Advice on adjusting my Edifier MR3?

[bior37]

I recently talked to someone about not loving my new Edifier R1280DBs, decided to try the new version of Edifier MR3s. Overall, love them, but their EQ settings are far beyond what my casual listening brain understands. I plan to fix that in the future but for now...

The only thing I liked better about the R12s (forgive lack of correct sound terms) is stereo effects sounded crisp. If a song has elements that were left speaker justified or floated left to right I really felt them move through the space and could feel the "gaps". The MR3, even if it's a song with stereo panning, all sounds like it's coming out of both speakers the whole time, it's a bit more mushed together.

Are there any settings I can tweak to get the MR3 closer to the R12s?

 

[staticV3]

Hi @bior37! Welcome to ASR.

WHat you're describing sounds a lot like excessive crosstalk.

First, try playing some music or test tones that are hard-panned to one side.

Here are some simple test tones: https://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_stereo.php

If you can hear the Left channel audio through the Right speaker (or vice versa), then no EQ will help you.

Instead, there is an issue with the software configuration or with the speaker hardware.

As for EQ, you could give these settings a try ("Data & EQ" tab): https://www.spinorama.org/speakers/Edifier MR3BT/ErinsAudioCorner/index_eac.html

You can apply them using for example Equalizer APO.

Although they won't do much since the MR3 already has good tonality, and they definitely cannot fix any issues regarding panning.

 

[Gitfiddle]

Aside from what static suggested you can also try playing with how you have them positioned.

You could try placing them wider or closer together. Make sure the tweeters are at ear level if they aren't already too.

I have my MR4's about 1 meter apart and 1 meter in front of me; and can hear stereo effects in songs like Reckoner, by Radiohead well.

 

[bior37]

I had them positioned exactly as I had my R1280DBs, but now I'm in the process of trying them with different angles and spacing.

When I've played some test sounds I can def hear differentiation when sounds or isolated to one speaker or another, it's mostly just during music the panning effects are very subtle/muddy compared to the R1280DBs.

Unfortunately these are hooked directly to a record player (I know, they're desktop speakers, but its a small room with a small budget) so I can't run any software like Equalizer APO through them - but there are a lot of settings in the official app, I could maybe adjust to copy some of the settings in that link?

 

[staticV3]

I could maybe adjust to copy some of the settings in that link?

The settings from my link above cannot be copied into the ConneX App unfortunately.

 

[Gitfiddle]

So the MR4 and MR3 have ports in the back of the enclosure. The Edifier R1280DB seems to only have a port in the front. I wonder if that could be the reason for what you are hearing. I'm not knowledgeable enough with speakers to give you a confident answer. How close are the speakers to the wall?

 

[BWTH]

Having them too close to the wall (or worst, in a corner) makes them sound boomy and muddy. Your R1280s are having the bass port front side, the MR3's throwing the bass out in the back and then you have wall reflection. Depending on positioning the bass waves can add up (boomy) or eliminate themselves.

I would try and set the low cutoff at 50Hz and -18 or -12 db in the app. You will not hear much below 60Hz anyway.

Depending on the distance to wall or corner you can play around with the acoustic space to get the "best" bass response. This doesn't mean the most bass but the best response in terms of clarity and tightness.

Finally, the bass knob in the back is increasing or reducing at 125 Hz. The MR3's are resonating around this frequency, so any increase of that knob makes things worse in most setups.

Luckily they are fairly linear, so you don't need to EQ them a lot. The built in EQ in the app is useless. 250 to 8000 Hz with 6 bands only is a joke.

Leave the EQ flat at Zero and if you prefer a bit more highs, use the knob in the back and give them another +1 or 2 dB that way.

You should get good results from them with a bit of basic fine tuning.

 

[x2jo]

I'm not sure how to read Directivity measurements, is the 12.3KHz Peak fixable by EQ or should i leave it as is?

 

[staticV3]

I'm not sure how to read Directivity measurements, is the 12.3KHz Peak fixable by EQ or should i leave it as is?View attachment 492479

The MR3 is intended to be used near-field, in which case the contribution of reflected sound shrinks and directivity becomes less important.

Therefore, I think you can safely aim for flat on-axis response, disregarding directivity.

However, it is likely that the 12kHz peak is subject to unit variation and not actually present in your unit.

Ideally, make some gated, close mic measurements of your own speakers and use those for response correction.

Otherwise, using Erin's data it may be smarter to correct the overall trend only, like what Spinorama's preset is doing.