We received Gemini's SR-6 monitors, two-way powered speakers designed for nearfield use, featuring a 6.5’’ woofer and a 1’ tweeter. They're part of the SR series, made up of the SR-5 (the baby of the family, with a 5’’ woofer), the SR-6 (the subject of this review) and the SR-8 (the big brother, with an 8’’ woofer).
The range is rounded out by the SR10 subwoofer, a 175W powered bass enclosure with a 10’’ cone, designed to reinforce the low end of the other three models. With more than 35 years of experience behind it, Gemini is a very well-known manufacturer in the DJ world.
The SR line is Gemini's offering in the powered studio monitor sector, a field with a lot of variety and therefore a lot of competition…
Gemini, the history
To be precise, Gemini has 38 years of history, a truly respectable age for a company. It was founded in the United States in 1974, and from the start they understood the potential of the DJ world, so right from the beginning they devoted themselves to making gear for this sector, which wasn't so widespread back then.
Over time they expanded their product catalog, adding several mixer models to their range of turntables, headphones, PA and reference speakers, power amps, etc.
They pride themselves on understanding their customers' needs and market trends, and so they constantly update their products, as with their latest releases in media players and digital DJ gear.
Although it's not so well known in the professional studio equipment sector, it's a company with a highly respected name in the DJ world, with branches in China, Great Britain, Germany, France and Spain. Its headquarters are in New Jersey (USA).
The monitors
The SR-6 monitors have a 6.5-inch woofer made of a fiberglass and aramid composite.
The term aramid is short for Aromatic Polyamide, a light, strong material commonly used in the military industry to make personal protective gear, thanks to its lightness and toughness.
The woofer has a striking, elegant red finish —the hallmark of Gemini's pro audio division— and is magnetically shielded to prevent electromagnetic interference.
The woofer is paired with a one-inch soft dome tweeter mounted on a waveguide that improves high-frequency dispersion. Between them sits the brand's logo, which is backlit in red when the monitors are switched on.
The design is active, with a 65W amp for the woofer and a 35W amp for the tweeter (peak values). The frequency split between the two is handled by a 12dB/octave (second-order) crossover, with its center frequency at 3.2kHz.
To extend the low-end response, all the monitors in the SR line have a front-facing bass reflex port located below the woofer.
The manufacturer says it prefers the port to 'fire' forward because, in its view, this gives cleaner, more precise bass than when the port is located at the back.
The signal-to-noise ratio for the woofer and tweeter is 90dB and 82dB respectively, and a subsonic filter at 45Hz prevents possible physical damage to the unit caused by energy buildup in the lowest part of the spectrum.
Moving to the back of the monitors, there are balanced XLR and TRS input connectors and unbalanced RCA inputs.
The input gain control (VOLUME) is continuously variable between -30dB, 0dB and +6dB, and is located just above a treble adjustment (HF ADJUST) that allows exact settings of -2dB, -1dB, 0dB and +1dB at frequencies above 2kHz. The rear panel is completed by the power socket, voltage selector and on/off switch.
First impressions
The monitors are well built, and when you take them out of the box they give a pleasant feeling of solidity and good workmanship.
Along with the speakers and power cable, there are also some adhesive neoprene/rubber pads meant to be stuck to the bottom of the monitors to provide some degree of decoupling from the surface they're placed on and thus avoid sympathetic vibrations.
The included instruction manual offers every detail about the SR-6, and we were struck by the fact that it mentions looking after your hearing.
It's common for manufacturers to include some recommendation along the lines of “prolonged exposure to high SPLs can cause hearing damage”.
However, Gemini goes further, providing a table of maximum recommended SPL values from the Deafness Research Foundation and ending the section with “We want you to keep your hearing!”.
Continuing with the physical side of the monitors: they're the right size and weight to be placed in the nearfield, either on separate stands or on the desk itself.
In action
Testing the monitors coincided with work I was doing on two projects.
One was the pre-production of the upcoming EP by Pequeño Salvaje, the musical project of actor Fede Celada (Los Hombres de Paco, Báilame el Agua). Very organic Folk-Rock songs, with an instrumentation of just vocals and guitar, which allowed us to put the SR-6 to the test for recording work.
The second project was mixing a song by Juanma Roldán (Los Tranquilitos) for a well-known Spanish supermarket chain, which tested the monitors in the other big area they were designed for: music mixing.
Both projects were being carried out at the Retroestudio recording studio, and we got acquainted with the monitors by listening to familiar material, which is always a good way to break the ice.
The first impression was positive, although the monitors had a somewhat accentuated low-mid response. In this respect, it would have been very handy if the SR-6 had a bass adjustment similar to the one for the treble.
Next, the monitors were used while recording several acoustic guitars. In this case, the low-end response didn't seem as accentuated, although a little more detail in the upper mids was missed.
Compared with the studio's main monitors (Adam P22), the SR-6 monitors lacked some definition, although it has to be said that the other monitors being used have a ribbon tweeter and cost almost ten times as much. So read the above as a comment, not as a direct comparison.
As for the Juanma Roldán mix, it was a song very much in his style, with cajón, handclaps, small percussion, flamenco and electric guitar, and several lead and backing vocals.
When it came to mixing, the monitors performed better. They offered an alternative perspective to the other monitors, which proved useful and on the mark, both for getting a new point of view on depth and placement and for enjoying a different frequency response to "de-adapt" your ears from the other monitors.
The low-mid emphasis was still slightly noticeable, but in this kind of work it's easier to 'allow for it', and the monitors proved useful, with a wide sweet spot and a response that didn't cause listening fatigue.
Second impressions
For recording, I personally like to have very raw monitors that show things exactly as they are.
In this respect, the SR-6 may not stand out. For my taste, they lack some definition, especially when recording “natural” instruments.
However, considering the manufacturer's track record and the type of music Gemini's regular users tend to work with, that “shortcoming” may well be not worth mentioning at all if you're working with virtual instruments or less organic music.
In fact, the bass emphasis mentioned may well be very welcome in styles of music with a strong low-end component.
As for mixing work, as always, it's a matter of personal taste. Some prefer a rounder, hi-fi-style response for mixing, while others work better with “flatter” monitors.
The SR-6 fall into the former category, so if that suits your personal preferences, Gemini's offering will be a good choice.
Even if you prefer rawer monitors, the SR-6 proved to be valuable allies for offering a different point of view during mixing, so they can be useful as secondary monitors.
Conclusions
Putting them in perspective, then, the SR-6 may not be so suitable if you work with “played” music in your studio or have to deal with several different types of music, but if you're working on more “electronic” productions, the monitors' response may be very much to your liking.
As for mixing, the SR-6 offer a valuable perspective, both as secondary monitors and if you like “rounder” monitors.
A control for fine-tuning the monitors' low-end response is missed since, considering the target audience, they're quite likely to be placed against a wall, where the bass can get out of hand.
In any case, these are well-built monitors at an attractive price that should be considered when drawing up your list of monitors to check out in your search for the speakers that best suit your taste.
- Specifications
Frequency response: 50Hz – 20kHz
Tweeter: 1’’ Soft Dome
Woofer: 6.5’’ Aramid Fiberglass
Power (Woofer / Tweeter amp): 65W / 25W (peak)
Signal-to-noise ratio (Woofer / Tweeter): 90dB / 82dB
Crossover frequency: 3.2kHz – 12dB/Octave
Subsonic filter: 45Hz
Input connections: XLR, TRS and RCA
Weight: 8.2kg
Dimensions (WxDxH): 260 x 216 x 318mm
