This is a review, detailed measurements, EQ and listening tests of PreSonus Sceptre S6 studio monitor (powered active speaker). It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $899 each.
I must say, the "duck bill" shaped waveguide on the coaxial tweeter is the first one for me. It is doubly strange since it almost completely covers the 6 inch woofer. I worry about reflections back and forth from the woofer if the crossover is high enough to allow it. The slot port is larger than usual as is the overall cabinet which feels quite substantial for a monitor with a 6 inch driver.
This is an active DSP speaker with bi-amplification.
Searching online, I see a review dating back to 2014 so the design has been around for more than a decade now. It is stocked and sold so still current.
I very much like the usability of controls in the back:
There are LEDs that light to tell you the setting. I left the all as "Linear" and adjusted the Level for minimum (it was quite sensitive). Measurement axis was center of the tweeter.
PreSonus Sceptre S6 Monitor Measurements
As usual, we start with our suite of anechoic frequency response measurements performed on Klippel NFS:
Story starts really good with deep and flat bass extension. We then have some disturbances around 1 kHz which are likely caused by cabinet. But then we see clear signs of reflection interference from 2 to almost 10 kHz, caused by that large waveguide. The wavelength has to get small enough relative to the distance of the waveguide for this to happen. It peaks around 4 kHz. This will be angle dependent as we see here:
Notice how at -30 degree, that peak becomes a dip. This is reflected in our very messy early reflections:
Resulting in the same for our predicted in-room response:
There is also some elevation in the treble which I am assuming can be partially corrected using the setting in the back.
We can see the manifestation of this issue in our directivity measurements:
Instead of the waveguide giving us controlled directivity, it gives us narrow and uneven dispersion.
Vertical response is even narrower, which again doesn't do what coaxial drivers normally deliver:
Near-field response shows port/cabinet resonances:
And same interference pattern in lower treble.
I was surprised to hear distinct low frequency distortion regardless of level. Measurements back this:
The woofer is very uncomfortable being cross so high, with very high level of distortion in multiple regions. Tweeter is kind of OK but close to end of its range, it too gets out of control with very high level of distortion.
Here is my standard distortion graphs:
CSD/waterfall as expected shows many resonances:
Here is the step response which is rather uneven:
PreSounus Sceptre S6 Listening Tests and Equalization
The first impression is the warm and solid bass response. Research shows that bass is responsible for 30% of our preference and this speaker backs that. I could not immediately detect faults until I created a couple of narrow filters to pull the peaks in the interference region:
The difference as noticeable but subtle. It simply removed some of the brightness. It is not clear that it would win in any blind test but it was my preference to have them there.
Sub-bass at low playback levels was handled well in the way the speaker simply filtered them out. We could predict this from the sharp drop off in bass frequency response.
Crank up the levels though, with just about any content and you start to hear distortion in the form of warbling and weird artifacts in lower frequencies. Keep cranking it up and it gets worse and worse -- again just like what the measurements predicted. Granted, there is decent volume there before this gets out of hand and with two speakers, you may be able to avoid most of its impact.
Noter that there is tweeter hiss that is audible starting from 1 meter/3+ feet in my space that has a bit of computer fan noise.
Conclusions
When I look at a speaker, I always imagine what path a light source would take if it were coming from the drivers. Here, it is easy to imagine that it would start to bounce from the waveguide and go back and forth. At the right frequency, you get constructive addition or subtraction, causing the waviness we see in the response. This could have been partially mitigated by crossing the woofer lower. This would have also lowered the distortion coming out of that 6 inch driver. Then again, I am not sure what the large waveguide is doing for us. Yes, it allows the company to advertise "CoActual" response and that has marketing value. But objectively it didn't deliver on any promise from such an architecture.
Overall, there are some good ideas here. The subjective performance is actually better than what the measurements show -- if you keep levels reasonable. Alas, at $900 there is now stiff competition from much better executed designs.
Putting it all together, I can't recommend the PreSonus Sceptre S6 monitor.
------------
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/
I must say, the "duck bill" shaped waveguide on the coaxial tweeter is the first one for me. It is doubly strange since it almost completely covers the 6 inch woofer. I worry about reflections back and forth from the woofer if the crossover is high enough to allow it. The slot port is larger than usual as is the overall cabinet which feels quite substantial for a monitor with a 6 inch driver.
This is an active DSP speaker with bi-amplification.
Searching online, I see a review dating back to 2014 so the design has been around for more than a decade now. It is stocked and sold so still current.
I very much like the usability of controls in the back:
There are LEDs that light to tell you the setting. I left the all as "Linear" and adjusted the Level for minimum (it was quite sensitive). Measurement axis was center of the tweeter.
PreSonus Sceptre S6 Monitor Measurements
As usual, we start with our suite of anechoic frequency response measurements performed on Klippel NFS:
Story starts really good with deep and flat bass extension. We then have some disturbances around 1 kHz which are likely caused by cabinet. But then we see clear signs of reflection interference from 2 to almost 10 kHz, caused by that large waveguide. The wavelength has to get small enough relative to the distance of the waveguide for this to happen. It peaks around 4 kHz. This will be angle dependent as we see here:
Notice how at -30 degree, that peak becomes a dip. This is reflected in our very messy early reflections:
Resulting in the same for our predicted in-room response:
There is also some elevation in the treble which I am assuming can be partially corrected using the setting in the back.
We can see the manifestation of this issue in our directivity measurements:
Instead of the waveguide giving us controlled directivity, it gives us narrow and uneven dispersion.
Vertical response is even narrower, which again doesn't do what coaxial drivers normally deliver:
Near-field response shows port/cabinet resonances:
And same interference pattern in lower treble.
I was surprised to hear distinct low frequency distortion regardless of level. Measurements back this:
The woofer is very uncomfortable being cross so high, with very high level of distortion in multiple regions. Tweeter is kind of OK but close to end of its range, it too gets out of control with very high level of distortion.
Here is my standard distortion graphs:
CSD/waterfall as expected shows many resonances:
Here is the step response which is rather uneven:
PreSounus Sceptre S6 Listening Tests and Equalization
The first impression is the warm and solid bass response. Research shows that bass is responsible for 30% of our preference and this speaker backs that. I could not immediately detect faults until I created a couple of narrow filters to pull the peaks in the interference region:
The difference as noticeable but subtle. It simply removed some of the brightness. It is not clear that it would win in any blind test but it was my preference to have them there.
Sub-bass at low playback levels was handled well in the way the speaker simply filtered them out. We could predict this from the sharp drop off in bass frequency response.
Crank up the levels though, with just about any content and you start to hear distortion in the form of warbling and weird artifacts in lower frequencies. Keep cranking it up and it gets worse and worse -- again just like what the measurements predicted. Granted, there is decent volume there before this gets out of hand and with two speakers, you may be able to avoid most of its impact.
Noter that there is tweeter hiss that is audible starting from 1 meter/3+ feet in my space that has a bit of computer fan noise.
Conclusions
When I look at a speaker, I always imagine what path a light source would take if it were coming from the drivers. Here, it is easy to imagine that it would start to bounce from the waveguide and go back and forth. At the right frequency, you get constructive addition or subtraction, causing the waviness we see in the response. This could have been partially mitigated by crossing the woofer lower. This would have also lowered the distortion coming out of that 6 inch driver. Then again, I am not sure what the large waveguide is doing for us. Yes, it allows the company to advertise "CoActual" response and that has marketing value. But objectively it didn't deliver on any promise from such an architecture.
Overall, there are some good ideas here. The subjective performance is actually better than what the measurements show -- if you keep levels reasonable. Alas, at $900 there is now stiff competition from much better executed designs.
Putting it all together, I can't recommend the PreSonus Sceptre S6 monitor.
------------
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/
