New Alcons studio monitors… So what?

[Stephan]

You guys are getting worked up about me not loving the amp connectors which do absolutely suck, but I’m not convinced that the entire system at whatever cost it is (which is unstated) is actually worth the price.

I would think that being skeptical of a manufacturer’s hype would be met with more understanding in this forum.

If you want to believe what they’re dishing out like it’s fact, that says a lot more about you than it does me.

Don't you think it's strange someone in a forum is ranting about a speaker system he has not heard or measured?

In contrast, some of us have heard, measured and owned some of their systems.
STMPD have a room with their C-series speakers and it's Dolby Atmos Premier certified. It's really not that hard to get a demo at several locations.

So wouldn't it be a good idea to actually listen to the system before judging them? And if you are or work close with an integrator, you can even get Klippel measurements.
But right now, this does indeed seem like trolling.

 

[Audio Science Pal]

They are being released in a week. Not a lot of info.

Introducing: The M-Series Reference Monitor Systems - Alcons Audio

After more than three years of intensive research, development, and real-world evaluation, Alcons Audio proudly announces the official launch of the M-series Reference Monitor Systems — the company’s long-awaited entry into the studio and critical-listening market. Developed from the ground up...

www.alconsaudio.com

It would be fun listening to those speakers.

 

[LuckyNat]

If something was invented that’s superior, they’d be used in studios already.

Hmm .. that shows a lack of understanding of both studios and the markets studio equipment manufacturers sell to.

Here is an example of a professional engineer criticising the use of XLRs / jacks on expensive studio equipment these days and I tend to agree with him, it's about their customers not what is "superior" :

The lack of EDAC or D-Sub just looks like another indication that a manufacturer recognises the lack of fully professional buyers.
They will know who is buying their gear and they will know that most of their buyers do not understand or care for full professional install.
At least this is a fairly compact desk. I can see it getting a headache if you wanted to expand by a large amount in the future.

The Alcons monitors appear to be aimed at professional installations, soffited installations where, for example, cabling is installed through the cable run pipes set in the concrete slab when the studio was built. That means you are either using cable already installed, or running bare cable through those pipes. Euroblock / Phoenix connectors have many advantages in those scenarios.

One very important advantage is the fact the blocks come in many different lengths, meaning you can ensure the wires are connected to the correct terminals by using just one block that can only be inserted one way. NL4s would require several sockets which could easily be plugged in incorrectly at some point ln the future, blowing a driver.

There are other advantages too .. mainly arrising from other connector types' needing to survive thousands of reconnections, unneceasary in a permenant install.

I feel like you are trying to rationalise an emotion towards the visual impression the system gives off.. an impression that tells you they are not catering for your personal needs. Well ... that is very likely correct ! They can market to whomever they want.

 

[LuckyNat]

Also, that crap PA amps meant for powering 50v PA systems in malls have the same interface connectors is not what I call a ringing endorsement.

This is such a weird thing to say .. It is shown in the review section time and again, that crap equipment uses XLRs .. Crap PA amps use NL4s .. ?

I can wire an NL4 on to a piezo buzzer if i want, doesn't make it a good transducer. lol

If you don't like the look of them and want to rationalise that disgust .. that's fine. But it's best to recognise within your body and mind, the origin of it .. rather than believing your own subsequent thoughts.

 

[Matt_Holland]

You guys are getting worked up about me not loving the amp connectors which do absolutely suck, but I’m not convinced that the entire system at whatever cost it is (which is unstated) is actually worth the price.

I would think that being skeptical of a manufacturer’s hype would be met with more understanding in this forum.

If you want to believe what they’re dishing out like it’s fact, that says a lot more about you than it does me.

No one has said they believe what Alcons are saying. Some here have experienced their products and commented already. You can read more comments in this there here

Your main gripe seems to be about the amp connections. Have you looked at their newer models, Sentinel 3 and 10? If not please do and then share your thoughts.

Alcons is primarily and B2B brand and what you perceive as the value proposition is likely not relevant if you are discussing it in the context as a consumer.

Based on the M series being phase corrected and incredibly linear when used with Sentinel amps, it is reasonable to assume there is a high level of performance on offer but as usual full judgement will be reserved until sufficient data exists particularly THD and IMD.

 

[LuckyNat]

I know objective measurements rule here , but a valid "data point" to be given as little or as much as one wishes are some first hand experiences from the last couple of years at an event called Gearfest in London (a relatively small pro / home studio gear event). Here's one for example:

 

[MillRoadTech]

I looked at the new Alcons M monitors and I’m not quite sure why anyone would want to buy them.

Hey, their tweeter seems fantastic.

Whether their Back EMF Reduction driver design actually makes much difference has yet to be seen (most especially in a midrange driver which is rather unlikely).

There’s a bunch of useless hype about the tweeter having 50:1 peak to constant power rating. In other words, it’s really hard burn it out by driving the speaker hard. That’s good, but certainly not revolutionary.

There’s no mention of the cabinet being especially dead and that it uses a novel port design is uncompelling. So what? Personally, I have no interest in ported speakers.

Now, let’s look at what really sucks about this design.

I have nothing against any type of active design and its amp configuration whether onboard or external, but the way they’ve gone about this is rather bizarre.

Why, if you’re offering an active speaker, would you insist on using a non-standard and seemingly proprietary method to connect both the inputs and outputs?

Check out the image. Do you want to deal with interfacing with that?

View attachment 481696

Then, also, what are the amp specs? Not given.

I’d really love to see an extensive review of of this system. Honestly, I’m sure it’s damn good, but very dubious that it’s revolutionary.

My initial thought is that the mids and woofers would benefit greater by being Purifi’s designs which offer drastically lower distortion than standard offerings due to their suspensions rather than a novel voice coil.

I imagine the price for all of this is pretty steep. There’s no information about that.

Bottom line: other than the tweeter, I’m not the least bit impressed.

The Pro-Ribbon HF unit has the benefit of operating down to 1kHz - this is at least an octave lower than others. This ensures the midrange is operating so it still has broad off-axis dispersion (dispersion narrows as frequency rises) and so the driver excursion is linear with no breakup. Same true for the LF-MF crossover which takes place around an octave below other 3 way studio monitors. Therefore steps in dispersion are avoided at the respective crossover points. Earlier designs that set out to achieve this design goal were 4-way.

The dual-voicecoil design solves for a bump in the impedance curve and also ensures that any cone-overshoot is compensated for. Initially this was a solve developed for sound reinforcement products where cable-runs were long, driver excursions were high (and often uncontrolled). There's only so much damping one can apply to a driver and driver suspension before mass increases and sensitivity is lost. In the HiFi world you can load a driver up with damping and have a low resonance but at the cost of transient response, sensitivity and power handling. This design ensures that the steep-decay waterfall plot and time-smear-free transient performance we proudly display for the ribbon driver is also maintained at lower octaves.

The image is the rear of a Director 6 amplifier, and the loudspeaker connections are shown with the phoenix plug terminals removed. QSC also use the same connector on their 'install' amplifiers. The loudspeaker uses an industry-standard Neutrik NL4-FXX connector. The Director 6 amplifier specification is here:- https://www.alconsaudio.com/product/director-6/ and offers a lower cost-per-channel than the Sentinel 3 amplifier. A 4-channel 'Master Reference' convection-cooled amplifier will be with us soon.

Alcons have a lot of respect for the Purifi woofer, and acknowledge it as one of the finest and most intelligently designed drivers available today. The final design uses a different custom driver in order to address the issues Alcons sought to solve with the M-Series. It looks fairly conventional from the front, and fairly unconventional when dismantled. Alcons tried many different drivers, and the LF section took the longest in R&D to get right in the MR10/12.

There's enough in the M-Series to set it apart from existing technologies - In answer to the opening statement '...I’m not quite sure why anyone would want to buy them' we asked ourselves (Mill Road and Alcons) the same question as well - the studio monitor market is very crowded and has many very well engineered and established products available. This is why for Gearfest in 2023 we brought the prototypes and asked our visitors to listen to the M-Series, then go listen to everything else and if they thought it was worth putting into production come back and tell us and we'd do it. Making the M-Series a product was an industry-led decision, not an Alcons decision. It took a ton of R&D that would have only been worth it if it made a genuine difference. Which it has.

Pricing available on request, but comparable/competitve with other manufacturers offerings.

 

[MillRoadTech]

One more thing: enjoy all of the money you need to spend on long speaker cable runs with this system.

I’d love to see a Youtube video about how you get those jacks to accommodate 10 gauge wire.

There's an 8-way phoenix plug that goes in those sockets. 10 gauge easily accomodated.

 

[MillRoadTech]

The JBL 7-series install monitors Sony studio uses have amps with Phoenix connectors…

External amps is the way to go, IMO.

We made the decision to stick with external amplifiers for the simple reason that for most of the installs we do at Mill Road, we have to recess the speakers into baffles, and there's nowhere for the heat to go for a rear-mounted amp. Alcons took this feedback on board. Secondly for immersive installs its a big ask to run mains to every single speaker point, as well as audio. We have had a number of requests for a powered MR5 option though from on-location recording engineers, simply for portability, and are evaluating this market.

 

[MillRoadTech]

You have to be trolling. How do you know the connectors suck when you don't even know what they are? Having amps with both euroblocks and speakons I can tell you they're both completely fine. Speakons are more durable and better suited for touring use but euroblocks are easier to terminate and can carry more signals. In a home/installation application either will work equally as well, it really doesn't matter

My main gripe is that the 8-way Phoenix block (if you have to buy one on its own - the Director 6 is supplied with them!) costs more than a pair of NL4-FXX connectors and is not as widely available. Apart from that I'm happy. Its easy to wire, reliable and takes a nice fat cable. Same connector used on Alcons Director 6, and some of the QSC gear I supply.

 

[MillRoadTech]

In writing with Lars Risbo, the reason Purifi drivers kick ass is the fact that the suspension offers a magnitude or less distortion. If memory serves, he quoted 40dB less from his surround design. The speaker surround on a woofer does create a good fraction of the signal produced by the driver.

I’m not an expert on it so you can take anything further on the subject up with him.

I’m still quite dubious that a cone midrange produces any significant back EMF that any decent amp can’t handle with ease.

Try it - happy to organise. I haven't had anyone at all, ever, leave a demo saying another product is better or preferable, and lets face it, audio folks are brutal and would definitely tell us if they thought it was deficient in any way. Quite the opposite. We've made it a product because those that heard it asked us to do so. The only reason we went ahead and released this as a product was because it solved a bunch of issues still floating around in transducer design.

 

[MillRoadTech]

You guys are getting worked up about me not loving the amp connectors which do absolutely suck, but I’m not convinced that the entire system at whatever cost it is (which is unstated) is actually worth the price.

I would think that being skeptical of a manufacturer’s hype would be met with more understanding in this forum.

If you want to believe what they’re dishing out like it’s fact, that says a lot more about you than it does me.

Alcons don't really do 'hype' - in fact they are the complete opposite! They do try and put into words the issues they are trying to solve for in an academic sense, but since they operate in an industry full of hype, sadly the descriptions get judged in the same context. One of the reasons audio is a discussion point is firstly that it is a true human interface - and we're all biological and emotional beings, so what we hear has power to bear, secondly its quite a challenge to put an emotional response into text and have that text interpreted in a consistent manner on the basis that this process in itself can result in an emotional response, and thirdly because transducer design in itself is an imperfect science. In a way considering the above, its still an interesting problem to solve for you, me, the folks at Alcons and the wider industry.

 

[sigbergaudio]

You guys are getting worked up about me not loving the amp connectors which do absolutely suck, but I’m not convinced that the entire system at whatever cost it is (which is unstated) is actually worth the price.

I would think that being skeptical of a manufacturer’s hype would be met with more understanding in this forum.

If you want to believe what they’re dishing out like it’s fact, that says a lot more about you than it does me.

But you don't know the cost or the specs, and still you are speculating that they may not be worth whatever they cost? I'm surprised you're surprised that we don't understand.

I happened to listen to an Alcon system at the Capital Audiofest the previous weekened. I have no idea what it cost, but it sounded really good. Based on what I heard and what I know of the company, I don't think hype is the right word.

(Picture stolen from hometheaterhifi.com)

 

[greg21366]

The Pro-Ribbon HF unit has the benefit of operating down to 1kHz - this is at least an octave lower than others. This ensures the midrange is operating so it still has broad off-axis dispersion (dispersion narrows as frequency rises) and so the driver excursion is linear with no breakup. Same true for the LF-MF crossover which takes place around an octave below other 3 way studio monitors. Therefore steps in dispersion are avoided at the respective crossover points. Earlier designs that set out to achieve this design goal were 4-way.

The dual-voicecoil design solves for a bump in the impedance curve and also ensures that any cone-overshoot is compensated for. Initially this was a solve developed for sound reinforcement products where cable-runs were long, driver excursions were high (and often uncontrolled). There's only so much damping one can apply to a driver and driver suspension before mass increases and sensitivity is lost. In the HiFi world you can load a driver up with damping and have a low resonance but at the cost of transient response, sensitivity and power handling. This design ensures that the steep-decay waterfall plot and time-smear-free transient performance we proudly display for the ribbon driver is also maintained at lower octaves.

The image is the rear of a Director 6 amplifier, and the loudspeaker connections are shown with the phoenix plug terminals removed. QSC also use the same connector on their 'install' amplifiers. The loudspeaker uses an industry-standard Neutrik NL4-FXX connector. The Director 6 amplifier specification is here:- https://www.alconsaudio.com/product/director-6/ and offers a lower cost-per-channel than the Sentinel 3 amplifier. A 4-channel 'Master Reference' convection-cooled amplifier will be with us soon.

Alcons have a lot of respect for the Purifi woofer, and acknowledge it as one of the finest and most intelligently designed drivers available today. The final design uses a different custom driver in order to address the issues Alcons sought to solve with the M-Series. It looks fairly conventional from the front, and fairly unconventional when dismantled. Alcons tried many different drivers, and the LF section took the longest in R&D to get right in the MR10/12.

There's enough in the M-Series to set it apart from existing technologies - In answer to the opening statement '...I’m not quite sure why anyone would want to buy them' we asked ourselves (Mill Road and Alcons) the same question as well - the studio monitor market is very crowded and has many very well engineered and established products available. This is why for Gearfest in 2023 we brought the prototypes and asked our visitors to listen to the M-Series, then go listen to everything else and if they thought it was worth putting into production come back and tell us and we'd do it. Making the M-Series a product was an industry-led decision, not an Alcons decision. It took a ton of R&D that would have only been worth it if it made a genuine difference. Which it has.

Pricing available on request, but comparable/competitve with other manufacturers offerings.

Regarding the Alcons 'Master Reference' amplifier that was mentioned earlier: does anyone have more information or a technical update on it? Also, do we have any idea about a potential release date for sale?

 

[John_Siau]

Here at Benchmark, I had the opportunity to test the Alcons MR10 in one of our listening rooms. This room is equipped with a pair of PMC MB2S passive monitors. We set the MR10s side-by-side with the PMC monitors and drove both using Benchmark DAC3 converters, LA4 line amplifiers, and AHB2 power amplifiers. These were the first speakers that I have had in the room that held their own when compared directly to the PMCs, especial when playing at high SPL levels. Like the PMCs they are remarkably clean when you turn them up.

We were using the Alcons MR10 biamp version which has a passive crossover between the MF and HF drivers. There is no LF-MF crossover in the box. I created the recommended crossover in a miniDSP SHD and then applied DIRAC room correction to both sets of speakers. In our room, the DIRAC only needs to make minor tweaks to the PMCs and they sound great with or without the room correction. In contrast, the Alcons required more EQ (provided by the DIRAC system). This was largely due to the lack of having any built-in LF-MF crossover. I manually dialed in the crossover frequency and time delays between the LF and MF drivers before applying DIRAC.

The PMC and Alcons were level matched to +/- 0.25 dB using Benchmark LA4 line amplifiers. We could switch instantaneously using the remote control for the DAC3 converters. The ribbon tweeter in the Alcons is outstanding. The MF driver seems to compare well to the MF driver in the PMCs. The PMCs have more bass extension, and this was verified by the DIRAC measurements.

Overall, I was very impressed with the MR10 when they were driven by the Benchmark signal chain. With this chain, they sounded every bit as nice as our reference PMC MB2S monitors and maybe just a tad cleaner in the high end when turned up. Both have great bass extension, but our PMCs extend down to 18 Hz in our room, and this is a bit better than the MR10.

I liked them so well that we will using the MR10 monitors to demonstrate our AHB2 power amplifiers at AXPONA 2026.

 

[Stephan]

I created the recommended crossover in a miniDSP SHD and then applied DIRAC room correction to both sets of speakers.

What recommended crossover?

In our room, the DIRAC only needs to make minor tweaks to the PMCs and they sound great with or without the room correction. In contrast, the Alcons required more EQ (provided by the DIRAC system). This was largely due to the lack of having any built-in LF-MF crossover.

You're missing the entire DSP correction applied in the Alcons amps if you're not using them, that's why FR is off. What have you done about phase?
Have you talked to Tom or Walter about your specific setup? Alcons normally doesn't sell without Sentinel/Director amps as a package.

 

[John_Siau]

What recommended crossover?

You're missing the entire DSP correction applied in the Alcons amps if you're not using them, that's why FR is off. What have you done about phase?
Have you talked to Tom or Walter about your specific setup? Alcons normally doesn't sell without Sentinel/Director amps as a package.

Thank you for your comments.

I wasn't implying that anything is wrong with the frequency response of the MR10, just that external crossovers (with frequency and phase correction) must be applied because, by design, these are not built into the speakers. It is not easy to set the MR10 up with non-Alcons amplifiers, but it can be done. Obviously, if you purchase the Alcons Sentinel or Director amp with the MR10 then this is done for you.

In our tests, we were looking to eliminate the audible noise produced by the Director amps so that we could make a direct comparison to the PMC speakers (using Benchmark AHB2 amplifiers to drive both brands of speakers). There is also a significant reduction in amplifier THD when using the AHB2, but we were not set up to evaluate the audibility of the THD difference.

The main point of my post is that the MR10 speakers are very impressive! The ribbon tweeter is absolutely spectacular. The stock amplifiers were just too noisy to use in our listening room.

 

[Stephan]

It is not easy to set the MR10 up with non-Alcons amplifiers, but it can be done.

Thanks for responding. Would be interesting to know how you went along with it. It's not as easy as many think and in the end, one might be close, but not idea. Not just for the FR, but phase among other things as well. There are endless discussions on the web for the JBL M2 about custom filters/crossover and Storm Audio is providing them for their processors. Yet, while close, it's not optimal compared to the JBL amps and BSS BLU interfaces. Would be interesting to know how you went along with it and your results if you have measured it.

In our tests, we were looking to eliminate the audible noise produced by the Director amps so that we could make a direct comparison to the PMC speakers (using Benchmark AHB2 amplifiers to drive both brands of speakers).

Unfortunately that's the nature of the "PA amps". The Director is a little better than the Sentinel amps and the digital connection shows less noise than analogue, but it's something I've also been complaining about for years. Not that this is an exclusive Alcons problem, same for JBL, L-Acoustics and others.

 

[John_Siau]

Unfortunately that's the nature of the "PA amps". The Director is a little better than the Sentinel amps and the digital connection shows less noise than analogue, but it's something I've also been complaining about for years. Not that this is an exclusive Alcons problem, same for JBL, L-Acoustics and others.

In my opinion, the power amplifier should not produce noise or distortion exceeding 0 dB SPL at the listening position at any available power level when connected to a speaker. This goal is achieved with the AHB2, even when driving very high efficiency speakers. Unfortunately, most amplifiers fail to achieve this goal and that means that the music must mask the noise and distortion produced by the amplifier. Here is a paper on the topic:
How Loud is the Noise and Distortion Produced by Your Power Amplifier?

 

[MillRoadTech]

Regarding the Alcons 'Master Reference' amplifier that was mentioned earlier: does anyone have more information or a technical update on it? Also, do we have any idea about a potential release date for sale?

I'm expecting an update from the factory shortly. The latest information I have is that the thermal management for convection cooling is being finalised. This will likely now be a 3RU chassis. I will be using this amplifier for demonstrating the M-Series, and the various prototypes I have tried have an extremely low noise floor.