments like double kick or marimba, were outright fun to listen to on the Bag Ends. The high end was articulate, but not fatiguing—I could listen to these speakers for long sessions, no problem. The midrange, although defined, was not overly wooly or exaggerated. Of course, with a nonported box of this size, a 6-inch driver cannot produce the big bass of larger units—but we knew that before we plugged them in. If you grew up mixing with NS-10s, mid-sized Genelecs, or even Auratones, the Bag Ends would be a dream come true upgrade in terms of fidelity, image, and fatigue reduction. Other users would want to consider adding a subwoofer to augment the lowest registers. Overall, though, this is a very sweet set of speakers that you can trust for doing mixes that translate across multiple playback systems. Price: $900 Strengths: Incredible imaging. Tight, focused midrange. “Just right” amount of high end. Limitations: No power switch means they’re always on. Power cable uses Speakon connector rather than IEC-type. Thin on the low end compared to others in the roundup. Contact: www.bagend.com www.eqmag.com FEBRUARY 2009 EQ 51 http://www.bagend.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - February 2009

EQ Magazine - February 2009 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Dave Cooley Low vs. Diamond Hank Williams III Travis Franz Ferdinand Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Apple Logic Pro 8 Cakewalk Sonar Near-Field Monitor Roundup Gadgets &�Goodies Sounds Room with a Vu

EQ Magazine - February 2009

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