Introduction And Background:

EVE Audio are a relatively new name in studio monitors being founded in 2011 by ex-ADAM CEO Roland Stenz following his departure from ADAM. Since then EVE have made numerous products based around their own version of an AMT (Air Motion Transformer) tweeter coupled with PWM amplifiers and some clever DSP-based processing and that is also what we find here with the SC305’s that I have here for review.

These are 3-way design but without the price tag often associated with 3-way designs, coming in at just under £700 per monitor. The monitors feature 2x 5” woofers with a 1” AMT tweeter with three 50w PWM amplifiers per speaker.

As I unpacked the SC305’s and placed them upon a pair of Sound Anchor ADJ2 stands I was surprised by the compact size (425x180x250mm) and their low weight (8.5kg). Being more than twice as wide as they are high the monitors are designed to be used horizontally.

Design

The front of the monitor has the AMT RS3 ribbon tweeter flanked by a pair of 5” SilverCone woofers with the control knob below the tweeter. Sat next to my imposing ATC SCM45a’s the SC305’s look cute but capable and it is probably unfair of me to observe that they remind me of the cartoon character “WALL-E”, but they do. The SC305’s were supplied to me as a stereo pair but are also suggested as a potential centre speaker in a 5:1 or other surround configuration.

The symmetrical dual woofer design of the monitors means you have to select, via a dip switch at the rear of the unit, which of the two woofers will operate as a bass unit, covering the frequencies of 50Hz to 350Hz, with the other woofer reproducing 350Hz to 3kHz frequencies with the AMT tweeter handling everything above 3kHz. As per EVE Audio’s recommendation, my preference was to put the bass woofer on the outside of the speaker, or on the bottom when in the vertical position. Unlike some competitor products that have dedicated left and right versions of their speakers, it is nice to see EVE being so forward thinking in their design to allow either speaker to be on the left or right side.

Like all other EVE Audio products, the SC305’s are a DSP-based design that runs internally at 192kHz/24-bit using Burr-Brown chips in its converters. The DSP handles the crossovers as well as digital filters/EQ and bass woofer selection. Given they are operating digitally it would have been nice to have been able to input a digital signal into the monitors, rather than just an analogue one. This would necessarily have involved more complexity and cost though.

Control

When I first looked at the control knob my initial impression was it might be a bit confusing to operate but actually it is very well thought out. Tap the knob to change which mode the knob operates in, which are named LED, Low, High, Desk, as well as allowing volume and mute state changes.

LED mode allows you change how the LED ring displays operates.

Low and High modes allow for different filter combinations to be used.

The low shelf filter allows you to boost or attenuate any frequencies below 300hz in 0.5dB steps and the high shelf filter allows the same from 3khz in 0.5db steps.

The desk filter has a dual function, firstly when attenuation (by a maximum of -5dB) as a narrow band EQ set 180hz or, when boosting, as an 80hz EQ (up to +3dB). It is designed to allow placement of the monitors on desks or immediately above mixing consoles where reflections can cause acoustical issues. As I was using these monitors in a well-treated room with professional quality speaker stands I didn’t need to use these settings.

Volume and Mute work as you would expect you can change the overall level or mute state of each speaker but as they are not connected to one another you are not able to nominate one speaker as the master to mirror settings across the system.

You can also use the control knob to put the monitors into standby mode and save yourself reaching around the back to flick the off switch- clever!

Finally, it is worth noting that any changes to settings are automatically saved.

The rear of the speaker is uncluttered with just an XLR input, RCA input, power input and 3 dip switches for locking volume and filter settings and for changing the orientation of the ‘bass’ woofer. The mains voltage selector allows you to switch between 110-120 and 22-240v too.

AMT Tweeter

Special mention must be made of the AMT Ribbon tweeter which is a common element to all EVE Audio products. This was the first time I’ve spent any significant length of time with a ribbon tweeter design and the first time I’ve had this type of design on test in my own studio.

As it happens our editor, Julian Rodgers, has written the following article to explain the differences between conventional and AMT drivers so I will not attempt to reinvent the wheel in that regard.

Click here to read our article on the difference between conventional and AMT-based tweeter designs.

My understanding of AMT tweeter designs in their light weight, large surface area and lack of intrinsic stiffness allows the air to move 3 to 4 times faster than a conventional design. This a gives a different type of sound to a conventional tweeter- fans of the design like it for its fast transients and bright, light tonality.

Horizontal or Vertical

The EVE Audio manual makes no mention of positioning these monitors in the vertical position but as some of the images on the EVE website show them vertically I reached out to EVE for a comment as to the possibility of vertical placement of the SC305’s. EVE state that it IS possible to use the SC305’s in control rooms where horizontal placement is not possible but they also comment that the SC305’s were designed for horizontal use and that is the preferred placement for this product. One issue with vertical placement is the rectangular control knob is not rotatable so any adjustment from the front panel would be more difficult. I tested the SC305’s in the vertical position and the sound is broadly similar especially with the bass driver in the lower position. The labelling at 90 degrees is a minor inconvenience at most.

Listening Test

I’ve used the SC305’s for the past week in a variety of tracking, mixing and listening situations and on the whole, I am impressed with them although it is a little unfair to compare them to the monitors I have here.

Firstly, the ATC’s and Kii Three’s are significantly more expensive but I also know them much better, as I’ve used them every day for quite a while.

That said I found myself enjoying working with the SC305’s. They are a smooth sounding pair of monitors with a hefty bottom end, light top end and a clean midrange, although my impression is they are a little gnarly around the 3khz crossover.

In terms of volume, they get plenty loud before the limiter triggers. My go-to test track for testing volume and bass of monitors is Knife Party’s ‘Centipede’. The bass in that track is pretty mighty and a great way to seeing how much bass a speaker can cope with before it starts to distort.

The limiter kicked in way later than my ears could handle at a 2m listening distance- I was genuinely impressed with how these monitors sound at what was a fairly high volume (94dB as reported by the Grace M905 monitor controller’s SPL meter) and they are able to go even louder than that before clipping.

Similarly, with the Devin Townsend track ‘Kingdom’, which features loud and fast double kick drum patterns that cause many a lesser speaker to distort, I was also pretty happy. The track is a little overblown around the 80-100hz region but the SC305’s admirably kept up with the mayhem.

In terms of mixing there is one thing I’d like to note. When using the SC305’s I found myself pulling out more around the 3k region than I ordinarily would, especially with distorted electric guitars which sounded a bit peaky. Given this is the where the crossover from the mid-woofer to the AMT tweeter is it is perhaps to be expected. This isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker but something to be aware of.

Conclusion

I’ve greatly enjoyed my time with the SC305’s, and despite their affordable price, I at no time I thought I was slumming it. They sound great, they look good and are able to go a lot louder and lower that I would have thought. Active monitors between the £500 - £1000 is probably the most competitive price point but very few offer the range of features in the SC305’s for this If I needed a pair of 3-way monitors they’d be right at the top of my list.

Pros

• Smooth, flattering sound.

• Louder and with more bass than you would think from a monitor this size.

• Well priced.

Cons

• Horizontal mounting is not always ideal in some studios.

• No digital inputs.

For more information on the EVE Audio SC305’s or to find a local dealer, head over to their website.