Recording - August 2016 - 35

Maximum SPL is 94 dB at 1 meter,
which is uncomfortably loud and a suitable upper bound for such a small speaker. The High and Low filters are shelves at
3 kHz and 300 Hz, with a range of control from a -5 dB cut to a 3 dB boost in
0.5 dB increments. You can use these to
adjust for positioning near walls or in corners or tight spaces, or to compensate for
other anomalies in your listening space.
The Position filter has three settings.
The Flat setting is intended for when the
speakers are mounted at ear level and
firing directly at the engineer; the Desk
setting goes with placement on a desktop and the 15º FlexiPad up-angle; and
Console is for meter bridge mounting at
either 7.5º or 15º. This compensates for
audio bouncing up to the ears from the
desk or mixer; you'll want to experiment
with audio you know very well and
determine the most accurate setting for
your room and speaker placement.
In use
Unusually for a speaker with a 3"
woofer, the SC203's stated frequency
response (-3 dB) is 62 Hz to 21 kHz.
That lower number is pretty impressive,
and owes a lot to the passive radiator
working in tandem with the woofer.
Do these speakers sound like they're
delivering accurate audio down to 62 Hz?

Yes, they do, but no further. If you want
that last octave of audio to feel the moving
air of a kick drum or resolve the fundamental in a bass's B string, you'll have to add
a subwoofer to the SC203. Oh, those
naughty laws of physics...
Once we get above the lows, though,
the SC203 paints a pristine sonic picture.
Low-mids, like the harmonic structure of
bowed strings in movie soundtracks and
deeper sources like bass guitar, come
across with clarity and richness. Vocals
and lead guitars are present but not in
your face, with perhaps a tiny dip at the
crossover frequency (although this could
also be a function of speaker placement
in my room). Highs are extended and
clear without a hint of spittiness-the
µAMT tweeter is doing its job admirably.
These speakers are intended for desktop use, close to the engineer, and as
such they provide a sweet spot that's
smaller than on some monitors but very
smooth in the lows and mids. Off-axis
speaker performance is graceful, with
the highs smoothly fading as you move
too far to the left or right-don't plan on
working side-by-side with another engineer if they've been set close enough
together to keep the center of the stereo
soundstage from collapsing. I liked them
at 36" or less, and 24" was ideal for
solo work.

Conclusions
The SC203 is a brave entry into an
already crowded market. Buyers of desktop speakers are used to models that are
either very inexpensive, meant for casual
listening/computer gaming, or both.
Why buy a desktop computer speaker
system that costs as much as a pair of
decent-quality nearfields?
In this case, it's because you get way
more than a desktop computer speaker
with the SC203 monitors. They're
detailed, airy, offer a lot of nuance when
working with stereo material, and deliver
a surprising amount of low end that's
clear, balanced, and more accurate than
what you'd get in a lot of budget speakers with bigger woofers. The DSP settings
and the flexibility of going from analog
to optical to USB add up to a listening
experience that you can take advantage
of just about anywhere, and in today's
world of recording work on location in
places far from home, that's a huge
advantage for the serious engineer.
EVE Audio has turned a lot of heads
with its existing line of larger monitors;
with the SC203, it's going to turn a lot
more.
Price: $699
More from: EVE Audio, eve-audio.com

http://www.eve-audio.com http://www.cloudmicrophones.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - August 2016