Event 2020 Studio Monitor Speakers
No longer available at zZounds
zZounds Gear Experts Say...
Direct field monitors.
Overview
The 2020 Direct Field Monitor delivers wonderfully clean, accurate, pleasing sound at a price most musicians considered eminently affordable.
In The Beginning
The development process began with the decision to design everything - woofers, tweeters, crossovers, and cabinet - from the ground-up. All components were to be custom and proprietary - off-the-shelf parts simply wouldn't do. Three goals drove the design process: The speakers had to be sonically pleasing yet have extremely flat frequency responses. They had to be exceptionally reliable. And they had to be truly affordable.
First came the tweeter, a magnetically shielded 25mm natural silk dome that provides accurate, detailed high frequency reproduction - without the harshness and ear fatigue associated with metal dome tweeters. An internal high frequency pole piece damping element aids in smoothing out the signal, allowing for extended listening periods. And for improved reliability, there's a ferrofluid-cooled aluminum voice coil support that reduces heat; a special flexible lead wire minimizes wire fatigue and ensures consistent performance.
The woofer was designed to provide smooth, consistent extended-range frequency response without the need of added EQ. (Equalization circuitry can introduce amplitude and phase anomalies, as well as rob the amplifier of headroom.) The driver itself is a magnetically shielded 8 in. mineral-impregnated polypropylene cone with a highly damped linear rubber surround. It also boasts… read more a 1-1/2 in. high-temperature voice coil for reliable operation at high power levels.
Frank and Walter then set about designing a cabinet that would be the perfect acoustic complement to their new transducer components. From their efforts came a 5/8 in. laminated MDF cabinet filled with acoustical damping material to reduce internal standing waves. The cabinet also features a front-mounted large diameter low air restriction bass port, engineered to deliver direct, uncolored low frequency reproduction at all monitoring levels-even at very high volumes. The port is front-mounted, allowing the speakers to be placed in close proximity to walls without compromising the low-end response.
Attention to detail permeates every aspect of the design, though not everything is immediately obvious. For example, you can't see the custom asymmetrical second-order passive crossover. But you can hear how smooth the sonic transition is from the woofer to the tweeter at the crossover point. Or maybe you didn't notice that the tweeter is recessed to provide flatter frequency response. Even the diecast aluminum trim ring has more to it than meets the eye: Not only does it minimize acoustic discontinuity between the driver and the cabinet, it's also a unique, self-aligning 4-point mounting system for the woofer.
When all was said and done, Frank and Walter had succeeded in their task. The 2020 Direct Field Monitor delivered wonderfully clean, accurate, pleasing sound at a price most musicians considered eminently affordable. read less
In The Beginning
The development process began with the decision to design everything - woofers, tweeters, crossovers, and cabinet - from the ground-up. All components were to be custom and proprietary - off-the-shelf parts simply wouldn't do. Three goals drove the design process: The speakers had to be sonically pleasing yet have extremely flat frequency responses. They had to be exceptionally reliable. And they had to be truly affordable.
First came the tweeter, a magnetically shielded 25mm natural silk dome that provides accurate, detailed high frequency reproduction - without the harshness and ear fatigue associated with metal dome tweeters. An internal high frequency pole piece damping element aids in smoothing out the signal, allowing for extended listening periods. And for improved reliability, there's a ferrofluid-cooled aluminum voice coil support that reduces heat; a special flexible lead wire minimizes wire fatigue and ensures consistent performance.
The woofer was designed to provide smooth, consistent extended-range frequency response without the need of added EQ. (Equalization circuitry can introduce amplitude and phase anomalies, as well as rob the amplifier of headroom.) The driver itself is a magnetically shielded 8 in. mineral-impregnated polypropylene cone with a highly damped linear rubber surround. It also boasts… read more a 1-1/2 in. high-temperature voice coil for reliable operation at high power levels.
Frank and Walter then set about designing a cabinet that would be the perfect acoustic complement to their new transducer components. From their efforts came a 5/8 in. laminated MDF cabinet filled with acoustical damping material to reduce internal standing waves. The cabinet also features a front-mounted large diameter low air restriction bass port, engineered to deliver direct, uncolored low frequency reproduction at all monitoring levels-even at very high volumes. The port is front-mounted, allowing the speakers to be placed in close proximity to walls without compromising the low-end response.
Attention to detail permeates every aspect of the design, though not everything is immediately obvious. For example, you can't see the custom asymmetrical second-order passive crossover. But you can hear how smooth the sonic transition is from the woofer to the tweeter at the crossover point. Or maybe you didn't notice that the tweeter is recessed to provide flatter frequency response. Even the diecast aluminum trim ring has more to it than meets the eye: Not only does it minimize acoustic discontinuity between the driver and the cabinet, it's also a unique, self-aligning 4-point mounting system for the woofer.
When all was said and done, Frank and Walter had succeeded in their task. The 2020 Direct Field Monitor delivered wonderfully clean, accurate, pleasing sound at a price most musicians considered eminently affordable. read less
Specs
LF Driver: magnetically shielded 8 in. mineral-filled polypropylene cone with 1-1/2 in. diameter high-temperature voice coil and damped rubber surround
HF Driver: magnetically shielded 25mm ferrofluid-cooled silk dome
HF Driver: magnetically shielded 25mm ferrofluid-cooled silk dome
No longer available at zZounds
In most cases, a product is unavailable because it has been discontinued by the manufacturer
