Alesis Pro Linear 820 DSP Powered Audio Monitors
mjgraves | March 30, 2008
These arrived Friday last week. They were known to be refurbished as they were discontinued last year some time. Even so, they were shipped poorly packaged and one arrived significantly damaged so I’m going to try and get it replaced.
And don’t get me started about UPS. At least in Houston they suck.
UPS will frequently toss package over our 6′ high fence because we don’t come to the door fast enough. It doesn’t matter that the package is heavy, or clearly marked as fragile. This time I knew they were to arrive so I stopped a driver making a delivery to a neighbor. He gave me a signature tag and told me to sign it and leave it at the gate, that would be enough to ensure delivery first time even if I wasn’t there.
The first time they came I was not home. I was in Austin so they left a door tag. The second time I was home but on the phone. In the 90 seconds it took me to reach the gate they had already left another door tag…even though my signed tag was on the gate.
So it was that I spend almost an hour on Friday evening waiting in line at a UPS depot to get the two boxes.
If the boxes had been visibly damaged I simply would have refused them from UPS. But they seemed ok so I took them home. Only once I unpacked them did I find the damaged goods.
My first impression is that they sound pretty good. The woven kevlar woofer seems quick and the bass response is pretty deep. Good bass transient response to my ear. I’ve set them on top of my Behringer B2031A’s. I’ll run them at about 70% of rated output for 24-36 hours to give them a formal break-in since I have no idea what kind of use they’ve seen thus far.
They’re physically a bit bigger than the Behringer’s and don’t appear to be quite as well made. Perhaps it’s just the plastic front panel cover that makes them look cheaper.
The amps are nowhere near as substancial (ie heavy) but they’re not supposed to be as powerful anyway….80w/40w bi-amped as compared to 150w/75w for the Behringers. It’s uncanny how the use of a digital switching power supply can dramatically drop the weight of a power amp. It’s been over 20 years since Bob Carver’s famous Carver M400 “cube” rocked the audio world with 200 w/c in an under 10 pound package. Even so we still often generalize that in power amps and loudspeakers heavier = better.
It’ll take me a few weeks to arrive at an opinion about these Alesis monitors. A friend and I hope to sit down and seriously listen to about 6 pair of powered monitors some time early in May. We have enough use for such gear that we may keep it all, but such comparative listening exercises are useful in guiding future buying decisions.
their very good speakers very accurate deep bass not to tinny or high end, a shame they r a bit ear fatigue-ing in the mid range so be careful how u place them in your room!!ps better than krk v6 in my opinnion !!