Emotiva Pro Airmotiv 5 Speakers Video Review

[admin]

I recently had a small speaker shootout that involved many of the products I had in for review. This included bookshelf speakers, active studio monitors, passive monitors and some towers. That's an eclectic mix, but within that smorgasbord of boxes were the Airmotiv 5's. These are Powered Studio Monitors and they're new from Emotiva Professional. The Airmotiv 5's are two-way powered speakers that can each receive either an RCA line level input, or a balanced XLR. There are three speakers in the Airmotiv studio monitor series, the 4, 5, and 6. We chose the middle of the pack, which has a single 5-1/4" polypropolene composite cone woofer and a 1" x 1-1/4" high-frequency folded-ribbon transducer. It's the ribbon tweeter that gives the speaker it's unique look and which also gives it it's signature sound.

Discuss "Emotiva Pro Airmotiv 5 Speakers Video Review" here. Read the article.

 

[jinjuku]

To our disappointment, there was no line level output on the speaker, so you'll need to use a preamp or a Y-cable in order to hook up a sub to fill in the ultra low frequencies.

They are studio monitors. They will most likely be down chain of an active cross over or fed from a mixing console where other channels will be routed to a subwoofer.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Each speaker is powered by a 50 watt RMS amplifier and, unlike many powered speakers, the left and right are completely identical, each with its own amp.

Again, these are ACTIVE pro monitors - this is the way they ALL are
If you need a POWERED multimedia speakers, look else where

 

[jinjuku]

Again, these are ACTIVE pro monitors - this is the way they ALL are
If you need a POWERED multimedia speakers, look else where

Aren't a lot of speakers completely identical? Scratching my head over that one.

 

[slipperybidness]

Aren't a lot of speakers completely identical? Scratching my head over that one.

What he's getting at is that many powered speakers for computers have the amps in only 1 speaker and run in a master/slave config. Like the audioengines.

 

[jinjuku]

Most studio monitors have amplification in each. This is so you can run multiple channels and even keep a mix source playing back for the musician(s) in booth.

Some clarification needs to be made in the review. If it's slightly confusing to people in the know, it has potential to completely baffle the uninitiated. Some assumptions are being made by the reviewer and unfortunately they are incorrect.

 

[Audioholics]

Again, these are ACTIVE pro monitors - this is the way they ALL are

Many, but not all. There have been several studio monitor's I've used had separate left and right. NS-10's, Monitor 1's, some JBLs, Samson, KRKs... I will admit, nearfield monitor's tend to be a lot more homogenized now than they did when I was doing studio work.

Given our readership, I hope you'll give me some grace if I applied the concept of "powered speaker" to these studio monitors in the review. I'm trying to meld the words together, if that's possible.

However, I fear I simply insulted all the studio engineers...!

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

What he's getting at is that many powered speakers for computers have the amps in only 1 speaker and run in a master/slave config. Like the audioengines.

Lets try to clear the misunderstandings:
AudioEngines Ax are high quality powered Multimedia speakers - they have one speaker with one stereo amp and each speaker have a passive crossover

All Pro Studio monitors (like Airmotiv) are built and designed to work as a single complete unit - each speaker have a dedicated amp (or even two amps - each for woofer/twitter - like my JBLs do )

They don't have sub outs, iDevice inputs and they typically don't even have a volume control on the front panel and even less consumer friendly sometimes only input is balanced one

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Many, but not all. There have been several studio monitor's I've used had separate left and right. NS-10's, Monitor 1's, some JBLs, Samson, KRKs... I will admit, nearfield monitor's tend to be a lot more homogenized now than they did when I was doing studio work.

Given our readership, I hope you'll give me some grace if I applied the concept of "powered speaker" to these studio monitors in the review. I'm trying to meld the words together, if that's possible.

However, I fear I simply insulted all the studio engineers...!

Ok, I agree - not all studio monitors are active.
NS-10 and Monitor 1 are passive monitors as well as famous around here b2030p, I mean to say if the Monitors are "powered" then they are powered separately


I think the article would be more accurate if it would explain the differences between Airmotiv monitors and more typical home multimedia speakers..
Having amps in each speaker and no sub integration is actually very typical for active pro-monitors

and I'll be first to admit - I'm not studio engineer , more of a keyboard warrior

 

[alphaiii]

I think the most important distinction to make is "powered" vs. "active"...

Powered meaning a built in amplifier to power speakers with a passive xover (you can have powered speakers where each speaker has it's own amp, but is still not active in that it's still a single amp channel powering both drivers after a passive xover)....

And active meaning each drive unit being separately amplified with no passive network "dividing" amplified signals to each driver...


At least that's how I've come to think of the two...feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

 

[KEW]

I think the most important distinction to make is "powered" vs. "active"...

Powered meaning a built in amplifier to power speakers with a passive xover (you can have powered speakers where each speaker has it's own amp, but is still not active in that it's still a single amp channel powering both drivers after a passive xover)....

And active meaning each drive unit being separately amplified with no passive network "dividing" amplified signals to each driver...


At least that's how I've come to think of the two...feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

I hope someone responds to this. My conceptual model is that you have to have a separate amp for each driver if the amps are downstream of the crossover. But I don't know if this is right or not.

 

[Goosey]

Yo, yo

I was thinking about getting the Aimotiv 5's to be used as a hifi, but the reviewer's saying "No, use it for nearfield!"? Most disconcerting.

Are they that picky about placement because they're nearfield, and they're just that bad at a distance?