Pro Audio Review - June 2008 - (Page 31) aimed at pro studios and producers and engineers. Our passive Rokit6 monitor is aimed at project and broadcast applications where users want the Rokit performance and accuracy but want to use existing amplifiers. PAR: How has the increasing price of materials affected how you build your monitors? PETER CHAIKIN: We’re all facing increases in petroleum costs, which means plastics have gone up, and metals, which means the cost of power transformers has increased. In the Harman Pro group we’re fortunate to have the expertise to build more efficient systems and more elegant designs that reduce the costs so we can absorb these increases that are coming down. PAR: How has the move to an overall more digital/workstation-based recording environment affected your designs? PETER CHAIKIN: The advent of digital audio workstations has many implications for the entire recording system, including the speakers. Most significantly, workstation users are likely to be working in rooms that are not application-designed and have not been properly acoustically treated. They’re working in industrial parks, attics, basements, anywhere there’s power. That means that the consideration for acoustics has not been given proper attention, and mixes can suffer. Low frequency anomalies—standing waves, room modes— can cause misrepresentation of low frequency content when heard in the mix position. So we JBL is developing systems, such as our LSR6300 and LSR4300 series systems that can measure the room and compensate for low frequency problems, and give greater accuracy at the mix position” A PASSIVE APPROACH PAR: From a design perspective, what sort of standards do you employ to keep quality at a premium? NELSON PASS: Quality occurs on two levels. Our design process is fairly conservative, and we usually work by innovating existing products, giving them a life span greater than 10 years before major model changes. Richard Rose, president of Hot House Professional Audio, Incremental improvements have the advantage of re-using portions that already work well and allow us better focus. This conservatism extends to the reliability margins we apply to parts. Our power output devices are rated at about 150 watts, and by using between 10 and 72 of these per channel, they MONITORS continues on page 32 ➤ “I’ve always liked a beauty with brains.” Josh Homme, Artist/Producer, Queens of the Stone Age SIGMA Active ribbon microphone The warmth of a ribbon mic at a fraction of the price. for a retailer near you, visit sontronicsusa.com www.proaudioreview.com June 2008 | ProAudio Review | 31 http://sontronicsusa.com http://sontronicsusa.com http://www.proaudioreview.com
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