Eve Audio SC203 3" Master/Slave Active Monitor System (Pair)

When a small footprint – but a big sound! – is what you're looking for, the SC203 becomes one of those few examples where small also means powerful. It took a very diligent work by the team of EVE Audio engineers, along with the best high quality components, to guarantee the best performance and high resolution from such a small profile set of speakers.

The SC203 is the perfect solution for professional desktops with a limited amount of physical space, and also for discerning home and gaming users. To further extend its flexibility, each speaker is provided with the FlexiPad, a v-notch shaped orange rubberized pad that allows you to decouple the speaker from its base and angle it precisely at 0°, 7,5° or 15°.

Accessories include the SC203 Mounting Adapter, which enables you to mount your speaker directly on any microphone or speaker stand that features a 3/8" thread. And why not combine it with the threaded wall mount adapter, and place your speaker directly on a wall, where it may be more convenient for your own space?

The SC203 Mounting Adapter even makes good use of the included FlexiPad: by placing the FlexiPad between the speaker and the mounting adapter you are further decoupling unwanted resonances, and can even better arrange orientation for upright positioning at 0°. As expected, all necessary mounting screws are included.

Tech Talk

When using woofers in small desktop speakers, some special considerations have to be taken into account. To meet the demands of a precise reproduction in the low frequency region, we've developed a 3" woofer coupled with a 1" voice coil capable of handling a longer linear excursion. With a 16 mm-height voice coil, a linear, back and forth, swing of ±5mm is easily achieved. However, this requires an appropriate multilayer paper membrane material that is capable of withstanding such rigorous use while maintaining consistency.

After numerous careful tests, coated paper turned out to be the very best solution in order to meet this demand for low resonance, stability and transmission linearity. From then on, the entire construction design met all the necessary requirements that such small woofers usually entail, including having a chassis basket permeable to air in order to minimize distortions. The large driver magnet works as a powerful "engine" so as to keep the woofer stable, even in border areas.

A passive radiator – which you could simply think of as a passive speaker that moves through the force of air – located at the backside of the SC203, reinforces the reproduction of low frequencies and allows the speaker response to go down as low as an impressive 62Hz (-3dB) with very low distortion.

Each SC203 setup is configured as a 2-way master-slave system, and features four power amplifiers. Each woofer and tweeter gets its own dedicated 30W PWM amplifier with separate filter section for precise control. And for optimal connectivity, the SC203 houses three inputs – analog RCA, digital optical and USB – which will allow you to conveniently connect a wide range of sources. Furthermore, a volume controlled subwoofer output lets you connect an additional subwoofer (TS107 und TS108) to the master speaker and create a powerful 2.1 system. A DIP switch located at the speaker's back panel allows you to select the SC203's to work as "satellites" from 80Hz and upwards, or as a full range units.

DSP

All EVE Audio monitors feature a high-resolution DSP electronics. A high-quality analog/digital converter from BurrBrown (24bit/192kHz) converts the analog input signal supplied via RCA or XLR. The DSP ensures latency-free filtering and simultaneously protects the entire frequency range from overload. When switched on, the volume of the monitor increases slowly to leave enough time to reduce the source volume if the input signal is too loud.

Adjustments to the acoustic environment can be made via the front rotary/pressure encoder, the SMART-knob with rotating LED ring. This knob allows the levelling of system volume as well as the adjustment of filters for room variables (low shelf, mid eq and high shelf filters). All settings are displayed on the LED ring, providing instant information about the selected values. The brightness of the LED ring can be adjusted for dark studios or video applications.

High-quality Class D amplifiers complete the system and deliver enough power to the demands of modern music production. Selected volume and/or filter settings can be independently fixed with DIP-switches that are positioned on the rear of the amplifier to prevent unauthorised or unintentional adjustments.

A.M.T.

The simple goal of bringing the sound quality, low distortion and high resolution of our now famous A.M.T. tweeter to a much smaller format speaker took us on a many-month journey to find the perfect solution for the SC203. In the end, a new tweeter was born: the new µA.M.T..

This high resolution µA.M.T. delivers an astonishing high frequency resolution combined with extraordinary precision and clarity. The folded membrane of this high resolution µA.M.T. is only 400mm² in surface area, about less than half as our RS1 tweeter (which is used, for example, in the SC204 speaker). An integrated waveguide helps create an optimal dispersion pattern over a wide frequency range. No fighting over your sweet spot with this tweeter!

To complete the system, we've used strong neodymium magnets, coupled with a magnetic holder and membrane holder optimized for very low distortion values at the specified SPL. As usual with EVE Audio, no cutbacks were made to save money at the expense of a high quality tuned system.

Non-detachable loudspeaker grilles protect both, woofer and µA.M.T. tweeter against damage.

Passive Radiator

Passive radiator technology can be simply understood as having a passive woofer unit, along with the main active driver that does most of the work. This way, the internal air pressure generated by the active driver is used to move the passive radiator in order to reproduce lower frequencies than standard speakers with similar dimensions.

Also, the reason you don't usually see this kind of technology in smaller pro-audio systems is mainly because of cost and engineering concerns. Passive radiators are more expensive and not so easy to precisely tune them.

Another advantage of our passive radiator is the complete elimination of all audible noise related to air turbulences, as there are no reflex tubes involved with this design. Unwanted pipe resonances (at multiples of half the fundamental wavelength), which are unavoidable with two-sided pipe openings, are eliminated this way.

We've also built a custom suspension for the passive radiator, which exerts a restoring force underneath its tuning frequency, thereby reducing inaudible excursions of the speaker into the subsonic range. This results in reduced intermodulation distortion in the audible spectrum.

In short, thanks to the passive radiator technology being used (and a few more engineering secrets, of course), the SC203 works and behaves as a fully fledged full- range speaker, with precise bass reproduction and a very small footprint.