Martin Audio Blacklinex Powered Speaker System Review BY Ellaskins

0:01 Welcome to the front room

Alright ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the front room. Welcome to a very minimalistic for me front room. Changing things around, new set, well actually second hand settee. Yes, Facebook swap shop is amazing. Coffee table my dad made. I'm sitting on an 18 inch sub driver, or sub speeder should I say, and a couple of bicycles behind you. The beauty about being a keen cyclist. Anyway! This video is about the Martin Audio Blackline X series. Now, I've been using this for a couple of months and the only reason I'm doing this video now is because I wanted to use it, not abuse it, out in a real world environment before, you know, having it and going, oh it does this, that and the other and it's amazing, best thing since sliced bread and so on. So really this is...

My thoughts on what I think about the Blackline X series. Now first of all, I am sat on the Blackline X sub. Now this is a powered 18-inch sub driver, okay? So this isn't passive, it's powered. That means that it's got an internal amplifier built in, which means for all the noobs out there, all you have to do is take a cable from whatever music source you've got, whether it be your... Laptop even, maybe your DJM top of the range mixer, maybe Denon Prime 4 or maybe your controller. From that into the sub and that's it. You don't need an external amplifier. Over here I have the 12 inch. Now this is a mid-top so this will cover a lot of the high end and also low end frequencies. Explaining about what I think about this system, let me give you a run through. Let's say we've got some people out there who have no idea what speakers are and what they do and what they're for, which is very true. There are still to this day people who will watch videos and like, what's a speaker? Well, this one here is a 12-in horn. We have a 12-inch driver at the bottom, which is known as the woofer.

2:44 For making low-end sounds

And we have a horn at the top, which is known as a tweeter. The tweeter is also known as a CD compression driver. And inside here, we have an amplifier, amplifiers that will power the speaker. So I don't want to go into the overall specifications. That's what this video is not about. It isn't about that. This is about me explaining what I think about the system. Underneath me is an 18-inch sub-driver. For making low-end sounds. In other words, if you don't like the neighbours and you want to knock their cup of coffee off the kitchen table while they're trying to drink it, plug one of these in and you probably will. It'll be to them a little bit like maybe a 5.2 on the Richter scale. Yes, happy days! Right, so what do I think of it? Now my first impressions are a nice warm...

I would take just the 12 and horn. Because even though that is a much smaller speaker to the 18-inch, that will still give you bass, mid and top. So in other words, it can be used as a full range speaker, giving you the whole spectrum of sound. On the other hand, let's imagine you're in an environment where you want it a bit more bottom end and subby. Then you'd probably take an 18-inch sub with you. The sound of the sub, because it's very warm, it's very comforting, it's not spiky, it's not sort of in your face, it's not overpowering. If this sub was classed as something, it would be a tiger or a lion that has been used to being around people, that is happy. Talking about tigers and lions, here's my...

5:07 It's going to just grab you and rip your arms off

Cue! What a cue! Tiger and Lion. Come here, Bobby. Oh, no, he's gone. Bobby, come on, Bobby Socks. If the speaker... Seriously, here's a cat now. Right now, here we go. Here's Bobby. If the speaker was something, it would be a tiger or a lion that has been looked after by humans, cared for, and you can go and give it a nice pat and a stroke. On the other hand, like any wild animal, if you abuse it... It's going to just grab you and rip your arms off. And that is exactly what this sub can do, because what I found with it is when used, it can just tick over and give a nice warm glow to the room. On the other hand, all I have to do is turn it up, turn the mid-top down, and now I have got this Ministry of Sound nightclub sound that is just full on.

In your face bass but at the same time the people dancing can have a good old conversation with each other without going what hello excuse me no there's no need for that because if you EQ the sound correctly using the back panel you can get this monumental warm clarity this just beautiful kind of relaxing sound that it just makes you want to just sit there and go I love drum and bass. I love deep soulful house music. And that is what you'll get if you use an 18. This is what I've been getting with, let's say, the 12 mid and top. Now on the other hand, let's imagine you're doing an event for maybe 20 or 30 people. A set of the 12 and horn is fantastic. It will do the job, even if you do have to play a little bit of drum and bass.

Because bearing in mind, I mean just pure logic here, if you're going to be doing an event for 20 or 30 people, it's very unlikely that they are going to be having their party or event in a stadium. I don't think so, unless they're very rich and stupid. On the other hand, they're probably going to have it in a small little venue somewhere, the back room of a small bar or maybe a house party. Well in that case then, the 12 and horn will work fine because... You have to remember, this is still a full range cab. So that's what I like about it. You know, you twiddle around with the settings and you've got full range. You have a mess around again, and guess what? You can set it to run with the sub. Very simply. Now, the settings on the back, I found, were intuitive. They were very simple to use. You didn't even have to look at the manual. It was, yeah, right, okay, that's there, yeah.

7:57 The Blackline X will probably work for you because you can have these

That does that. Switch over to the next setting. Oh look, it tells me to do that. It's not hard. It's not really hard to work out. I found within like 5 or 10 minutes, I was like, yeah, I get it. I can work it out. Alright? Now also, you've got flying points on these. Now I haven't used those. So let's say for example, you're a manager in a bar, small nightclub and you're thinking about getting a system. Well, the Blackline X will probably work for you because you can have these flown. You could also have the subs flown as well. Now I'm not saying I wouldn't do that but I wouldn't really want to walk underneath one of those because A they're bloody heavy and I'd be thinking even though of course by law they have to be secured and at the end of the day Martin Audio are not going to make this or let this sort of

What Martin Audio have done here with the Blackline X? Maybe some vibration if they haven't braced the cabs inside correctly, but you don't get that with these. Of course they will shake a little bit, that is just how physics works. But what I have found is you start turning the bass cab up... And you put your hand on the top and, you know, you know something's going on. You know something's happening in there but your hand isn't being vibrated because what you've got to remember, and try this with your speakers at home, turn them on and turn them up. And if your speaker is vibrating a lot that means that a lot of the energy and power and the...

10:30 Saying

The air pressure that should be going out is actually vibrating the cab and it's not doing its job of going that way. It's sort of vibration, vibrating the cab. So anyway, that's just a by-the-by really. So right, what do I think of them? I like them. I like the sound. I like the feel. I like the usability. They look good. And something else as well. Right, if I put that on there, maybe if this, I don't know, a bit anal or what. But what I do like about speakers as well is when you can't see what's behind it. So it's almost like, oh, I wonder what's there if the speaker's this big or there's a huge big compression driver. This sort of design, when you can't see the drivers behind the grill, is a lot more pro than when you see some speakers and you see the circle with the driver and you've got lots of piezo horns.

You know, now I'm not saying that any high-end kit that has got that where you can see the drivers is bad, is crap, is rubbish. I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is that this to me, where you can't see the speaker, is a lot more professional. Now, OK, if we look at the 18, they haven't done that, OK? We can see the 18-inch driver, but let's be honest here, alright? That's always going to be on the floor. It should be. So you're not going to be looking down on the floor. Head height, you're going to be looking up. So the 12, you're going to see that. The public's going to see that. And to me, to just see something that's just a box is far better than sort of circles and squares and oblongs and so on. Alright.

Now, I've had this system since January and I've been using it January, February. We're coming in soon into March and so on of 2020. So you can expect a lot more videos, gig logs of me using this kit. Now, if there are any questions or anything like that, please leave them in a comment and I will do my best to answer you to the best of my knowledge. So let's just go over... I don't know, maybe you're interested in buying some PA. Well what I definitely would recommend is of course watching videos like this but also alright the proof is in the pudding okay? I don't want you to now go out and go buy a whole bunch of Martin Audio and think Jonathan told me to buy it. That isn't what I want you to do.

What I would like you to do though is to do your best to go to some form of showroom where the Martin Audio Blackline X powered is and then have a listen for yourself. Compare it with other systems, okay? It's not about going out and buying it, taking it home and using it. It's going out and making the right choice for you. That is very important, alright? Thank you for watching. Practice and enjoy. Nice one.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.