Here are some of the elements that make the HRmk2 sound—and look—so smooth.

Zero-edge Baffle

The new one-piece cast aluminum Zero Edge Baffle™ features precisely engineered curvature that minimizes diffraction for a crystal clear image of your mix, and effectively controls sound waves so you get detailed lows, full, articulate mids, and shimmering highs. The integrated Optimized Waveguide accurately and efficiently controls dispersion characteristics of the sound on and off axis, resulting in a wide sweet spot with smooth transitions from lows to highs. More inert than a wood or plastic baffle, the Zero Edge Baffle’s cast metal surface reduces surface vibrations during playback, thereby minimizing distortion to the sound’s waveforms; the result is improved time-domain characteristics, which equates to dramatically enhanced depth of field.

Thanks to the design of the Zero Edge Baffle, the HRmk2’s imaging is stunningly accurate, with wide, even dispersion, and three-dimensional sound, delivering a much broader sweet spot than any other studio monitor on the market—so broad, in fact, that Mackie likes to call it a sweet zone.

Passive Radiator

When you mount a loudspeaker in a box, there are two things that you can do with the radiation from the rear of the cone: use it to enhance the low-frequency performance of the speaker system (bass reflex system) or soak it up (acoustic suspension system). A bass reflex system uses the rear radiation to extend the low-frequency response; most systems provide holes (ports) in the front or back of the cabinet to release the rear wave. The HRmk2 is a bass reflex 6th-order system. Rather than use ports, the vent takes the form of a passive radiator, a mass-loaded flat piston coupled to the air trapped within the enclosure. You can’t see the passive radiator because it is located at the rear of the cabinet, behind the power amplifier assembly.

The passive radiator replaces the port found on most speaker systems. Simple ports or ducts must have sufficient surface area to prevent the velocity of the air within them from exceeding 5% of the speed of sound, which keeps the vent from becoming audible (breathing and wheezing sounds) at high signal levels. This requirement for sufficient surface area creates a design problem when using ports—finding enough space in the enclosure for them to fit.

One primary advantage of a passive radiator is that it can reproduce low frequencies with lower distortion and at a higher sound pressure level (SPL) than a simple port or duct. Mackie's unique passive radiator design uses a flat diaphragm, providing exceptional stiffness to the radiating surface. The elliptical shape of the passive radiator takes up nearly the entire surface area available on the rear of the enclosure, allowing the passive radiator to move more air than a port. And as a result of this design, Mackie HRmk2s deliver superior bass response, with virtually no distortion.

Amplifiers

The HRmk2 Series monitors are a true Active design, meaning they contain separate onboard amplifiers for each driver, plus onboard active crossovers and time-correction circuitry, which helps ensure highs and lows reach your ears at the same time. The HRmk2s also have protection circuitry built in to protect from damaging input levels. With the same class A/B amplifier design as the original HR Series, the HRmk2s retain the much-loved character of our classic monitor, and carry on the Acoustic Space circuitry of the classic HRs, which allows you to tune the monitors to your room.

Designed into the heart of the amplifier circuits are EQ and filter sections that allow each amplifier to be precisely factory-tuned, ensuring that what Mackie designed in their labs is what you end up with in your studio. Before assembly, Mackie first hand-trims the amplifiers to exactly match the amplifiers in their Golden Reference Unit. (See "Unparalleled Quality" for more on the Golden Reference Unit.) During final assembly and testing, the amplifiers are voiced to match the rest of the components in the entire monitor system; they’re hand-trimmed to compensate for very slight manufacturing tolerances between the drivers. This meticulous process results in each monitor being within exacting references of the Golden Reference Unit.

Woofer/Tweeter Selection

Each HRmk2 monitor features a high-precision, low-distortion woofer—8.75-inch for the HR824mk2 and 6.7-inch for the HR624mk2—and a 1-inch ferrofluid cooled titanium dome tweeter. The HRmk2 drivers meet stringent criteria, including the ability to be manufactured in volume with virtually no variability between units, the ability to produce the desired frequency response, and the ability to meet the tight price goals that allow the monitors to be affordable.

Cabinet Design

The HRmk2 monitors feature a wood cabinet, with custom internal bracing to increase its strength and rigidity in desired locations. To absorb internal reflections and dampen standing waves inside the cabinet, an open-cell adiabatic foam material is placed strategically inside the box. While an all-metal cabinet had been considered as a potential design strategy, in the end our design team used their ears to make their choice of cabinet material. And what they heard from an all-metal cabinet was a sound that was accurate, but overly sterile. Combining a wood cabinet with the metal Zero Edge Baffle adds that unquantifiable “bit of warmth,” producing sound that’s true—and never lifeless.

The high-gloss, piano black finish of the cabinet complements the deep charcoal grey of the Zero Edge Baffle, and gives the HRmk2 a modern, professional look that suits just about any environment. All HRmk2s ship with peelable, protective film on each side to ensure that they look as brilliant in your studio as they do when they leave the factory.

LED Power Indicator

The LED power indicator is a tasty shade of white—a cool, refreshing change from your typical red. Mackie took care to make sure the brightness is just right, too. The light shines bright enough so you can see it just fine in a well-lit room, and in a dark environment, it won’t distract—or blind you. They saved the red for when you’re overdoing it—you’ll see the scarlet HRmk2 overload LED when your input levels are too high.

Along with Acoustic Space Controls that allow you to adjust low frequency response to compensate for placement next to the wall, in corners, or in the center of a room, the HRmk2s come with other features that enable versatile setup. Due to their ultra-wide sweet zone, the HRmk2 monitors can be oriented vertically or horizontally, so Mackie made the logo rotate-able. No matter which way you orient your HRmk2s, they’re always right-side up! Each HRmk2 also supplies Omnimount capability, so you aren’t forced to screw into—and damage—the enclosure’s surface in order to mount to the wall or from the ceiling.

Golden Reference Unit

Each HRmk2 is subject to rigorous testing and pre-screening during the production process, then calibrated and tuned with an environmentally controlled test chamber before final packaging. The Golden Reference Unit serves as the reference point for calibration; there is one of each model in the HRmk2 family. Hand-engineered in the US, the Golden Reference Unit is the “master” for HRmk2 production units—it is the final design arrived at and approved by the HRmk2 team. The Golden Reference Unit and the test chamber are calibrated as a system every few hours, to compensate for temperature and humidity variations, and the resulting measurements are used to calibrate each HRmk2 production unit. Each HRmk2 monitor is tuned to be within 1.5 dB across the entire frequency range of the Golden Reference Unit, and gets its own “birth certificate” with a chart plotting the frequency difference between it and the Golden Reference Unit. The birth certificate is then verified and signed by a Mackie Acoustic Technician.

Strict quality control means all HRmk2s meet published specifications, and that there is little-to-no variability between units. No matter if you get your first HRmk2 pair now and add another pair for your surround setup months later, you can be confident you have a precisely tuned system that has been designed to work in unison, and that every HRmk2 pair is a true “matched pair.”

Nearly two decades ago, George Lucas turned a passion for great sound into the world’s most accepted and trusted solution for achieving it. His company, Lucasfilms, developed a standard that guaranteed the sound quality created in the studio was what theatergoers experienced in the cinema. The standard was named THX, and since then, THX Ltd. has developed standards for a wide variety of audio and visual applications, from movie theaters to studios to home cinema. With hundreds of thousands of home theater customers and more than 3000 THX Certified movie theaters enjoying its benefits, the THX name has become nothing short of legendary.

Introduced in June of 1999, THX pm3 approval is the certification program developed specifically for 5.1 and 7.1 surround systems used for multi-channel mixing. The HRmk2’s THX pm3 approval means our monitors have met the stringent specifications standards set by THX for equipment used in surround mixing; they are ideal for DVD mastering, sweetening, and mixing, and the perfect fit for facilities doing work in broadcast, music, or multi-media applications. Simply put, THX pm3 approval is your guarantee that you have premium equipment for superior performance, whether you are using them in your own THX pm3 Certified Studio, or simply desire sound on par with those big-name facilities.

Features

• High resolution Active studio reference monitor
• Ultra-linear frequency response for accurate mix translation
• 8.75-inch high-precision, low-distortion LF transducer
• 1-inch titanium dome, ferrofluid cooled tweeter
• Optimized Waveguide for wide, even sweet zone
• Twin FR Series amps — 150W for LF / 100W for HF
• Cast aluminum Zero Edge Baffle™ minimizes diffraction
• Full internal damping eliminates midrange artifacts
• Passive radiator provides tight, articulate bass extension down to 35Hz
• Acoustic Space, LF roll-off, and HF controls
• Balanced XLR, TRS, and unbalanced RCA inputs
• OmniMount™ ready for easy wall/ceiling placement
• THX pm3™ certified for surround sound applications
• Perfect for High-Definition audio, cinema and gaming systems

Specifications subject to change without notice
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