The Incredible iLoud Precision 6 MK II with ARC X – 2025 Editor’s Choice Award Winner

Table of ContentsBuild Quality: Compact, Serious, and Quietly ConfidentSound Quality: Honest, Controlled, and DeepLow EndMidrangeHighsARC X Calibration: The Room Finally Joins the TeamLogic Pro X IntegrationWho This Is ForCompetitors: How It Stacks UpiLoud Precision 6 MK II SpecsLiving With Them:Final Thoughts: Editor’s Choice, Earned Flipping out monitors in your studio is like breaking up with someone: you have doubts and a roller coaster of emotions. I recently made the switch from a set of KRK V8 S4s to the new iLoud Precision 6 with ARC X, and yup, it felt like a breakup. I built Magnetic Studios in 2019 from scratch. It was a raw space that required almost every detail, from drywall to flooring to insulation. It was a three-month process, and since then, I’ve only had two sets of monitors, and now I’ve made the jump to a third, and I’m extremely happy that I did. The iLoud Precision 6 MK II is everything I wanted it to be: razor-sharp, adaptable, and paired with an ARC (Acoustic Room Correction) mic and software that can dial in your space and let you emulate other monitors via the ARC X plugin. I’ve spent about 30 hours on these, calibrated them to my studio, and haven’t looked back. So, from calibration to producing some tracks for Magnetic Magazine Recordings, here is my experience and thoughts on these exceptional studio monitors. There’s a certain moment every producer knows too well: you finish a mix that sounds solid in your studio, bounce it out with confidence, then play it in the car and immediately start hearing problems. Too much low-end. Vocals are muddy. Hi-hats thinner than you like, and what sounded great in your room sounds underwhelming in the real world. Most bedroom or even semi-pro producers don’t have the luxury of A/B monitor setups or the space for them. The pros can use a consumer-grade pair of speakers to run the mix through alongside a clinical monitor setup, which is a huge help when mixing down a track. Hearing your mix on a lower-end pair of consumer speakers lets you hear reality. This is what the majority of people will hear, so you need to mix it down so that it sounds great across the board, which is not easy. IK Multimedia’s iLoud Precision 6 MK II, paired with the company’s ARC X calibration system, is designed to end that cycle—or at least drastically reduce how often it happens. This is IK stepping fully into major league, serious studio monitor territory, and not just with clever DSP tricks, but with real-deal acoustic engineering, thoughtful design, and a calibration workflow that actually respects how modern producers work. After living with the iLoud Precision 6 monitors for an extended stretch—mixing, referencing, producing, listening for fun, and generally trusting my ears more than I have in years—it’s clear these monitors aren’t just good for their size. They’re amazing. Build Quality: Compact, Serious, and Quietly Confident The iLoud Precision 6 MK II doesn’t scream for attention visually, and that’s a compliment; they are clean and simple, letting the sound take center stage, as it should. These are monitors for people who care more about what comes out of the box than what the box looks like on Instagram. The cabinet is solid, dense, and feels as if it were finished with Rhino Lining, with none of the hollow knock or resonance you sometimes get in compact enclosures. At roughly the footprint of a classic 6-inch nearfield, they fit comfortably on a desk or stand, but feel noticeably heavier and more substantial than you’d expect. That weight translates into stability and reduced cabinet coloration—two things you want working quietly in your favor. On the front, you’ve got a 6.5-inch long-throw woofer paired with a 1.5-inch high-definition dome tweeter, both designed specifically for this series. Around back, things get interesting: balanced XLR input, power, and a surprisingly deep set of DSP controls—standalone room compensation, voicing options, and bass management. The real magic, though, happens when you plug them into ARC X. Everything about the Precision 6 says: this was built by people who mix for a living. The ARC mic can plug directly in the back of each speaker or run the ARC mic through your audio interface, which is what I did as I had a subwoofer set up. Sound Quality: Honest, Controlled, and Deep I call this brutal honesty, which is the best kind for music producers. The iLoud Precision 6 does not flatter your mix. It doesn’t hype the low end, nor does it polish the top end to keep things “pleasant.” What it does instead is far more valuable—it tells the truth. I spent some time with them “out of the box” and uncalibrated with ARC X, and even without the room correction, I was immediately hooked on the sound profile. I’m lucky enough to have a decent-sounding studio that was designed to get the best sound possible in the space I had. The more I worked on the iLoud Precision 6 MK IIs, the more I started hearing small details in ways I hadn’t