sE Egg Review - Audio Media Review sE Munro Egg 150
Wednesday 16th November 2011
sE Munro Egg Review from Audio Media (November 2011 - Issue 252). Paul Mac is Editor of Audio Media magazine
Key quotes from Audio Media sE Munro Egg 150 Monitoring System Review
"the first time you listen to the sE Munro Egg monitor speakers, you'll experience the natural clarity of the whole. The first track I played was a James Taylor acoustic number and it was an emotional experience."
"...they [sE Munro Egg 150] defy their size, and their price, and they definitely defied my expectations. Neutral, clear, accurate - pretty much sums it up. Eggs should be able to satisfy as a monitor for recording, mixing, and mastering."
"...it's a bit of an eye opener to hear the mids so clearly, and in turn to experience such a natural spectral balance and exceptional separation of instruments."
"The bass is certainly lower and clearer than you'd bet on just by looking at the Eggs, but it's the depth and, again, clarity, that is so striking."
"You'd hope that for a monitor of this standing the image would defy the monitor position to the left and right, and it does. However, they also defied the monitor position in the forward-rear plane. They let the recording environment exist behind and in front of the monitors. Brilliant. The sE eggs recreated the recording space in an almost visual way - I could pick out the positions of the instruments and describe the space."
"(The sE Munro Egg) might even cause other manufactures to rethink their pricing. I'm certain you'd have to go a way up the cost scale to find comparable quality."
sE Egg Review (Audio Media Issue 252 / November 2011)
The new Egg from sE Electronics and Andy Munro promises to shake up the pro audio monitoring market in all sorts of ways. Paul Mac listens...
Okay, so they look... different. In the short time I’ve had with these monitors, initial reactions to their aesthetics have varied enormously. Some instantly fall in love, others look with curiosity and wonder how to start their next sentence, others begin with “What the...?”. However, everybody has, so far, ended up impressed on all fronts: looks, build, and sound. As they struggle with words I feel bound to jump in and explain very briefly that it’s not a gimmick – that they are egg-shaped for some very good reasons and that they were designed by an exceptional acoustic engineer. But maybe that’s unnecessary? Because with anything more than a cursory glance, it quickly becomes obvious that the ‘gimmick’ was mercilessly and precisely engineered out of this product quite a long time ago. Then they all ask “How much?” – expecting me to come up with an extraordinarily big number. They are therefore mostly disappointed. And then they hear them.
What’s The Crack?
But first, the facts. The sE Munro Egg 150 Active Intergrated Monitoring System (AIMS) is the first in a series of eggshaped sound-radiating systems, currently planned to number three. Smaller and bigger ones, I believe, are in the works. The Egg system was conceived, designed, and built as a collaboration between Andy Munro (Munro Acoustics), Siwei Zou (sE Electronics) and James Ishmaev-Young (sE Electronics). sE Electronics, after the success of its Rupert Neve collaboration (sE Rupert Neve is still on-going), approached Munro about collaborating on some sE monitors, and the partnership (sE Munro) was born.
This review is accompanied by a more in-depth chat with Munro (read this here) about the science behind the Egg. However, the short version includes a cabinet free of interfering resonances that also presents minimal interference to radiation patterns. Together with carefully designed electronics, Egg is Munro’s and sE’s offering in the category of neutral, accurate, professional monitoring.
While the system is active and bi-amped, the electronics have been kept out of the actual cabinets. This was because internal gubbins would have ruined much of the egg-shaped advantage in the cabinet, but it did clear the way for some additional features incorporated into the amplifier unit, and created the AIMS acronym, to make it quite clear that this is absolutely not simply an amp + passives deal.
The cabinets themselves are the results of six months computer aided design, protyping, and materials science, and each houses the drivers, a Speakon connector, and a recessed blue LED around the front. The LED itself is a work of monstrous genius. To get the sweet spot sorted, you simply angle the monitors until your retinas complain. Once the LEDs seem at their brightest, you’re in the optimum position and you can then turn the LED off with a switch at the back of the amp. The vertical angling of the monitors is helped by the small hinged stands that are supplied with the Eggs. These only angle the monitors downwards from vertical though. The sE take on this is that positioning monitors below head height is bad practice, so the lean-back option isn’t necessary. However, I do think that the real world has plenty of workstations on cluttered desks in converted garages, so a more liberal approach might have been warranted. On the other hand, how many wooden-box monitors can you adjust in any direction at all? It’s why encyclopedias have remained useful long after the Internet was invented.
The Speakon connection has two advantanges, one is, according to sE, superior quality and reliability. The other is simply that the system is still a carefully matched, closed, active system. sE Munro does not want anybody plugging non-Eggs in the amp, or Eggs into non-Egg amps. Thus, the system comes with two high-quality three-metre Speakon cables. Further to that, the left and right channels are matched to left and right speakers, which are labelled as such around the back and on their respective packaging.
The amplifier itself is a lovely piece of hardware that will not disappoint any knob-twiddlers searching for that heavy-weight, smooth, propermetal turning experience. The main effect though is the assurance that sE hasn’t skimped anywhere. The on/off switch is on the front of the amp (hurrah) and turns off the whole system, so there’s no blind fumbling for mains switches around the back of cabinets. The other controls are big clues to the incorporated ‘extras’. The large main volume control is accompanied by another large Aux volume control, a rotary Main/Aux switch, another switch – the Mid EQ – labelled with ‘Soft’, ‘0’, and ‘Hard’ positions, and a headphone socket.
First, that means you’ve got a volume control for your monitors that isn’t your console. The inputs for this are balanced XLRs switchable at the rear between +4dBu and -10dBV. In addition, you get an auxiliary input on RCA for consumer level devices. This means you can AB directly on the amp (with relative volume control), and plug in your player of choice without turning on everything in your studio. You can even plug a pair of headphones directly into the amp, defeating the speaker outputs. Hi-Fi people have been able to do this for years... who’d have thought it?
The last curiosity on the front panel is the Mid EQ, which originated with the idea that sE might be able to emulate the infamous NS10 hump with a spot of EQ. The development evolved, and after consultations and listening tests with some eminent producers, the idea of a switch to introduce the option of a subtle peak or trough in the critical vocal band (2.1kHz) came to light.
Recessed EQ trim pots are provided at the rear for those who require their services.
In-Ear
Sometimes when you audition monitors and compare them with others you end up searching for aspects of the sound – spectral qualities, imaging, transient excitement, and so on – to focus on and contrast. The language becomes complicated and the conclusion becomes more like a summing up in a difficult fraud case than a straight forward subjective assessment. These focus points are valuable, and I’m a big fan of the AES20 standard for defining the language and criteria for critical listening of loudspeakers.
In this case though, before you get to hone in on those aspects, the first time you listen to the Eggs you’ll experience the natural clarity of the whole. The first track I played was a James Taylor acoustic number and it was an emotional experience. That is, if you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like to be James Taylor’s microphone, this is one way of going about it. You absolutely know that the listening session coming up will have to be extended as your music collection comes into focus.
So, what to concentrate on first? Well, the vocal band is clear. The mid sings rather than clogging up as many monitors do around the crossover. Actually, it’s a bit of an eye opener to hear the mids so clearly, and in turn to experience such a natural spectral balance and exceptional separation of instruments.
The bass is certainly lower and clearer than you’d bet on just by looking at the sE Munro Eggs, but it’s the depth and, again, clarity, that is so striking. In fact, depth in the low-end is not something I hear all that often in smaller monitors – it’s mostly all about extension rather than detail. But the Eggs have the detail, and the extension as well.
For imaging and sound stage I used some exceptional classical recordings and was not disappointed. You’d hope that for a monitor of this standing the image would defy the monitor position to the left and right, and it does. However, they also defied the monitor position in the forward-rear plane. They let the recording environment exist behind and in front of the monitors. Brilliant. The eggs recreated the recording space in an almost visual way – I could pick out the positions of the instruments and describe the space.
Of course, I tested the headphone outputs and the hard / soft switch. The headphone output works absolutely fine and the switch...Well, the effect of the switch is spectacularly subtle. I was concerned, for a while, that it wasn’t doing anything. Indeed, the lift/cut is only a matter of 1.5dB, so that’s hardly surprising. Audio people might be nervous about admitting such a thing, so I've broken the ice. I either needed to have exactly the right material – a vocal right on the centre frequency of the bell, or I'd need to be so utterly familiar with the material that it might help towards the end of a mixing day when nothing seems as bright any more. For me it was a litle too subtle. 3dB or more either way would have been my choice because I'd want to properly emphasise a band, rather than test my hearing. Others though might say it’s perfect.
I’d love to go on about this, but there really isn’t much to say about the sE Munro Egg listening experience except that they defy their size, and their price, and they definitely defied my expectations. Neutral, clear, accurate – pretty much sums it up. The listening session went on way longer than this review. Eggs should be able to satisfy as a monitorfor recording, mixing, and mastering.
Buyer Be Aware
Even after all of this, there are a couple of incentives to add to the pot... Namely, two warranties that sE Munro notes as 'a hugely important statement of quality and service'. The first is a three-year warranty that includes a 'zerodowntime loan service' in case repair is necessary. The second is a five-year manufacturing defect warranty. These are both significant offers for studios and creatives that rely on monitoring in the same way that car drivers rely on seethrough windscreens.
Of course, there’s also the on-going free loan service that sE offers to all prospective customers – essentially a no-strings try-before-you-buy (or don’t) scheme that can be organised through an authorised sE Munro dealer, or directly.
Conclusion
After the ample feature set, after the offers and incentives, and after the science, I think there still remains an important point to make. Andy Munro and sE Munro has gone old-school with the Egg. There’s no DSP, there’s minimal ‘voicing’ electronics, and the neutrality of these monitors is more down to fundamental acoustic design solutions than problem modification features. And actually, you can hear that. You can hear that nobody is faffing or fiddling with your signal and that air, and the source, is doing most of the work.
It’s the closest thing I’ve heard to actually being the microphone in a wide price bracket. It might even cause other manufactures to rethink their pricing. I’m certain you’d have to go a way up the cost scale to find comparable quality.
sE Munro Egg 150 Monitoring System
