My Ascilab C8C arrived today and honestly, wow. I'm no expert, but wanted to share my first impressions here anyway. I already had high expectations going in, mostly from what I'd read in this thread, but they've been exceeded regardless.
A bit of background: I bought these as an upgrade to my Amphion Two18s, which I've been using daily for mixing and mastering. I ran the Amphions for about a year and a half and was fairly happy with them overall, aside from some missing low end and a couple of other minor issues. Last week I tested the HEDD Type 20 MK2, solid monitors for the price, but coming from the Amphions I'd gotten spoiled and I found myself missing some of the midrange detail the Amphions have. So I sent those back and, based on this thread, ordered the C8C instead.
First thing worth mentioning: the packaging. They arrived extremely well protected, no complaints there at all.
Setup was smooth too, I was able to run the Hypex Filter Design software on my Mac through UTM without any issues, in case anyone else here is on Mac.
I set them up right next to the Amphions for a direct comparison and was impressed from the very first second. They sound like a different tier entirely, even though the Amphions are the more expensive monitor. The first thing that jumps out is the extended low end, it's like hearing the Amphions with a sub added. Right after that, I noticed the midrange detail is at least on par with the Amphions, if not slightly better and I actually prefer the top end as well. With the Amphions I occasionally struggled to hear sibilance clearly, which isn't an issue here.
The transient response is something I really value about the Amphions and I'm not missing it at all with the C8C.
Stereo imaging is excellent too and I can pick out reverb tails just as clearly as I could on the Amphions, which for me is also one of the indicators of a really good speaker.
What really impresses me is that despite being this precise, they're still genuinely enjoyable to listen to music on. That's something that always bugged me about the Amphions, they just sound very "dry" and "clinical" and it's just not fun listening to music on them. The C8C somehow manage to combine both.
What stood out next was how much less of my room I'm hearing through the C8C. My room is treated, but not perfectly and in direct comparison the C8C sound way cleaner in my problem range around 130-400 Hz, almost as if room correction were already applied. When I measured both with REW, the peak at 150 Hz comes in around 6 dB lower with the C8C than with the Amphions. I guess that comes down to the cardioid pattern.
I've always run my Amphions through ARC Studio for room correction and I'm curious now whether that's even still necessary with the C8C, or if the PEQ in the Hypex software will be enough on its own.
One more thing that's stood out very positively is the noise floor. I'm extremely sensitive to self-noise in monitors and it was something I noticed right away with the HEDDs. With the C8C it's genuinely minimal, you have to listen very closely to even notice it and it doesn't bother me at all.
Aside from the sound, they also just look really impressive. My studio is mostly white and beige and the white C8C fit perfectly.
Overall, after the first listening I'm more than happy with this decision and I'm hoping to add the BX8C down the line as well. For me, the C8C are without question an upgrade over the Amphion Two18. Looking forward to putting them through their paces over the next few days, including mixing actual projects.
Happy to answer any questions in the meantime.
