ProLinear 720 DSP Studio Monitor

The Alesis ProLinear 720 DSP sets a new standard in near-field monitors.With custom DSP technology, Alesis was able to design a speaker with sound quality and accuracy unavailable at anywhere near its price. Clarity, imaging, and transient response are truly outstanding.Bass is tight and visceral. Internal processing allows user flexibility to configure the speaker for almost any application via the front panel control or the included graphical PC application software.

Any great speaker design starts with the best drivers and the Alesis' custom drivers are exceptional. The woofer has a cast frame with a 7" Kevlar cone and oversized magnet assembly.The Kevlar cone has outstanding stiffness-to-weight ratio to minimize distortion, extend bass response, and provide excellent transient response.The magnet assembly provides high linearity and good efficiency. In the 720 cabinet, the woofer is flat down to 43hz (-3dB, anechoically) with harmonic distortion typically below .4% above 50hz.

The tweeter is a 28mm silk dome that has a very flat frequency response with a low resonance to reduce harshness. The tweeter is ferro-fluid cooled to provide good power handling and well-behaved response.Distortion is typically below .3% over its operating range. Its computer-designed waveguide was optimized for near-field placement but provides excellent imaging in most other placements.

Both drivers are shielded and allow the user to place the speakers within a few inches of a CRT.

With Alesis' custom DSP (Digital Signal Processing), the crossover for the drivers achieves a linearity usually unachievable in analog monitors. This allows a smooth transition of the sound between the tweeter and woofer as well as providing proper time domain coherency.In other words, the speaker is as accurate as the drivers.The DSP also smoothes out the frequency response far more effectively than with analog monitors. The response is typically better than +/- 1dB between 100hz and 20Khz.

The ProLinear 720 Studio Monitor has 4 programmable, user controlled, fully parametric equalizer bands adjust the speaker to a desired response. 16 preset programs (8 factory and 8 predefined user-variable) let you fine tune the speaker to your monitoring needs.

A level adjustment allows the user to calibrate the input level to match other speakers. Pushing a couple of the front panel buttons causes the LCD to dynamically update and show the input level into the speaker. Calibration is easy; simply input a constant test signal (e.g. pink noise, white noise) and adjust the rear panel pot to the desired level.

The internal processing of the ProLinear DSP provides external RS-232 serial ports that allow the user to connect the speaker to a PC or other speaker in a daisy chain (with the included serial cables). Functions that can be controlled through the serial port include setting of the 4 parametric bands, level control and selection of the 16 stored programs. Via a single PC, any number of speakers may be controlled.Each speaker has a channel ID number (from 1 to 16).Any speaker with the same ID will be controlled at the same time. This means that you can have 16 speakers addressed individually, or an unlimited number controlled the same.

The Alesis ProLinear is biamplified with typically 80 watts for the woofer and 40 watts for the tweeter.(In actuality, the woofer and tweeter are both powered at 80 watts, but because of the higher efficiency and lower power content to the tweeter, only about 40 watts is needed to match the 80 watts to the woofer.) The amplifiers are low-distortion, wide-band devices that are self-protected to prevent damage to the drivers. XLR and 1/4" TRS connectors allowing you to use non-digital mixers and sources. The power supply is a high-efficiency switching supply used to provide optimal power at a low weight, as well as being usable over a wide range of AC voltages without reconfiguring the speaker.

The front panel/display of the speaker allows the user to control all the functions of the speaker if a PC is not available. Multiple speakers can also be controlled from a single speaker.The LCD provides a readout of all parameters and flashes red to indicate that the speaker is being overdriven.