Klein + Hummel O 110 Active Studio Monitor

Compact and truly uncolored
When the O 110 nearfield monitor was just on the drawing board, we set ourselves some extremely high standards and goals. Meeting these required us to take an unconventional approach to selecting materials and developing components, after which we continually refined every design detail in the pursuit of perfection.

The resulting system is a compact reference monitor with outstanding sonic qualities of the sort normally associated only with substantially larger studio loudspeakers.

For all recording, mixing, and mastering engineers working in smaller listening environments and studios, this nearfield monitor offers a professional "tool" that achieves true impulse response and superbly flat frequency response across the entire audible range, and delivers articulate bass with a precision equal to that of many larger systems.

Taming the room
KLEIN + HUMMEL places very great importance on ensuring that the sound produced by its monitors are absolutely true to life, even under less than ideal room conditions. The O 110 has therefore been equip-ped with several features that provide a listening environment as close as possible to the ideal.

Switchable 8-way room-matching EQ goes a long way to compensate for any undesirable room response resulting from placing the speakers near a wall or a corner or on a meter bridge.

Exact imaging
The high-frequency horn is calculated to achieve a different angle of dispersion in the vertical plane than in the horizontal. The elliptical shape of this horn serves to narrow the horizontal dispersion, thereby substantially reducing the early reflections from the console (comb-filter effects). At the same time, the horizontal sweet spot is widened, giving the sound engineer greater freedom of movement. Since console edge diffraction and surface reflections are minimized to the point where they can no longer muddy the sound, the imaging of the monitored material attains a three-dimensional palpability that is a real joy to exper-ience and work with.

Use of the new material LRIM has also made it possible to align the acoustic centers of the two drivers exactly on one plane, parallel to the baffle, thereby preventing time and phase coherency problems.

The newest components help produce the most outstanding sound
To achieve extremely flat frequency response, clarity, and precision, loudspeakercomponents need to be of very high quality, carefully manufactured, and selected for their compatibility with one another.

The woofer chosen for this cabinet is a new type of 5½" (145 mm) cone loudspeaker with a sandwich-membrane practically eliminates harmonic distortion. As evidence, note in the cumulative spectral decay plot that there are no nose-shaped peaks to be seen, and therefore no muddled sonic image to be heard. An extremely long excursion voice coil is responsible for the stunningly precise, low-distortion bass that you can enjoy even at high levels. The flux compensation of the woofer also helps reduce distortion dramatically, especially in the all-important midrange region.

The high-frequency driver is equipped with a 1" (25 mm) titanium/fabric dome tweeter which combines the transparency of titanium with the low distortion of a fabric dome. This tweeter is fine-tuned to work specifically with the elliptical waveguide built into the baffle.

The high and low-frequency drivers work su-perbly with each other - especially in the cross-over region - producing exactly the kind of uniform response and accurate rendition of the original sound that reveals critical details to the audio professional. Both drivers are magnetically shielded.

High quality amplifiers and active crossover
When it comes to designing and building high-quality power amplifiers, KLEIN + HUMMEL has fifty years of experience to draw upon. Each of the two amplifiers matches the technical requirements for performance exactly, yielding perfect phase response with the help of the precisely tuned fourth-order crossover.

The monitor is equipped with effective protection circuitry designed to allow impulse peaks through but prevent any thermal or physical damage. The input is electronically balanced and can optionally be upgraded to transformer-balanced and floating with a very high quality transformer.

Elegant enclosure design
The monitor enclosure, made of a dense low-resonance composite material called LRIM, sports an attractive, contemporary look. The non-parallel internal walls of the cabinet prevent standing waves from forming inside the (cabinet and thereby help eliminate resonant coloration).Threaded bushings at the back accommodate a large variety of mounting adapters.