In the sophisticated design of the M3-8, the midrange and tweeter are mounted in-line with each other (the tweeter is actually mounted at the apex of the midrange) at precisely the same point in space. Doing so means the sound of the two drivers integrates perfectly, without the “time/arrival distortion” of conventionally-spaced drive units. Instead, with the M-Audio M3-8, the all-important midrange and treble information reaches your ears at precisely the same time, delivering the ultimate in detail and clarity.
No speaker with conventionally-mounted drivers can equal the M3-8’s incredibly natural, three-dimensional sound field. Your mixes sound real, and you can make very confident, precise adjustments to your recordings. That’s what a great monitor is supposed to do for you.
Kevlar® is an ideal driver diaphragm material: Incredibly strong, stiff and light (it’s used in military body armor!). We use it in both the M3-8’s 8" woofer and the 5" midrange, giving those units an incredibly fast transient attack, excellent sensitivity and great resistance to cone flexing and resonant breakup at high power levels. Loud, strong and fast-perfect monitor characteristics.
The 1" woven silk dome tweeter uses Ferro-fluid voice coil cooling for added reliability at studio power levels and this tweeter imparts virtually no harshness or “listening fatigue,” as is often the case with metal dome tweeters. This is extremely important to the recording engineer who spends hours in the studio, listening to his mixes, relying on his unfatigued hearing to make subtle adjustments.
Additionally, the tweeter is mounted in an integrated waveguide, which precisely focuses and directs the treble energy into the listening field, ensuring a solid and stable sonic image and minimizing the random acoustic “scatter” that would distract from properly evaluating the recording’s playback.