I finally got to audition the event opals at a local audio dealer.I was prepared to be totally knocked out by these speakers and was even told by the sales rep(over the phone)when I asked what other monitors they had to A/B these with that when I heard these I would not even want to hear anything else."They are that good" was his reply.When I got to the dealer I had them set the speakers totally flat and begun the listening process.(They were connected to a Presonus central station)Playback device was a windows based computer.I listened to 4 different rock cd's(which is what I will be tracking and mixing) Traffic Dear Mr.Fantasy(original master recording),Led Zeppelin I, Frank Zappa The Grand Wazoo, and my own cd(recorded in a local studio on a pro tools hd rig and a bit of outboard gear)I must say with all cd's the bass response was incredible! Highs were ok(nothing earth-shattering)but sadly I noticed a definite lack of midrange.I also felt that my own cd had a better overall sound on the Opals than any of the others which makes me think they are not very truthful as my cd was obviously the weak link among the others and always sounded worse on my old mackie hr824's than any of these classic rock cd's.When compared to the new budget line JBL's they had I could not tell a huge difference in overall sound.(not for an extra 16 to 18 hundred dollars more anyway) So my quest for a nearfield/midfield monitor on a 2500.00 budget goes on.Just my 2 cents but these are not for me and I had desperately hoped they would be.

Thanks! I needed to hear that.

I Hear You! Speaker shopping is a Bi**h!

Just returned some Focal Twins...Was hoping to try the Events and love them...This is the second review i've read about the lack of midrange presence.

Uh oh....

Here's a different opinion about the midrange in a mix review:

Event Opal Studio Monitors Review in Mix magazine product review of the Event Opal Studio Monitors

"Traditionally the Achilles’ heel in most two-way designs, Opals’ excellent midrange definition and detail made a huge difference when working with vocals, letting me clearly hear nuances in mic/preamp selections when tracking or making subtle signal processing decisions in the mix. And piano/flute/violin session playbacks showcased the invisibility of the crossover point, which was totally seamless. The balance between lows, mids and upper-end was spot-on—at any level—so mixing on Opals was an absolute pleasure. Thanks to the low-distortion performance, there was almost no hearing fatigue, even over long listening periods. You can mix on these for days on end."

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I have Opals here and I'm loving them. Not having any problem with the midrange. It's hard for me to believe that anyone would complain about the midrange on these. In fact, a producer/engineer friend was here yesterday and he couldn't get over the midrange detail. Same for me. My ugly mixes definitely sound ugly on the opals.

To each, his own. I suppose someone who is used to mixing on NS10s or maybe even Mackies wouldn't like the Opals. I don't particularly like forward mid-range... to me, it's not as musical. But, I'm producing a lot more than I'm mixing. I suppose if you're mixing a lot, forward midrange might be preferable. I wouldn't go by one guys opinion on the Opals though, and I def. wouldn't let it keep you from doing your own audition.

My only beef with the Opals is the self noise. I had Barefoot MM27s here before the Opals and of course they're dead quiet. The Opals aren't. I'm getting a white noise kind of thing and it's annoying when I'm used to zero noise.

While not always practical or possible, I think that the only true way to evaluate monitors and what works for you is to mix on them.. and even then, sometimes you need to get through a small learning curve and also be sure that you're not dealing with any room issues as well.

just a thought. Good luck with your search

I'm still going to demo them.

Jayman - how do they compare to the barefoots?

If I try them and don't like them, I might go down the Focal Twin route again and hope they've sorted the resonance issue as they said they would of.

Monitor hunting is horrible.

I don't know if it's just that the Opals get along better with my room, or what, but for me, I'm hearing better on the Opals than the BFs. The Barefoots were great, but I didn't feel like my mixes improved with them. I would mix quicker on them, but not better. And, I wanted better. I think the bass is tighter on the BFs, but the bass sounds more real on the Opals - if that makes any sense. I'm hearing reverb tails and reverb spaces much better on the Opals than the BFs which is the biggest surprise to me. This is something I noticed instantly.

So, the Opals are more suitable for me in my room. I wouldn't say they're better than the Barefoots, just different and for 3k back in my pocket, I feel like it's my b-day. Still wish they were more quiet, but I'll take the tradeoff.

Is it that they are exceptionally loud compared to other monitors or that the BF's are exceptionally quiet?

I've heard a lot of people say the Focal Twins have a hiss due to there 3 amps but I NEVER heard anything above acceptable? Same with my Yamaha hs80's and basically any speaker i've owned. Will I power the Opals up and go WTF?

Also what did you pay for yours? There saying £2500 over here...

No, not exceptionally loud at all. I had Focal SM8s in here and they exhibited the same hiss. I think I just got spoiled with the Barefoots and with as much as went into these monitors in R&D, I would have thought they could've achieved less noise. Someone brought over some Dynaudio BM6 or 5 (can't remember) the other day to see what they would sound like in a good room and they were very quiet compared to the Opals. I don't think they're crazy, WTF kind of noisy. It's just that I can here them and wish I couldn't.

I paid 3k plus shipping here in USA.

j

Had my Opals about a month now and am loving them. I actually had a defective one (overheating) but Sweetwater took care of it quickly, and now they are great.

I am SO sick of hearing about mid range. Mid range sucks. And it's not that the Opals lack it IMO, but rather I believe many people, for whatever reason, have gotten accustomed to hearing excessive mid range in some of the "studio standard monitors" and now mistakenly believe that skewed presentation is "right" ... sorry ... I don't buy it.

I hear things exceptionally clearly now - stereo separation is great, dynamics are incredible, and hear more detail than I've ever heard.

Yeah ... it's a "to each their own" ... but if I wanted that much mid range exagerration, I'd get an AM transistor radio.

I have the exact same feelings as you about midrange. I'm loving the Opals as well. Really loving them.

Do yours have very slight noise also?..... not to beat the horse, but just curious.

There are very few people who don't get great results from the tried and true Genelecs and Adams...if you don't care for Genelecs sound, I've noticed many tend to go towards Adams and the same vice versa. I can mix on both as long as the room is in check. Are these supposed to be at this same level or something. I had Even PS6's for a long time and know many that have the old 20/20's and to me they just don't come close to the Genelec or Adam level of speaker. Granted I've never heard these new Events, but I remeber when they cam out with the Studio Precision series and these puppies were touted as the latest and greatest. I wasn't impressed, tons of bass, but for me, not something I felt I could get mixes that translate as well as mixes I do on my Adams. Idk, I just don't get why people don't stick to what works. Some people just really want to be that different I guess, but for me, what works is a whole lot more important than just being different, since just being different isn't a guarantee that it'll sell.

I don't think it's a matter of wanting to be different. I think technology changes and improves. Many got great results mixing on NS10s or Mackies. Just because those worked for them, does that mean they should stick them them forever?

That post about the Opals overheating makes me wonder if they ever re-thought their amp designs from their last line of 'high end' powered monitors, the Studio Precisions. I have the ASP-8's, and while I love the sound, I have gone through 4 power amps that crapped out due to overheating. Lets hope the Opals aren't plagued by the same issues.
-Jeff

i've got the opals and mine produce a bit of white noise all the time as well. it's barely audible unless they're turned right up so i don't really mind. they sound great anyway

Total deal-breaker for me...it's funny how a small pet peeve can get under one's skin like that. When you are tracking or playing back, you'll never hear the noise (figuratively, at least), but when you are in your studio jacking cables, talking to your artist, or just thinking out arrangement ideas, etc... man, NOTHING bugs me more than the noise... I can never even put my finger on why it bothers me so much! I'm very glad for these reviews...sounds like great monitors, noise excepting!

BTW, how is their power output compared to the MM27's, and/or the HR824's others have owned here? Anyone cranked their's up yet for a go?

little bit of noise - who knows if it's the monitors or something else in the chain - I guess I could unplug - whatever it is, doesn't bother me.

Well (not me talking - just quoting) they are billed as "the most accurate monitor in the world period" and the president of the company has put a million dollars on it for anyone to prove him wrong. Marketing hype - sure ... but ... well .... there you have it.

FWIW - don't even think of them as Events - might as well be a separate company, they're that different from anything else Event has done.

You should check out the specs 750W per speaker ... it's like PA system power level ....

Still waiting for them to hit the UK to demo them.

You've done the right thing to take sources your familiar with in to the demo but I honestly believe that the ONLY way to tell if a monitor is going to work for you is to spend a couple of weeks tracking and mixing with it in your own studio. That's what really counts. How does that monitor push you, direction-wise, when you make music. Is it channeling you in the direction you want, or is it working against you. It all depends on your aesthetic, the room you're in, the type of music you're making etc etc. You need the time with it to learn it a little and see what's really what at the end of the period.

Anything else is just educated guess work.

J

Rode bought Event, discontinued their whole speaker line, then developed the Opals (probably in Australia?). Rode's founder Peter Freedman is behind the Opal's.

One thing you have to remember is that power output is only part of the story. And short term peak output is very different from continuous peak output. All said and done, the MM27's amplifers can deliver approximately 600W in whole continuously to their drivers, not just in short term bursts. But you also have to consider what that power is being delivered to. The dual 10" drivers in the MM27 have nearly 3 times the piston area of a single 8" driver. They also have nearly twice the linear excursion limit of a single high excursion 8" midbass driver. So the MM27 can move at least 5 times the air volume. And this doesn't even account for its dual 5" midbasses.

Maximum SPL has a complicated realtion to power output because it depends on bandwidth, system sensitivity and such. For example, one can trade some max SLP in exchange for extended bass response. But from the perspective raw air displacement capacity, the MM27 starts out with more than a +14dB advantage over a typical 8" 2-way system.

Hope this helps!

All you guys hearing the opals producing a noise.

Do you also hear it when nothing is attached to the input?

I got a Dynaudio BM15a and a Metric Hallo MIO2882 combination and I can hear the noisefloor of the 2882's D/A converters. I had to put a passive attentuator with -10dB between the interface and speakers to get rid of the noise.

So the BM15a's got 300W rms each and can produce a huge dynamic range, so it is no wondert I could hear some noise, I think.

Perhaps it is your interface?

Lack of mid range just about sums up my experience with Event speakers. Nice smiley face EQ that makes everything sound like the Metallica Black album.

Well this Event is a completely different speaker and price point.

Plus a very low distortion spec in the midrange area can give the impression of lack of midrange, when in fact it's just the opposite as others have mentioned.

I do agree that the other Event speakers didn't have a strong mid range, at least compared to NS10's (the exact opposite of the Events).

I love my ASP8's. Once I got comfortable with their huge lowend frequency challenge, they are so detailed in depth. All my mixes are sounding very 3D. I love how they sound....flat. Easy on the ears to mix, very clean. Aren't there a couple of dials on the back of these to boost or lower both the lowend and midrange to taste. Anyhow, I haven't heard the OPALS yet. They look nice. Of course I mixed on computer speakers for years, and those mixes turned out pretty good too.

I guess it's all what your taste are.
Vincent Van Go's colors might be too bright and saturated for some,
and just beautiful to others. These things are always about taste, ya know.

I would like to demo the Opals and live next to NYC in jersey.

Does anyone know where around NYC I could demo them? I wanted to demo the Focal Twins also, but the Opals just got a rediculous review in Future music magazine, so I really would like to hear them first off.

If you guys know of somewhere could you demo them art home that would be even better.

PLEASE

The lack of clarity and presence of the midrange, could very well be the responsibility of the Presonus Central Station and the lack of distortion of the Opals. Presonus isn't exactly hi-end gear, and the Event Opals certainly claim to be high-end gear. My experience with presonus is two-fold: it's cheap and nicely engineererd, but doesn't sound like you'd want it to.

If you want to critically judge ANY speaker, you'll have to make sure your speakers are the weakest link in the chain. Meaning that EVERY other component has to be of supreme quality. Soundcard, clock, D/A convertors, cables AND your monitor controller. Something like the Studio Technologies Studiocomm 77, for example could be sufficient. And, quite frankly, Presonus just doesn't sound clean enough to make serious judgements on any speaker connected to it...

Ofcourse, speaker placement and room acoustics also are critical issues when making serious judgments. But that's no news to anyone in this field.

I can't believe after reading all these independent positive reviews of the midrange clarity of the Opals, that they would dissapoint in that field. So I'm betting that any perceived "defects" would have to do with improper positioning and/or gear of insufficient quality further up the chain.

Just my €0,02

James.

My feeling here is that any perceptions of the Opals lacking midrange are due to being overly acclimated to mid-forward monitors. The Opals have a more detailed midrange field than any mid-forward monitor I've worked with, including Focal Twin6s, ADAM S3As and NS10s. The Opals have no need to push it forward simply because of the low distortion characteristic of the monitors.

I'm still amazed at the sculpting, ambient depth and soundstage I'm getting from them. I've now tried them in 4 different environments and I can say that they play a MASSIVE role in their bass response, as they do in any other monitor. You cannot adequately judge a monitor's low-end response in anything other than a mid/large size, treated control room. In one scenario I actually had the Opals sound worse than Dynaudio BM5As and ADAM A7s simply because they were positioned in a corner. As all very extended systems they are very sensitive to placement.

The excessive hiss IS a valid complaint. That is the only drawback I can find to attribute to these monitors, short of nearly breaking my arms as I was placing them.