TAPCO S5
Mar 1, 2004 12:00 PM, BY DOUG EISENGREIN
Some people collect coins, others collect baseball cards, and some musicians are just plain gear sluts. If I had the money and space to burn, I would collect reference monitors. Despite their intended purpose of being flat and transparent, all studio monitors nonetheless have their own sonic character. My studio would look like the monitor showrooms of all of the local pro-audio stores combined.
Given that, it was a special treat to review the newest offering from Mackie under its newly reborn brand name, Tapco. The new S•5s are active, two-way biamplified desktop studio monitors that, despite their small size, pack a surprisingly powerful punch. Tapco was Greg Mackie's first company, and it made its mark in professional audio in the late '60s with small and durable yet affordable P.A. mixers. Mackie has reincarnated the name with the same goal of releasing inexpensive, high-quality gear, and if these monitors are any indication of the company's direction, so far so good.
NEW-GEAR SMELL
The monitors are attractive, sporting a flat-black finish offset by brushed-silver-painted tweeter and woofer frames. All of the corners (front, back and sides) are rounded, making the cabinets functional for sound dispersion rather than reflection — a nice design choice. Each monitor is 11.3×7.6×9.1 inches and weighs in at a healthy 15.5 pounds. The center of the 5.25-inch polypropylene cone woofer has a unique torpedo-head shape and is driven by a dedicated 60W, 4-ohm amplifier with a peak rating of 100W. A separate amp with the same power rating drives the top. That is interesting because most active monitors in this class have a bigger amp pushing the low frequencies, but two 60W amps are certainly plenty in a box this small. The tweeter is a 1-inch silk-dome type, and an oblong bass-reflection port on the rear rounds things out.
I got ready to plug in the monitors and found something quite cool and relatively unusual: The S•5s come with removable power cables for both 110 and 230V power circuits, and the speakers' rear panels have a simple switch to flip between the two for worldwide use. The pair that I received was preset to 230V, so if you live in North America or Japan, you have to be careful to switch them. Fortunately, they ship with bright yellow stickers across the back warning you to check before plugging in.
The front face of the monitors have two LEDs, one to indicate power and the other as a signal/clip indicator. The rear of the S•5s sport nice-size heat sinks, cool (no pun intended) features that flaunt that two beefy amps are housed inside. The input options on the S•5s are impressive indeed. You can plug in using the RCA, XLR or TRS jacks. Each speaker has an input-gain pot, a high-frequency filter with -2, 0 and +2dB settings, and a low-frequency filter with 0, +2 and +4dB settings. This plethora of options will fit anyone's setup. I plugged in using the XLR jacks, set everything to 0 and dived in.
STIFF COMPETITION
I had the rare privilege of being able to set up and test the S•5s against several other leading competitors' monitors in the same basic size and price range inside the listening room at a pro-audio retailer, including a pair of Mackie's own higher-end HR624s. I must say that the S•5s did well against this battery of competition. For the first test, I played what I consider to be a pristine recording through the S•5s. I cranked it to a decibel level far above what would be normal in a typical studio session, and the S•5s handled the load with no distortion at all. The woofers were dancing, but the S•5s were loud and plenty clear. They displayed a forward presence, and the music filled the room, though the sweet spot was rather tight. I couldn't move too far off axis without losing the sparkle.
My first impression of the overall tonal balance was that the S•5s had surprisingly nice bass response for speakers with small woofers, as well as clear and detailed highs, but were a bit loud and honky in the midrange. Plenty of 2,500 to 6,000 Hz was certainly audible. The bass was there, and I could hear the thud of the kick drum clearly. Upon my first comparison with a few other monitors, however, I found less definition in the bass, especially in the core area of about 100 to 250 Hz. That made sense because the rated frequency response of the S•5s is 64 Hz to 20 kHz. I still felt that the mids were a bit boomy, yet I liked the detail in the highs and high mids more than just about all of the speakers in the control group. The more A/B comparisons that I did, the more I wanted to return to the Tapcos to hear the detail in the highs.
Still having some reservations about the S•5s low-frequency reproduction, I played some raw, bass-heavy hip-hop instrumentals through the Tapcos and did an A/B comparison to Mackie's twice-as-expensive HR624s. Overall, the S•5s put up a good battle against their much more expensive cousins. The Mackies did sound warmer, a difference that probably can be attributed to higher-dollar components. Also, it definitely became clear that the subfrequencies (below 80 Hz) were weaker in the Tapcos whereas the crack of the snare drums and the guitar leads still felt a bit too bright. Nevertheless, kick drums around 90 to 110 Hz were clearly present with good attack, and although the woofers didn't reach way down into the lower registers, there wasn't a steep drop-off of what I could hear versus what I could not.
From hip-hop, I switched to music that I was intimately familiar with — my own electronic tracks. The selections I chose were downtempo, sub-bass to squeaky-high-filled tracks dense with microbits of percussion and plenty of panning. I experienced the same results: good detail; the kick and bass were nice but not overly present below 80 Hz; the mid-highs in the 4 to 8kHz range were a bit hot, but the sound felt like it was in the room, not just projecting from the speakers. I found that to be the most striking quality of these small monitors and probably why I anticipated switching back to them each time I was listening to a different pair.
For my final and potentially most critical test, I took the Tapcos back to my own studio, where I know the sound of the room well. I played all manner of selections through them, from electronic to jazz to vocal music. I played some guitar, listened to MP3s and sang into a mic. In my environment, the Tapcos fared very well indeed, better than in the music-store listening room. The mids didn't sound so omnipresent; I could hear good detail throughout the spectrum; and they sounded warmer and easier to listen to, even with a 4-track EP that I played several times over. The high- and low-frequency filters were also useful in tailoring the sound of the S•5s to the various testing environments that I used.
LISTEN UP
The Tapco S•5s are a good solution for budget-conscious studio types who need a pair of near-field monitors in a small environment. I'm not sure that I would want to use them right out of the box for mixing crucial reggae and dub, but if paired with a subwoofer, these monitors would be a great front end for a project studio and might be excellent in a surround environment, as well. By themselves, their room presence is quite good, details come through nicely, and they are quite bold when you turn them up. And with Mackie's track record behind them, they could probably outlast the Terminator. If aesthetics are important to you, the S•5s are sleek and unique-looking boxes with a modern, but not tacky, style. I recommend these monitors, especially as a first pair. Also, the S•5s would be a great fit for a professional studio looking to outfit a smaller editing suite without breaking the bank.
Product Summary
TAPCO (BY MACKIE)
S•5 > $499 (PAIR)
Pros: Inexpensive. Attractive. Small and durable with big sound. Great room presence. Clear details. Excellent I/O section. Switchable between 110 and 230V; both cables included.
Cons: Heavy. Frequency response drops off at 64 Hz. Slightly bright in the midrange. No frequency-response chart included. Not sold individually.
Contact: tel. (877) 827-2669; e-mail sales@tapcogear.com; Web www.tapcogear.com
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