MALIK ARSHAQ
STUDIO MONITOR
REVIEW: MACKIE MR524
Recently, I'd come to the conclusion that attempting
to mix for prolonged periods of time with headphones
was definitely doing more damage than good. It was
time to look for a decent pair of monitors to add to
the setup. Scouring the internet, sitting through a
number of reviews and going through online shopping
catalogues, things were not looking good for my wallet.
Considering the small size of my room and the kinda
genres that I work on, I figured that 5” or 6” monitors
should work well. After enough research on my part, I
zeroed down on the Mackie MR524’s. Mackie has held
a strong reputation for manufacturing quality gear at
an affordable price and that's exactly what I needed.
Ripping them out of the boxes when they arrived, you
could see the quality of the manufacturing at first glance.
The matte black all-wood finish looked great. The Mackie
“running man” logo paired with a tasteful green LED light
made the speakers look extremely futuristic
and professional.
The monitors have flexible inputs, allowing XLR, TRS and
RCA inputs as well. After hooking up my audio interface
to the monitors by a couple of jack cables and placing the
speakers in their rightful positions, I put on a few of the
favourites to judge the newcomers. The first thing I noticed
was that the highs, whether it was the cymbals, vocals or
guitar tones, were extremely detailed and crystal clear. You
could really appreciate the finer intricacies. The low-end
response wasn't overpowering and exaggerated, instead it
was tight and accurate. While people who mix bass-heavy
genres such as EDM and House might feel like they need
an additional sub-woofer, I felt like the MR524’s do just fine
by themselves. Having a frequency response range of about
45Hz-20kHz, the 1” silk dome tweeters and the 5” propylene
woofers do an amazing job of translating groovy hip-hop
tracks, various metal genres and everything in between.
The MR series of monitors are a result of Mackie
attempting to make affordable the features that brought
their flagship HR series of monitors to fame. Apart from
looking amazing, the design of these monitors feature a
custom internal bracing system to dampen vibrations
in order to avoid the low-end rattling when they're kept
directly on surfaces. This means that most home studio
owners won't have to worry about purchasing studio
monitors stands or isolation pads, for the most part.
While dealing with home studios, a lot of times you may have
to place your monitors in an orientation or a position in the
room that might not be ideal. A lot of times this may mean
that your monitors might be placed at
the corners of the room or right next
to a wall. Since these monitors have
rear-firing bass ports, these placements
will cause a low-end build-up around
the walls and the corners. But the MR
series monitors come with acoustic
filter settings that compensate for
these positions so that you can get
the flattest possible representation of
the music in a listening environment
that might be far from ideal.
Their signature logarithmic waveguide
is an important feature that provides
a wide dispersion as well as a wider
“sweet spot”. This way, the people who
might be listening from non-optimum
positions can also enjoy an accurate
representation of the mix. The MR series
also features the 6.5” MR624, the 8”
MR824 and the 10” sub-woofer MRS10.
In terms of quality and affordability,
the MR524’s get two thumbs up and
a strong recommendation from us.
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
37