Let’s talk about the smallest studio monitors available – ultra-nearfield speakers. What are they? What are the pros and cons? Do you want them in your studio?
Ultra-nearfield monitors are tiny little speakers that you can get super close to; you can work in what’s called the close field. I use the DMAX Audio SuperCubes5 in my Studio B, and they’re a great example of that format.
Watch my detailed review of the DMAX Audio SuperCubes5 that I use in my studio
Typically they’re square sealed cabinets with a single driver producing all frequencies. There are no cross-overs like with a multi-way speaker, and that’s an advantage because cross-overs cause phase irregularities and frequency response issues at the cross-over frequency due to the highpass and lowpass filters used. When you get very close to a multi-way speaker, you end up hearing each driver separately because there isn’t enough time of flight to integrate and merge the perceived sound. This is why larger, 3-way midfield monitors like my Neumann KH420s are not suitable for close monitoring.
The use of nearfield and ultra-nearfield monitors dates back to the 1960s. Control room design was in it’s infancy and acousticians of the day were using pink noise tests and third-octave band EQs to “correct” the frequency response of the room. These tools lacked the required resolution to do this effectively so there were issues with room to room consistency and translation.
Engineers working in these rooms began to distrust the acoustics and started shying away from working on the main monitors, in favour of smaller, closer near fields like Auratones and Yamaha HS10s. This allowed them to work much closer than the critical distance, where they hear a higher proportion of direct sound from the speakers and less of the reflected energy in the room.
Watch my 1 minute short on the Critical Distance
Let’s go through the pros and cons of working on this style of monitor.
Pros
- Lack of a crossover can yield excellent sound quality
- Very strong phantom center
- Smooth and round rolloff of bass due to the sealed cabinet design
- Very economical if you’re restricted on budget; most of these are under $1,000 for a pair
Cons
- Very small sweet spot – only suitable for 1 listener
- Due to high directivity “beamy” there is not a lot of energy dispersed for lateral reflections. This reduces their sense of stereo field and immersiveness. This is why a strong sense of phantom center due to the more prominent direct sound field is inversely proportional to the sense of stereo spaciousness. Not a criticism. It’s just part of their personality and would be the same for other single driver ultra nearfields.
- Weird size and location of acoustical axis makes mounting them on typical speaker stands hard – I needed to prop the stands up on patio stones
- Low SPL output
- Lack of low frequency extension
