Alesis M1 Active MkII Compact Active Nearfield Monitors

I actually learned the art of audio editing, mixing and recording at a friend's studio using a pair of Alesis passive nearfield monitor speakers which was later upgraded to Alesis M1 Active MkII Compact Active Nearfield Monitors. Back then when I started, I honestly had very little knowledge about how the speakers should work on a recording studio environment. I didn't realize then how crucial it was to have a "flat studio monitor system" so as you could mix music with the proper balance playable to all sorts of media playback device. I was lucky enough to start with a pair of decent Alesis monitors and from then my knowledge grew and clients came in. After having my own home studio, the studio where I first tinkered with sound design acquired the Alesis M1 Active MkII for their studio, and because I had a contract project for them, I was able to use it.

Although the Alesis M1 Active MkII is much cheaper than its passive predecessor, since it was a more recent model, the technology must of course be better. With an online selling price of $199 for a pair, it was a steal! The Alesis M1 Active MkII's design consists of cabinet material made of MDF with internal dampings on the insides. Main color is dark grey and laminated. Each unit of the Alesis M1 Active MkII measures 15x 8.5 x 10 inches and its edges are rounded for acoustic diffraction. The front edges of the speakers are mounted with glass fiber for additional damping.

A 6.5 inch driver is used as the woofer for the bass and mid frequencies and a one inch silk dome driver is for the tweeter. The cones for the woofer are made of carbon fiber which makes them stiff and light compared to other driver cones. The crossover point for the tweeter is set at 2kHz and the whole system's frequency range is from 50Hz to 20kHz which could be used to mix a lot of musical genres maybe except for those hip-hop tunes which require lots of bottom bass below 50Hz. The Alesis M1 Active MkII works well as nearfield studio monitor speakers for project or home studios and depending on the user, it's well capable of handling professional broadcast quality tasks.

Overall, upon testing the Alesis M1 Active MkII with audio CDs of different musical genres, it delivered clear quality sound with good tonal balance. Having a bi-amp design, the Alesis M1 Active MkII generates transparent audio which is good for mixing. At an affordable price, one could have a serious sounding 2-way studio monitor with full range performance.


***A Gizmo Guerilla Music Gear Review