Electro-Voice Force i Monitor

The Force i passive loudspeakers are the entry-level range from the famous Electro-Voice stable, and are described in the product literature as being designed for “professionals on a budget”, which I suppose covers quite a wide target market. The Force i range is all passive, and the 12-inch version is called the Force i Monitor, although it is also intended for use as a full-range speaker, as part of a compact PA rig. The external design is a traditional floor-wedge shape, and the cabinet is constructed from something that EV call ‘roadwood’, which is claimed to be very strong but light in weight. Google ‘roadwood’ and there’s lots of information about pleasant green spaces and houses for sale, but as far as the Force i monitor is concerned it does seem a very sturdy material, and when I bumped it around heavily there were no creaks or rattles. There’s a full-face metal grille, which does a fair job of protecting the woofer cone from uninvited fingers and small animals, but the punched metal — convex but without much reinforcement — is quite thin and flexible, and is easy to push inwards under finger pressure. I reckon the grille would do its job in preventing damage to the cone surface, but could become easily dented if someone were to put their foot on it. There are four substantial and nicely grippy rubber feet on what would be the bottom in floor-monitor position (use it the other way up and it is just as stable but at a different angle). On one end there’s a standard pole-mount socket for when the Force i monitor is used as a main speaker, and on the other end is a recessed plate with a pair of parallel-wired Speakon connectors so that cabinets can be strung together. A plastic carrying handle is screwed to the end panel, and this is basic but effective enough given the relatively light weight of the unit.

The Force i uses a 12-inch woofer and a one-inch-exit compression driver mounted on an 80 x 55-degree, non-rotatable CD horn assembly, and the drivers, naturally enough, are EV’s own design. With a company that have a great reputation and huge experience in making excellent drivers, developments in high-end technology will tend to eventually filter down into the lower product ranges. In this case the ‘entry level’ Force i series benefits from a technique that EV call Ring Mode Decoupling (RMD), which they presumably developed to improve the performance of their more upmarket products. Ring Mode Decoupling is a process that seeks to improve the overall quality and consistency of a loudspeaker’s sound reproduction by designing out small resonances that colour the sound under different operating conditions, most noticeably producing different colourations at very low and very high sound-pressure levels. Both mechanical and acoustical resonances are addressed, ie. the design process is not only applied to drive units but also to the enclosures in which they are mounted. All I can say is that for a relatively inexpensive speaker, the Force i monitor sounds very clean, and when using four of them as monitors I was able to achieve ‘singer satisfaction’ without driving the monitor levels all that hard. I used three of the Force i monitors in a recent theatre show and — for the first time in that particular venue — I didn’t need to deploy my feedback processors or even do much with the EQ other than dial out the low end.

The Force i monitor can handle 250 Watts of continuous power, and has a programme rating of 500 Watts with a (calculated) maximum SPL of 129dB at one metre. The internal crossover incorporates EV’s ‘Power Tracking Protection’, which I believe is also used in the Eliminator i model. Frequency response is from 13kHz down to 110Hz at the -3dB points, which is quite respectable considering the compact size of the enclosure, and is more than adequate for most vocal monitoring applications. Speaking of the Force i monitor’s compactness, it really is one of the neatest, lowest-profile 12-inch floor wedges I’ve come across, and this is the main reason I chose it for stage-front monitoring in my last theatre show. The all-black carpet finish doesn’t reflect light, and there are no shiny fittings either, although the steel grille is silver but has a kind of matte finish and doesn’t usually face the audience anyway. The Force i weighs a mere 12.7kg and can be heaved around with ease. The straight-edged shape is good for packing in a vehicle and the carpet material seems tough and tear-resistant. I would probably add a second set of rubber feet, mounted on the end panel opposite the handle, as that’s the natural way to stand and store them and I reckon that end could see more than its share of wear and tear. On all four of the monitors I used, the plastic EV badge started to curl and peel away from the front grille. This appears to be a feature of those squidgy-type badges, which seem to be stuck on with the same glue that fixes your new credit card to the letter saying, “Here is your new credit card...” You know the stuff I’m talking about. I decided that I wanted the badges to remain in place because they said ‘EV’, so I pressed them down again a couple of times and so far they’re still in position.

After using the Force i monitors on the floor at a couple of gigs, I put them on tripod stands and tried them with some recorded tracks. Working full range, ie. without subs, I thought they sounded better than their published frequency response figures suggest, particularly in the lower end, which seemed fairly full and rounded for such a small cabinet. The upper mids and higher vocal frequencies were clean and lively without being harsh, although I didn’t have the opportunity to run them at high level for very long. My overall impression was that these are clean-sounding, ‘safe’ monitors that are able to get their message across without trying too hard, and would be very useable vocal monitors at small or medium events, with the ability to double up as main PA especially if used with subwoofers. If I were putting these out on dry hire I’d probably obtain some padded covers to keep them looking tidy, but the black carpet does hoover up quite well, and the lack of metal corners hasn’t resulted in any noticeable scuffing or tearing despite travelling unprotected a few times.

So, I was very happy with the acoustic performance and unobtrusive appearance of the Force i monitors, and I was equally happy with their light weight, solidity of build and the all-important entry-level pricing, which — considering they’re actually made in the US of A and have ‘EV’ written on them — is still attractive even in these troubled financial times. I think that the Force i monitors represent good value — the four I have will definitely be staying with me and I reckon they’ll have a full and busy life ahead. 0

Electro-Voice Force i Monitor

Passive wedge