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Mesanovic CDM65 Studio Monitor Review

Rate this studio monitor:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 7 3.2%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 40 18.3%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 172 78.5%

  • Total voters
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amirm

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This is a review, detailed measurements and listening tests of the Mesanovic CDM65, 3-way DSP speaker with WISA wireless support. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $2,649 each.
CDM65 3-way active DSP speaker Monitor CSD Review Cardiod.jpg

The CDM65 comes in extremely dense and solid enclosure. It is quite a handful despite its size, likely due to the two side-firing woofers. It is a DSP speaker and company provides "standard" and "cardioid" profiles you can load using a USB thumb drive:
CDM65 3-way active DSP speaker Monitor CSD Review back panel WISA Wireless Cardiod.jpg

Company ships the speaker with Cardioid profile and that is how I tested it. Other than a level, there are no controls in the back which is fine by me. There is an app that you can use to EQ.

If you are not familiar with the speaker measurements you are about to see, please watch my tutorial on them:

Mesanovic CDM65 Monitor Measurements
As usual, we start with our standard CEA-2034 frequency response measurements performed on Klippel NFS:
CDM65 3-way active DSP speaker Monitor CSD frequency response CEA-2034 Measurement.png

As you see, on-axis response (black) is very flat and extends deep (F10) to about 25 Hz. Company provides NFS measurements and they correlate quite well with mine (theirs is a bit smoothed). Early window shows the tailored response:
CDM65 3-way active DSP speaker Monitor Early Window frequency response CEA-2034 Measurement.png

We basically have constant directivity through midrange and then gradual slope down above that. This basically controls the predicted in-room response since on-axis was flat:
CDM65 3-way active DSP speaker Monitor predicted in-room frequency response CEA-2034 Measurement.png

It is nice to have this controlled directivity for near-field listening where you may move left and right or have others at the console listening.

We can see the same in our horizontal directivity plots:
CDM65 3-way active DSP speaker Monitor horizontal beam width Measurement.png

CDM65 3-way active DSP speaker Monitor horizontal directivity Measurement.png


Vertical has the usual issue of needing to stay at tweeter axis:
CDM65 3-way active DSP speaker Monitor Vertical directivity Measurement.png


Distortion is kept extremely low where our hearing is most sensitive (2 to 5 kHz):
CDM65 3-way active DSP speaker Monitor WISA Wireless relative THD Distortion Measurement.png

CDM65 3-way active DSP speaker Monitor WISA Wireless THD Distortion Measurement.png


Deep bass however is distorted below 40 Hz at 96 dBSPL.

Near-field measurements show very well controlled woofer resonance:
CDM65 3-way active DSP speaker Monitor WISA Wireless near-field driver Measurement.png

Absence of port means we don't have to worry about its typical cabinet resonances.

CSD/waterfall as usual shows some minor resonances:
CDM65 3-way active DSP speaker Monitor CSD Waterfall Measurement.png


Finally, here is the step response:
CDM65 3-way active DSP speaker Monitor WISA Wireless Step Measurement.png


Mesanovic CDM65 Listening Tests
The familiar sound of a neutral speaker immediately came across the moment I queued my first female track. What also came was clean bass which I am not used to when testing small speakers with such tracks. Switching to bass heavy music, brought out the real power. Impressively, the cabinet was not transmitting hardly any vibrations. Typically I have to work fair bit to isolate these when performing my listening tests but with CDM65, I didn't have to.

Switching to my track with very low bass response, resulted in fair amount of output but with mild level of distortion -- precisely as the 96 dBSPL measurements showed. So laws of physics are not violated, just bent.

After this, I felt like just laying back in my chair and listen! The fidelity was incredible despite the fact that I perform my tests with just a single speaker!

Conclusion
The Mesanovic lands in my short list of speakers I can recommend without hesitation. It has neutral response with especially deep bass response for its size. Its Cardioid response makes it more room friendly, reducing the amount of hand tuning you may have to do for your room. Really, I can't find anything to complain about other than being able to play deep bass distortion-free which likely requires a much larger/heavier speaker. Support for WISA wireless standard is a major bonus, removing signal wiring for surround and ceiling speakers.

It is my pleasure to recommend the Mesanovic CDM65 studio monitor.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
 

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No better distortion at what frequency and volume.

Also, do we know what amps they are using?
Could it be due to being 3 way
 
Almost $1000 more expensive than the KH150 while having fewer controls and worse distortion? Looks like a scam :(
I had almost the opposite reaction. Almost $2K cheaper than the Genelec 8351b and only slightly worse bass and vertical directivity - with better distortion in the mids! Was just reading that old review and the FR plots look very similar in many ways.
 
Almost $1000 more expensive than the KH150 while having fewer controls and worse distortion? Looks like a scam :(
There are $100,000 speakers passive speakers that measure way worse.

Calling a $2,600 active speaker with built in DSP and wireless connectivity that measures virtually flat across the entire audible spectrum a scam is insane.
 
This is good enough to be in a conversation with the D&D 8C and it's less than half the price; hardly a scam.

3-way + cardioid justifies some additional cost over the KH 150. The latter does offer MA 1, though. It would be an interesting comparison.
 
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There are $100,000 speakers passive speakers that measure way worse.

Calling a $2,600 active speaker with built in DSP and wireless connectivity that measures virtually flat across the entire audible spectrum a scam is insane.

Especially when you could easily high-pass it about 5-10Hz up and get a significantly prettier curve
 
No better distortion at what frequency and volume.

Also, do we know what amps they are using?
Could it be due to being 3 way
Looks like these to me.

 
I had almost the opposite reaction. Almost $2K cheaper than the Genelec 8351b and only slightly worse bass and vertical directivity - with better distortion in the mids! Was just reading that old review and the FR plots look very similar in many ways.

They're actually about $3k cheaper than the 8351b in the US. I've become a total sucker for the Genelec coaxial design and you can pry my 8351b's from my cold, dead hands - but I agree 100% that these look to be excellent speakers and in terms of value for dollar superior to the Genelecs. That 86dB lower-treble distortion, or I should say lack thereof, is astounding.

One thing that seems strange: am I missing something, or do these only have analogue audio input? No digital input option?
 
One thing that seems strange: am I missing something, or do these only have analogue audio input? No digital input option?
Digital option would be over WISA.
 
An absolute no brainer if you've got the bucks. That little bit of bass distortion at 96 db will be inaudible with a couple of subs crossed over at around 100 hz. It does look a trifle, shall we say, utilitarian, but just play in the dark as you would with any other great performer.

Terrific review, Amir.
 
One thing that seems strange: am I missing something, or do these only have analogue audio input? No digital input option?
Here's what Mesanovic suggest you use to expand digital inputs:
 
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