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Samson's ground-breaking ribbon tweeter monitors have received an excellent endorsement in Future Music magazine's biggest monitor round-up ever - "The Great Monitor Round Up". In a blind listening test a group of six producers tested 24 sets of monitors across a number of price categories. Against very tough comeptition, both the Samson Rubicon R5A and the Samson Rubicon R6A won their respective categories and were announced as "Experts Choice" winners.In a category of £230 - £250 against KRK RP5, Behringer Truth 2031A and Roland DS5, the Samson Rubicon 5A took first place. The panel agreed only the Rubicons could be trusted, describing the overall spectrum as "a lot more balanced." Producer Jon Musgrave commented, "It wasn't very long ago that monitors of the same calibre as the Samson Rubicon R5A would be £500 plus." In fact, the Rubicon R5A will cost you in the region of just £235.In the next price group, the larger Rubicon R6A also won their category, recognised for the tonal qualities of the ribbon tweeter. Marco praised the "really nice vocals" reproduced by the Rubicons and also liked the fact that both the Rubicon R5A and R6A have adjustments options on the ribbon tweeter "so they can be tweaked to personal taste and room size". To sum up, Jon Musgrove commented, "It's incredible, as both of the Samson speakers we've heard would have cost double not so long ago for a similar quality of usable reference monitor."
Tim Oliver hears a problem: “Set D seems to have a problem on the right side.” Sure enough, his golden ears have spotted a problem. On investigation, it seems that the Rolands have blown a woofer, so they’re now out of the running. With three other sets still remaining, the test continues.On switching between sets, it seems clear that Set A is causing a few frowns while Set C has a massive sound that produces many grins among the panel. The tracks come to an end and everyone seems most impressed with B and C. Tim likes the sound of Set C: “They sound quite vibey and exciting, but I don’t think I would trust mixing on them.” Everyone agrees that Set C would be fine for recording but could prove to be untrustworthy for mixing. Set A raises words such as “honkey”, “boxy” and “scooped”. It seems that Set B would get most studio use, and Real World’s head engineer Marco has an inkling as to what they are: “They had a top-end sound that’s akin to a ribbon tweeter.”The panel agrees that only one set could be trusted, and that’s Set B. Nick Batt adds: “Although it lacked a lot of bottom-end, the overall spectrum felt a lot more balanced.” So the Samson Rubicon R5A takes first place and prove Marco’s ears correct in spotting the ribbon tweeter sound early on.
