Awesome Sounds Part II

Well, after the change of room size the RP6G2’s lack of low frequencies eventually pushed me to go the extra mile and get the KRK10s. Initial feedback on it? Its got so much bass! I know that’s the whole point of it, but wow, I like bass and even I struggle with this sometimes. So much so that I actually bought the Boss FS-5L latched foot switch so that I could bypass the sub from time to time and allow the full range of frequencies back to the RP6G2’s!!!!

So….. what does all this mean?

Well, first off the KRK10s is one hell of a good sub, well built, sounds great and can really pump out some power, so much so, it rattles all of the radiators in every room of the house when its wound up! that said, it more than matches the RP6G2’s and compliments them well. The unit itself acts as the hub of your system, so you route your main outs to the unit from your source, then plug each of the other 2 speakers into the sub. My preference for this was to use TRS Balanced Jacks from my mixer to the Sub, then XLRs from the Sub to each speaker. A good, cheap cable provider I use regularly is: Vision Sounds on eBay, they are quick to process, cheap to buy and decent quality, so that works for me!

The KRK10s comes with a built in Crossover, with a knob on the back to set the Crossover frequency. I have played with this for a while now, and for me, I find that the best option is to keep some of the bass going to the RP6G2’s and let the sub handle the low stuff. To that end, I tend to have my crossover point at around 50Hz, which lets the RP6G2’s handle the punch in a beat while the KRK10’s handles the roll. I find this approach keeps the imaging better in my opinion.

The built in amp comes with the same +-6db of gain through a control knob on the rear. Mine is set to -4db and that still, on some tracks and sources, overpowers the RP6G2’s at 0db gain! For this reason, I find that it is very useful to have an EQ of sorts in the mix so you can compensate for different sources. I make use of an Alesis MultiMix8:Firewire to bring each of my audio sources together, which gives me a low/med/high EQ on each channel (except the Firewire output, but that’ a whole different article!).

The final, but very useful feature that comes with this unit is a bypass ability. You can plug in any latch-able foot pedal, but the Rokit site recommends the Boss FS-5L. I have the FS-5L and agree with them, its well built, but not so hard a switch that you can’t use it by hand if you want it on your desk. The reason for the bypass is actually quite a good one. Sometimes, you need to remove the bass effect of the sub and revert back to just the bass of the RP6G2’s. To do this without a bypass and making use of an EQ, you would taint the bass feed to the RP6G2’s and actually not give an accurate image, however, the bypass, when engaged, simply kills the Sub, bypasses the EQ and outputs a full range signal to the RP6G2’s leaving you with a nifty way of getting an accurate frequency reproduction for those absolute moments of audio clarity!

If your seriously thinking of adding a KRK10s to your setup, here are some tit bits of advice for you:

1. Buy the Boss FS-5L Latched Foot switch at the same time to give you the ability to bypass the sub easily when needed
2. If possible put at least a basic 3 band EQ between your source and the entire setup, as the ability to gently retard the bass is very handy
3. Make sure you have no neighbours attached, above, below or to the side of you, or you will quickly make some new enemies!

All in all, I am genuinely blown away with my overall investment into the Rokit camp, and will happily pick up an ERGO when funds can justify the £500 price-tag!

KRK10s Specs:

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