We've Revolutionized Studio Sound. Again.

Back in the ’90s, our HR Series studio reference monitors revolutionized studio monitoring. With their incredible sound quality and affordability, they earned a wide and loyal following, fast becoming the industry standard. It was through our innovation, and commitment to great sound, that we managed to redefine the studio monitor. With that same ingenuity at work, we’ve reinvented our HR Series to bring you the new studio standard: the HRmk2 High Resolution Active Studio Reference Monitors.

The HRmk2s surpass the legendary performance of our classic HRs to deliver even better sound quality, in a stunning new package. The precisely engineered contours of the cast aluminum Zero Edge Baffle™ minimize diffraction for a crystal clear image of your mix, and control sound waves so you get detailed lows, full, articulate mids, and shimmering highs—whether you’re on axis or off. Working in concert with the baffle’s contours, the unique passive radiator design delivers astonishing bass extension that’s super-tight and always distortion-free. Wide, even dispersion of all frequencies, as well as incredible depth of field, allow you to accurately hear your mix, transforming your studio’s sweet spot into a full-on sweet zone. And the high-gloss piano black wood cabinet not only looks hot, but adds just enough warmth so your sound is true, not sterile.

Our HRmk2s were created with High Definition audio in mind—with such unbelievable sound quality, there’s little wonder why the HRmk2 Series was approved for THX pm3 compliance on its initial trial. THX pm3 Certification means that the HRmk2s have met the stringent standards set by THX Ltd.for outstanding performance, and that these monitors can be used with confidence by anyone seeking THX Certification for their studio, or striving to maintain THX standards.

We thought of every last detail, from consistency in sound from one HRmk2 monitor to the next, to an aesthetic design that unifies the whole HRmk2 family. Building on—and evolving from—our classic HR monitors' legacy of excellence, HRmk2s deliver superior performance and design, making them a truly pro monitoring solution for today's studio.

History

In the beginning

Up until the mid ’90s, there was no such thing as an affordable professional studio monitor. Even as more people began recording in homes and project studios, great sounding studio monitors remained cost-prohibitive. Home and project recordists resorted to using hi-fi speakers—some even cobbled together their own monitors using parts from consumer speakers and the local electronics store—with less than stellar results. We didn’t think this was fair—why should great sound be reserved for only those with a fat wallet?

We decided it was time to level the playback field. Our audio gurus got to work, combining their hard-won expertise to design a monitor that would at last make great sound accessible to the masses. After many long days—and late nights—the HR824 Active studio reference monitor was born. With its signature Active architecture and passive radiator design, the HR824 monitor delivered performance that impressed studio veterans and hobbyists alike—and was in reach of all their budgets. Soon HR824s were perched atop speaker stands in professional control rooms, project studios and bedroom studios all over the world. Following the success of the HR824, we developed the HR624, a compact version of our world-renowned original. Like its “big brother,” the HR624 earned a large and loyal following, and it, too, populated a wide range of studios. With their impeccable sound, enviable reputation and affordability, our HR Series changed what people expected of studio monitors, and challenged how our competitors designed theirs. Simply put, the HR Series became the new industry standard.

Since the release of the original HR Series in 1996, audio recording—and the studio environment—has changed by leaps and bounds. The greater bit depth and higher sampling rates afforded by digital audio mean recordings are more accurate than ever. Recording technology along every step of the signal chain has advanced, too, from microphones to DAWs, allowing for mixes with massive numbers of precisely captured tracks and huge amounts of processing. With these changes have come new challenges for—and expectations from—a studio monitor.

Today’s studio demands a monitor that can reproduce sound as precisely as it is recorded. The same innovation that launched our pioneering HR Series has led to the birth of just such a monitor—as well as a new studio standard. Meet the HRmk2.

Design

The performance evolution

Our HR624mk2 high-resolution Active studio reference monitors represent the evolution of revolutionary thinking. Our engineers, joined by audio gurus from EAW, worked hard to conceive of a way to preserve the all-important character of the original HR, while delivering performance—as well as appearance—that’s better than ever. And even moreso than the original HR624, which were designed apart from each other, the HR624mk2 are part of the same family, true siblings in design and sound. Sharing the same engineering, they are created to work together, whether in surround systems, or as part of complementary monitoring setups in different sized rooms.

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

Zero-Edged 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 we like 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. Our 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, our 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 we designed in our labs is what you end up with in your studio. Before assembly, we first hand-trim the amplifiers to exactly match the amplifiers in our 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.

Woofers & Tweeters

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. An exhaustive process, the selection of the new HRmk2 drivers consumed considerable engineering resources. Our team spent countless hours in their quest to find drivers that met our 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 us to make our monitors affordable. After having rejected multiple candidates, the team eventually narrowed down the field. With further engineering input, we sourced drivers that met our standards, and successfully managed to fine-tune a system that delivers unparalleled results.

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 our metal Zero Edge Baffle adds that unquantifiable “bit of warmth,” producing sound that’s true—and never lifeless.

Spesification