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VOL. TWENTY SEVEN • NUMBER FIVE

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B Y M I K E M E T L A Y

When did solid, reliable monitoring quality become this affordable?

Samson Resolv SE Active Studio Reference Monitors

Samson’s new Resolv SE active speak-ers aren’t the only affordable monitorswe’ve reviewed recently or are about toreview, but they’re among the more sig-nificant arrivals in this Editor’s listeningroom in 2013. Read on... but do me afavor and don’t skip ahead to the prices atthe end until you’ve read the review.

The three Resolv SE models are namedfor their woofer sizes: the Resolv SE5,Resolv SE6, and Resolv SE8. The Resolv120a, an active 10" subwoofer with 120Watts of power and nice extras like built-in phase switch, active crossover, andremote mute switch, rounds out the line.

For this review, I received two pairs ofResolv SE monitors, the SE5 and SE6. Iburned in both sets of speakers with twodays’ worth of music playback, and thenlived with them for several weeks inRecording’s Editorial offices.

On paper and out of the boxThe Resolv speakers are sold individual-

ly, making it easy to build multichannelsetups if desired. Each speaker has a1.25" soft dome tweeter with a neodymi-um magnet and a woven carbon fiberwoofer (5", 6.5", or 8" depending on themodel). The Resolv SE is biamplified:20W+50W (SE5) or 25W+75W (SE6

and SE8) with a multipole active crossoverwith a crossover frequency of 3.19 kHz.The two drivers are enclosed in a solidlybuilt front-ported MDF enclosure with afront-panel waveguide around the tweeter.A bright white LED indicates power on.

The rear panel of the Resolv SE5 offersunbalanced RCA and balanced 1/4" TRSinputs; the SE6 and SE8 add a balancedXLR input as well. A standard IEC powercable connects to a jack with an easilyaccessible fuse panel, near the powerand voltage-range switches.

Each Resolv monitor sports two rear-panelpots: a center-detented Volume pot and afour-position HF Level switch. The HF Levelswitch controls a shelving EQ with a 4 kHzcorner frequency, with settings of –2 / 0 /+2 / +4 dB. A high-frequency control ishandy when you want to use the speakersin an overly reflective or muddy room, orsimply tweak their sound to individual taste.What makes this arrangement unusual isthat there is no corresponding control to rolloff bass excess that might occur if you’reforced to place the speakers too close to arear wall or in a corner. While I was sur-prised at that omission, I wasn’t expectingtoo much trouble in my listening tests; myroom is set up in such a way that bassbuildup is rarely if ever an issue.

Listening to the Resolv SE6I set up a listening position with the larg-

er Resolv SE6 in place of my usual near-fields at one end of a small but well-treat-ed room, on Ultimate Support speakerstands at head height, nicely toed in andsymmetrical (thanks to Genelec’s awe-some SpeakerAngle app for iOS!) in anequilateral triangle roughly 80" on a side.

I lined up many of my usual listening testsfrom conventional CDs and high-bitrateaudio files—lots of reliable rock standardsfrom the 1960s and 1970s, modern releas-es from bands like Florence+The Machineand Neko Case, some well-recorded jazz,country, and classical tracks, and mybeloved electronica, EDM, and ambient aswell. As always, I added in some of myown music, both as artist and as engineeror producer... particularly those infamousmid-1980s recordings from my first homestudio that were so fraught with, shall wesay, “teachable moments.”

I also did some listening at heavier MP3compression levels, as far down as 128kbps; while well-encoded 320k MP3s canbe largely indistinguishable from CDaudio when listened to on any but themost discerning speakers or headphones,it’s not hard to hear artifacts in lower-bitrate files if your speakers are honest.

Samson quotes the SE6’s low-frequencyresponse as 45 Hz–27 kHz, ±3 dB (thetolerance is given in the owner’s manualbut not on the website). 3 dB down at 45Hz is respectable performance for a 6.5"woofer, and listening to bass-critical mate-rial through the SE6, I can believe it.

One of my favorite bass tests is AgaZaryan’s jazz album Pick Up The Pieces,which has several tracks of nothing butAga’s exquisite voice backed up by soloupright bass. If a speaker gets basswrong, it will destroy those tracks, but Ifound them nicely enjoyable with theResolv SE6. Bass on these speakers is tightand well-defined, with no sloppiness ornasty resonances that make certain noteshonky or thumpy. Rolloff at the extremelows was gentle enough so that when youstop hearing the fundamental of the deep-est notes, the harmonics fill in nicely inyour head. If you’re in a small roomwhere bass buildup is an issue, you’ll

Excerpted from the February edition of RECORDING Magazine 2014©2013 Music Maker Publications, Inc. Reprinted with permission.5408 Idylwild Trail, Boulder, CO 80301 Tel: (303) 516-9118 Fax: (303) 516-9119 For Subscription Information, call: 1-954-653-3927 or www.recordingmag.com

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have to be careful with speaker placementfor sure, especially since there’s no low-frequency adjustment on board, but in myroom, the low end I got was plentiful andlistenable with no need for a subwoofer.

Transitioning from the lows to the mids, Ifound the Resolv SE6 to be blessedly freefrom the forwardness that plagues someinexpensive “rock-friendly” monitors. Vocalsand guitars, those critical litmus tests in rockmixes, spoke clearly and in their ownspaces without unpleasant smearing ormuddiness. The crossover didn’t call atten-tion to itself with any drastic timbral shifts orunevenness; when a mix was congested tobegin with, as on “Dog Days Are Over” byFlorence+The Machine (from Lungs), it cameacross that way on the Samsons.

The claimed 27 kHz extension of thetweeter is impossible to hear except onhigh-sample-rate audio (my 24/96 versionsof Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon andthe Beatles’ Rubber Soul are specialfavorites), but highs in general were clearand detailed without a lot of hashiness—except when it was in the source material.

I could hear how this tweeter could be over-whelming in the wrong room, making theability to turn the highs down by 2 dB apotential lifesaver, but I couldn’t imagineturning the highs up on these speakers! (Allmy serious tests on both speakers weredone with the HF Level set flat, after somequick listens determined that was best.)

I found the Resolv SE6 to have a nicelywide and forgiving sweet spot with respectto soundstaging. The stereo remaster ofRevolver by the Beatles, with its hard-panned sources, is very interesting to listento in this context, as the “mixing” happensin the phantom center of the stereo range,and it sounded fantastic on the Samsons,even on complex tracks like “Love You To”.The Rick Rubin-produced tracks from late inJohnny Cash’s recording career had amarvelous sense of intimacy and presence,especially in the lead vocal.

My overall impression was very favor-able; this is a speaker that a seriousrecording musician could easily learnbackwards and forwards, creating believ-able mixes that would translate well toother speakers and rooms. With the usualcautions that the extreme low end shouldbe checked on much larger speakers orwith a subwoofer, the Resolv SE6 would bea fantastic first studio monitor that couldeasily keep up with your growing rig.

Listening to the Resolv SE5The Resolv SE5 is a small speaker that

is well-suited to desktop studio setups. Formy listening sessions with the SE5, Iinstalled the speakers on IsoAcoustics ISO-L8R155 monitor stands in a fairly tightarrangement, an equilateral triangleroughly 46" on a side and down-angledslightly for my listening position.

My listening experience with the ResolvSE5 was quite similar to what I heard on theSE6, but naturally with a bit less bass. Forthese smaller speakers, I had to rely a lotmore on the harmonic structure of low pianoand bass notes rather than a clear projec-tion of the fundamental; Samson quotes 50Hz to 27 kHz ±3 dB, but that number mightbe a tad generous on the low end.

Even so, the SE5 displayed the samesolid and well-imaged soundstage, with aslightly smaller sweet spot (due to the muchtighter listening setup), and the same reli-able mids and clear highs. With less bass,I found the highs a bit more potent on theSE5 (another artifact of the very close lis-tening environment), and while most of mylistening was done with the HF Level setflat, turning it down by 2 dB helpedsmooth some of my more strident MP3s—which, by the way, were easy to pick outfrom higher-quality encodings.

I could see the Resolv SE5 doing verywell on its own in a small room with tightdimensions and a lot of natural bassbuildup countering the smaller woofer’sless powerful low end; alternatively, theywould pair well with a properly placedsubwoofer. With monitors like thesearound, there’s simply no excuse to sad-dle your desktop audio system with tiny,cheap-sounding speakers.

We hereby ResolvTo say that Samson is onto something

here would be a massive understatement.These are solidly made, great-soundingspeakers that would be suitable for anysmall room or desktop DAW rig. Theyhave a smooth frequency response, a veryusable sweet spot, lots of detail and verylittle of what makes “cheap speakers” sounpleasant. The lack of low-frequencyadjustment is a small matter that can beaddressed through speaker placement inmany rooms, and once that’s done, theresulting audio will be something any engi-neer could work with in confidence.

Okay, I’m done. Now you can look atthe prices. Just make sure you’re sittingdown first.

Prices: Resolv SE5, $124.99 each;Resolv SE6, $149.99 each; Resolv SE8(not reviewed), $199.99 each; Resolv120a subwoofer (not reviewed),$229.99

More from: Samson Technologies,www.samsontech.com

Excerpted from the February edition of RECORDING Magazine 2014©2013 Music Maker Publications, Inc. Reprinted with permission.5408 Idylwild Trail, Boulder, CO 80301 Tel: (303) 516-9118 Fax: (303) 516-9119 For Subscription Information, call: 1-954-653-3927 or www.recordingmag.com