KVR Audio

maschinelf · Post by **maschinelf** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:05 am

I'm searching for a pair of monitors for a production room, and am in a bit of a dilemma.

My choices are Sonodyne SM100ak and Adam S1A, and maybe the Equator d8. I know its not an apples to apples comparison, because they're all very different speakers in terms of listed market price and size. But where I live, the Sonodynes and Equator d8's are roughly the same price at about $1000, and the Adams will cost less than both.

I will be using these monitors in a 10 ft by 12 ft acoustically treated room. My preferred genres are ambient and psychedelic trance, so accurate low frequency reproduction is important. I should also mention that I am using a pair of Adam A7X , though those are being used for the control room of my recording studio.

I came across the older Adam S1A's through someone who wants to sell them used, so I'm getting a good deal on them. I did demo them, and found them to have excellent clarity and imaging, though they are a bit bright. For such small monitors, the claimed frequency response down to 40 hz is really quite incredible if true. On hearing them, they do go down pretty low, but obviously lack any "feel" or "energy" at anything below 60-80 hz.

My other option, the Sonodyne SM100ak's are made in India, and since that is where I live I can get them cheaper and service or repairs will also be much easier and cheaper. I havent demoed them yet, but I contacted the manufacturer today and should be able to do so in a day or two. What concerns me most about these is the frequency response that cuts off at 60 hz. Though these are bigger monitors than the S1a, so they will arguably have substantially more weight above 60 hz, the steep roll off at 60 hz is a bit concerning.

Which brings me to my third choice, the equator d8's. These, being the biggest of the bunch, will most probably the best of the three at reproducing bass frequencies. But their size may bring its own set of problems into my small room. I will not get the chance to demo these.

The room will be treated, but the treatment will be basic since I have already spent a considerable amount on treating my control and live room.

So I'd really like to hear what opinions and advice anyone might have to offer.. thanks

Spiritos · Post by **Spiritos** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 9:44 am

It seems to me with that budget you have a luxury problem

If you already treated or plan to treat your room big woofers shouldn't be a problem at all.

THese monitors are way out of my pricerange so I've never heard them but in general if lows are important to you I think you'd want to choose 'unclear' lows (which you can adjust) over lows you can't hear at all..

tehlord · Post by **tehlord** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 9:49 am

I've heard nothing but good things about the Sonodynes.

maschinelf · Post by **maschinelf** » Tue Oct 22, 2013 4:05 pm

Well it's not really a luxury problem, but I gotta admit after buying the A7x's that I didn't think I would need another pair so soon.

When I designed the basement studio, I also envisioned it as my own production space. Unfortunately though, it didn't work out that way and I'm now in partnership with someone who's getting a lot of business, and it's really no longer possible for me to use the space for personal work.

The production room I am setting up is actually in my apartment. The room shape is not great, but it'll do. Since I did a lot of work on the studio acoustics, and also because this is a bedroom I don't want to drastically alter, it only makes sense to do basic treatment here.

Now, back to the topic, I demoed the Sonodynes and they are nice. Very natural sound, good clarity and excellent imaging. They don't seem to work well with different volumes. Also, the lows are thumpier on these than the Adams. I dunnow though, cause the Adams sounded brilliant to me. I think the Adams are a whole lot clearer, and the detail on transients sounded incredible with the Adams. Another factor favoring the Adams is that I already own a pair with 7" drivers, and it makes more sense to get a compact set rather than another set of 6-8" monitors.

Maybe one reason the Adams appear to be much clearer is that they are really bright, like all the older products that use the ART tweeter. The sono's are more neutral to my ears, and also the brightness may sound nice in a short n quick demo, but can be very fatiguing when monitoring for long hours.

Decisions, decisions ..

maschinelf · Post by **maschinelf** » Thu Oct 24, 2013 10:21 pm

If anyone is wondering, I have decided that I will get the sono's.

maschinelf · Post by **maschinelf** » Sat Feb 01, 2014 9:52 pm

deleted

maschinelf · Post by **maschinelf** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 2:21 pm

Unfortunately I spoke too soon. These speakers undoubtedly sound good, but the build quality is absolute crap. I've had atleast 10 blown fuses in 6 months. Even my cheapo krk rp6 g1 has never blown a fuse in 5-6 years, and these cost 4 times the price but they can't even get this basic circuitry right.

Really disappointed right now, because I thought they sounded great for the price, and even felt a little pride that an Indian company was making good monitors.

Spiritos · Post by **Spiritos** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 3:31 pm

Sorry to hear.. yet I have a question:

I have absolutely no technical knowledge of monitors and electric circuitry but is there really a correlation between 'build quality' and fuses getting blown out of their sockets? Couldn't it be your your powerstrip?

Also I use a powerstrip with am overload protection which only powers my monitors and soundcard. Maybe you could try that?

maschinelf · Post by **maschinelf** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 12:08 pm

Actually, 'build quality' is probably the wrong term , because the external appearance and build seems quite solid, so in that sense the build quality is good.

Its the internal 'build quality' i.e. quality of components or circuitry or something within the speaker that is not good, and component quality is poor or inconsistent. As for the surge protector/power strip, I'm running these through an APC pure sine wave ups. I've also been using adam A7X's for around 3 years and krk rokits for around 5 years through arguably LESS clean power and protection, and never had a blown fuse from either. In fact, I was earlier using a regular APC ups the first few times the fuse blew, and upgraded to the sine wave because I thought it could solve the problem. I have used the regular ups for years with the krk's without a problem.

Spiritos · Post by **Spiritos** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 12:18 pm

I see. Thanks for the headz up then!

maschinelf · Post by **maschinelf** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 12:28 pm

The real stinker though is this. I got my speakers back today, and they told me to go back to using 1.25A slow blow fuses, which were the same ones being used the first time I had this problem about 5 months back.

Atleast with the 1.5A fuses, the problem only happened after 5 months so it seems to have helped a little. But now they're asking me to go back to using the same fuses that were blowing every few days?

So I ended up paying a visit to the service center and had a conversation with someone pretty high up, though to be honest he seemed pretty clueless. The solution he gave seems very random, and I don't think they know what they're doing.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 6:25 am

Thanks for the review maschinelf I'll definitely be wary of sonodyne in the future.

maschinelf · Post by **maschinelf** » Sat Nov 08, 2014 1:42 pm

Finally put this whole ordeal to rest. The service centers were not helpful at all, and even my correspondence with the main office proved to be useless. I never got the feeling that they wanted to help, and were dragging their feet for what should be an easy problem to solve. Also, the help, when it did come, was frankly all over the place and made no sense, only pointing to an utter lack of coordination. If I'd pushed hard enough, I might've been able to force some sort of negotiated solution, but I just figured it wasn't worth it in the end.

So I exchanged the sm100's for neumann kh120's thanks to a nice deal another dealer offered. And I couldn't be happier, cause honestly these suit my needs better.

AlesisVi61 · Post by **AlesisVi61** » Sun Nov 09, 2014 10:21 pm

Sorry to read about your problems with the Sonodynes...& to be honest,initially...I couldn't fathom why anyone would consider these monitors(but then when I read that you live in India,it all made sense).

Here in America(in my opinion),it makes absolutely no sense to me...as to why Sonodyne products would attract anyone?I mean...these monitors are not cheap(especially considering where they're made) and the LF specs are absolutely ridiculous for the price!

The only feature about these monitors that appeal to me,is the front mounted power and volume controls.

Furthermore,there are just far too many other choices out there,to even bother with Sonodyne and even if they were reasonably priced...I would still have to bare the expense of adding a subwoofer.

Sweetwater.com carries Sonodyne's entire SRP line and there is not a single customer review on ANY of their models.

Also...Sound On Sound's review on the Sonodynes,was not exactly 5 star...which in of itself,was reason enough for me to steer clear of Sonodyne altogether.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may10/a ... sm50ak.htm

maschinelf · Post by **maschinelf** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 12:17 am

Yea to be honest, even though I live in India, I initially had my doubts about them. Because they're a relatively unknown company when it comes to studio monitors, though as I found out later, they've been making speakers for some time.

They first came to my notice because they had some good reviews on gearslutz, though I've recently found out that quite a few people there had issues too. I ultimately went for them because I got to demo them, thought wrongly that the service would be better due to proximity, and because they were cheaper. Nothing to complain about sound wise, but the big let down was the terrible customer service, low quality parts and inferior/unreliable electronics.

Sonodyne is not going to be the one to do it but I do think its easily possible to make great monitors at a reasonable price in India, or in a lot of other places where one wouldn't expect it for that matter. Quality isn't cheap though, no matter which country it comes from.

Sonodyne unreliable