James Richmond spends time with a pair of EVE Audio SC3070 compact 3 way monitors . Find out what he thought of them in our latest Tested article.

A few months ago I was lucky to spend some time with SC305 monitors, EVE Audio’s 3 way compact monitor. I greatly appreciated the opportunity to do so, as I had not previously had a lot of exposure to ribbon tweeter designs and was impressed at the smooth, flattering sound of those monitors at a very competitive price.

For the last few weeks I’ve been working with EVE’s latest monitors, named the SC3070’s. These are an ultra-compact 3-way monitor, featuring EVE’s 1” RS3 ribbon tweeter, a 6.5” driver and a new 4” mid range driver. Each cabinet measures 340 x 250 x 310mm and weighs 9.8kg, all roughly equivalent to the Neumann KH310’s in terms of size and weight and no doubt the SC3070’s stiffest competition. They are priced slightly under Neumann KH310’s though, coming in at around £1450 per monitor, depending upon the retailer.

Design and Specification

In comparison to the SC305’s I tested a few months ago positioning is much easier in most studios, as the width to height ratio is much lower. The SC305s were twice as wide as they were high which made placement tricky in some situations, no such issue with the SC3070. After fitting the supplied rubber feet and RS3 ribbon tweeter guard, the chunky SC3070’s were mounted on top of my Sound Anchor ADJ2 speaker stands. I’d suggest only using these speakers horizontally, indeed they were designed to be used this way.

It should be noted that these monitors are sold in specific types for left and right speaker use as the speakers are not symmetrical- the ribbon tweeter is in inner top corner, the 4” Silvercone midrange driver at the inner bottom corner and the 6.5” woofer on the outer side of the monitor. In a multichannel setup this would mean the centre speaker would need to be chosen as either a right or left speaker and wouldn’t necessarily visually match, but this compromise would probably be acceptable.

True 3 Way Design

The SC3070 is a true 3-way design, featuring a trio of PWM amplifiers at 185W for the Woofer, 100W for the midrange and 50W for the tweeter. Crossover frequencies are 320Hz between the woofer and midrange driver and 2.8kHz between the midrange driver and the RS3 tweeter. Quoted Max SPL per stereo pair is 120dBspl, which should be plenty loud enough for most studios and the SC3070’s reached a level well beyond what was comfortable for me in my treated control room, before the limiter kicked in (my SPL meter read 95dB). This is pretty impressive in itself.

Around the back of the unit you have relatively few controls- just a power switch, voltage selector, XLR and RCA inputs and three dip switches which control volume lock, filter and maximum input settings (+7dBU or +22dBU). A unmarked USB port is also on the rear of each unit, covered with a rubber cover, I assume for factory/support use only.

As with the SC305’s these are rear ported and as with other products I am slightly disappointed by the lack of a digital input. I realise this would increase the complexity of the design process and perhaps the cost but it would have been nice to see movement on this. Being able to go out of my audio interface digitally into a set of monitors that are themselves also converting the signal from analogue to digital and back again seems like a waste of conversion steps.

DSP

As mentioned the SC3070’s, like all of EVEAudio’s monitors are DSP-based designs. In addition to the three speakers on the front of the unit you have EVE’s multi-function control knob allowing you to set the High/Low/Mid EQ settings, as well as the Desk filter setting. High shelf filter frequency is 3kHz, midrange +/- 3dB at 1khz and the low shelf filter is 300Hz.

The desk filter has a dual function, firstly when attenuation (by a maximum of -5dB) as a narrow band EQ set 160Hz (20Hz lower than the SC305’s) or, when boosting, as an 80hz EQ (up to +3dB). This, as you would expect, allows placement of the monitors on desks or immediately above mixing consoles where reflections can cause acoustical issues. Although I used the SC3070’s with professional speaker stands in a treated room I did set them up on my second working space (OK, the kitchen table) to see how this functions and it works as expected.

It should be noted that the speakers are not linked in any way, as with other DSP designs like the Kii Three’s, where you can change settings globally for both speakers. Care needs to be taken with the multi-function control knob to make sure settings are exact (assuming you want them to be).

Listening Test and In Use

Having had more time with this pair of monitors compared to the SC3070’s I’ve been able to work solidly with them and enjoy them as a playback device too.

During my time with them I worked on tracks with in several different genres, an EDM production, arranging some SATB strings (using midi strings and orchestra instruments), and a rock track. In particular I found the SC3070’s suiting EDM, as they have so much bass on tap, should you want it. For myself I dropped the 300Hz low-shelf filter by 2dB as it suited my room better. Once I’d done this I found the SC3070’s much more neutral sounding. I was able to happily work with the SC3070 for long 14 hours days without any issue.

As part of my listening tests I rolled out my old favourites. ‘Hot Property’ by Jamiroquai, a track with more bass than should be legal, sounded glorious- the synths bass and drums sounded cohesive and full. “New Mistake” by Jellyfish, another song I regularly use for testing speakers, also sounded full and balanced- the low bass notes in the outro, something that often defeats lesser monitors, was big and clear.

I’d make a particular point about not noticing, as I did with the SC305’s, any gnarliness around the midrange to tweeter crossover. The crossover is only 200Hz lower (2800Hz in the SC3070’s versus 3k in the SC305). Whether this frequency is better suited as a crossover point, or perhaps I am simply getting more used to the EVE Audio sound, I don’t know. Still, it is worth mentioning.

Conclusion

I’ll make no bones about it, I am a particular fan of three way designs, having a set of ATC SCM45’s and Kii Three’s in my studio. The SC3070’s fared admirably in comparison (which given the keen pricing of the SC3070’s is an unfair one to the much higher priced monitors). As you might expect with an RS3 ribbon tweeter the top end is flattering and slightly soft compared to my other sets of monitors. This review is too short to go into the relative merits of 2-way vs 3-way designs, but the success of a three way design is ultimately down to how well designed the system is and how well implemented that design is. The combination of a rear ported design, three power amplifiers, onboard DSP rear ports add up to a very flexible sounding pair of monitors that could work very well in a variety of situations.

EVE’s SC3070’s are an excellent set of 3-way monitors at a price point often associated with good 2-way monitors. Their most obvious competition are the Neumann KH310’s and I’ll leave it to you to decide which one to go for. I’ve very much enjoyed my time with these monitors and were you looking for a compact 3-way monitor they would be a set I’d urge you to investigate.

Pros

• Smooth, flattering sound.

• Huge bass (if you want it).

• Keenly priced.

Cons

• No digital input.