MackieHR624mk2 6 Inches Powered Studio Monitor

I had experience with the original HR824 speakers at a couple studio installations and fell in love with them. I finally decided to do a major overhaul on my own small home-based studio and sprung for the MkII versions. I made a very wise choice. These monitors will bring out all the good along with all what's bad in your mix, allowing you to correct the latter. Calibrated frequency response of these monitors is practically ruler flat, with settings to tailor the low and high end according to how they are installed in the studio room. The monitors can easily double as hi-fi stereo speakers in a top-end audiophile system. The built-in amplifiers are nearly devoid of quiescent (no-signal) hiss. The power switches are front mounted, with a white ring light surrounding it to indicate power is on and the monitors are active. This indicator turns red during impending overload conditions to alert the engineer/listener they are approaching the maximum output of the amp. When the light remains continuously red, this means you are operating in the extended headroom of the amp greater than its rating. If pushed any further, the amps will go into a signal clamping mode to protect the drivers, the sound will compress dramatically and "pump" with strong beats. This is a very effective protection setup, quite forgiving, but will ultimately keep the speakers from being damaged.Power to the amps can be set to be on continuously, or to fall into a low-power standby mode after about 8 minutes of zero signal. The speakers will come out of standby once a signal is reapplied. Unlike some similar setups, the Mackies will come to life when given a signal that produces a barely audible sound. This keeps the amps going during long periods of very quiet music playing, There is no chance of having sound drop out then come back on. It does take about five seconds for the amps to come out of standby, and there's no audible thump or other noise. The music just comes back.The soundstage is wide and defined. The highs off the tweeters are open, with no severe beaming. Listeners can crowd around the speakers and not be left out of the sweet spot. The bottom end is very tight and solid. The Mackies have a passive radiator for the low, this is a big 6x12" flat oval diaphragm behind the amp circuitry, For most mixdown work save for sfx processing or exaggerated bass-heavy techno music, a sub will not be necessary. For testing, I fed one of my favorite tracks (Peter Gabriel's "The Time of the Turning/The Weaver's Reel" from OVO) which has a sustained low bass note of around 30Hz, and I was able to cause the woofers to bottom out at high volume. I wasn't surprised at this, that particular track needs extraordinary low-end capability from the entire music system to play it successfully, and the Mackies did very well well until about 3/4 volume. If kept below that critical level, the lowest-of-the-lows are reproduced faithfully, and better than expected from a full-range, 8" driver. Mids are open and clear. Vocalists and solo instruments pop with smooth clarity. It's very easy to play these speakers at uncharacteristically high volumes quite comfortably because of the well-defined sound reproduction, and this is where you'll hear a lot of the rough edges hidden in the mix. Badly mic'd drum sets will sound like worn machinery in the background, those squeaky bass drum pedals and hi-hats, toe-tapping and loose items vibrating from the amps, all those things you'd think are under the main mix will be there. It's up to the engineer to decide of this is either bad technique or added authenticity.These speakers are also easy on the eyes as well. Unlike the originals, with the semi-gloss black painted birch woodgrain cabinets with squared off corners, the MkIIs have a gorgeous piano black finish that's practically flawless, with the smooth, heavy die cast aluminum front bezels in deep matte black. The tweeter domes are protected behind mesh grilles, and a transparent circular diffuser can be seen in just the right light behind the screen. The woofers have very rugged poly cones and dust caps, it would take quite a lot of force to damage the woofer cones. The amp shield, which doubles as a heatsink, now flows with the lines of the cabinet rather than looking added on as in the previous model. Air movement from the rear passive radiator flows around the numerous vent slots, this keeps the amp's operating temp quite low. While playing various music to test out and break in the speakers at rather high volumes, the amps never got overly warm after hours of playing. The speakers can be used horizontally or vertically, the Mackie logo can be rotated to match the mounting position. A set of mounting holes are provided to attach wall or desk mounts or floor stands. These are heavy beasts, weighing about 35 pounds a piece. The cabinets are extremely solid and acoustically inert.The amps can be connected using balanced XLR, balanced or unbalanced 1/4" TRS phone plugs, or unbalanced RCA phono plugs. The power comes in via a detachable IEC two conductor cable. Mackie includes nice long power cords, close to ten feet in length. All of the aforementioned setting are accomplished with small slide switches that are easy enough to set are recessed enough to prevent accidental changing of settings. There is a pot on the back to match the gain of the amps to the source and to other monitors if used. Mackie thought of of everything in my opinion, and came up with a worthy successor to the original HR824 series. If you are a seasoned pro or a serious home recording enthusiast, you'd be hard pressed to find a better set of monitor speakers for the money.

I've used a pair of these as the main speakers on my A/V workstation computer and they're fabulous. They are very accurate but I disagree with the previous reviewer that they're not for everyday listening.If you're used to consumer quality speakers that present a scooped frequency response these will seem mid-range forward at first, but that feeling quickly subsides. Just as I want my calibrated video monitor to give me accurate colors and contrast, I want my audio monitors to deliver a true representation of the recording, not to try and "enhance" it.I've found the Mackies to deliver a very detailed and uncolored presentation of the source material. They're great whether I'm mastering audio for video or just listening for pleasure. They'll fill a small room with reference quality sound.UPDATE 4/15/2015One of my 624's recently developed a problem where it would no longer stay powered on (they're over five years old at this point). I found a post on the web suggesting the replacement of capacitor C65 on the amplifier circuit board. Upon investigating I found that indeed C65 was out of spec, with a high ESR and capacitance about half of what it should be. I replaced the capacitor (a 25 cent part) and the speaker is once again fully functional. If you're handy with a soldering iron it's a fairly simple fix. Still it's a bit of bit of a disappointment that the unit has this at least somewhat common flaw. Please take note. I'm reducing my rating from 5 to 4 stars.UPDATE 3/2017The other speaker developed the same problem. Once again, replacing C65 solved it. Luckily I had purchased a couple of extra capacitors back in 2015 and still had them around. I'm leaving the star rating at four. These speakers deserve it for their years of service with only minor maintenance (assuming you're handy with a soldering iron). I notice these speakers are still for sale. Hopefully Mackie has changed to a higher quality manufacturer of capacitor because the JH brand they used in mine doesn't last in this application.

I had probably a 100 hours of use on these useless monitors before the bass cone stopped working. I found the repair place was more than 50 miles away and when I took it there they proved that the cone was actually intact and the amplifier itself had blown up. By the way, the design of these things makes taking them apart to test them almost impossible. One more design flaw for a lousy product.I contacted mackie and they said Oh that is sad.Don't waste your money on these poorly made, over priced monitors

One one of my speakers, the power failed after about 1 year. Apparently it's a well known problem; there are Youtube videos about how to fix it. But no, I'm not that good (nor should I have to be) with a soldering iron. DEFECT.

I owned Mackie HR624 speakers for a long time (5+ years). They were pretty good for general recording applications, but failed miserably for mixing and or mastering. They did not accurately reproduce mids or stereo imaging and it was very difficult to get mixes right with them, especially if you're songs have any digital element (synthesizers). For that reason, I cannot recommend them for anything beyond general utility speakers. Once I upgraded, I went to Dynaudio BM6A's and have never looked back. My mixes are a full magnitude better. What I previously thought were my mixing inadequacies turned out to be that I wasn't hearing my mixes correctly with the Mackie speakers. My mixes sound fantastic now, at the club, in the car, and in the studio. Save yourself the heartache and get the Dynaudio's instead - fantastic highs, clean, tight. The BM6A's are the best bang for your buck. http://www.amazon.com/Dynaudio-Acoustics-mkIII-Studio-Monitor/dp/B00KO6VN1A/?tag=watitstr-20