AR The Edge Monitors

[Hana Suarez]

So I was considering buying some entry level monitors to get my feet wet in mixing/producing music, but I found these monitors in my garage from a long time ago that were my dad's, probably from 1999-2000. The model is AR (acoustic reason) The Edge. These things sound awesome, with clean, crisp sound. Which concerns me, lol. I don't know if these speakers have a built in EQ that are tampering with the sounds. He originally used them for a home cinema. I compared it to a set of behringer mixing headphones I have, and it sounds pretty accurate, but I'm still a bit paranoid.
I understand that studio monitors need the flatest response possible, but I when I looked up these monitors and checked the specs, I realized I had no idea what I was looking for. What is the technical term for that? When speakers have a sort of built in eq or some other effect appealing more to a listener rather than a creator? I don't know what I should be looking for as far as specs go, (I'm not a very technical person and usually learn more visually or in "human terms"). I am aware that AR was an amazing brand, and often used in studios for mixing, but on the site that I'm looking at it's more advertised for home theatres. If somebody knows anything about this model, or my question above, I'd appreciate it
https://www.cnet.com/products/acoustic- ... ack/specs/

[BertKoor]

There is a fine and blurry line between hifi speakers and studio monitors. Sounds like these are reasonably flat & accurate, but also pleasing.

It is not EQ (which is filtering for correction) but usually natural resonances of materials and their dimensions.

[Synthman2000]

I think those are more directed towards "in store" speakers like the old JBL Control 1. You know tough moulded plastic. Not really a studio monitor type speaker.

You tend to very much get what you pay for with speakers for producing music so I would reconsider saving your money and getting more like $300.00 + to spend. In the longer run they will return better value.

[Kalamata Kid]

A local Pro guy gave up his expensive speakers for the Edifier R1280T
They sell for $100 on sale.
I heard them and they sound great!
Are they accurate?
Don't know.

[mindnoise]

Hi there,

if you are looking for some entry level Studio Nearfield Monitors start checking with the Yamaha HS-8 (or any of the older models) or Focal Alpha 50. Anything below €250 (RRP) a piece is a waste of money in that regard, IMHO.

Now about all studio monitors are active, meaning they have the amplifier build in, or accurately: have a separate amp for each the treble and the bass speakers.

The difference between HiFi and Studio Monitors ist that HIFis are 'tuned to please', while studio gear aims to have a flat response across the entire frequency spectrum, as you already mentioned. So listening to music on Nearfield Monitors ist not always pleasant.
The thing is, at the higher end of the price range, Hifi and Studio gear begins to converge as in "to not color the sound in any way".

Some monitors come with EQ-features. This can range from some simple DIP-switches to attenuate or boost fixed frequencies, or like the Genelec stuff, which can be completely measured and atuned to the room you are in. Of course the latter come with a price.

Are your AR Edge ok? I don't know, there is no special info in the tech-sheet you linked, other than they only go down to 70Hz, which means you are missing quite some information in the bass frequencies. The high frequency roll-off is quite common in these types of control monitors, so these are often complemented with a subwoofer in music production and home cinemas, like 5.1 Surround setups.


I myself, too use a pair of passive studio monitors for work used by the (German) national broadcast facility from the late 90s and they still blow away any recent nearfield monitor below €1000 per piece. Just sayin' that's it's not like they did not know how to build stuff back then. But to actually tell how good your AR Edge are, you would need to compare them to some better (> 800 € pp) active monitors at least once.

maybe this helps

BTW: I found this on the web about the Acoustic Research Edge
http://www.audioreview.com/product/spea ... /edge.html