André Bratten Studio

Andre Bratten initially installed a pair of Comium 30 to complement his primary studio monitors, as a second reference to his mix, to provide extended bass monitoring, as well as the ability to play back to fellow musicians present in his studio.

Over time, the Comiums have become his primary and only monitors, as he got a lot of experience using and comparing them, and he has developed some very valuable reflections on how they earned the position of becoming his primary window into his music creation.

First off, about the unusual form factor and placement. “My studio is pretty crowded, especially around my console, and having monitors on top of the meter bridge has more downsides than positives. The fact that the Comiums are wall mounted is a space saver. The speakers’ construction also benefits with this configuration, as they “disappear” more mounted on the wall, rather than mounted to e.g a speaker stand.”

But most importantly, about the sound “Comium has two specialties that can’t be found in any other speaker in this price range;

Firstly, the fact that the drivers are placed so close to each other makes the speaker function in a point source like manner. It is extremely phase coherent, with a huge sweet spot, this is particularly important in a studio like mine, where I move around quite a bit, so now I can sit and do extensive sound design and trust in what I’m hearing, despite not sitting in a “perfect triangle configuration”. Stereo imaging is absolutely wild.

Secondly, the high frequency detail and resolution: The tweeter reveals more than any other speaker I’ve heard at this price point. Doing EQs is a breeze, and the results are more precise. They also work perfectly as a “full range” speaker as they are an actual full range speaker, a subwoofer is not required. Many monitor companies tell this story inaccurately, unfortunately. This combination is not very common. The midrange is as good as any other speaker I’ve heard at this price point and I suspect that mid range clarity will be even better with an added subwoofer. Doppler distortion would also benefit from this, this is not an issue at all but probably be even better. Doppler distortion is not something that is commonly in a spec sheet, but it is actually a bigger problem than people are aware of. It is negligible on the Comiums. The crossover is very well designed with no annyong dips. They have a slight bump in the 140hz area, due to the transmission line, this is not a huge problem, but ok to be aware of. An added sub will be beneficial regarding this “issue”, and maybe solve it. This is a trade off in the speaker design.
When I measured them in my studio they have a flatter response in all the other frequencies compared to my other set of PSI monitors, which is also regarded as reference class monitors used in high end studios around the world. And they cost twice the price with a subwoofer.”

André Bratten