IK Multimedia iLoud MTM Review (active monitor)

[Universal Cereal Bus]

They are for real even if they lack street cred. They are the Tom Brady of the pro audio world.

Now that there's a moratorium on car analogies, I'm totally on board with sports analogies. Watch out ASR--it's gonna get sweaty.

(For the international readers: Tom Brady has 6 Superbowl wins, for most of all time by a quarterback; next closest is 4. However, despite being the technical/objective greatest-of-all-time, Tom is not consensus-regarded, subjectively, as being the most skilled or "best" quarterback of all time, or arguably even in his prime vs. his contemporaries.)

 

[Robbo99999]

Hi,


The raw data with corrected ER and PIR:
Score no EQ:
With Sub:
Spinorama with no EQ:

• Not as Flat as i would expect, maybe because the multimedia usage?
• Still pretty good
• As expected the power handling is not great but given the size...

View attachment 98846
Directivity:
Better stay at tweeter height (MTM configuration...)
The wave guide seems to be not that efficient on the Vertical plan and/or the XO not optimized?
Pretty good on the horizontal plan
Given the very near field intended usage just ON should be considered?
View attachment 98848
View attachment 98856
EQ design:
I have generated two EQs. The APO config files are attached.

• The first one, labelled, LW is targeted at making the LW flat
• The second, labelled Score, starts with the first one and adds the score as an optimization variable.
• The EQs are designed in the context of regular stereo use i.e. domestic environment, no warranty is provided for a near field use in a studio environment although the LW might be better suited for this purpose.
• A few sharp adjustments that would need careful listening to validate.
• Added a High Pass filter as the THD seems to indicate it could do with it.
• Preamp gains not to be ignored, clipping may be an issue so the EQ might diminish even further the dynamic range of the speaker.
• Too bad we don't have a measurement of the built in EQ, would have been interested to see what it does...

Score EQ LW: 5.76
with sub: 7.96
Score EQ Score: 6.27
with sub: 8.04

iLoud MTM APO EQ LW 96000Hz
December132020-110110

Preamp: -4.7 dB

Filter 1: ON PK Fc 47.3 Hz Gain 0 dB Q 1.09
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 817 Hz Gain 1.5 dB Q 3.35
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 1608 Hz Gain 2.5 dB Q 3.48
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 3248 Hz Gain 1.35 dB Q 3.02
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 8410 Hz Gain 2 dB Q 1.19
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 18250 Hz Gain 4.39 dB Q 2.08

iLoud MTM APO EQ Score 96000Hz
December132020-105239

Preamp: -4.4 dB

Filter 1: ON HPQ Fc 47.3 Hz Gain 0 dB Q 1.09
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 817 Hz Gain 1.63 dB Q 3.75
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 1541 Hz Gain 2.6 dB Q 7.2
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 2500 Hz Gain -2.13 dB Q 10.5
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 2885 Hz Gain 1.44 dB Q 1.33
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 5359 Hz Gain -2.31 dB Q 2
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 6934 Hz Gain 1.67 dB Q 1.19
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 18262 Hz Gain 4.2 dB Q 2.48

View attachment 98841
Spinorama EQ LW
View attachment 98845
Spinorama EQ Score
View attachment 98844
Zoom PIR-LW-ON
View attachment 98843
Regression - Tonal
On is flat with the EQ Score
View attachment 98842
Radar no EQ vs EQ score
Nice improvements
View attachment 98840
The rest of the plots is attached.

It's a nice spinorama this speaker produces, and the high score reflects that! One of the problems with the iLoud from the review was that it didn't live up to it's namesake, do you think there's enough volume overhead in these speakers to allow for the -4 to -5dB preamp for your EQ, I'm thinking there's just about enough headroom when you're using 2 speakers together, but not if you were just using one, but I don't know who would ever use just one on it's own?

 

[hardisj]

1) Are those resonances in the 1-2kHz region or is it just comb filtering of the MTM design? An impedance graph would point us toward that answer.
2) The distortion just doesn’t make sense. Odd order distortion is significantly higher than even. I’ve never seen that Not even in raw drive units. Doesn’t seem like a transducer issue; more like an electronics issue. Odd order distortion in electronics is a sign of clipping. I’d be willing to bet that’s the culprit.

 

[pavuol]

Portability (in combination of a FR this smooth, of course) is its biggest advantage IMO, not only for musicians, but for music enthusiasts as well.
I'm afraid there is not a proper competition for this kind of product, is it?

Just out of curiosity, if we stay in MTM waters, you can get PreSonus Eris MTM E66 (2x6,5"+1x1,25") for similar money (uncomparable portability-wise) or Creative GigaWorks T40 Series II (2x3" + tweeter) delivered as a pair for a price of a dinner (comparable size, feature-wise uncomparable).
Would be a nice comparison..

PS: kind of little paradox, iLoud using a word "multimedia" while you cannot find that word at Creative product site, instead they state "2.0 High-end Speakers" and "ultimate audiophile experience on your desktop"..

 

[ernestcarl]

1) Are those resonances in the 1-2kHz region or is it just comb filtering of the MTM design? An impedance graph would point us toward that answer.
2) The distortion just doesn’t make sense. Odd order distortion is significantly higher than even. I’ve never seen that Not even in raw drive units. Doesn’t seem like a transducer issue; more like an electronics issue. Odd order distortion in electronics is a sign of clipping. I’d be willing to bet that’s the culprit.

Yeah, very likely the iLoud’s internal electronic limiters are hard at work. Personally, I’d rather get myself the KH80 — such a small price difference — and the latter are probably more robust and reliable.

 

[amirm]

An impedance graph would point us toward that answer.

How do you get an impedance graph in an active speaker with DSP crossover???

 

[amirm]

Don't think I will always be posting these but here is the CSD/waterfall showing resonances:

 

[YSC]

Don't think I will always be posting these but here is the CSD/waterfall showing resonances:

View attachment 98878

Looked impressive considering only dual 3” woofers are used

 

[digicidal]

Seems like they need to change their name to "iQuiet"... because at least these don't do loud well at all. Not surprising given their size and considering desktop placements - 85dB is more than enough for most... although just barely perhaps.

 

[q3cpma]

Thanks for this review. Man, this is a mixed bag, but I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to see how far this brand can reach. For now, I won't consider it as serious competition to the KH80 or 8020D/8320A; that distorsion means that even when listening at 86 dB SPL, the peaks will suffer massively and it tries to go lower than it should, though the LF extension switch is here, at least.
And another DSP speaker without digital input? Man, I hate this trend (Genelec and Neumann are also aimed at; Genelec only offers this starting from the quite expensive 8330A).

As @hardisj said, it'd be interesting to know where this distorsion comes from. And as @MZKM said, the bundle's price makes no sense. Hope iLoud can reach out here to improve their product.

 

[sweetchaos]

Thanks for the review Amir.

Getting one of these on sale for US$280 could work as a 'soundbar', for a near-field setup, like in front of your PC monitor.
Just position it underneath the monitor (usually on the monitor stand) and in front of your keyboard.
They're only 6.5" (5" as per post #66) in width, so it should fit without issues.
Might be worth it for people who want great sound, but with very limited space requirements.

 

[Veri]

Thanks for the review Amir.

Getting one of these on sale for US$280 could work as a 'soundbar', for a near-field setup, like in front of your PC monitor.
Just position it underneath the monitor (usually on the monitor stand) and in front of your keyboard.
They're only 6.5" in width, so it should fit without issues.
Might be worth it for people who want great sound, but with very limited space requirements.

View attachment 98927
View attachment 98928

That's a pretty great idea thanks!

 

[Chromatischism]

I jumped on a pair from the Amazon sale. They are sitting here now in their boxes waiting for me to get to them. I want to save space on the computer desk because even though I love my Mackies, they're pretty big and I want to upsize my LCD. I still can't decide between 34" Ultra-wide or 2160p. Space-wise, something's got to give, so I can live with < 85 dB at the computer as it's audio setup #3 and I'm not sacrificing quality at all while slimming down the speakers quite a bit. These sound very close to Genelecs at 1/2 the price.

Any ideas for using a sub with these?

 

[Berwhale]

Great review! Hopefully my pair will turn up tomorrow.

Terrible name though, as Anthem’s room correction is also called ARC (Anthem Room Correction), which I thought this was using until I saw the site and it’s simply Automatic Room Correction. Not sure if done on purpose to mislead.

This seems unlikey given that the products are aimed at completely different markets. I think ARC is a very good name for the product as it actually describes what it does!

 

[pavuol]

I still think it's unfair to compare it to "standard" desktop monitors by Neumann, Genelec etc., on the other hand, put into perspective, they really are not quite small:

 

[Berwhale]

I jumped on a pair from the Amazon sale. They are sitting here now in their boxes waiting for me to get to them. I want to save space on the computer desk because even though I love my Mackies, they're pretty big and I want to upsize my LCD. I still can't decide between 34" Ultra-wide or 2160p. Space-wise, something's got to give, so I can live with < 85 dB at the computer as it's audio setup #3 and I'm not sacrificing quality at all while slimming down the speakers quite a bit. These sound very close to Genelecs at 1/2 the price.

Any ideas for using a sub with these?

Size was a huge consideration for my MTM purchase, I really can't fit a 5" monitor on my desk. My MTM's will be sitting on either side of a 34" UWQHD monitor on a pair of these: Amazon.com: Moukey MMs-2 Adjustable Desk Mic Stand Desktop Tabletop Table Top Short Microphone Stand with Non-Slip Mic Clip For Blue Yeti Snowball

 

[DSJR]

Maybe you guys with larger than normal UK rooms would be short changed here and I believe 'you lot' have a wider range of cheaper speakers available than we do, but I've been wracking my brains to think of decent suitable UK alternatives with a reasonable amp for this money. We're lucky in that we have a chain 'Richer Sounds' which often has some good bargains on offer and my personal reaction to cheap B&W's or Monitor Audio's with a Cambridge or similar amp has always been 'Meh' to be honest.

The only low cost 'UK dealer bought' amp-speaker combination *today* that even remotely gets me interested is the new Rega Io amp and Kyte speaker combination and I doubt these would go louder with less distortion (the Io would run out of steam easily I suspect due to it's low power output and the Kytes are hardly 'miniature' sized judging by pics).

Since it's a bit difficult I suspect to get a listen to boxes like these prior to purchase, I do welcome reviews like this as it shows an entire market of high quality products away from 'audio salons' who need big-ticket products to keep them in profitable business. These speakers sold via a pukka dealer chain would be a grand at least I suspect (US dollars and UK pounds). Got to say I'd regard these more as good size desktop style speakers rather than free standing types, but that's my error probably!

 

[ernestcarl]

Thanks for the review Amir.

Getting one of these on sale for US$280 could work as a 'soundbar', for a near-field setup, like in front of your PC monitor.
Just position it underneath the monitor (usually on the monitor stand) and in front of your keyboard.
They're only 6.5" in width, so it should fit without issues.
Might be worth it for people who want great sound, but with very limited space requirements.

View attachment 98927
View attachment 98928

Probably worth-it if on sale. Also I see a good potential here for setting one of these directly above the desk monitor for a center channel! I've often contemplated how the hell I'm going to properly put a center channel KH120 for my desk setup -- not that it's necessary even as I can pretty much just upmix/downmix to 4.1ch anyhow. But the form factor is perfect for this application.

 

[ernestcarl]

I still think it's unfair to compare it to "standard" desktop monitors by Neumann, Genelec etc., on the other hand, put into perspective, they really are not quite small:

Yep, much larger than what one imagines them to be. It is their "slimness" that give this illusion of them being super compact. But if one is really tight on space -- width-wise, at least -- there isn't anything else that can compete with the iLoud MTM. Plus their pretty light too.

 

[andreasmaaan]

2) The distortion just doesn’t make sense. Odd order distortion is significantly higher than even. I’ve never seen that Not even in raw drive units. Doesn’t seem like a transducer issue; more like an electronics issue. Odd order distortion in electronics is a sign of clipping. I’d be willing to bet that’s the culprit.

It would also explain why the distortion profile at 96dB appears to be completely undisturbed by the presence of the crossover.