Hi folks
Soon I may be in the position of upgrading monitors...
And looking for 3way contenders.
I have at the moment (but soon to be sold) the EVE SC208, which I love.
Before that I had the Dynaudio BM6a MK1 an other great monitor, really liked them, but the SC208 are a better monitor more modern polished and linear sound...
So I am undecided between the SC307 and LYD48 on paper are similar same freq. response and same SPL.
I have a budget of 2200 euros tops, I'd love to have a pair of KH310, but it's a 1000 on top... unless I could find a used pair for no more than 2500...
any opinions and advices would be very welcome.

 

Hi there,

I own the EVEs SC307, after an extensive personal shootouts between demo units and even try-before-buy thing here in London across speakers like Genelec 8050, Hedd Type07, Dyns LYD48, Adam S2V, Adam A77X, Adam A8X(so bad, especially on the mids), Unity Rocks MK2, EVE SC307 and Focal Twins.

I realized why them EVEs got such a huge reputation in such short amount of time since the company started, their facebook page being full of hundres of pics of many professionals using their speakers
Many great rock music sound engineers went for the EVE mid-fields/mains, also If you're an EDM guy, MOTi, Martin Jensen and Oliver Heldens works on EVE speakers as well, you can find them on youtube in ther studio sessions.

From my shootout findings, I've learnt that most of the time, the brand name/reputation can cost you more money than the value you actually get. Genelecs were ''alright'' but not that much inviting, Hedds sounded really condensed and too ''blended'' in the passages with lots of instruments playing at the same time, ''undynamic'' in some way.. like the tiniest details would vanish completely. Dyns LYD48 sounded nice and inviting but in a kinda strange midrangey way, like you could feel something not being right in the mids and distracting, regardless of having a dedicated mid driver, good overall amount of details but to be honest with you? if i'd have to choose between dyn lyd48 and 2way dyn bm15a, i'd go for bm15a without thinking twice about. I personally think that BM15a's are better than lyd48 (a tad more expensive as well which kinda explains it in this case). ADAM S2V, the new Sline 2way model sounded great, beautiful highs and clean overall tone but not as panoramic stereo image as the EVE SC307(s2v is double the price of 307 lol, but eves still held better in comparison). Unity rocks mk2 sounded disappointing for the money and hype, at least compared to EVE SC307. ADAM A77X sounded kinda overly saturated on the highs in a way of giving the signal path an ''ADAM'' sound, but you're supposed to listen to that pure signal path in the most transparent way possible and that Art-X tweeter is really making details OVERLY and unnecessarily detailed that can fool and distract a beginner into thinking that the adams are more revealing against other pair o monitors in a head-to-head comparison, when it's not really the case. Also the same-old ADAM bass ports farts problem on high SPL, loose and weightier/faker bass reproduction (much tighter and accurate on the EVEs) and so on. I used to work on ADAM A7X in the past and I always ended up distracted trying to fix overly-emphasized details in the high area that required no fix, many times asking other sound engineers friends to check out a problematic mix, asking them If they noticed the ''those ugly high-hats with some phasey weird pokes'' and they'd end up asking me back ''wth you're talking about??'' then checking the mix on a very old pair o ESI Aktiv 08 monitors I realized it wasn't actually that bad.
ADAM A8X is like A7X but with more bass and worse mids, uggh.
Focal Twins were similar to the EVEs in some way, but kinda sterile, boring and with a tad of hi-fi-ness to them which still, wasn't ''inviting'' enough and also not as good stereo image as the EVEs.

I ended up with the EVEs after I realized, both inside the store and also in my room, that these guys at EVE truly managed to create an amazing value for money (financially wise) and when it comes to SOUND, these are the Ideal kind of studio monitors which not only gives you the right and undistracting amount of details to work with, but they also sounded pleasant and so much more inviting to work on. It's like enjoying the entire production/mixing sesh on them with absolutely no ear fatigue despite the tad-bright signature they pack as default (but tweakable If you need it less bright). It wasn't bright enough in my room though, i actually had to add +1db on the highs due to the room measurements findings as the top-end was a tad over-absorbed so I set them right for my room and they sound amazing. There's absolutely no harshness about them, you'll notice that yourself if you try them. You feel surrounded and inside the sound, triggering those goosebumps when you listen to amazingly-crafted records and stuff, making you jam and dance in your seat. At high SPL, these EVEs sounded better than ADAM A77X, clear as **ck with no trace of distortion compared to ADAMs which started ''farting'' a bit.
My personal opinion - EVE SC307 - you get more than you pay, great DSP limiting which is handy for ''dangerous'' mics preamp spikes in your signal path so you won't blow them up by accident, even the Nebula/Acustica plugins spikes sometimes and I told myself Thank-God that these EVEs comes with the protection. Very accurate and linear and unbelievably great to listen to which really turns your sound work into joy. The more you enjoy your work the more inspired you'll stay overall as well. Also the desk filter is handy too, that'll help if you have a reflective desk surface between you and the monitors. Also EVE Audio is not shy of posting the detailed freq response graphs for each speaker right on the main product page without any hiding tendency. Also their customer support is top notch, I've got a full detailed and fast answer on their frigging facebook page (lol) and also after I sent them a pic with my new speakers, Roland Stenz got in touch with me personally to tell me more about his vision and also how the actual design and i'll quote: ''there are a lot of room effects to take into account, just a flat frequency response doesn't mean so much. More important is the overall energy emission of the speaker. Because of that I listen to many different music genres in many different room sizes and shapes besides all the engineering work (measurements etc.) which allows to get a very good impression in interacting of speakers in different rooms.''

I might end up being told off by others on this topic, getting called an EVE fanboy and stuff, but I already stated in my post ''personally'' many times and my purchase choice was purely based on both trying before buying, demoing and also experience with many different studio monitors in the last 7 years.
Evorax

 

Evorax
my hats off to you for such a detailed post.
Best comparison ever
I also have the eve sc208 and I love their sound so linear.
The bass is deep and punchy best 2ways I ever owned, I had also the dynaudio bm6a mk1, good monitors fun to work on them,but not as detailed.
Had focal cms 65 too they were ok good for mixing but not as entertaining as the bm6a. Had also the APS klasik, for the money are very fine monitors beautiful sound but at moderate SPL they distort, ideal for small rooms but no power. The EVE has it all accurate but and punchy and so smooth, I think they are perfect monitors for dance music.
But the best listening experience I had was with Neumann KH310 amazing monitors.
So curious to hear the 307's

 

The EVEs 307 has a slightly better midrange than SC208 due to the reduced woofer size, more accurate bellow 300hz as there's an extra woofer which exclusively represents just that freq area alone. Also the stereo image is better due to it's overall design. I got them running along with my yamaha subwoofer which extends down to 22hz (on paper).

Aps Klasik is a great mixing tool, indeed the high-spl is a no-no on them unfortunately. (SC307 does utilizes the 250watts really well in this case and remains clean on loud levels).

Aps Aeon MK2(not mk1) are amazing tho, but kinda expensive and I'd rather go for Amphion One18, which btw I'm looking forward to buy in the next couple of months.

The speakers I currently own are EVE SC307, Yamaha HS8, Dynaudio DBM50, Yamaha HS8S subwoofer.
When Amphios will arrive, Dynaudio DBM50s will leave. The others will stay.

Other amazing speakers to consider, that I tested and demo'ed a couple of times and not just once, are murno sonic Eggs, Spiral Groove Studio One and Sonodyne 600. The eggs and spiral groove ones are like ATC sm25 comparable.

If anywhere In the future I will move into a larger room with my studio, I'll get the EVE SC3010(8000$ pair) Goes head to head with ATC SCM50ASL that's 15.000$ a pair. There's no goofing around spreading wrong intel on the forums, I was amazed when I heard them here in London against them ATC. Also the SC3010 freq response graph explains it:

That's what I'd call flat as a pancake lol.
So my "dream" in a large enough room would be EVE SC3010 as mains, EVE SC307 as Midfields and Amphion One15/18 as nearfields.

For now I'm more than happy with my 307 for both nearfield and midfield, using the other speakers I own as second reference from time to time to double check mixes.

Evorax

 

For the price i would go for the EVEs hands down.
Listening to Evorax saying he tried the Focal Twins (among others) and preferred the EVEs, is kind of funny, no offense of course.
The Twins are in a different ballpark in terms of power (400w rms vs 250 rms), frequency and transient response, stereo image and price of course, with the Focals while being quite more expensive, they have sold many more units than the EVEs. For those who know what Focal/JM Lab is, the Twins are essentially a much more expensive Utopia series speaker with a cheaper amp circuitry + cabinet. Also, the SC307 converts the signal straight from the analog in to digital and includes a DSP which adds a 3 ms delay to the signal no matter what. Chances are, if you already have a serious ad-da converter/monitor controller, you 'll be put off having to undergo one more conversion phase, because the SC307 has no digital in.
Ps: I won't bother posting reviews or diagrams, the web is full with them. Roland Stenz's EVE brand is making some fine monitors. But its also funny, to the extent of fanboy signs, accusing the Adams when Stenz was "Mr. ADAM" himself until 2012 with the EVEs being essentially a close relative to the Adam speaker line.
Cheers

 

I'm already familiar with the ADAM sound and thr EVEs definitely doesn't sound like it, so whoever said mr. Stenz was Mr. Adam they're wrong indeed.

Regarding the twins, In all my comparisons I tried my best to not exceed 80-85db when I was judging the exact tone of the speaker.
As I said, to me they sounded similar in overall performance, twins sounding colder and sterile having an almost fake-like hi-fi tendency that wasn't blended enough with the actual sterile and analytic sound(if what I'm saying even makes sense).
Eve's sounded warmer and more "enough" in the sonic ingredients to keep me excited and "addicted" to working with sound and music.

I know there's a big price difference when it comes to the twins, but EVE's Audio trick here was to actually invest as less as possible in the cabinet and other "features" and focus on everything else that mattered more for the overall sound. That's why you don't see any waveguides or overly round corners on them, for sure. And also the sweetspot is not that great on the EVEs, the obvious horizontal sweetspot which I noticed due to lack of tweeter waveguide, but as long as I have the speakers properly set and I stick to my cozy mixing spot in the room, the lack of waveguide is more than workable. But anyway, I consider a waveguide more of a handy feature rather than an essential or sonic details related one.

Cheers

 

IS there a reason they're called ADAM and EVE. a sly nod maybe to ex--company?

 

Someone hasn't done their homework. Because Stenz was the founder of Adam back in 1999 and CEO until 2011, and as @Pronto said even the name implies that this new company and speakers carry a heritage just like Eve was supposedly made out of Adam's flesh.
http://www.eve-audio.com/index.php?page=story
Also for the Twins: This is not a speaker that you just "press play on it". Ignorant sellers may put a pair on a stand and fiddle away but the Twins need a "burn-in" period of about a week playing in low volume, in order for the speaker to provide max listening experience and response. If not handled properly they may indeed sound cold. Personally, i 've yet to hear another speaker up to a 10k price, reproducing more accurately and transparently, any kind of reference records and cds. I find there is nothing fake in being able to spot notes, mistakes and reverb tails that you never heard before on recordings. The Twins for me, is the cheapest example of where and how hi-fi and pro audio collide.
With that said i still believe the Eve is a great speaker. It just comes with some compromises some may not want.
Thnx for listening.
Ps: The new Adam line could also be a great contender. I attended an S3H demonstration recently and i loved it. Overall it had the Adam signature without the faults of the previous series.

 

I apologize for not expressing myself correctly and creating such confussion. I wasn't trying to say that Stenz has no roots nor past with ADAM, I actually meant it in a metaphorical way (and i clearly failed) regarding the sound signature of the monitors alone, meaning that ''Roland Stenz sound'' does not sounds like ''Adam sound'' under a different cabinet/design. That's what I meant about ''whoever said mr. Stenz is Mr. Adam they're wrong indeed'', just the sound signature of the speakers, because I found many people trying to avoid demoing the EVE monitors solely on the ''I bet it sounds exactly like the ADAM speakers I owned or used to work on because Stenz is one of the former co-founders'' idea alone.
Business wise, I know that Stenz used to be responsible of the ''electronic components'' side of ADAM studio monitors. If there's a Mr. ADAM, IMO that would be Heinz from the current HEDD company, who actually designed most of the ADAM series.

Indeed, I've demoed them this year in July against the Hedd Type 30 and I preferred the S3H over the Hedds. The type30s felt a bit low-mid scooped with an over-analytical vibe but the stereo image was great. S3H on the other hand had the same great stereo image but with an overall tone more evened out and involving. I don't know if this is the right term but HEDDs sounded more ''technical'' while the S3H sounded more musical and involving with sweeter top-end.

(off topic) Btw, for about the same money as the Twins, you get the passive Amphion One18s which even beats the Focal SM9 who costs twice the price of amphions but sounds like a pile o phasey boxes if you compare them head to head with the Amphions. Amphions monitors sounds like 50.000$ hi-fi speakers, scary stereo image that almost makes you think there's a haas effect going on almost every sound or song you play back through them, lol. The phase coherence in these speakers is above anything from Focal/EVE/Adam/Dynaudio in my book.
Amphions are the only speakers which makes me dislike PMC TwoTwo models or Barefoots MM27 mk2 in comparison. Barefoots are overly-detailed which can distract you spending dozens of hours fixing unnecessary details that only the Barefoots owners can hear, LOL. while the Amphions gives you the right and ideal amount of details which (as others may have said) improves the mixing workflow by a lot. That's why these speakers are my next purchase on the list. I even demoed PSI A21m against the One18s and PSIs sounded like you could tell how the sound was coming out of each driver in almost a separate way, like the crossover was kinda obvious but I only noticed that lack of cohesion when compared head to head with the Amphions. On their own PSIs sounds amazing but One18s sounds more like a whole rather than pieces puzzled together by each driver in the cabinet.

Evorax​

 

Last edited: Nov 28, 2017

@Evorax
Hey no worries my friend. You can put half the blame on me when i referred to Stenz as mr.Adam without getting into detail how and why. Surely Heinz was more involved with the overall technical design of the Adam series. But i'd say both played a crucial role to Adam's -almost instant- success worldwide.
Btw, this new S3H, apart from all the sheet spec and audiophile jargon talk, is one mtfkn loud -speaker lol. It did remind me how i love my studio job.
Cheers mate

 

Yes indeed, S3H are scary loud. When I demoed them in store against the Hedd Type 30 , I must admit I was kinda afraid to touch the volume knob on the Neve Genesys G32 that much where the monitors were hooked to even though the knob was really smooth with a broaaaad rotary range. While trying to crank them up, I felt like they'd go louder and louder unlimitedly with no distortion, amazing headroom. 2700Watts/pair that's tremendous headroom in a midfield monitor.

Cheers

 

I own a pair a SC407 after many years of blasting a pair of Focal Twins 6be . Both are lovely speakers but In my studio
the EVE's just sounded better. My personal advice is to also buy a fairly good power conditioner such a Furman PM8E as I have blown 3 eve speakers over the years and the studio next door to me has blown 2 lol

 

Hey guys what about the Neumann kh310? You mentioned most of the contenders but none on the kh, I think they are top dogs too expensive for me but when I heard them I was amazed.

 

I can't really speak about the KH310, I heard them like 3 years ago, sounded great at that time but there was something about it's bass that I didn't like and made me skip it t , so I can't remember right now in order to express mt opinion. I heard people praising the Hedd Type20 as sounding better than the KH310 but I don't know exactly in what regards so that's all I know so far. Tbh?
Save the money and get the Amphions, better than most nearfields under 10k for mixing and listening. Translates perfectly.

Even better than the genelec 8351s for example.