Sweetwater sE Munro Egg Review
Tuesday 17th January 2012
"..any stress test we could think of, the sE Munro Egg never showed a flaw, never hinted at a weakness. They have the intimacy to handle the most delicate of recordings. It was breathtaking in the truest sense."
Sweetwater Monitor News: On Jan 12th 2012, sE picked up via Twitter the following tweet from Sweetwater Sales Engineer Josh Sites "@sE_Electronics here showing off the Egg monitors. Top-tier nearfields. These have been a long time coming, and it was well worth the wait!".
As a manufacturer, it is always nice to get unsolicited feedback like this (especially when it's from the front line*) but we wanted to know more from @Josh_Sweetwater - there's only so much you can say in 140 characters! sE contacted Josh and asked if he had any pictures from the day and could he pen a small review of the sE Munro Egg 150 Monitoring System. Josh Sites Sweetwater:
"There are many puns and jibes to be made about the shape and name of the sE Munro Egg 150 monitors, but I won't make any in this review. sE Electronics recently visited Sweetwater with Andy Munro to demonstrate and discuss their new monitoring system and I can say there was palpable excitement in Studio A not least because we had digested the science behind these ovoid speakers at Sweetwater (Andy Munro interview) but what we really wanted was to hear them. Sure we wanted to know if these oddly shaped monitors are science or fashion and we wanted to know why a microphone company has teamed up with an acoustician to make non-rectangular speakers but our focus on the day and subsequently of this review is on the most important aspect - how do they sound?
To learn more about the Egg 150 system, we set up the monitors (see attached picture) and brought in another pair of highly-respected monitors for comparison. So, how did the Eggs stand up? If I had to think of a succinct way to describe them, I would say 'effortless', which I suppose is funny since these have been in development for a LONG time. But what I mean by 'effortless' is that any stress test we could think of, the sE Munro Egg never showed a flaw, never hinted at a weakness. They have the intimacy to handle the most delicate of recordings. It was breathtaking in the truest sense. Music filled the room. There were no tweeters, woofers, ports or crossovers - just music. And a very honest reproduction of that music, no smiley faces or hyped anything.
At this point I was sold already. But then we took another path - punishingly loud and aggressive rock. Surely a monitor that can do subtlety so well could not do this justice! And I was quite wrong, and even more happy to be wrong. The Egg gave me loud and gave me aggressive but also did it without being crunchy. It was a little odd to hear this music being conveyed - again - effortlessly. I have never had that experience before. The mix was vibrant and alive, but also in the room. Absolutely surreal. Rock generally isn't recorded to replicate an acoustic event - it is highly augmented. So to then have this music in a room with you, this impossible acoustic actually happening, was amazing.
The Egg impresses me to no end and I truly recommend them. sE and Andy Munro have somehow combined brutal honesty with extreme musicality. There's no chart or graph that can express that combination. Above all else, the sE Munro Egg Monitoring System gets me excited to make music, to mix and to be proud of my work. It makes me want to dig in and tweak every detail. The Egg demands the best out of my work and makes me want to better myself as an engineer... and that is Eggcellent. (OK, one pun.)"
* If you are based outside the US, you may not of heard of Sweetwater. From Sweetwater's Facebook page 17th January 2012 (which has a staggering 100,000 likes): Sweetwater is currently the world's fourth-largest dealer in music technology and professional audio equipment, according to Music Trades magazine. Company owner Chuck Surack founded Sweetwater in 1979, originally as a 4-track recording studio, but soon expanded the company to become a music retailer whose emphasis was pre- and post-sale customer service. The company's Sales Engineers include musicians, audio engineers, and technical experts. Each Sales Engineer works one-on-one with customers of all experience levels, providing buying advice, and helping put together software- and hardware-based systems. Sweetwater is based in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
UPDATE: WATCH MITCH GALLAGHER SWEETWATER SOUND INTERVIEW WITH ANDY MUNRO
