Auratone 5C Black Single Passive Studio Monitor (Single Unit)

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When it comes to studio monitors, there are plenty of brands and spec lists to sift through. You're looking for a model that's going to give you the most neutral audio image possible, clean of any 'pleasant' Hi-Fi-style EQ-ing and free of any added colour. So, your go-to monitors will probably be a full-range set with a library's worth of good specifications - which might make you wonder why you would need to invest in an Auratone 5C monitor. The answer is actually pretty simple: your studio monitors give you nothing but near-perfect sound. But how is your audience going to be listening to that carefully crafted mix? Through a Bluetooth speaker? A car radio? Maybe an old stereo? Basically, how will your mix be treated by a set of standard, less-than-perfect speakers? This is exactly where this passive monitor comes in.

The Auratone 5C Monitor: Features

Aurotone speakers present a tried-and-tested method for checking your mixes on a less powerful system, so when you emerge from the perfect bubble created by your full-range studio monitors and hear them through an Auratone for the first time, it might be a shock. But these monitors sound 'bad' for a really good reason. These are, in principle, mid-range speakers, so there's no deep-diving woofer, no tweeter, so the frequencies only start to respond at around 70Hz, and as soon as they hit 15kHz, all the fun is over. And (this is where it gets interesting) there's no crossover. You're looking at a single speaker mounted in a cabinet. There is no region where phase shifts can occur, so the speaker simply delivers limited yet tight sound without doing anything else.

Why Use Them?

Basically, if you want to know what your work is going to sound like through an inferior system, then this speaker will prove invaluable. If you stay locked inside that studio monitor bubble with your beautifully deep bass, then that 8 inch woofer and 30 to 50Hz frequency range might give you a false sense of security. This Aurotone speaker is like a necessary wake-up call. Fire one up and all that bass disappears, leaving it up to the skill of the mixing engineer to tweak the overtones so that you still get a sense of the bass, even through a mid-range-focussed speaker system. You will never get that original depth back, but your listener will definitely get to hear a better mix through their car stereo. Basically, while they won't be your only monitors, the Auratone 5C will certainly find a place in your setup. This monitor simply treats your mix like a set of standard speakers - a step that should never be skipped.