the box MA150

Ihan kelpo ja riittävät wattimäärät omaava monitori niin isompiin kuin pienempiinkin tilaisuuksiin. Sijoittaminen lavatilanteissa on helppoa kaapin muodon ansiosta. Sen voi laittaa lattialle osoittamaan yläviistoon kuulijaa kohti, jonkin korokkeen päälle tai sitten 35mm:n putkelliseen kaiutin telineeseen.

Volumesäätö, ekvalisaattori sekä suoraan laitteeseen kytkettävän mikrofonin volumesäätö ovat aivan riittävät ja vastaavat odotuksiani.

Liitännät ovat riittävät sillä tästä aktiivisesta monitori laitteesta saa suoraan ulos toisen (passiivisen) kontrollin kaapin kytkemällä se etupaneelin Speakon liittimeen. MA 150:seen saa kytkettyä myös toisen, aktiivisen monitorin, myöskin etupaneelissa sijaitsevaan XLR liittimeen. Etupaneelissa on myös Line Out volume säätö.

Ehkä ainoana miinuksena voisi sanoa kaiuttimen runsaan painon, mutta toisaalta kun tiedätään, että mitä painavampi tuote sitä laadukkaammista osista se on koottu :)

Omistuksessa kaksi vastaavaa monitoria ja molemmat ovat reissaneet keikoilla suht ahkerasti. Vienoista ennakko-odotuksista huolimatta molemmat ovat pelanneet ainakin toistaiseksi erinomaisesti. Stand-by nappula ei tosin ole toiminut ikinä, mutta eipä sille ole käyttöä ollutkaan.

Äänenlaatu nyt ei tietenkään ole mitään hifi-luokka, mutta hinta-laatusuhde on kuitenkin kohdallaan. Pienille ja keskisuurille lavoile volaakin irtoaa ihan riittävästi. Miinuksena täytyy mainita line-in, joka on pelkästään xlr. Balansoitu on toki aina hyvä, mutta monissa miksereissä sendit on plugilla, joten väliin tarvii hieman eksoottisemman xlr-stereoplugi -piuhan. Myös pääteulostulo passiivimonitorille voisi olla vaikka moderni speakon-plugi -hybridi, joka mahdollistaisi monipuolisemmat kytkennät "normaaleilla" piuhoilla.

Summattuna plussat ja miinukset:

+ Volaa löytyy kivasti
+ EQ
+ Säätimet selkeästi etupaneelissa
+ Luotettava
+ Edullinen

- Aika raskas
- Stand-by nappula ei ainakaan itsellä toimi
- Kytkennät saattaa vaatia omituisia piuhoja tai adaptereita

Soundi on oikein miellyttävä ja eq toimii erinomaisesti. Suunnittelussa olisi kuitenkin hieman toivomisen varaa. Kantokahva saisi olla mielummin sivussa kuin päädyssä helpottaen roudaamista. Myös johtojen paikat saisivat olla muualla... mielellään takana. Silloin ne eivät olisi edessä, jos monitoria käyttää PA:n yläpäänä (niin kuin itse käytän). Hintaluokassaan kuitenkin varsin toimiva monitori ja äänen suhteen ei ole aihetta valittaa. Pienillä parannuksilla täydellinen valinta erityisesti tiukalle budjetille. :)

I really feel the need to address some points made very unfairly in a previous (sour grapes) review that could bias some people unjustly.
The standby feature on these monitors is just that! A standby feature! It wont light up when you plug the monitor in, it's not supposed to! The standby light comes on when the monitor is plugged in and turned on, but hasn't received an input signal for an hour. It is there to allow the unit to remain plugged in and powered on without consuming too much power the same as your TV, or any other electrical item with a standby feature! This units standby feature works as it should!
It is a reasonably bulky and weighty enclosure, but I like that, it gives an air of quality about it, oh, and somewhere to rest my kick tower against to stop it creeping forward, and it certainly is no where near too heavy for any normal person to carry around (the guy from the Mr. Muscles advert springs to mind here!)
Sound quality when playing my Roland TD8 through it is very good! Cymbals sound natural and a decent mid weight to the toms.
The Bass is a little light as has been mentioned in other reviews. My take on why this seems more apparent when using for an Edrum setup is this. If you turn the monitor up to a point where it is actually louder than the acoustic noise being generated from you kicking the kick pedal against the kick tower pad, then you can actually hear a decent amount of bottom end from the monitor for a kick drum. I'm quite a heavy player as I normally play an acoustic kit and need to be to cut through the racket of my band! So I do actually produce a lot of acoustic noise from my kick pad when playing. This is probably a lot louder than what you may believe, so the monitor needs to be quite loud to overcome it and start masking it with it's own sound. This again is probably another reason people say it has no bottom end, as they may not realise that what they are hearing is more acoustic noise from there kick tower being struck, than from what the monitor itself is producing if the monitor volume is set too low. I find that I have to have it at 3/4 volume before you can really start to appreciate the sound of the monitor over the acoustic sound being created kicking the pad! This volume is too loud really for me to practice for any length of time because of neighbours.
as far as the clipping issue goes, I have to drive it to close on full volume before the kick drum starts to cause clipping!
I watched a video where drum monitors were being compared before buying. (headphones are essential to really appreciate the difference in each monitor being compared)
Box MA120 was in the line up, and actually scored second place! It sounded great in the video, only suffering slightly less bottom end than the winner. But what you have to realise is the monitors were being recorded with high quality mic's placed directly in front of them so no acoustic clicking and thudding of the actual kit was being recorded, just the pure monitor sound. I nearly bought the MA120, but decided the 15" driver, and louder amp of the MA150 would be more beneficial. I think I made the right choice, as all this acoustic noise not demonstrated in the comparison video may well have been too much for the MA120's volume to cope with, but that is just my speculation.
So my conclusion for an Edrummer is that, if you can play loud enough for the the monitor to drown out the acoustic noise you are generating, ( which as stated, is actually a lot louder than one might actually realise!) then this monitor will sound great. If you can't, then you will be hearing more acoustic thudding from your playing of the entire kit, and not a true representation of the monitors sound, so would be pretty pointless. So if quiet practice is essential to you, you are probably better off sticking with headphones for quality sound in your ears, and just letting the neighbours suffer the loud acoustic thudding of the kit. But if you can happily drive this unit high enough to drown out that noise then it really is quite good at it's job!