Monster Monitors

Recently there was a lot of laughing and joking and beautiful music being played back in the Sage Arts Studio. Joyful commotion emanated throughout the Sage House. Turns out, the studio had just installed a new pair of B&W 800D speakers.

What’s the big deal about this pair of speakers?

Chief sound engineer Daniel Protheroe explains: Try painting a landscape looking through a small dirty window...

Now try cleaning the window…Yeah, that’s better, easier to paint more accurately.

Now try enlarging the window ten times…Wow, even better…even easier to create an accurate painting.

Now break the window out of its frame…Holy shit!!! No reflections or distortions, way easier to make an accurate painting of the landscape.

Next we might want to tear down the wall, ban all pollution-creating machines from the planet, move to somewhere in Arizona where the air is clean and dry and then we might have a 98% clear view of what we are trying to paint...or give up painting, buy a pair of B&W 800D speakers, and get into recording and mixing!

Our monitor speakers are our window to the sonic world. Recording and mixing through a dirty sonic window doesn’t tell us what’s really going on. The big clear window the B&W 800Ds give allows us to hear the biggest sounds in all their majesty as well as minute subtleties in tremendous detail. – Daniel Protheroe, Sage's chief sound engineer

For you audiophiles out there, Joe Pittman, Vice President, Pacific Northwest Audio Society, paints a more technical picture of the installation of B&W 800D speakers and his impression of Sage Arts Studio:

When Graham Skardon at Definitive Audio’s Seattle store told me he had sold Sage Arts Studio a new pair of B&W 800D speakers, I was impressed and also thought that the studio must be something special. Later I asked Graham if it would be possible to tag along when he installed the 800Ds.

The studio has excellent acoustics due to non-parallel walls and application of diffusion panels. Since the acoustic treatments don’t absorb too much sound, the music reproduction is lively and not too damped. After the initial positioning of the speakers, Graham started voicing the 800Ds with Paul Simon’s cut of “That’s Where I Belong” from You’re The One album. Right out of the box and with no break-in, the 800Ds were fabulous.

After zeroing in the best position, it got even better.

Graham joked, “It should have been more difficult to achieve that level of sound quality, and there should have been more pain involved, but when it works this well, be happy.”

I want to also give credit for the good sound results to the outstanding studio room design, acoustic treatments, front end electronics, and balanced power which all contributed. They had recently removed the meters along the topside of the custom console because they blocked the sound from the speakers. The speakers are supported by a raised floor on concrete so that the midrange driver is at ear level. Despite the fact that the large console is between the speakers and listening position, the imaging was exceptional. They plan to experiment with other acoustical treatments on the wall behind the speakers and beef-up the support for the speakers in the future.

After Graham finished the set-up, several CDs were played; House of a Different Color, Dan Wheetman’s album recorded at the studio, was particularly fine. Other Sage Arts recordings exhibited the same high quality engineering and performances.

Matt said he prefers the Forssell and Genex DACs to the Meitners. And he has tried the Meitners. I find it interesting that of the current high-end audio and pro DACs that I have heard lately that have impressed me (the Forssell, dCS and Meitner DACs), they are all upsampling varieties. Daniel and Matt are very knowledgeable and it is encouraging to know that there are professionals who still care about sound quality in the industry! I was very impressed with their previous recordings and I’m sure the new B&W 800Ds will allow them to make even better ones. That’s what happens when you raise the bar. I really enjoyed the B&W 800Ds and Sage Arts studio—it was a revelation.

Thanks to Daniel and Matt for letting me tag along, I appreciate it! – Joe Pittman, Vice President, Pacific Northwest Audio Society

For more information see Pacific Northwest Audio Society web site www.audiosociety.org and October 2005 Audioletter

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