Quickly, get on the phone to literally every active monitor manufacturer on the planet, because it seems you've picked up on some things that every single one of them have missed, in every monitor they've ever released...

 

Damn... Things are getting out of hand, that is crazy.

 

Seems you have absolutely no clue about amplifiers, speakers or electronics at all. That's just plain nonsense.

Physically, a loudspeaker (standard dynamic speaker driver with a magnet, a voice coil and a paper cone) is only able to transduce a very little amount of the energy put into it into sound pressure. Most of it is just heating up the voice coil. Try to touch the magnet of a woofer running loud for some time. Speaker drivers are indeed very inefficient and require a lot of amplifier power.

Modern class D amplifiers can be very effective and deliver over 90% to the speaker and under 10% into heat. Standard AB-designs, which are still used in many monitors deliver between 30-80%, depending on output level, that's physics.

All amplifiers and speakers are producing heat, depending on size, amp design, level and cooling system. Years ago, horns were often used to maximize the efficiency of speaker drivers, because high power amps were heavy and expensive. But horns have a very uneven frequency response and directivity pattern. Today, highly efficient class D amps can deliver very much power to modern speaker drivers with very even response and directivity at the expense of more input power.

Generally, modern class d amped near or mid field monitors should use much less power than a computer and lcd display.

 

Last edited: Jul 31, 2022

I noticed a slight drop in my studio's electricity bill after switching to Octopus Energy. They’ve got a good rate and offer clear info on usage, which helps when tracking how much power the monitors and other gear are pulling over time. Made it easier to figure out what’s actually costing money and what’s just noise.

 

Last edited: Apr 22, 2025

Which monitors would that be? That's pretty low.

 

After years of testing, I have come to the conclusion that since monitors become hot to the touch, the best way for me to counteract this phenomena is to rename the patches that I use for all my synths, drum machines and effects as well as renaming the track inputs of the outboard gear that I use. An example would be a bass patch that was previously named Hanging Low Today that has been changed to Low 20's, an airy pad once called 3D now is renamed Ice Cube, and what may sound silly but works like a charm is even renaming album titles stored on a drive. Zappa's Hot Rats turned into Cold Varmints and was able to measurably decrease the heat emanating by a full 35° Fahrenheit when played. The hardware opto compressor input changed from Audioscape to Winter Wonderland and the 1073 to Absolute Zero. Give it a try and I'm sure that your own monitors will appreciate the change.