IK Multimedia iLoud Micro Monitor Pro

IK’s newest iLoud speakers pack serious monitoring into an ultra‑portable format.

Paul White reviewed the original version of IK Multimedia’s iLoud Micro desktop active monitor very favourably back in 2016. The intervening decade has seen the monitor establish itself as one of the benchmarks when it comes to ultra‑compact portable monitoring, but its time is now over, because its replacement has arrived: the iLoud Micro Monitor Pro.

The iLoud Micro Pro and its predecessor share an almost identical aesthetic and at first I imagined that their injection‑moulded thermoplastic enclosures would be of the same dimensions, but I was wrong; the Micro Pro has grown a little, with its cabinet enclosing around three litres internal volume compared to the previous model’s two. This internal volume increase is significant in that it will help square the circle that comprises one of the fundamental constraints of all loudspeaker design: the trade‑off between low‑frequency bandwidth and maximum volume level.

Along with being dimensionally inflated, the iLoud Micro Pro differs from its predecessor in boasting increased amplifier power, by incorporating IK Multimedia’s ARC room correction system and X‑Monitor control app, and through the inclusion of an ARC measurement microphone. The increase in amplifier power apparently arises because, rather than working in a primary and secondary arrangement, where one monitor houses the amplification for both, the iLoud Micro Pro works as a conventional active system with amplification present in each monitor. The addition of X‑Monitor integration and ARC brings the iLoud Micro Pro up to the same feature level as IK Multimedia’s existing iLoud MTM and iLoud Precision monitors. ARC, and room correction generally, is potentially of significant value in a monitor such as the iLoud Micro Pro, which is likely to find itself pressed into service in all sorts of non‑optimal spaces and installations.

Other minor changes and improvements to the iLoud Micro Pro are the deletion of the previous 3.5mm TRS jack input and its replacement by a balanced XLR input, the inclusion of a slightly larger‑diameter tweeter, and, in acoustic specification terms, a marginally lower low‑frequency cutoff (50Hz against 55Hz) and a slightly higher maximum continuous sound pressure level (94dB against 92dB). The iLoud Micro Pro also incorporates an internal power supply rather than working from an external mains power adaptor.

Monitor Emulation

In addition to managing the ARC room‑correction process and general housekeeping functions (firmware updates, delays and standby setting), X‑Monitor offers speaker emulation that aims to impart the characteristics of a range of alternative monitors onto the iLoud Micro Pro. The monitors emulated aren’t fully identified in X‑Monitor, but the names drop some broad hints: I’d hazard a guess that White ’80s is the Yamaha NS10, and going by the image in the X‑Monitor promotional material, High‑End 3‑Way is an ATC SCM25A. X‑Monitor also provides emulations of generic hi‑fi speakers, TVs and mobile phones.

Of course X‑Monitor/ARC is not the only room‑correction product that provides such functionality, and I’ve expressed my doubts before about its genuine value. To my way of thinking, although it is fun and even perhaps useful at a very rudimentary level, speaker emulation has about as much chance of making a pair of iLoud Micro Pros sound truly like, say, an ATC SCM25A, as me donning a blonde wig will make my bass playing sound like Tina Weymouth. I say this because the subjective sound of any speaker is defined by so much more than simple frequency response. Speakers display a unique set of characteristics in terms of distortion profile, compression behaviour, time‑domain performance, delayed resonance signature and dispersion pattern that will define their sound as much as, if not more than, their axial frequency response. So it’s simply not possible to make one speaker genuinely sound like another through simple EQ.

Having said all that, the X‑Monitor/ARC speaker emulation is technically accomplished as far as it goes and I’m sure is intended to be useful rather than just a gimmick, even if it (and systems like it) can provide just a vague hint of the sound of an alternative monitor. Much better, though, to learn and understand through practice and experience how your monitoring translates to alternative playback systems and contexts.

Driving Force

The front panel of the iLoud Micro Pro carries a nominally three‑inch (75mm) bass/mid driver, a one‑inch (25mm) fabric‑dome tweeter and a generously flared reflex port exit. Said port curves upwards within the cabinet to a flared entrance high up behind the back of the tweeter. The generous length of the port is necessary to achieve the desired low tuning frequency; however, long ports often come with an undesirable side‑dish of organ‑pipe resonance, so it will be interesting to see if the iLoud Micro Pro designers have swerved that issue.

The diaphragm of the bass/mid driver is described as a “composite cellulose fibre” item, which I think translates into non‑marketing speak as “paper”. There is nothing remotely wrong with paper as a driver diaphragm material. The fact that it is still used so commonly is witness to the fact that it is generally so well suited to the role. Both iLoud Micro Pro drivers are protected by sturdy perforated metal grilles, which seems very sensible considering the highly portable nature of such compact monitoring, and the tweeter is mounted at the apex of a subtle elliptical waveguide moulded into the front panel. Speaking of moulding, one great advantage of constructing speaker cabinets from plastic is that edges can be generously softened, and that’s the case with the iLoud Micro Pro. Softened edges will help significantly to suppress the diffraction effects that would otherwise cause various frequency response discontinuities.

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