The equator is a fascinating place to do audio research. As you know, sound travels in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere, where singers scream into speaker enclosures and arenas are filled with banks of line-arrayed SM58s. Or maybe it's that audiences actually have to sit inside giant speaker enclosures so they can hear the sound that speaker vacuums suck in from the aether. Perhaps I've been spending too much time in the sun reading Lewis Carroll.

Regardless, Equator Audio Research has released the new Q8, one of five monitors in the "Q" series. The Q8 Series monitors feature Zero Point Reference coaxial drivers: one eight-inch woofer and a one-inch high frequency tweeter. Each driver is powered by a 400 watt (peak) amplifier. The drivers are digitally controlled, and the CPU that resides inside each monitor handles matching the transducers and crossover management, among other tasks. Crossover control employs a technique that Equator calls "no-slope crossover" which they claim reduces the mid-range distortion commonly associated with conventional coaxial designs, meaning a more natural, less harsh midrange reproduction.

The Q monitors also feature DSP technology that allows for room and boundary correction from software control using a measurement mic running through your DAW (there is an optional calibration kit available for the Q-series that included such a measurement mic). The monitor-control software also provides control over equalization, muting, soloing and phase switching.

Output level is displayed on a front-mounted LED meter, as well as the status of an on-board peak limiter. Rear connections include XLR and quarter-inch jack inputs and remote (software) control connections via USB and RS485. The Q8's operating frequency is rated at 32Hz to 22kHz (-6dB). The magnetically shielded cabinets are front ported, and are made from three-quarter-inch 13-layer birch ply.