In this round up we look at the choices available if you want to move up into the world of 3 way compact studio monitors. They cost more but not as much as you might think and we think they are well worth considering. Here’s our pick of what’s out there.

A well designed 2 way monitor is a remarkably effective design. You can see that in just how ubiquitous this design is. In the old days the complexity and balancing of so many more variables in designing a 3 way or 4 way monitor outweighed the benefits of splitting the frequency range between more drivers everywhere apart from at the more expensive end of the market. If you need full range performance at high SPLs then it has usually been worth the extra complexity to go beyond 2 way but for years, at the bedroom and project studio end of the market, 2 way has been the sweet spot.

This has changed in the last few years. The use of DSP has helped bring down the cost and complexity of 3 way crossover designs. Class D amplification has brought down the cost of adding additional amplifiers and computer modelling has helped with prototyping designs. If you want to access the benefits of adding a dedicated midrange driver, moving the crossover out of the critical 1-3KHz area, there has never been more choice.

Compact 3 Ways

A compact 3 way is usually a monitor which is a similar size as a 2 way monitor. The format which seems common is that typified by the ATC SCM25, a monitor which has done much to underline how good the performance of a relatively small 3 way monitor can be. This landscape format with a tweeter over a midrange driver with the bass driver over to the side is very popular and we have concentrated but not restricted ourselves to this format in this round up. We have a variety of DSP and non-DSP monitors all covering a similar price range, centred very approximately around £3K a pair.

Moving away from the compact, landscape format we have a dual concentric 3 way from Kali which could be used on its side as the midrange and HF drivers are coaxially mounted. Moving further upmarket we have the Genelec The Ones which refine this 3 way coaxial concept. Their layout is unique and they are much admired although they are more expensive than the majority of these monitors. Going a little larger and a little more expensive than the rest of these monitors we have the S3V from ADAM audio. ADAM also make an S3H which has two bass drivers set either side of the mid and HF drivers but if they ever made a single bass driver version in landscape format it would be a great sounding box.

Update: Since this article was published ADAM Have announced their new A series including the A8H which is a single bass driver 3 way in landscape format!