OK, so maybe the self-powered speaker horsepower wars are getting a bit out-of-hand. Now Mackie has cranked up the output of their latest 15-inch, two-way speaker to a whopping 1,600 peak watts. That translates to about 125 dB of real-world volume, which is really loud for one compact speaker. Speakers just keep getting louder and smaller. What's next, 300 watts in a cell phone?
All jesting aside, the Mackie HD1521 is currently the "big dog" in a very crowded kennel. It combines a 15-inch speaker (neodymium magnet, 1,400 peak watts of class-D power) with a one-inch high-frequency horn (1.75-inch titanium driver, 200 peak watts). These drivers are packed into an attractive cabinet with Mackie's new "covert" look that reveals nothing about what might be behind the grill. Instead, the understated front of the HD1521 has a thin vertical stripe that features the Mackie logo and a bright blue power LED. With its rounded grill and clean lines, the HD1521 looks both classy and potent.
Out back sits a simple input panel that makes little attempt to be all things to all people. Rather than put a fully loaded mixer into the speaker as some competitors do, Mackie chose instead to use a single XLR input and loop-through output. An input level knob, EQ section and button for the front-panel LED round out the controls.
The Mackie's EQ offers high and low shelving filters, and a sweep-able mid band with fixed Q (bandwidth). These controls are meant for gentle shaping, and offer just +/-3 dB of adjustment range. Likewise, the input level control offers just +/-6 dB of adjustment. Mackie's attempt to keep users from ransacking their sound or damaging speakers is too "big brother" for me, and the limited control range feels like an insult to my intelligence. If I want to run my mixer's output hot and dial back the speaker's input level to -15 dB for a quiet gig, let me do so. An input level control range of -20 dB to +6 dB, for example, would have accomplished the same protection with greater flexibility.
The HD1521 is the big dog in more than just its bark; at 30 inches tall and a full 80 pounds, this is easily one of the biggest speakers in its class. Thankfully, its handles are large, comfortable and well-placed, which makes hauling the speaker feasible for one person. That person should get some help putting the Mackie on a stick, however. Unlike some of its competition, the HD1521 doesn't offer a dual-angle pole socket to keep acoustic energy focused down on the crowd instead of splashing off the back wall. Too bad. What it does have is a dozen fly points to allow hanging the speaker in vertical or horizontal orientations, and a rotatable 80x50-degree horn.
In a market where ABS plastic speakers are growing more common, Mackie stuck with a dense and very rigid birch plywood cabinet. Overall, the HD1521 has a reassuring feel of quality about it. Cabinet joints are well-fitted, and the finish is attractive. Back-panel knobs and switches feel sturdy. Hopefully, this speaker will continue to deliver the goods for many years. To that end, Mackie covers the Chinese-made HD1521's drivers with a two-year warranty, and the electronics for three years.
In Use, Under Testing
I had the opportunity to test the HD1521 in indoor settings, an outdoor concert and in careful A/B comparisons with similar models from other manufacturers. What is immediately evident is the HD1521's lack of "hype" at either frequency extreme. Lack of bottom-end hype means the Mackie's bass is tighter and more controlled, and amplifier limiting kicks in a few dB later. Lack of top-end hype translates to a smoother, less-fatiguing sound that's truer to the input signal.
No hype also translates to less "wow" factor when the Mackie starts moving air. The HD1521 sounded a bit dull when compared to a few competing models, but maxing out the high-frequency EQ control (+3 dB) certainly helped. After listening closely and looking at the frequency response chart, it became apparent that the Mackie's top end is rolling off more than the EQ control can correct for. The Mackie's high-frequency response is down about 6 dB at 10 kHz and falls off after that. This is easily remedied with some system equalization.
As with many speakers in this class, the HD1521 puts out enough deep bass to render a subwoofer unnecessary in many applications. The speaker's bass is full and extended without sounding hyped, with a stated 3 dB roll-off at 50 Hz. For times when a sub is necessary, it's unfortunate that the Mackie does not have a high-pass filter switch. Instead, the HD1521 requires an external crossover to fully hand off deep bass duties to a sub. Many subwoofers, like those in the Mackie HD line, have such a crossover built in.
Midrange accuracy of the HD1521 is on-par with other 15-inch two-way speakers, which is to say it's just OK. All speakers in this class choose a high crossover point to keep lower midrange frequencies out of the horn, but this forces the 15-inch speaker to go higher than it should. The result is some loss of clarity and accuracy near the crossover point.
For cleaner midrange, a three-way design is the way to go. The HD1521's bigger sibling (the HD1531) uses a six-inch midrange driver to handle crucial midrange frequencies between 400 Hz and 1,500 Hz. Other speakers in the line include a compact line array speaker (HDA), a 12-inch two-way speaker (HD1221), and 15-inch and 18-inch subwoofers (HD1501 and HD1801 respectively). All the full-range speakers in the HD series have Mackie's/EAW's proprietary HD processing, which the company claims "cures" the acoustic anomalies that plague every horn-loaded driver.
As already mentioned, the HD1521 has generous amounts of power at its disposal. This means the speaker can get very loud before the onset of internal limiting. It also means there's less likelihood that the amplifiers and drivers will have to run full-tilt to generate enough volume for a given venue. A higher-output speaker running at half throttle will almost always sound smoother than a smaller speaker on the verge of meltdown. You can certainly hear when the HD1521 is pushed into limiting, but the speaker's sound stays surprisingly clean and clear.
Give it a Smile
Comparing the HD1521 to some of its competitors reminds me of comparing a hi-fi speaker to a studio monitor. The former is designed to make everything sound good, while the latter is designed to tell you the unvarnished truth. Mackie's HD1521 is more about honesty than hype, which may or may not be the sound you're after. The HD1521 gives you a neutral palette to work with, and adding some boom and sizzle is no harder than putting a smile on a graphic EQ.
If you want uncolored, natural sound-and lots of it-the HD1521 is worth a good listen.
Special thanks to Leo Gunther Enterprises (www.leoguntherent.com) for assistance with this review.
