IK Multimedia iLoud MTM Review (active monitor)

[Berwhale]

How do they sound in your office without correction? How do you have the MTMs mounted?

 

[timblocktoom]

How do they sound in your office without correction?

On Flat?

A bit bloated and over bassy -- but ARC takes it way too far the other direction... from a "stew" and makes it into liquid thin runny "broth"

 

[Berwhale]

You should have them set to 'Desk' if the MTMs are sitting on the stands they came with. Have you tried raising the LF extension and playing with LF/HF cut and boost?

 

[timblocktoom]

You should have them set to 'Desk' if the MTMs are sitting on the stands they came with. Have you tried raising the LF extension and playing with LF/HF cut and boost?

They are up on microphone stands to get the tweeters at ear height.

Yeah - have played around with HF/LF, seemingly endlessly :-(

 

[Berwhale]

I think you're going to need to get them further away from the wall then.

 

[timblocktoom]

I think you're going to need to get them further away from the wall then.

Given the constraints of space in there, is it possible they are the wrong product (with the rear bass port)?

 

[Berwhale]

Given the constraints of space in there, is it possible they are the wrong product (with the rear bass port)?

My first pair of monitors had front mounted ports because I had the same concern (Tannoy Reveal 402). I've not really had a problem with my MTMs even though their placement is not ideal (Left monitor is 3" from rear wall and 7" from side wall - Right monitor is effectively in free air). That said, I have just ordered a sub to augment the bottom end on mine.

 

[timblocktoom]

What sub did you order?

I do find that when testing the MTM's out here in "open air", I'm mostly happy with the low end except on certain types of music.
I'm guessing that it's very accurate, but simply missing the frequencies it can't reach (or reach well).

Room struggles aside here, I think I would need a sub to keep the MTM's long term -- just on the "music enjoyment" side.

I continually find myself thinking that maybe I shouldn't own studio monitors as I really just want high quality music listening primarily (vs very clinical analysis of things)

 

[Deleted member 12642]

IME monitors sound too clinical when the room is jacking up their response. Otherwise I find the accuracy to be pretty musical.

 

[timblocktoom]

IME monitors sound too clinical when the room is jacking up their response. Otherwise I find the accuracy to be pretty musical.

Yeah - I think you're right

The only thing missing for me is more low end entertainment and "bump" for certain types of music (which of course isn't really the "goal" for accurate monitoring desires)

 

[Deleted member 12642]

Grab a cheapo sub, I have the dayon sub1000 and it augments my kh80 great.

Im kind of in the same spot, I'm using the Neumann MA-1 mic with KH80 and while it makes the response flat in room, that isn't what you generally want. You want a slope. The correction just sucks the life out of the music. I'm getting by fine with no correction and my own EQ.

 

[Olioli]

Would just like to report on my current setup/solution.

So I found the bass response a bit hit/miss when playing certain genres especially EDM type stuff. Found myself constantly adjusting the DSP on the back and it was becoming a chore basically. 2,5 months in (with 1 speaker not able to save a calibration at all) I calibrated them with ARC 3, made sure the frqz response was as flat as possible.

I then purchased SoundSource 4 (im on Sierra) for around 45 dollars and added ARC 3 to the system output. I gotta say.., after boosting the 32-500hz range a bit in the SoundSource app - paired with ARC 3 - this is downright perfect Systemwide!

Everything I toss at the MTMs now sounds nuanced, at all db levels - all across the spectrum.
No more anxiety from dealing with clumsy surprises (bass port) on the low end. It works beautifully now.
Also surprised that there's now no problem leaving them on 40hz extension Its actually crazy the difference contra using just the built in calibration.

Just a heads up to anyone dealing with the same issues as I was having

 

[timblocktoom]

Would just like to report on my current setup/solution.

So I found the bass response a bit hit/miss when playing certain genres especially EDM type stuff. Found myself constantly adjusting the DSP on the back and it was becoming a chore basically. 2,5 months in (with 1 speaker not able to save a calibration at all) I calibrated them with ARC 3, made sure the frqz response was as flat as possible.

I then purchased SoundSource 4 (im on Sierra) for around 45 dollars and added ARC 3 to the system output. I gotta say.., after boosting the 32-500hz range a bit in the SoundSource app - paired with ARC 3 - this is downright perfect Systemwide!

Everything I toss at the MTMs now sounds nuanced, at all db levels - all across the spectrum.
No more anxiety from dealing with clumsy surprises (bass port) on the low end. It works beautifully now.
Also surprised that there's now no problem leaving them on 40hz extension Its actually crazy the difference contra using just the built in calibration.

Just a heads up to anyone dealing with the same issues as I was having

Did you find the ARC 3 results worth the spend vs the built in ARC on the MTMs?
Can you talk about the differences there a bit?

(or did you only go the ARC 3 route due to one speaker not being able to save a calibration? - hope you get that RMA'd!)

Thank you very much!

 

[Olioli]

Did you find the ARC 3 results worth the spend vs the built in ARC on the MTMs?
Can you talk about the differences there a bit?

(or did you only go the ARC 3 route due to one speaker not being able to save a calibration? - hope you get that RMA'd!)

Thank you very much!

It's a significant improvement. I mean, sure there's virtually not that much bass after the ARC cal but thats why I boosted the low end in Soundsource. What impressed me the most is that they are no longer boomy sounding .. and I even have them at -10db sens through my ID14 interface. So I play them quite loud haha.
Also its very non-fatiguing in the upper mids, way less than built-in cal.
For work in my DAW the cal I made from ARC is perfect on its own w/o bass boost, so I just disable Soundsource in the top menu - so easy.

I got a good deal from IK customer service on the ARC software. So its all good

Anymore question feel free to ask away

Cheers

 

[timblocktoom]

@Olioli Thank you for that

It looks like I should download and demo out ARC 3 perhaps

I'm a major Rogue Amoeba fan and SoundSource user (and Audio Hijack and Fission, etc) so I'd be good on that front.

Do you have a pic of what you did in SS to EQ them? Which plugin/option did you use?

"Non fatiguing" and "not boomy" are both things I really want with the iLouds

thx!

 

[snip3r77]

Anyone has both MTM and micro that can chime in?

I would want to purchase the smaller due to it being a home/desk setup if the micro can be pretty close to the MTM. Thanks

 

[Spirich]

Hi. I'm a fellow MTM owner for a couple of months arleady, paired with an smsl su8 anniversary edition, which I suspect, is version 2, right?
Connected via Ugreen xlr and usb on my desktop pc.

All i can say is, the MTM as well as micro monitors provide the most musical, studio sound i've ever heard in a really compact factor which i adore.
The tweeters on both units have something magical to me that make Audio Dispersion magical like an actual hifi speakers, but still retains the neutrality you get with the budget friendly arc measurement.

The ARC measurement works really good and corrected the room modes for me as well as added more crispness. I don't know if what i hear is actual neutral because I don't have measuring equipment but it sounds really, really natural.

All in all, the perfect bedroom/studio Monitor to get for the price.

 

[bennybbbx]

The tweeters of the MTM are really good. I buy a pair of monacor RBT 35 ribbon tweeters because i want test if i can get better sound quality when use a ribbon tweeter that can go low to 1 khz. the RBT 35 is linear in FR down to this, but there is a small high (4%) distortion peak at 1-3-1.4 khz. so they suggest crossover 2.5 khz -18 db. but for me when it is not so loud this peak can not hear so i test the MTM at crossover 1 khz or 2 khz with the ribbon tweeter. I can only hear very small diffrence in better transients of RBT 35, but it is really not clear hearable when i reduce in the mtm at 8.5 khz -1.5 db Q 1.5. the crossover to the mtm tweeter is 3.1 khz. but the mid range is good too. when i use the RBT 35 with kali i hear more diffrence and better sound when go lower. the measurements of the arc i not use, i use it linear and correct it with the mini dsp and req measure with smooth 1/1 because my speakers have diffrence to wall and then its better to use not much diffrence between left and right speaker.

A bass shaker Reckhorn BS-200i i have too. this is very fast and need not much power, 20 watt of a cheap amp is enough for me. i notice when use it that it need EQ to sound realistic. because there come much low bass but the bass in the range of 140-200 hz (the snare,toms is in this range) can feel more with the body as basedrums at around 50 hz. so i use crossover for the shaker at 233 hz and use this Eq. when the shake strength level is not too much set then i have the feeling as it come from speaker power and not from below. and feel also good with snare drums. the transients are not floppy with this shaker.

currently i have the shaker below a 4 cm pillow and it is not so comfortable to sit on it

. i need find a better easy to do solution to mount and comfortable. A bass shaker which play 140-200 hz too is really more fun and even when the mtm play only 70 db loud it feel as they are much louder and big speakers in a big room

 

[khark]

Anyone has both MTM and micro that can chime in?

I would want to purchase the smaller due to it being a home/desk setup if the micro can be pretty close to the MTM. Thanks

I have both, they are very different animals, one is a tiny 2-way front ported design, the other is a much larger MTM back ported one. There shouldn't be any contest between them, the MTMs are way better and it really comes down to the significant price difference. Bear in mind that it's best to connect the MTMs to an interface with balanced outs, while the Micros don't need this, so extra costs may need to be factored in.

Some thoughts about the two:

The Micros have an exceptional tight low end for their size with a Hi-Fi bump, so they are not really accurate, but very pleasing with bass-heavy music. They still sound small though in terms of imaging, still smaller than speakers with 4'' woofers.

The MTMs are an improvement in almost every respect, clarity, accuracy, imaging, low end extension (though without the bump) etc., also coming with the very useful added feature of a basic calibration. Difficult to compare apples with oranges, but they should be equivalent at least with a 5'' 2-way design.

Both have low levels of hiss, with the Micros having a more noticeable one.

 

[luxpiotr]

I build simple system... remote electrical socket->power strip->iLoud MTM/SMSL SU-9/Raspberry PI-3 with volumio and coax hat/b&w asw8 sub
1 remote click and whole system is power on or off - no need separate turn off speakers or dac. Simple play music from Raspberry by smartphon or from notebook. iLouds are on 3/8 microphone stands.
iLouds are almost free from annoying hiss. Little miss fulness and richness of real passive hifi speakers but overall its nice option for small room and desktop setup.