Machineghost
Ghost in the machine
Currently I find myself at BOP Rec Studios. I am here to assist in maintenance to some of the resident audio equipment. Just thought I share this with you
It is difficult to describe audio equipments sound... its difficult to explain the sound from the Kinoshita Monitors here at BOP Rec.
I feel I want to use the description "its like wearing huge headphones". There is no concentrated sweet-spot. Stereo imaging is superb around the room. Bass goes down very low and highs are soaring. SPL drive and headroom is insanely vast. They NEVER run out of breath. By the time they do you being in that room will most surely go deaf. The superb sound is achieved in conjunction with the Tom Hidley designed room(s). Just below the monitors there is a huge bass-trap that goes down at least 1 meter into the floor, lined with glass-fiber. Monitors are mounted flush with the cabinets part of the front-wall construction. No, you wont be able to remove the speakers as a whole - they are fixed.
Amplifiers are located just behind each speaker in a dedicated, A/C-ed room with the cross-overs and all connected with high current VDH cable.
This is the ultimate in sound. No speaker I have ever listened to sounds as good as this. Not even electrostats.
The Kinoshita monitors uses Technical Audio Devices (TAD for short) LF drivers and HF horn systems. The cabinets are ported. Cross-overs are 2nd order type with efficiency adjustment on the HF section as well as roll-off adjustment.
The Infra-Sonic system in each room is constructed of four 15 inch TAD woofers which is driven by a single 450 watt FM Acoustics amplifier. Cables to the speakers are, and dont laugh, "premium" welding cable! Filter is an active device supplied by Kinoshita.
Any anomalies in a recording are laid bare by these loudspeakers. And that is the objective by using them in the control rooms. The audio engineer needs to be aware of all sonic "events" happening in the studio.
Spatial "information" like the sound of the crowd in a live recording is relayed correctly. You dont need surround sound with these. They project the stereo signal so well that you are immersed in a panoramic sound scape.
There is not the tiniest hint of the mf/hf horn sounding "honky".
Verdict? I woudnt mind a set of these at home. But then you also need the room, as designed by Tom Hidley. This shows that there is a solid link between room and loudspeaker. You cant expect a loudspeaker to sound good in any room.
Funny thing is that the guys who engineered the studio and equipment doesn't worry about mounting everything on spikes, or having the cables suspended on ceramic pucks, or exotic power cables (although I must mention that the amplifiers are fed by 13 Amp lines via industrial power connectors). I am not dishing these audiophile devices but the focus are on more important matters like an amplifier capable of full power over a wide bandwidth, efficient and high resolution loudspeakers.
In 2007 they retailed at ~$23,000 a set.
It is difficult to describe audio equipments sound... its difficult to explain the sound from the Kinoshita Monitors here at BOP Rec.
I feel I want to use the description "its like wearing huge headphones". There is no concentrated sweet-spot. Stereo imaging is superb around the room. Bass goes down very low and highs are soaring. SPL drive and headroom is insanely vast. They NEVER run out of breath. By the time they do you being in that room will most surely go deaf. The superb sound is achieved in conjunction with the Tom Hidley designed room(s). Just below the monitors there is a huge bass-trap that goes down at least 1 meter into the floor, lined with glass-fiber. Monitors are mounted flush with the cabinets part of the front-wall construction. No, you wont be able to remove the speakers as a whole - they are fixed.
Amplifiers are located just behind each speaker in a dedicated, A/C-ed room with the cross-overs and all connected with high current VDH cable.
This is the ultimate in sound. No speaker I have ever listened to sounds as good as this. Not even electrostats.
The Kinoshita monitors uses Technical Audio Devices (TAD for short) LF drivers and HF horn systems. The cabinets are ported. Cross-overs are 2nd order type with efficiency adjustment on the HF section as well as roll-off adjustment.
The Infra-Sonic system in each room is constructed of four 15 inch TAD woofers which is driven by a single 450 watt FM Acoustics amplifier. Cables to the speakers are, and dont laugh, "premium" welding cable! Filter is an active device supplied by Kinoshita.
Any anomalies in a recording are laid bare by these loudspeakers. And that is the objective by using them in the control rooms. The audio engineer needs to be aware of all sonic "events" happening in the studio.
Spatial "information" like the sound of the crowd in a live recording is relayed correctly. You dont need surround sound with these. They project the stereo signal so well that you are immersed in a panoramic sound scape.
There is not the tiniest hint of the mf/hf horn sounding "honky".
Verdict? I woudnt mind a set of these at home. But then you also need the room, as designed by Tom Hidley. This shows that there is a solid link between room and loudspeaker. You cant expect a loudspeaker to sound good in any room.
Funny thing is that the guys who engineered the studio and equipment doesn't worry about mounting everything on spikes, or having the cables suspended on ceramic pucks, or exotic power cables (although I must mention that the amplifiers are fed by 13 Amp lines via industrial power connectors). I am not dishing these audiophile devices but the focus are on more important matters like an amplifier capable of full power over a wide bandwidth, efficient and high resolution loudspeakers.
In 2007 they retailed at ~$23,000 a set.
