Alesis M1 manual

Contents/Safety Warnings M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 1 Introduction Thank you for purchasing the Alesis M1 Active Biamplified Reference Monitor. To take full advantage of the M1 Active’s operation, and to enjoy long and trouble-free use, please read this user’s manual carefully. We value any comments you may have about this monitor system, th[...]

Contents/Safety Warnings 2 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL C ONTENTS Important Safety Instructions ................................................ 3 Safety symbols used in this product .............................................................3 Please follow these precautions when using this product: ..............................3 Instructions d[...]

Contents/Safety Warnings M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 3 I MPORTANT S AFETY I NSTRUCTIONS Safety symbols used in this product This symbol alerts the user that there are important operating and maintenance instructions in the literature accompanying this unit. Please follow these precautions when using this product: 1. Read these instructions. 2. Ke[...]

Contents/Safety Warnings 4 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 12. Use only with a cart, stand, bracket, rack, or table designed for use with professional audio or music equipment. In any installation, make sure that injury or damage will not result from cables pulling on the apparatus and its mounting. If a cart is used, use caution when moving the cart[...]

Contents/Safety Warnings M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 5 votre sécurité. Si le cordon secteur ne rentre pas dans la prise de courant, demandez à un électricien qualifié de remplacer la prise. 10. Evitez de marcher sur le cordon secteur ou de le pincer, en particulier au niveau de la prise, et aux endroits où il sor de l’appareil. 11. N’ut[...]

Contents/Safety Warnings 6 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 13. Die Wartung sollte nur durch qualifiziertes Fachpersonal erfolgen. Die Wartung wird notwendig, wenn das Gerät beschädigt wurde oder aber das Stromkabel oder der Stecker, Gegenstände oder Flüssigkeit in das Gerät gelangt sind, das Gerät dem Regen oder Feuchtigkeit ausgesetzt war und [...]

Contents/Safety Warnings M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 7 Information to the User for Class A Digital Device (FCC Part 15, Class A) This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a class A digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interferen[...]

Contents/Safety Warnings 8 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL CE D ECLARATION OF C ONFORMITY Approvals pending. See enclosed sheet if product was authorized for shipment to the EU. C HAPTER 1 A BOUT THE M1 A CTIVE Unpacking and Inspection[...]

About the M1 Active M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 9 Your M1 Active Biamplified Reference Monitors were packed carefully at the factory, and the shipping carton was designed to protect the speakers during shipping. Please retain this container in the highly unlikely event that you need to return the speakers for servicing. The shipping carton should[...]

About the M1 Active 10 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL Inside your new speakers ✪ If you’re in a hurry to get started, skip ahead to Chapter 2, “Speaker Installation”, for connection and placement tips. About powered monitors The M1 Actives combine a speaker and amplifiers in the same compact cabinet. Powered monitors are growing in popularit[...]

About the M1 Active M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 1 1 along with the closed cell synthetic rubber surround, are both nearly impervious to ozone, direct sunlight, heat and humidity. Therefore, after an initial break-in period (about 20 hours), the sound should remain virtually unchanged for the life of the product. Alesis’ proprietary design tweet[...]

About the M1 Active 12 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL • Improved transient response. • Better amplifier/speaker coupling for woofers. • Better crossover performance working into a constant impedance load. • Better subjective sound quality than high level (passive) networks. • Easier control over driver sensitivity differences. • Easier m[...]

About the M1 Active M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 1 3 The cabinet and port design The M1 Active cabinet construction employs vinyl composite material laminated to a .625” MDF (medium density fiberboard) core for the four sides and the rear. The front panel is 1” thick MDF, to withstand the greater demands of the drivers mounted on it. The entir[...]

About the M1 Active 14 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL About Nearfield monitoring In the early days of recording, most recording studios used big monitor speakers almost exclusively. Unfortunately, they also required high powered amplifiers and expensive acoustic treatment (often poorly done) of the entire control room. Still, a well-constructed big [...]

Speaker Installation M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 1 5 monitor system to be either light or heavy on the bottom, try moving them around within your listening room. You should avoid locating your M1 Actives near reflective surfaces such as glass, tile, large open walls or table tops. Still, many rooms used for recording have these surfaces, so the b[...]

Speaker Installation 16 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL Moving the monitors to a position behind the meter bridge causes the bridge to block the offending reflective path Random Reflections Careful consideration should also be given to the physical spacing between the speakers. Alesis recommends that the distance between the speakers for stereo appli[...]

Speaker Installation M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 1 7 Stereo nearfield placement of the M1 Active NOTE: We recommend that the M1 Active speakers be placed with the tweeters to the inside , not the outside, of the listening triangle. The “classic” studio monitor layout used to be that the tweeters be placed to the outside of a horizontally-orie[...]

Speaker Installation 18 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL Proper tweeter orientation is toward the stereo image center (the middle) as shown. Ports are always faced toward the bottom side of the cabinet. This set-up will promote a strongly focused center image such as for the vocalist. And because the (vocal) image width will be narrower than if the sp[...]

Speaker Installation M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 1 9 Vertical Placement Recommendation Vertical placement of the M1 Active as shown in Figure 3 is highly recommended. This position will simulate the soundfield that will be heard in most consumers’ homes and (to a great extent) their cars. For this reason, even if the M1 Actives are positioned h[...]

Speaker Installation 2 0 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL Playback check mode (vertical mid-field) After you’ve got your mix just right it’s always good practice to perform a “playback check” by standing the M1 Actives vertically and making the listening triangle larger. The purpose of the playback check is to simulate what your masterpiece wi[...]

Speaker Installation M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 2 1 Plugging the ports to adjust for room acoustics The low frequency response of the M1 Actives can be custom tailored by plugging the ports. If the speakers must be placed less than one foot from a front wall, or if they are too close to a corner, then the bass may become exaggerated and inaccura[...]

Speaker Installation 2 2 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL Connections The M1 Active has been designed to be as simple as possible to set up and use. However, please follow the instructions to ensure that you get the best possible performance from your monitors. Before connecting the speakers, make sure the power switches of the M1 Actives and any equi[...]

Speaker Installation M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 2 3 Input Connections Almost any conventional line-level source may be plugged into the M1 Active’s LINE INPUT jack. The Line Input jack accepts both XLR and 1/4” input plugs wired either balanced or single ended (unbalanced). The best connection is to use a high- quality XLR-to-XLR “mic cabl[...]

Speaker Installation 2 4 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 1/4” jacks; you may use a TRS-to-TRS balanced phone cable, or an XLR-to-1/4 inch phone TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) cable, as shown below. The advantage of using an XLR on the speaker side is that it is a locking connector and cannot be accidentally disconnected. NOTE: Use high quality input connect[...]

Speaker Installation M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 2 5 For the technically-minded, here is an approximate chart of SPL levels for various settings of the INPUT LEVEL control, measured at 1 meter from two speakers simultaneously (all settings, especially near the extremes of the range, are subject to a plus or minus 2 dB error): Mark -10 dBV nominal[...]

Speaker Installation 2 6 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL C HAPTER 3 S URROUND S OUND About surround sound Surround sound is the term used for several different systems which use multiple channels of playback in the listening room to recreate a truly three-dimensional sound experience. The practice of recording music-only in surround sound is a fairly[...]

Surround Sound M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 2 7 center or right and center) is identical. Hence, mono. In the few music-only recordings encoded in Dolby Pro Logic, the derived center channel could lead to some drastic changes in spatial perception. In developing the M1 Actives for use as left, center and right front channel sources, we wanted them[...]

Surround Sound 2 8 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL equal levels, the “sweet spot” listening area will become very large but the “wall-of- mono” effect mentioned above (in regards to music) will be of little consequence since most of the dialogue will be mixed specifically into the center channel.[...]

Surround Sound M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 2 9 Placement of rear surrounds The following suggestions for optimal M1 Active placement are derived from several sources: 1) Standard industry practice for home installations as recommended by the manufacturers of surround encoder/decoder units; 2) recommendations developed by Tom Holman for setting up[...]

Surround Sound 3 0 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL Wall mounting Once your have located the general area for the horizontal and vertical position, you need to find a wall stud. Attach shelving brackets or other commercial speaker- mounting device into the wall stud, then attach the M1 Actives to the mount, allowing room for the rear-panel input and A[...]

Surround Sound M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 3 1 Mixing for discrete six channel reproduction: matched vs. specialized speakers While most speaker systems for monitoring music in surround use the same speaker cabinet in all positions, both front and rear, keep in mind that most consumer video surround installations use a different speaker in the re[...]

Surround Sound 3 2 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL The use of M1 Actives (or any monopolar speaker) as full-range surrounds would be useful in the following cases: • If the surround speakers are just as important as the fronts in achieving a specialized effect, such as completely mixing the sax in the left rear only and a flute in the right rear. ?[...]

Troubleshooting M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 3 3 Maintenance Cleaning The cabinet surfaces of the M1 Active are covered with a vinyl laminate. Clean these surfaces when necessary with a lint-free cloth dampened in warm soapy water. USE ONLY A DRY CLOTH ON THE BACK PANEL OF THE POWER AMPLIFIER. Do not attempt to clean the cabinet with a brush (whic[...]

Troubleshooting 3 4 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL Refer All Servicing to Alesis We believe that the M1 Active is one of the most reliable powered monitors that can be made using current technology, and should provide years of trouble-free use. However, should problems occur, DO NOT attempt to service the unit yourself. Service on this product shoul[...]

Troubleshooting M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 3 5 Customers outside the USA and Canada: Contact your local Alesis distributor for any warranty assistance. The Alesis Limited Warranty applies only to products sold to users in the USA and Canada. Customers outside of the USA and Canada are not covered by this Limited Warranty and may or may not be co[...]

Specifications 3 6 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL Medium viscosity ferrofluid cooling extends power handling while retaining impulse response capability. Dual magnet structure uses top magnet in opposed (“bucking”) configuration for magnetic shielding. Additional 16 gauge low carbon steel cup lowers leakage to ≈ 3 gauss at outside cabinet top [...]

Specifications M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL 3 7 Crossover section Crossover type: Eighth order, 48dB/octave Linkwitz-Riley @ 1500Hz Input Impedance: 20k Ω balanced 10k Ω unbalanced Low Frequency Filter: 2nd order optimal Q high pass filter at 50Hz with +1dB boost Amplifier Section Low Frequency Amplifier Rated power output: 75 watts, 6 Ω loa[...]

Specifications 3 8 M1 A CTIVE R EFERENCE M ANUAL dispersion, 19 frequency response, 10, 37 with ports plugged, 21 fuse, 12 grounding, 22 INPUT LEVEL, 24 detent, 24 interference, 7 LINE IN, 23 Magnetic shielding, 11, 36 mounting, 17 nearfield, 14 noise, 22 placement, 15 horizontal, 18 surround, 28 vertical, 19 Playback check mode, 20 Polarity, 23 po[...]