W
e so dug M-Audio’s Studiophile LX4 speaker system that we named it
“Gear of the Year” in our December 2005 issue, and we looked forward to
seeing what the company could do for those of us with smaller budgets. The
answer? Not enough.
M-Audio’s StudioPro 3 isn’t a terrible self-amplified speaker set, but nei-
ther is it great—even when you consider its $100 price tag. At first glance, the
speakers look very much like M-Audio’s higher-end studio monitors. The hefty
cabinets are constructed from medium-density fiberboard (the pair weigh in at
8.8 pounds), and the 3.25-inch low-frequency drivers and 1.0-inch silk dome
tweeters are magnetically shielded.
The absence of a subwoofer didn’t alarm us, because we’ve heard other
2.0-channel speakers that manage to
deliver enough low-end oomph to please
our eardrums.
And our hopes
rose higher when
we plugged in
the StudioPro
3s and cued
up John Hiatt’s
Riding with the
King: Hiatt’s edgy
opening guitarriff crackled, and it sounded as though Scott Matthews’ Hammond organ was in
the room with us. But when Nick Lowe came in to anchor the jangly tune with
his walking bass line, our optimism evaporated—the StudioPro 3 system just
doesn’t have much going on down below.
Tripping the speakers’ bass-boost switch (on the back of the cabinet hous-
ing the 10-watt-per-channel amp) helped some, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy
our craving for thumpin’ bass. The absence of any meaningful bottom end was
especially problematic for gaming. The StudioPro 3 set delivered voices and
small-arms fire with aplomb, but large explosions and larger weapons sounded
anemic at best.
We know it’s possible to deliver a rockin’ 2.1-channel speaker system for
a $100 budget, because we absolutely adored Tascam’s unconventional VL-S21
flat-panel-plus-subwoofer monitoring system when we checked it out in June- M-Audio’s solution is better than many budget audio systems we’ve
reviewed in the past year, but it doesn’t come close to competing
with Tascam’s.
—MICHAEL BROWN
M-Audio StudioPro 3
Speakers
There’s just no ‘there’ there
I
f you know your Wizard of Oz lore, you’ll recall that Ozma was the young
princess and rightful heir to the throne of Oz. Exactly what this has to do
with audio and aliens is anyone’s guess, but these headphones did take us
over the rainbow.
Miami-based Alienware has developed a strong reputation for building
balls-out PCs, and now the company has expanded into co-branded acces-
sories. Partnering with Ultrasone for these headphones was smart: Ultrasone’s
$400 Proline 750 headphones impressed the heck out of us in our May 2005
issue, but we couldn’t give them a Kick Ass award because the reference model
isn’t great for gaming. We have no such reservations about the $200 Ozma 7.
The Ozma 7 isn’t quite as luxurious as the Proline 750: Its earcups
and headband are well-padded, but the cups are covered in non-breathing
pleather; the higher-end phones are outfitted with much larger earcups
upholstered in ultra-soft velour. But where those reference-quality head-
phones delivered absolutely flat frequency response, the Ozma 7 head-
phones feature pleasantly boosted bass that’s terrific for playing games,
watching movies, and listening to music.
The Ozma 7 features Ultrasone’s S-Logic technology, which delivers pseudo
surround sound without electronically manipulating the audio. It’s accomplished
by offsetting the transducers inside the earcups, so the sound waves bounceand reflect off the folds in your
outer ear. This, in turn, delays
some frequencies from reaching
your eardrums, which fools your
brain into perceiving the sound as
originating all around your head,
instead of on polar-opposite sides.
S-Logic did amazing things
for Eddie Kramer’s brilliant engi-
neering work on Jimi Hendrix’s
Axis: Bold as Love. With conven-
tional headphones, stereo pans
seem to go through your head; with the Ozma 7 phones, Jimi’s guitar sounds
like its orbiting the interior of your skull.
Equally as important as their sound, these well-constructed phones remained
comfortable during long gaming sessions. And they come with an extraordinarily
long cable—nearly 10 feet—so you don’t need an extension cable
to reach from your hi-fi to your
Barcalounger.
—MICHAEL BROWNAlienware Ozma 7
Headphones
Fab ‘phones from Florida
74 MA XIMUMPC MARCH 2006
reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED
M-Audio’s speaker systems have wowed us in the past, but the com-
pany’s StudioPro 3 monitors leave us wanting more boom in the room.Alienware partnered
with headphone-expert
Ultrasone to offer these
great-sounding, fabulously
well-made headphones.ALIENWARE OZMA 7
$200, http://www.alienware.comM-AUDIO STUDIOPRO 3
$100, http://www.m-audio.comSPECS
MA XIMUMPC
KICKASSHIGH-FREQUENCY 1-inch silk dome, magnetically shielded
DRIVERS
LOW-FREQUENCY 3.25-inch paper-fiberglass composite
DRIVERS cone, magnetically shielded
AMPLIFIER 10-watts RMS per channel, <0.5% THD,
>90dB signal-to-noise ratio
INPUT/OUTPUT Stereo RCA in, 1/8-inch Aux in,
CONNECTORS 1/8-inch headphone out
OTHER Bass Boost EQ switch, speaker stands