Eve Audio SC2070

Eve’s new compact monitors borrow more than a little tech from their premium designs.

While it might look familiar from the outside, Eve’s new two‑way active SC2070 monitor incorporates some significant advances over the company’s previous models. In this case, Eve have allowed for a higher cost compared with their standard two‑way range to enable them to produce a really high‑quality design in a very compact footprint. Priced individually rather than in pairs, the SC2070 features the familiar folded‑ribbon tweeter, aka Air Motion Transformer (AMT), but the RS7 version used here is the largest Eve have ever put in a two‑way monitor. Its diaphragm area is 1.5 times bigger than those of Eve’s other two‑way models, and only slightly smaller than the AMT RS6 used in Eve’s large SC3010 and SC3012 monitors. This crosses over at 1800Hz, which is unusually low, with the aim of providing midrange coverage equivalent to a three‑way design.

The pleated construction of the AMT’s diaphragm, which is located in a strong magnetic field, presents a much larger surface area than a flat ribbon, and the air motion is generated by adjacent folds alternately attracting or repeling each other as an audio signal current is passed through the conductive metal coating of a very light polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membrane. This is in contrast to a conventional ribbon tweeter, where the whole ribbon moves backwards and forwards. This motion actually occurs over a very small distance, but the folded structure still moves more air than a conventional tweeter of the same diameter.

Handling the lows is a 6.5‑inch SilverCone woofer, also used in Eve’s SC3070 and SC4070 monitors. This employs a copper‑cap magnet system and a 1.5‑inch voice coil. Its cone has a light but stiff honeycomb construction for low distortion, and is supported in a roll surround. Power comes from a pair of Class‑D amplifiers with a combined power of 250 Watts and, as with other Eve monitors, the analogue input signal is converted to digital so that a DSP can provide additional optimisations as well as handling crossover, limiter and protection duties.

When the speakers are powered up, the volume level rises slowly to give the operator time to turn them down if they have been set too loud. The maximum input level can be switched between +7dBu and +22dBu to optimise the A‑D converter resolution, and conversion is carried out at 24‑bit, 192kHz using Burr‑Brown converters. Analogue inputs are on unbalanced RCA phonos and balanced/unbalanced XLR; there’s no quarter‑inch jack provision.

The cabinet, which measures 230 x 345 x 304mm and is machined from MDF, has bevelled baffle edges to minimise cabinet edge diffraction and is recognisably an Eve design, with a satin‑finished baffle and a vinyl foil finish to the cabinet top, back and sides. The connections and mains inlet are on the rear panel, alongside a switch to select between 115V and 230V operation.

With any ported speaker design there’s a trade‑off between bass overhang and low‑frequency extension, as well as the risk of air movement noise from the port. In this design the slot‑shaped port is at the rear of the cabinet, which reduces the impact of any residual port noise, and the port is larger than usual, with a rounded lower edge to minimise port distortion. A consideration with rear‑ported monitors is that they have to be mounted a little distance away from the wall behind them, otherwise the proximity of the wall will compromise the port action.

With the EQ settings adjusted from the front panel, the rear houses only the analogue inputs and DIP switches for adjusting the input sensitivity and locking the EQ controls.In familiar Eve fashion, all the level, mute and EQ adjustments are made using a single ‘turn and press’ encoder surrounded by an LED ring that displays values. Thoughtfully, the brightness of the LED ring can be set to bright or dim to suit the ambient lighting in the studio, and there are two options for how the LED ring shows the current value: ring or dot. The EQ options comprise a low shelf (200Hz), mid EQ (1kHz) and high shelf (3kHz), and it is possible to lock volume and/or filter settings using the rear‑panel DIP switches to prevent inadvertent adjustments. There’s also a Desk filter, which has different functions depending on whether it is turned up or down. When turned down it works as a 170Hz notch filter to counter typical desk reflections, but turned up it provides an 80Hz bell‑shaped boost that adds a little low‑end punch.

The specifications for the speaker are impressive, with a free‑field frequency response of 38Hz‑25kHz (‑3dB). A maximum SPL of 116dB is quoted, which is more than enough for use at close quarters, and Eve’s response plot shows the frequency curve to be nominally flat when no filtering is applied.

In Use

I set up the SC2070s a metre or so from the front wall in my studio, which has enough acoustic treatment to give reliable results with my existing monitors. At typical monitoring levels the speakers sounded impressively smooth and solid even before I got around to tweaking the EQ settings. The low end reaches down rather further than you’d expect from what is a fairly compact two‑way speaker, and though there’s a little low‑frequency overhang due to the use of a reflex port, it is certainly nothing that would worry me. That AMT tweeter really earns its keep here, as the highs sound smooth and effortless, reaching up beyond what most monitors can manage.

In my room, the mids sounded very slightly recessed with the controls set flat, but that mid EQ came to the rescue, allowing me to add just a hint of 1kHz lift. The low end was also trimmed back by a dB or two to compensate for the room characteristics. Once dialled in, the monitors sounded extremely natural and I was comfortable using them for extended periods with no sense of fatigue.

The speakers sounded impressively smooth and solid even before I got around to tweaking the EQ settings.

While this is strictly a subjective rather than technical review, I’ve always found it useful to compare the overall tonal balance of monitors with that of a decent pair of open‑backed headphones. Obviously the way the stereo image is presented differs between headphones and speakers, but the comparison is useful not only for checking the tonal balance but also for examining how tight the bass end sounds. Open‑backed headphones don’t suffer from port overhang so you get a fair sense of how something like a very dry kick drum is presented, and there are also no crossover issues to worry about.

Once I’d made the necessary EQ tweaks, the overall balance from the monitors came very close to that of my headphones, and while no ported speaker is entirely free from bass overhang, the SC2070s managed to sound well controlled and punchy with a lot of depth. Having that mid EQ control and separate Desk EQ really helps in getting the speakers optimised for your room. Voices came across sounding very natural, and those smooth highs translate to a great sense of detail without ever sounding aggressive. I also found that the stereo image presented a useful sense of depth as well as width, which is a trait usually associated with well‑designed speaker.

In summary then, these monitors share the Eve family sound but with extra finesse when compared with their more affordable models. Even so, they are still priced within reach of the serious private studio owner as well as professionals.