The HR824 is Mackie's first attempt at the professional studio market. After their great success in the home studio mixer market, Mackie has set their sites on the professionals. I first heard the HR824 in February '97 at Mackie Headquartes in Woodinville, and was very impressed at the time. I'm even more impressed at the finished product and finally found time to go out and buy a pair of my own. The HR824 is a bi-amplified monitor featuring an 8.75" woofer, 1" soft dome tweeter, and a 6" x 12" honeycomb passive radiator. The woofer's mineral-filled polypropylene cone is fed by its own extremely low distortion 150 watt power amplifier. The 1" aluminum dome tweeter is powered by a 100 watt amplifier. Controls are provided to contour the sound to accomodate various room sizes and configurations, and include acoustic space (-4/-2/0dB at 500Hz), roll off (-3dB at 50Hz or 80Hz), and high freq (-2/0/+2dB at 10KHz). Frequency response is a respectable 39Hz to 22kHz, ±1.5dB when all controls are set flat. I prefer the sound of the HR824s over Genelec 1031As in most applications, the Genelecs being a little smoother in the upper mid range, which while flattering, is not always preferable. The stereo sound field of the HR824s really is as wide and deep as Mackie claims and much more detailed than my previous monitors. When I first demoed the HR824s, I was suprised to feel some of my own tracks shaking the 02/R console stand. I never even knew such sub-bass existed in my music. Tremendous! Mackie Central