Fluxwithit is an online platform led by music producer, sound designer and product specialist Ken ‘Flux’ Pierce. Ken posts tutorials and overviews of different products as well as presentations of new and alternative ways to use these products. This review is dedicated to our Monitoring and Recording Controller SPL Marc One. You’ll find the complete review online at fluxwithit.com – here we provide a short summary.
“I tend to handle a lot of preset design, and testing of gear pre and post release. This means I am often trying to evaluate sound for a variety of environments and use cases. Often I need to be critical of strange unexpected behavior in audio gear. Listening on more than one set of monitors and with a variety of options can be critical for this task. This is where the SPL Marc One comes into play. The obvious actions are of course the ability to simply flip a switch and flick between two sets of monitors. This sounds trivial but there is more to it than that.”
“The first is that there are two sets of monitor inputs, one with a sub and one without, I tend not to use the sub output as my monitors sub has a built in cross over so the stereo out routes through the sub. Between the A/B monitor switch is the OFF position. This is a handy quick mute function to turn off both monitors.”
“The volume control is a large knob with analog control. This is important to me. It means monitoring at lower volumes will not reduce audio quality of playback as some digitally controlled devices may do. It also means that I always have direct hands on control of my audio level, no glitches or hang ups will prevent control.”
“Next to the volume is our Stereo controls. This allows us to quickly flip between mono, stereo and Flipped monitor configurations…”
“Next up are two small LED that indicate if the converters are being overloaded. This can not be understated. I have become very aware of the sound of modern day converters overloading and how they can alter your sound.“
“Now before moving on lets just talk a bit about those converters. These days converter tech has really exploded and we have some fantastic chips out there. the SPL Marc One takes advantage of this by using the AK4490 converter chip for the USB audio which enables sampling frequencies up to 768kHz. Those numbers are rather astounding and delivering a 10Hz–200kHz frequency range, 121dBu of dynamic range, -99dBu of self-noise, and 0.002% total harmonic distortion. These are literally top shelf numbers.”
Phonitor Matrix:
“What I like about this is that it didn’t feel like an effect slapped onto a mix. listening to familiar material it simply made my headphones melt away and I felt like I had a pair of monitors at a proper listening positioning in front of me.”
“I like to work stand alone from my computer quite a bit and my audio interface often acts as a patch bay without forcing me to use a DAW. This method was seamless with the Marc one and VERY helpful. It essentially means you have the highest quality iOS audio output available… whats not to like?”
Conclusion:
“Overall I really enjoy it. Much of the design is over the top with quality. Thats something I can always get behind.”
