As already announced before, I finally got the opportunity to have the new SRP line of Sonodyne monitors (namely SRP 400, SRP 500 and SRP 600) in my studio and I was very curious to compare them to my PSI A17 and Quested - the more that there is still very little or almost no information about these new Sonodynes.

Another good news is that within few days I will have here also Quested S7R and also the older Sonodyne 100, so a big direct "slutty" comparison will be possible (also in the presence of my two revered studio colleagues - so that the impressions will not be that subjective)

Actually, those Sonodyne 100 were the monitors that quite rose my interest in this brand, since the sound was so good and the price so favourable, that after trying them last year, it was clear to me that these are very serious monitors that to my ears bring quite more complex, detailed and natural sound than many monitors in similar or higher price range (namely Adams, KH 120, Unity Rock etc that we directly compared with)

This new SRP line of Sonodyne is supposed to sound yet better, having also a new DSP inner processing ...

I already tried to listen to them a bit ... and also to compare them to my PSI A17 and the big Quested (although they are of course much bigger).

I don't remember that much the exact sound of the old Sonodyne 100 and I have to wait till they arrive next week.

So I began from a clear starting point: after putting the small SRP 400 on the stand and listening to my few favourite reference tracks, I quickly put the HF control in the back of the speakers a little bit down (similarly like I did with Sonodyne 100 last year) and that was already a good starting point for relaxed listening.

SRP 400 are quite small monitors, but the sound is surprisingly voluminous and the bass feeling quite there (of course, we cannot overcome physics). Shortly I gave them to my son to his "studio" to replace his broken Genius speakers and he was quite elevated about the new sound level ... (and I quickly escaped from the sound of Psy Gentleman that started banging there

Then I put SRP 600 on the stand (that are of similar size - maybe slightly bigger - than my revered PSI A17, that cost almost double price).
Now - that was a direct comparison. Well, these two seem to sound quite a bit different. PSI A17 sound a bit more "mellow", yet very precise and detailed. Sonodyne SRP 600 quickly surprised me with clearly deeper, bigger and broader general soundstage and image - quite strong difference. They sound a tiny bit more "airy" than PSI (but not in the sense of "sharper") The highs are a bit more pronounced, also the bass is very tight and relatively full. In comparison , PSI A17 sounded a tiny more "pillowish" - but not necessarily in a bad sense and slightly more decent and "cosy", drier and smaller, while Sonodyne sounded as if each element and tone in the music is a bit more spacy, wider, deeper ... I switched quite many times between them with various type of music and these differences seemed to be rather constant ...
Especially when I put a beautiful organ recording, PSI sounded nice, but when switched to Sonodyne, suddenly the space depth increased a lot and the organ and church sounded more full and 3D ... yet preserving all the details.
(So far I considered PSI A17 as one of the very best nearfields I ever heard)

Regarding details - PSI seem to pronounce them very decently, yet exactly, perfectly, gently, but maybe a little "dry" and narrow. Sonodyne increase the space, maybe with the feeling that each detail does not have that much concentrated position, is spread slightly wider, but still you hear all the subtle nuances of the mix (some of them even more pronounced). With PSI , there is maybe more precise feeling of placing each element of the mix position-wise (with the sound more "into your face"), while with Sonodyne you hear everything in slightly more "generous" space, with instruments slightly more blent together ? But so far I must say the new Sonodyne sound surprisingly good to my ears ...

Well, take it just as my initial spontaneous sharing after one hour of directly comparing these two ... I also tried SRP 500 ... the sound is very similar, just the size smaller ...

I am very curious to compare them to the older SM100 + to Quested S7R that are in similar price range as SRP 600 and that I am also very familiar with ...

Will keep you informed. It is also very likely that my studio friends will bring here some of their Adams, JBL, Unity Rock etc., so more opportunities to compare will come.

(and if you by any chance live not that far away and are interested, you are welcome at any time to come here and listen)

Ivor I can give you feedback about the SM100AK vs sE Electronics Munro Eggs . As I have done a listening sessions with the Eggs against different monitors. To start for giggles I took a set of Eggs and put them in a ASC Attack wall against a pair of ATC SCM25's. Surprisingly the Eggs came within I would say 10% of the ATC's this was a real eye opener as neither I or the guys at RSPE expected the Eggs to be that close to the SCM25's.
I also went to Vintage King LA to test out the Sonodyne's based on what others had said. The first time was against the 50's as they did not have the 100's in stock. The 50's were bright of course small monitors usually are but the were accurate and held up well with the Eggs top end and mid range. Of course they were not 100's . The second time I was able to go back and test the 100's. I have to say again they did compete well with the Eggs and it was quite interesting reading your comments about the PSI vs the Sonodyne's because I experienced similar feelings with the Eggs almost softer more pillowy though detailed with clarity. Whereas the Sonodyne's were a little more strident with the same kind of detail and clarity. I will say the Eggs had a much better soundstage. Very wide if not almost non existent to the point you could lose yourself in the sound. To the effect of not being able to tell were it was coming from because it was everywhere. This is something you could not get from the AK100's . They have a much narrower sweet spot and you know the sound is coming from the direction of the AK100's. The other I noticed about the Ak100's it was as if someone had put a shelving filter on them, below the midrange they just disappeared it was a bit strange and disconcerting one would say you would need a sub with them. Whereas the Eggs extended downward accurately giving a full hi to low freq range picture.

The funny thing about all this is I happen to be impressed by the Eggs as are others. At the same time some of the people that liked the AK100's and were the catalyst in my desire to try them out,have listened to the Eggs and did not like them.
I really wanted to like the AK100's as their price point is excellent. Alas I could not bring myself to given the whole shelving effect.
Maybe the new models are different. I have found though monitors are so preferential and subjective that in the end only you yourself like you are can be the true judge on if they will work for you. It's the old NS10 deal. I learned on them know how to mix with them still do not like them. On the other hand I have friends who love them swear up and down a tree by them and would not stop using them.

P.S. I have been working with KRK V8's for years and can make them work. It does not mean they are the best but it does mean they work and I know them,which is a big part of it.

Very interested in these monitors, especially the comparison between A17m and SRP600 (or even SRP800). Would also be interested in a comparison with the Rocks if anyone has heard both.

I think the SM50 and 100s, which got me interested in importing them impressed me because the midrange was so good. This is a big issue with clients I am used to who buy the much more expensive ATC's we import and focus on midrange performance. (funny how more low end SELLS speakers but doesn't necessarily translate or improve mixes)

The SM's are nice because they avoid many of the weaknesses common to small powered speakers: crappy limiters (Sonodyne does not use limiters), and lame small power supplies in amps to save cost and improve manufacturer profit but always have a sonic penalty. Sonodyne is famous for good sounding A/B amps with big power supplies that are reliable. Class D is common in this small speaker world but I think most of them are not so great, in part due to tiny power supplies.

The folks I used to test the Sonodynes before I started importing were all high end users and I got positive responses from them. Translated well, could mix on them, didn't break. Plus the price was very good.

The SRP's are a big evolution it appears, I jsut got them in the USA. A better cabinet, still metal but powder coated now in such a way they won't scratch up, plus the port noise issues a few people complained about was gone. The imaging is improved and I think they image AMAZING in this category. Better off axis now due to wave-guides. The amps are still well done class A/B, with big power supplies. The crossover is where they did a lot of work to use DSP crossovers, so the slopes can be steeper and correction can be added inexpensively. The new 5 inch (SRP500) and the 6 inch (SRP600) seem to me to be the shining stars, great midrange and great soundstage. The new 4 inch (SRP400) we did not have before, this one has surprised us, as this sounds quite good for size.

New things take a lot of time to get going, and I have yet to get the new SRP to all my US dealers, but I think they will do well in the market compared to what's out there now. Still less money than other similar speakers so that means they are still good deal, but more than the SM series.

Performance is such a variable thing that's a real tough one to speak about in way that is true for all rooms because rooms have a sound. You are placing a speaker with its sound on top of the room sound. Whether you like the speakers is usually due to the interaction of room and speaker, not the speaker alone. Placement, reflections, console surfaces, furniture and a whole bunch of issues that have nothing to do with the speakers themselves are often the key issue of a demo.

i always like to eval speakers on tall stands in a large (hopefully soft) room avoiding nearby hard walls and low ceilings. This pushes all reflection points as far away from speakers as possible so the gain of the reflections is lower relative to the direct sound (go outside?). Do not sit near any surface/wall to listen. Now you have a chance to hear the speaker itself. Once you've done that, place it in your actual user location, you at least have a chance to know what the room/location is doing to change them. Now you have an opportunity to know and then fix your room flaws which improves everything! Otherwise its a total crap shoot, people gravitating toward speakers with built in flaws that are opposite of the room flaws. For example, choosing a narrow dispersion loudspeaker in a highly reflective room, (recognizable by having one super tiny sweet spot). Or choosing a bass heavy speaker in room with a lot of bass cancellation. Small rooms are the hardest.


Brad

Thank you Brad for that post. In fact I do not disagree with you about the Sonodyne's and hope that that was clear in my statements. I did find them to have exacting midrange. Yet I do work on a lot of music that has a lot of bass and I need response in that area. Honestly the Munro Eggs are no slouch and do deliver accurate bass as well as very good midrange.
Because of this I am interested hearing the new models. If they have better bass response I might just want to buy them.

I just felt I would have to get a sub to use the SM100's and with the Eggs I would not. I am not a big fan of mixing with subs. I prefer to have a full range monitor.

H DPro, not having done an A/B myself with the eggs, I cannot comment on any comparisons. I would tell you that the two Sonodyne subs (a 10" and a 12"), both with footswitch capability, is the way we normally sort a 2.1 system with any of the Sonodyne monitors.

Very curious about your direct comparison with the Sm100's Ivo. Having them here and loving them so far!

I had the SM100ak's for a few months and loved them. Great mid-range and I also felt it was easy to get the punch right and tight with them.

Unfortunately the fuse broke about 5 times within a few months on different pairs so I had to return them. But I thought they sounded great. The only thing that bothered me was that they could became a bit harsh if you really pushed the level, though I did not try to lower the hf.

Very interested in listening to and hearing more about the SRP's.

The courier screwed up the shipment with SM100 that was supposed to arrive here on Wednesday, so hopefully it will appear today or on Monday, I will then surely report about the comparison.

Yesterday, a studio friend of mine came and also brought his Adam S1X monitors. So there were two pairs of ears to listen. First we listened to SRP 600 and PSI A17 on a variety of sources. PSI A17 again sounded more gentle (he remarked that comparing to Sonodyne it sounds like a "tube" monitor , kind of more decent, while Sonodyne sounded straight open. He preferred PSI. Then he put on his own mixes that he works on now and was surprised that on Sonodyne he quite heard all the subtle differences when particular EQs were changed etc. After we further reduced the high frequencies on Sonodyne, the sound was more pleasant (yet, there seemed to be a kind of extra small touch on 2-3 kHz as if, comparing to PSI).

Then we put Sonodyne and Quested S7R next to each other. That was very different sound. Quested with their highly seasoned full decent sound, that is very pleasant to listen to vs. Sonodyne pronounced, more into your face sound. Especially for acoustic instruments, Quested seemed to bring a bit more realistic rendering.

Then we put Quested and PSI together - well that was a dilemma PSI with slightly more pronounced subtle details, Quested with overall sophisticated, pleasant and very realistic sound.

Comparing Adam S1X to Sonodyne was quite a straight act. In this direct comparison Sonodyne sounded great and Adams simply horrible - with their sharp glassy penetrating highs etc. (even after much reducing the highs on them). Even my friend, the Adams owner, admitted that.

What really blew us away, was the moment when we put on the small Sonodyne 400. The sound was incredible for such a small and compact monitor - we could not believe that: the bass and overall pleasant unhyped sound (I had to go close to them and check whether these are really the ones which are playing now . Simply amazing. Then we compared it to SRP 500, the sound was naturally bigger, yet these SRP400 seem to have something special in them, a bit more clear and more natural as if ...

To be continued ...

Great info! Thanks for this.

Looking forward to the comparison with the old SM100AK's.

How are these new ones for background hiss from the tweeter? I found that to be the weakest spot about the SM100's, as they are tricky to gain stage to be quiet if in a small room and up close. I hate hearing the speakers hiss away.

Also, are yoiu getting the SRP800's in, too?

OK, so here we are ...

Sonodyne SM100 arrived here today. I listened carefully and with curiosity to these old friends and was comparing them to the new SRP Sonodynes.

Well, what to say - the evolution seems to be unstoppable ... Whatever I listened (and switched all the time between them), the league of difference between the old and new ones was quite obvious.

SM100 sound really good. For the price they sound excellent - incomparable to all those KRKs, Adams etc., this is simply a different level. Clean, tight bass, detailed mids and unhyped highs and very nice resolution and translation, I know quite few people who are enjoying them in their studios.

Which of the new Sonodynes can be called their closest successors ? Well, most probably SRP 600 that are of similar size (slightly bigger) or SRP 500 (a bit smaller).

(see the photos for the size comparison idea)

Actually, all these new Sonodynes have similar sound characteristics. So what are the main sound differences between the old and new ones ?

Overall said: it is like if you compare low end converter to high end converter: suddenly you perceive more space and natural depth, the highs are not that strident and thin but naturally mellow and more spacey, the mids are nicely spread around and the bass is bigger and well defined. You hear more details and the structure of the elements in music is more clear. To me, this is the main difference I hear when comparing the old SM100 with the new ones. The new SRP Sonodynes sound clearly better in all the aspects (but they cost more).

Surprisingly all of them. Not only those big SRP 600, but also smaller SRP 500 were very well comparable to seemingly bigger SM100 - again sounded better and not really smaller

And then I tried those small SRP 400 - these are really crazy monitors I can't believe it ... For their size they sound simply fabulous ... and even in this uneven comparison, I prefered them to SM100 ... in terms of clean, space, extremely well defined natural sound.

So these are my initial impressions from comparing old and new Sonodynes. One thing is not clear to me - how this mentioned DSP processing is supposed to work ? I do not see any controls for some adjustment (unless I overlooked that). Or is it somehow working automatically ?

Regarding the hiss, SM 100 indeed have more hiss, SRP just common level of hum that it practically inaudible from 1,5 m distance. I think I may try SRP 800 soon, also the Sonodyne subs, I think SRP 400+ sub can be a great combo)

My only complaint are those small bottom rubber feet: they come out very easily and it is difficult to put them back. Funny how a great sound is coupled with such annoying tiny detail. I hope they can improve this quickly.

Tomorrow we will have here the classic KH 0300, the comparison to all these Sonodynes, Quested and PSI can be quite interesting I think (Adams I will happily miss ...)

Size comparison to Sonodyne SM 100 (from SRP 400 to SRP 600)

what is the price of each SRP pair?

Approximately (from SRP 400 to SRP 600): 580-900-1250 EUR per pair ex VAT (SM100 was about 700 EUR), SRP 800 I think around 1600

One small group photo:

Thank you, Ivo. Looking forward to the 800, should you go there.

All in this makes me very curious.....

EDIT: Looking at the frequency plots it seems the 600's have a fair bit more bass than the SM100, rolling off about 10Hz lower and 40Hz ending up at about -10dB instead of -20dB. Looks like that would mean that one could hence sense some actual low end with these, unlike with the SM100....would you agree, Ivo?

How about tossing a pair of those SRP400's on top of some subs and rigging up a poor man's Guzauski-Swist?

Maybe it's worth a shot

Yes, this is what I think and will definitely try (after getting Sonodyne subs here).

Karloff: yes, SRP 600 (and actually also 500) have fuller bass (and fuller/more spacey sound in general) comparing to SM100. SRP 400 have of course a bit less bass, but still sounding somehow cleaner and fuller.

Regarding SM100 hiss - a friend of mine mentioned his good tip: he says that if he puts the trim on the back fully down (like -6dB) and then the volume fully up - the noise becomes just negligible ...

Great info…thank you very much for this!!

Cool, seems I need to hear the 600's.....and wait to see what your 400+sub test comes back like. Not into subs much though, in general......quite excited about these actually.

Yep, I have done that with the 100's, I couldn't remember whether it was full up or full down on the back now, I thought full up and down on the front, maybe not. The way I remember it the front affects the hiss and the back doesn't. Whatever it was it helps quite a bit. They are still a little hissy though.

From the Synthax (UK distributor) site about the SRP range:

"The Sonodyne SRP (Sonodyne Reference Professional) range of monitors have been developed over the last few years and take all that was good from the acclaimed SM series. This includes the superb class AB amplifiers for which Sonodyne achieved much recognition, but now with DSP handling the internal signal processing.

This development brings many advantages to the speaker, including improved and controlled decay times on different frequencies, flat response on and off axis and control over directivity. The built in DSP will also allow future third party and automatic calibration.

The addition of DSP to the Sonodyne SRP range also gives great control over the manufacturing process, assuring that each speaker leaves the factory finished to the highest quality."



So the DSP will become accessible for calibrating the speakers to your room via software later it seems (automatic calibration?)....veeeeery interesting indeed........

I think not. It seems to be the typical internal system for calibration or phase align like Presonus with their Sceptres and other brands.

So what does this mean? :

"The built in DSP will also allow future third party and automatic calibration."

Interesting thread, I would certainly consider the SRPs here.

The internal DSP is discussed in this SOS interview, basically the same as Karloff70 quoted already though.

@2:15 mins

It would be great if you could check out the SM3200s Ivo, in comparison to your quested V3110s and PSIs.

The specs on them look great. I know they don't hit the streets for a few weeks though.

Jim

With "normal" monitors, if you use something like IK ARC or Trinnov, if the correction is a little bit aggressive you usually gets phase problems between the tweeter and the woofer. If there is a DSP that is taking care about this (presonus Sceptre, PSI monitors, etc) then "it allows the third party's correction" to be more accurate. IMO, but if Sonodyne are going to release some type of software or hardware correction it is welcome.

By the way ... are SRP 2xx "hifi" series the same as the SRP "Studio" series? Specs are the same, but that white is precious.

no dsp in psi loudspeakers!

What I was going to say.....

The way I understand the DSP statement here is that they have used something akin to the miniDSP inside to do their crossover with, and that it will be possible in future to tap into it for room correction per software.

Wanted to say PMC not PSI

Sonodyne 3200s-They showed us these protos at Muskimesse and hope to ship late 2014 is in my information. So they are quite a ways off.

Brad