M-Audio EX66

The M-Audio EX66 monitor is the culmination of years of research developing cutting-edge high-definition active reference monitor technology. Our midwoofer-tweeter-midwoofer (MTM) design yields a wide sweet spot while minimizing room reflections. The unique low-frequency drivers and custom titanium high-frequency driver deliver exceptional smoothness and transparency across the entire audio band, without resonant peaks—and the drivers are impervious to environmental conditions such as heat, humidity, and sunlight. Onboard DSP handles cabinet resonance tuning and crossover optimization to round out an incredibly accurate frequency response. Digital inputs compatible with up to 24-bit/192kHz signals and high-impedance balanced analog inputs insure that your signal path is entirely pristine. Both the specs and the sound are unrivaled at any price, let alone this value. Sold individually, the M-Audio EX66 represents a new high-resolution standard for both 2-channel and multichannel applications.

Dual Woofers
The M-Audio EX66 uses a midwoofer-tweeter-midwoofer (MTM) vertical array configuration to provide optimal imaging. Traditional 2-way speaker designs can cause significant early reflections from consoles, floors, and ceilings, resulting in coloration and smeared details in the audio. In the M-Audio EX66 monitor’s MTM design, the interaction of the two large drivers with the tweeter serves to channel the sound into a much narrower vertical pattern, thereby eliminating many of these reflection problems. The design simultaneously provides a large, coherent horizontal radiation pattern, giving you and your colleagues a much wider sweet spot.

Unique Low-Frequency Drivers
The M-Audio EX66 woofers use our proprietary linear-piston technology to minimize driver break-up modes and inertial effects. Our drivers have exceptional intrinsic damping characteristics with absolutely no frequency response peaks or resonances in the audible band. They provide truly linear pistonic action over the entire musical spectrum, bringing all portions of each musical transient into correct alignment and revealing more of music's subtle details. As an added bonus, our drivers can withstand extreme temperatures, moisture, humidity, sunlight, and salt, so they can weather the harshest conditions without deterioration.

Titanium Tweeter
Our 1” tweeter sounds as smooth as it looks. Titanium is known in the aerospace industry for its high tensile-strength-to-weight ratio and its resistance to corrosion. We craft the M-Audio EX66 tweeters from titanium in order to create a stiff, yet responsive piston that moves natural resonant modes well above the 20kHz audible threshold. This allows the tweeters to reproduce every nuance of musical detail with crisp, transparent accuracy without any high-frequency energy smearing or the harshness sometimes associated with rigid high-frequency drivers. The titanium tweeter is a natural complement to the M-Audio EX66 low-frequency drivers, providing smooth, coherent reproduction over the entire audio band.

Noise-Free Bass-Reflex Port
Many loudspeaker enclosures use a port to form a Helmholtz resonator to improve bass response. In some ported speakers, however, this has the side effect of audible friction noise from air moving in and out of the enclosure. Not so with the M-Audio EX66 monitors. Our engineers developed a dual-flanged rear-cabinet port to minimize the vibrations normally generated by low-frequency signals. This custom port is extremely efficient in its air transfer characteristics and is virtually noise-free. Rear placement also prevents port turbulence from interfering with the front dispersion of the midwoofers and tweeter.

Optimal Enclosure
Like the other components, the M-Audio EX66 enclosure has an important role in shaping the overall sonic response. In order to provide more stable performance, we designed an enclosure made of a special high-acoustic-efficiency medium density fiberboard (MDF), along with unique interior adiabatic foam reinforcement designed to absorb extraneous vibration, standing waves, and even extreme impact. Furthermore, our custom OptImage II waveguide on the front panel minimizes diffraction and dramatically improves stereo imaging.

DSP-Tuned Cabinets
All speaker cabinets exhibit resonant frequencies that color the timbre of the audio being reproduced. The extent to which they are mitigated is much of what allows critical listeners to distinguish between exceptional monitors and mediocre ones. The M-Audio EX66 monitors employ sophisticated on-board digital signal processing (DSP) technology to eradicate all resonances and tune the cabinet with exceptional precision. The M-Audio EX66 monitors also use DSP filters to achieve its precise and maximally flat 4th-order Linkwitz-Riley crossover for the smoothest transition between the high and low driver frequency ranges.

Superior Biamplification
The M-Audio EX66 monitors use two separate 100-watt PWM power amplifiers to drive the 4-ohm woofer combination and 4-ohm tweeter separately in an audiophile-quality bi-amp structure. The ultra-low distortion at 200 watts per channel rounds out the M-Audio EX66 monitor’s profile as a truly world-class active loudspeaker monitor.

Specifications

• Type: MTM studio reference monitor
• LF Driver: two 6" custom linear-piston woofers
• HF Driver: 1" titanium dome tweeter with wave guide
• Frequency Response: 37Hz - 22kHz (-3 dB points) withpassband flatness of ±0.5dB from 50Hz - 19kHz (near-field acoustic response)
• Crossover: 2.56kHz, 4th-order Linkwitz-Rileymaximally flat alignment
• LF Amplifier Power: 104 watts (IHF dynamic power into4 O)
• HF Amplifier Power: 104 watts (IHF dynamic power into4 O)
• THD+N: <0.1% (@ 50 watts into 4 O)
• Maximum SPL @ 1 meter: 109dB (115dB for a stereopair) peak
• Analog Inputs: XLR balanced (20k O), ¼" TRS balanced(20k O), sampling of 24 bits at 96kHz, sigma-delta switched-capacitor type
• Digital Inputs: S/PDIF - In and Thru (75 O), AES/EBU(110 O), built-in phase lock loop (PLL) to reclock incoming bitstreams withlow jitter (<250 psec p-p); S/PDIF receiver can lock to an incoming clockof up to 216kHz
• Controls: Acoustic Space (full, half, quarter);Mid-Range Boost (flat, +2dB); Low Cutoff (37Hz, 80Hz, 100Hz)
• Polarity: positive signal at + input produce outwardLF cone displacement
• Input Sensitivity: -10dBV pink noise at input yields90dB SLP (c-weighted) @ 1 meter; variable
• Protection: RF interference, output current limiting,over temperature, turn-on/off transient, subsonic filter, external mains fuse
• Indicator: power on/off indicator on front panel
• Power Requirements: user selectable for 100V~50/60Hz, 115V ~50/60Hz and 230V ~50/60Hz
• Cabinet: painted high acoustic efficiency MDF
• Dimension: 482.6 mm (H) x 209.6 mm (W) x 241.3 mm(D);19 inches (H) x 8.25 inches (W) x 9.5 inches (D)
• Weight: 11.18 kg/monitor (without packing); 24.65 lbs/monitor (withoutpacking)