Review: Event 20/20 Bas V3
One of the most popular active two-ways of the late ’90s is back with a vengeance.
28 October 2011
Review: Andy Stewart
Either I’m going soft in the head in my dotage or these new Event 20/20 bas V3 nearfield monitors have broken through a new price/performance barrier. If I’d been told in advance how much these speakers were I might have thought less of them – although I’d like to think I’m immune to pricing and the influence it has on the mind. As it is I’ve been playing with these black-on-black powered two-ways for several weeks now without knowing their price. Then today I found out how much they were… I’ve only just managed to pick myself up off the floor.
I had assumed – yes, silly me – that Event Electronics’ third-generation 20/20 nearfields were significantly more expensive, and I’m now beginning to wonder if I’m any judge of retail price at all. In terms of the sound they emit, and given the speakers I’ve been comparing them to – Event Opals, Quested V2108s, PMC DB1s, Yamaha NS10s, Mackie MR8 MkIIs – the ‘V3s’ have held their own in every important respect. They are powerful, fast as lightning, balanced sounding and produce virtually no distortion, even at 90dB+ SPLs. They’re good-looking, modestly proportioned given the size of the main driver (7.1-inch), and easy to set up – ie, there are no curves to destabilise them or special feet upon which they prefer to be mounted.
20/20 HINDSIGHT
So what gives? The first thing these speakers make abundantly clear (along with the $59 belt sander I just bought from Mitre 10) is that the beginning of the 21st century has clearly become the period in history where a product’s price is determined as much by where it’s made as how it’s constructed and from what. For many years now I’ve been making the joke that certain very cheap audio products, particularly those made in China, were made from ‘beaten egg white’ and that there could be no other explanation for why these sorts of products are made so cheaply. But the observation that everything produced in China is poorly manufactured with inferior components is a bit of an old cliché these days, partly because it’s been propagated by countless companies that have since quietly shelved these rantings in favour of manufacturing their own products there. Needless to say the Event 20/20 bas V3s are also made in China, though not from beaten egg-white. Meanwhile, their design and development has taken place in Australia and the US.
TWO-WAY RE-EVENTED
Event Electronics has enjoyed an impressive reputation since the original 20/20s were launched to wide acclaim across the studio world in the mid ’90s. The company was among the first speaker brands to popularise ‘active’ speaker systems – a design philosophy that incorporated dedicated amplifiers into the cabinet itself. This concept has become so popular since that there are now very few passive speakers on the professional market. The original 20/20s were apparently particularly popular amongst hip-hop producers in The States at the time; meanwhile, most of the people I knew who owned them in Australia probably thought ‘hip-hop’ was an ice-cream. Suffice it to say, the 20/20s were powerful, moderately priced speakers with a reputation for good SPL handling, distortion specs and extended bottom-end – a capacity that was becoming more important as the years rolled by.
The new 20/20s are clearly launched off the back of this reputation, but also owe a debt of gratitude to the development of Event’s more recent flagship – the Opal – inheriting much of that speaker’s Class-AB amplifier technology and design smarts. The result is a speaker that packs an impressive punch, reproducing audio signals in a fast and accurate manner, with low levels of distortion… even during some of my more recent unpredictable tracking sessions.
Apart from that – oh, and the backlit Event logo (which on the Opals can be dimmed or switched off – not so on the 20/20s) and the stealth-bomber black regalia – there aren’t too many similarities between the two designs when you look closer at their specifications and construction.
NEED TO KNOW
EVENT-FULL
Certainly, both house the same key components – a 180mm (7.1 inch) low-frequency driver and one-inch tweeter, but whereas on the Opals the driver is of a carbon fibre composite and the tweeter a beryllium/copper metal dome, on the 20/20s the driver is Polypropylene and the tweeter a ferrofluid-cooled silk dome. Both speakers feature powerful Class-AB amplification, but the 20/20 produces a maximum output of 105dB (long-term SPL at 1m) while the Opal produces 111dB (long-term SPL at 1m). Both are very loud, one particularly so. The 20/20 also sports a more conventional MDF cabinet construction and weighs only 17kg, whereas the Opal is fashioned from aluminium and weighs a hefty 21.2kg. The latter also has two ‘variable impedance’ bass ports that curve down either side of the front panel like a Ferrari’s air intakes, whereas the 20/20 has a single eccentrically mounted front reflex port. The 20/20 also offers only rudimetary tone and gain adjustment controls – the Opal meanwhile has a veritable phalanx of selectors at the bottom of the front panel.
Why am I making so much of these physical differences? Mainly because these days a pair of Event Opals reside on my Neve console 24/7, and since I first took delivery of the new 20/20s I’ve been curious about one question in particular: did the Event 20/20 design team try and replicate the Opal’s tone or ‘change the subject’ slightly? Turns out it’s the latter. The 20/20s are more articulate in the midrange and thus produce a slightly clearer, more hard-edged image. Overall, mixes sound more aggressive, with transient elements (like sibilance and percussion) having a slightly more defined edge around them. The impact this trait is likely to have on your mixes depends on the type of production outcomes you prefer, how loud you like to monitor, and how long you tend to work for at a stretch. Opals are slightly less fatiguing overall, I find, although this assertion is only based on having worked with the 20/20 V3s for a couple of weeks.
Of my experiences with both these Event models, the tonal differences between the two is actually a good thing. The added clarity the 20/20’s more forthcoming midrange afforded to mixes helps place instruments in the soundstage without the bottom end feeling compromised at all. (Basic specs comparison also bears this out, with both models capable of reproducing frequencies down to around 35Hz – although curiously the response graph of the new 20/20 hasn’t been published on the web.)
REAR MOUNTED CONTROLS
One frustration I have with the new 20/20’s design is that its tone and gain controls aren’t stepped or bypassable. Why, I couldn’t say. Adjustment controls on active monitors are commonplace these days, of course, but more often than not their accuracy leaves a little to be desired. On the 20/20s there are three rotary controls, none of them stepped or indented: a high-frequency shelf that manipulates frequencies above 2kHz (±3dB), a low-frequency shelf for bottom-end adjustment (±3dB below 400Hz), and a gain control (±12dB). I’d assert that dip-switches would have been a superior choice for the tone controls in particular, simply because they provide for repeatable adjustment that can be set identically on both speakers. As things stood I was reluctant to touch the controls on the 20/20s – I’m generally paranoid about system imbalance anywhere it might exist in the studio.
I also bemoan the loss of comprehensive user manuals to complement pro audio products generally, and I only mention it again here – even though manufacturers hate me for saying it – because the one that comes with the new 20/20s is a typical case in point. It’s little more than a flyer similar to the one you might find slipped under your door by the Mormons. I searched around for the ‘real manual’ when I first opened the boxes but eventually came to the realisation that the single folded sheet of paper was, in fact, the manual. I guess that’s one of the ways Event has chosen to keep its costs down and make the speaker so competitively priced. Fair enough I guess.
EVENT HORIZON
Overall, I am most impressed by the Event 20/20 bas V3s, particularly in terms of how they sound. Actually, in that respect I am bowled over by them. I wasn’t expecting to be. They go loud, they’re dynamically liberated, they hold together at almost any volume, they’re tonally balanced and represent amazing value for money. Despite what some of the marketing and hype might lead you to believe, these are non genre-dependent speakers – mixers of folk music or jungle ambience will be equally at home in front of a pair of these monitors, as will the aforementioned hip-hop community who will appreciate their low-end extension and power. At almost any price point these speakers are a viable nearfield option for home or commercial studio facilities.
