I wanted to chime in on this thread and give my thoughts on the iLoud MTMs after a few days of listening with the included calibration method in-use. I am sort of new to the audiophile world. My dad had several ~$5-$10k car and home hifi systems throughout my childhood, but I have not pursued purchasing anything beyond a $600 soundbar and a factory upgraded car stereo. After spending the past 4 months researching everything audio-related here and elsewhere, I put together a nearfield set up for work and have a pair of Buchardt A500s on the way for our family room space. There are not many user experiences for the iLoud MTM speakers available online so I thought that I would give my first impressions now that I've had a few days to listen to them.
My Setup:
I am using these speakers in a nearfield desk setup. The tweeters are 1m apart with my sitting position roughly 1m from speakers and the speakers are on 9" Kanto stands to bring the tweeters to my ear height. My desk is in a ~20'x8' room with the desk centered on the 20' wall and speakers facing the short wall. The speakers are connected to an S.M.S.L. M500 which is connected to my PC through USB.
Initial Impressions:
For my primary use of mixing dialogue and music for video content, these are absolutely wonderful. I have zero complaints. The vocal reproduction on these and the phantom center image, in particular, is really impressive and listening to these was actually the first time I have ever truly experienced this effect in an obvious and dramatic way. They also retain their positive attributes at much lower volumes than I am used to from personal experiences with other systems. I usually mix between 65-75db for video editing.
For listening to music, these are the best sounding speakers I have personally heard. I don't have experience with many HiFi systems, but I regularly listen to my dad's Monitor Audio Bronze 2.1 system through a decent Yamaha amp. The resolution, sound stage, and center image of the iLoud MTMs blow those out of the water (my subjective opinion) in our respective uses/rooms.
That being said, I want to talk about their obvious limits in relation to loudness. One of the primary arguments against these speakers goes back to Amir's final comments in his review and other's experiences regarding low volume limitations. When these speakers are trying to extend to the limits of their 40hz capability at even moderately high volumes, you will begin to hear chuffing sounds through the port quickly followed by terrible distortion. Whether the volume at which that happens is acceptable to you or not is entirely subjective, but should definitely be factored into your purchasing decision. To that end, I spent an hour measuring SPL from 1m at the 40hz setting (everything else flat and built-in room correction applied) with a variety of songs using Tidal premium to give anyone trying to determine if this speaker is right for them a reference point.
Testing Loudness Limits:
The songs I tested are listed below with the volume level I could achieve without noticing any port noise or distortion. Of course, I am not a scientific instrument and my perception of the port sounds or distortion is certainly imperfect. I also know that the internal room correction could impact these numbers as well. Take these numbers with a grain of salt.
"Turn Your Lights Down Low" Bob Marley & The Wailers (40hz 77db avg/85db peak)
"The National Anthem" Radiohead (40z 85db avg/95db peak)
"Get Lucky" Daft Punk (40hz 85db avg/90db peak)
"Spoon (2004 Remaster)" Can (40hz 90db avg/99db peak)
"Good as Hell" Lizzo (40hz 87db avg/91db peak)
"Colors" Black Pumas (40hz 89db avg/96db peak)
"Escape from LA" The Weekend (40hz 76db avg/81db peak)
"I Lost a Friend" FINNEAS (40hz 78db avg/85db peak)
"Mortals" Warriyo (40hz 84db avg/90db peak)
"Prisoner" Dance Gavin Dance (40hz 93db avg/97db peak)
Everything I tested sounded fine at an ~85db avg at 1m with the 50hz cutoff setting applied. Since ~85db is my target volume for nearfield music listening, I have set the cutoff to 50hz. I don't want to worry about suddenly having a song reach the point where that terrible chuffing noise and distortion appear every 15 minutes while I listen to a playlist. I listen to so many genres including pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, folk, alternative, country, classical, metal, hardcore, electronic, etc. I'd rather set it and forget it. Plus, 40hz isn't critical for me when video editing.
Conclusion:
Overall, I am very happy with my purchase and will be keeping the speakers. They are not perfect for everyone, but my criteria for this setup is a small housing (~5" width), flat response, and 85db avg music listening volumes. For that, these feel like the perfect fit. Getting all of that with the 50hz cutoff works fine for me. I do WANT to eventually add a 10" studio subwoofer with a 60hz crossover and if this was going to be my primary setup I would do it right now, but realistically these are primarily meant for work and the sub wouldn't help with that. I have Buchardt A500s on the way and I'm much more inclined to add a sub to that system when they release the new hub and subwoofer. For now, my only additional plan for these is to eq them in REW as
@Chromatischism recommended.
I would not recommend these speakers to people with the following criteria:
- Listening beyond 2m. For me, they lose what makes them special further out and this would exacerbate the existing loudness limitations to an even greater extent.
- Listening to primarily modern pop, hip-hop, R&B, or electronic music while expecting clean, deep bass at volumes exceeding 80db with no plans of adding a sub.
