Antelope Audio is not very well known in the hi-fi industry because the manufacturer belongs on the studio side. And here mainly in the field of electronics. They are best known for their interfaces and converters, but they also make microphones. And now adding loudspeakers. The target audience is primarily studio engineers and musicians, but as we have learnt on several occasions, good studio monitors can also provide great sound experiences in the living room.
We’ve seen examples of this from Genelec, JBL and others.
Double 8-inch woofers
The Atlas i8 is a very smart studio monitor. At 50 cm tall, it’s not super compact, but that’s to make room for a generous 8-inch woofer. That is, in reality, there are two. There is a woofer hidden inside the cabinet, behind the visible unit. What we usually know as an isobaric configuration. The two are connected in parallel so they work as one unit. The purpose is to get more bass energy and a lower cut-off frequency in a small enclosure.
In this case, a bass response down to 35 kHz is claimed with a maximum sound pressure of 117 dB from a single speaker. No amplifier is required as all the speaker units have inbuilt amplifiers with a total power of 400 watts (200 watts for woofers, 100 watts for both midrange and tweeter).
Coaxial unit
For listening both close to and far away from the speaker, it is equipped with a coaxial midrange/ tweeter unit. This means that the 4 cm (1.5″) tweeter is placed in the centre of the midrange unit, which measures 14 cm (5.5″). This design provides a more accurate dispersion and thus a more consistent sound no matter where you sit in relation to the speaker.
Inputs
The speakers have analogue XLR and TRS inputs (jacks), both balanced, but also digital XLR input (AES/EBU). A corresponding digital output is used to connect two speakers together, and you choose which one is left and which one is right.
Antelope Audio Atlas i8: Price and availability
The studio speakers are available now. The price is set at 2,495 euros per speaker.
