Blue Sky EXO Stereo Monitoring System
At first, it seemed wrong to me—the notion of splitting my precious signal between a subwoofer and a pair of satellite speakers. “Whaddaya mean, only one subwoofer? I got a stereo signal! And look at those little tiny satellite speakers—how can this thing reproduce low mids?” And then I suspended my disbelief and took a listen ... OK ... not too bad ... heck, maybe even pretty good. Well, because low frequencies are such long waves, and hence omnidirectional in terms of propagation, I guess you don’t really need two subwoofers for a stereo signal. And wow—manufacturers seem to have managed to find a crossover point that works just fine between that eight-inch woofer and those tiny little three-inch woofers ... or are they midrange drivers? OK—I admit it, I’m 100% sold on 2.1 monitor systems—got two of ‘em in my studio, both with six-inch woofers and great tweeters in the satellites, one with a 10-inch sub, the other with a really incredible 12-inch sub. I mix exclusively on these two systems, so I know from 2.1 monitoring. When I was offered an opportunity to review the Blue Sky EXO system, I jumped at it—I wanted to hear whether this $399 system could even begin to compete with my $1,600 and $3,200 systems.
The Package
The system ships with four pieces—the subwoofer, two satellite speakers, and a remote control unit, which also serves as the port through which your signal finds its way to the speakers. The sub is roughly a cube, 12 inches square face-on, and 12.5 inches deep. It includes four conical plastic feet, which optionally isolate it from the plane on which it sits. Its back panel features binding posts for the connection to the satellite speakers, a multi-pin connector to receive the plug from the remote control, a power switch, fuse holder, and a power cord. The box is sealed, which surprised me. Most manufacturers exploit porting to enhance the low end. If it can be avoided, the bass is much more honest without porting, so I was pleased with this discovery. The LF driver is eight inches in diameter with a paper cone, a vented motor, and a foam surround. The box is video shielded, which is nice because this system is marketed specifically for use with computer systems. The 25-pound sub features a frequency response that remains plus or minus 6 dB from 35 Hz to 140 Hz in an anechoic chamber, and 20 Hz to 200 Hz in a typical room. The box also contains the sub’s 90-watt amp and the satellites’ 35-watt amps.
The satellite speakers (also video shielded) are eight inches tall, five inches wide, and five inches deep, each weighing three pounds. The LF driver in each is a three-inch cast frame unit, featuring Blue Sky’s unorthodox signature hemispherical anodized aluminum cone. The motor structure utilizes a neodymium magnet. A one-inch fabric neodymium HF driver provides the system’s high end, with a crossover point of 2.2 kHz. The crossover point between subwoofer and satellites is 140 Hz, and Blue Sky publishes frequency response for the satellite speakers as plus or minus 3 dB from 140 Hz to 20 kHz, hence accomplishing an overall response of 20 Hz to 20 kHz with the entire system in play. The satellite speakers also feature a ¼-inch x 20-inch insert in the rear, which accommodates BT Technologies BT-33 brackets or Omnimount type 10 series brackets as well. This is very welcome and makes mounting the speakers substantially easier.
The remote control unit provides stereo-balanced XLR, TRS, and unbalanced RCA inputs and a single 3.5mm (1/8th-inch) stereo input jack on the front panel for portable consumer devices such as CD players, iPods, and computer audio outputs. A 3.5mm headphone jack is also featured on the front panel. It has two knobs—one for “gain” and the other for “sub.” The gain knob is a nice straightforward volume control, and the sub knob determines the relative contribution of the subwoofer to the overall reproduction. The unit’s XLR connections have pad switches, offering -12 dB and 0 dB options. A cable connects the box to the subwoofer.
Blue Sky includes in its manual a surprisingly in-depth procedure for calibrating the system in its environment. The necessary accoutrements are a group of four test files (available from Blue Sky’s website—1 kHz sine wave, 40 Hz-80 Hz pink noise, 500 Hz-2.5 kHz pink noise, and full bandwidth pink noise) and an SPL meter (“such as those sold by Radio Shack,” the manual states). A detailed procedure (which I admittedly did not do) facilitates what appears to be an effective tuning of the system. Not many “studio grade” 2.1 systems provide this level of support, much less computer speakers. This truly impressed me. They remarkably even go so far as to make recommendations regarding subwoofer placement, including a procedure employing a real time analyzer like the TerraSonde Audio Toolbox. Clearly, Blue Sky actually cares about the appropriate setup and calibration of its speakers, and that is relatively uncommon.
The Findings
I listened to a schizophrenically broad selection of music, spoken word recordings, and even pure tones at numerous frequencies, ranging from Debussy to detuned metal, and everything in between. My studio environment is a live-end/dead-end room with corner-loaded bass traps. Recognizing that most users of these speakers won’t have a large-frame analog console as a speaker stand like I do, I also listened in a more “office-like” environment as well. First off, the system is capable of providing substantial sound pressure levels, more than enough for mixing purposes. This system sounds stunning. The detail in the high end is better than my $1,600 system, and nearly as good as my $3,200 system. I pulled up some of my mixes and discovered things I didn’t realize before, some good, some bad. And I won’t get caught up in the cliché of “I heard things I never heard before”—of course you’ll hear different things on different monitors—but I heard astonishing clarity, particularly in the high end. I allowed myself to get a bit lost in the listening, and after several hours, I forgot I was listening to a system that costs less than 25% of my lesser monitors, and less than 13% of the price of my expensive monitors. The quality frankly blew me away. The low end is full and punchy, courtesy of the port-less design. Mids were smooth—not honky or nasal. The highs struck me, however, as the truly excellent segment of the bandwidth. Very detailed, and not hypey—and I can’t stress that enough—way too many manufacturers sell speakers with hypey tweeters. These are creamy and right on target vis-à-vis relative SPL.
The Blue Sky EXO is surprising because it is an inexpensive system targeted at desktop computer monitoring, and it actually hangs with substantially more expensive systems. Now I believe I’m going to look into some of Blue Sky’s more expensive “pro” solutions too. Count me truly impressed with this system.
John McJunkin is the CEO of Avalon Podcasting in Chandler, Arizona, which offers high quality podcast production and consultation services to a broad range of clients. He’s also the host of the Podcast Pro Tech & Tips Podcast at www.avalonpodcasting.com.
