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The EVENT OPAL product launch took place in July 2008 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas with guests attending the weekend's keynote presentation hosted by Peter Freedman, the President of EVENT Electronics. After purchasing EVENT Electronics in 2006, Freedman set upon a quest to redefine the nearfield studio monitor and to provide sound recording artists and engineers with a true reference monitoring system. He approached experienced product designer Marcelo Vercelli, formerly of Mackie, RCF, and KV2 to facilitate his plans for the future of the EVENT OPAL monitor. After two years of engineering, Vercelli and his R&D team had created the EVENT OPAL.
Having just watched the OPAL launch video before even opening the speaker boxes, I was intrigued by Freedman outlining all the new and innovative designs of this 8" two-way speaker with the same dynamic and extended mid-range as the most expensive three-way systems. I was very eager, but I was also slightly wary of exactly what I was going to hear. I decided initially to throw out most of the technical analysis and just set the monitors up, and then listen/tweak to my surroundings. I did my listening tests in Studio 2 at Metalworks, a fairly large mix room with a large-format SSL console and fairly inert room sound. In general, it's an excellent listening environment for most types of music and very easy to work in.
I fired up the monitors and just played some...