Just bought a set of edifier mr4 to upgrade my "worthless Logitech junk", and don't know how I feel about them and where to go from here.

[restorer-john]

I think @MintSpeak it appears to me that you may not enjoy an accurate-sounding setup.

He's very much used to a particular sound. His brain has adjusted for all the deficiencies and "fills in the gaps" and "normalized it".

That happens with all loudspeakers in my experience. Regardless of how "HiFi" they are. Our brains are clever like that.

I can listen to a small 6.5" two way standmounter for a while and whatever else I compare it to, sounds wrong. Bigger, better, bassier, smoother, but still wrong. But after a short while the new speakers become the new normal and anything else sounds wrong.

I can live with any* speaker in my systems, (and I have a lot of speakers) except a broken/faulty one.

*With the exception of some famous Andrew Jones Pioneers I had to dispose of fast, as they were so bad, as to be completely unlistenable.

 

[Pretorious]

Not feeling at ease is a psychological effect. It could be that, @MintSpeak, you are experiencing the result of the size increase of going from those tiny speakers you once had to the much larger ones you just bought. The sheer volume of sound coming at you is making you feel uneasy, I postulate. And by volume I don't mean decibels, but instead the sensation of the amount of sound.

Homely would imply you are used to a smaller scale sound, and potentially one lacking in, or having no, bass, at the very least. As most have said here you may just need time to have your ears adjust to the sounds you are hearing. Perhaps listening at a consistently low volume will help this feeling you're experiencing. Or bringing the speakers closer together and orientating them upright. Other than that, EQ may be the next option to tailor the sound to something less full (and by degrees, less accurate). But if you like it that's all that matters.

These changes should give an increase to the perception of a smaller scale of sound thus increasing the homely feeling you describe because it shouldn't sound as big, grand, heavy, or however you want to describe it; that feeling that's giving you unease. Just bear in mind that any EQ towards what you had before will greatly reduce the accuracy of the frequency response. If that's what you were looking for when upgrading your speakers then be aware that you will sacrifice this. However, if it makes you feel better and more comfortable, then go for it. Or exchange them and buy something smaller or what you had before.

 

[ozzy9832001]

So my good trustly ol Logitech z120 finally started to break, the left speaker is starting to malfunction.
So I searched for a new set of speakers, went down the audiosciencerevirew rabbithole and discovered most gaming speakers are apparently junk, and decided on buying a mr4, which is apparently still considering junk, but much better.

Spent a whole day researching and testing positioning for them, ended up positioning them horizontally, at ear level, with 20 degree toe in.

And I did all this work, but right from the start something about them just felt uncomfortable.
At first it was the treble from being directly at my ears, but now after the adjustments they sound much better and pleasing, and yet, they simply don't sound.. homely.
They sound like some kind of wannabe home theater than a good pair of speakers to comfortably listen to music and play games.

The old pair of speakers and even my hyperx cloud ii headset which I despised, sound worse, but they both are much more comfortable, nice and homely to my ears.

So now I'm at a bit of a loss for words, do I buy cheaper speakers? Do I room correct the speakers? Currently I started thinking about buying a headset, but I realize it's quite ridiculous considering up until know all I tried to do was avoid headsets because of their closed in sound which I despised, which also physically closes you in.

I guess Im just trying to ask "what am I missing?" And what should I do from here.

How close are you to the speakers?

It took me quite sometime to get used to larger speakers in a nearfield manner. You also find out real quick what frequencies you find offensive. You may also want to experiment with the height they are at.

 

[raindance]

They NEED to be raised up or tilted up in a desktop environment otherwise they aren't even aimed at your ears, plus the reflections off the desktop are awful.

Because they have boosted the bass to try to compensate for the small bass driver, the level limiting kicks in VERY early if you're listening to bass heavy content and then they change volume constantly and sound terrible. Removing low bass via EQ, say gently rolling off everything below 100Hz at 6dB per octave, will help them do more volume.

How do I know this? My son has a pair.

 

[5ynth3t1k]

They NEED to be raised up or tilted up in a desktop environment otherwise they aren't even aimed at your ears, plus the reflections off the desktop are awful.

Because they have boosted the bass to try to compensate for the small bass driver, the level limiting kicks in VERY early if you're listening to bass heavy content and then they change volume constantly and sound terrible. Removing low bass via EQ, say gently rolling off everything below 100Hz at 6dB per octave, will help them do more volume.

How do I know this? My son has a pair.

Why do i get the feeling you are asking low power speakers to do what they just cant?

At best the mr4s with no sub are good for some bass and upwards, at low to moderate SPL. They are nearfield monitors... I do not use mine as loudspeakers and would not expect them to handle that duty at all. In saying that i always run them in monitor mode and never in music mode.

If i was to try to listen to bass heavy music on them... i would carefully pick the music and keep it quiet. Some bass comes through quite well i thought. But definitly no sub bass.
What tracks are you listening to ???
The truth us in the listening.

How does your son drive them?
In my music play back i have no EQ etc straight into the mr4 via audio interface.

The mr4's are really a monitor, which is not a happy go lucky sound, its a bit harsh, bright and revealing. They are pretty darn good for hearing small issues etc in the low to high range, for lower than that , no, they do not go there. Which is why i bought the sub.

For the price you get a whole lot of upper range clarity. It's definitly not the last word in small bookshelf speakers but heck they are clear.

My goto track for speaker thrashing is Hotdrum by joyryde it has some decent bass. Set the mr4 to monitor, take all eq off the signal, set signal output to about 30% and the monitor input to about 70% . Set the signal output volume until it sounds the best, not loudest but the best. Glue the controls.
As you would expect the sub bass will barely come through, but there should be no "clipping".
Home again by steely dan should sound pretty good too. Listen to the closed hihats. So crisp. Not bad for the price.

Have a nice day. :- )

 

[MintSpeak]

Well imma come back to "report my findings" with the speakers.

I was about to return them, but ended up noticing when I'm a little far away the speakers sound much better and less overwhelming and unpleasant to the ears.

So I tried to simulate the situation in a normal sitting distance.

I brung them closer together, put them fairly close to the edges of my 27" screen, pushed them slightly back, closer to the wall, this put my head in a nice spot so the soundstage is less overwhelming and bass heavy.

Very slightly touched up the eq, though it's probably more of a placebo effect than anything.

And also something to note, from the start I put the tweeters at ear level, and it does indeed quite help the sound quality.

Anyways now I quite enjoy the speakers and they sound quite full and good.

 

[MintSpeak]

They NEED to be raised up or tilted up in a desktop environment otherwise they aren't even aimed at your ears, plus the reflections off the desktop are awful.

Because they have boosted the bass to try to compensate for the small bass driver, the level limiting kicks in VERY early if you're listening to bass heavy content and then they change volume constantly and sound terrible. Removing low bass via EQ, say gently rolling off everything below 100Hz at 6dB per octave, will help them do more volume.

How do I know this? My son has a pair.

Hmm, I'll check it out then, thank you

 

[woppinger]

something about them just felt uncomfortable

Double check that your speaker wiring is correct - if you have the connections reversed on one side the speakers will be "out of phase", which can sound strange/diffuse/unpleasant

 

[5ynth3t1k]

Well imma come back to "report my findings" with the speakers.

What you feed these speakers is key. If it's bass heavy then sure, they going to have a hard time keeping up if you want it loud.
But even so I have found the MR4's by themselves are not exactly terrible in the bass end (in monitor mode, RED light...)
I would not say it is "boosted" or "EQ'd" it sounds pretty natural to me. For less bassy music, say clear vocal music they really do sound nice and clear.
I am not much of a Carpenters fan ( till the other month actually ) but I keep coming back to the "interplanetary craft" song
just to hear the clear sound and great production. The volume of the MR4's is actually really good for a near field monitor that
is not designed for lighting up the neighbourhood.

Bass nodes are a thing. Try this: Put on a track that has some low end. Now move around the room.
You should hear more bass in some places than in others. This is NORMAL.
The bass wave fronts are bouncing around the room and causing additive and subtractive wave interference.
Therefore you should either move your speakers OR move yourself, till you get what you think is a natural representation of your music.
I can lean back from my console and WOW the bass goes nuts ( I have the T5 Sub as well. ) , this is a fact of life.
There is no way to change this. You just work with it. Unless you want to put your speakers out in a field on rilly high stands.
( the bass will not be bouncing off of anything...)

Of course I could be wildly wrong and it's about a confabulators... heck I'm in. Sounds great. Confabulate me.

I love my MR4's. If I have more money I would get a second pair for a QUAD set up.

:- )

 

[Doodski]

I am not much of a Carpenters fan ( till the other month actually ) but I keep coming back to the "interplanetary craft" song
just to hear the clear sound and great production.

Try this?

 

[5ynth3t1k]

Try this?

I wonder how much that cost.... and such singing! It's amazing.
The video actually does not do them a service.
Cheese factor almost blowing the ballistic needles past the pegs....
What would be way cooler is them in the studio recording.

To stay on topic: My MR4's do like that track too. So clear.

Heck my laptop speakers play this well too! ( just shows that the production is on the ball...)

Mate!

 

[Doodski]

I wonder how much that cost.... and such singing! It's amazing.
The video actually does not do them a service.
Cheese factor almost blowing the ballistic needles past the pegs....
What would be way cooler is them in the studio recording.

If I understand the accounts enough she was a driven perfectionist and drove everybody very hard and pushed pushed.

To stay on topic: My MR4's do like that track too. So clear.

That track blows my PEQ setting into hyper drive with too high of top end. I like it bright but that was really tweaked out mixing and the top end is good as is for me. So it makes sense a Edifer will sound good because the song is tuned for that sort of stuff and also at the time for playback on old flat sounding stereos.

Heck my laptop speakers play this well too! ( just shows that the production is on the ball...)

I had hoped you saw the light in that track. You did! LoL... HuzzaH!

 

[duckhue]

btw the mr4 has been retuned since march 2023 so maybe dont use amir's measurements for EQ

(new tuning is CEA2034 measured by audiolabinsight (not an ad))

 

[ninetylol]

btw the mr4 has been retuned since march 2023 so maybe dont use amir's measurements for EQView attachment 391149
(new tuning is CEA2034 measured by audiolabinsight (not an ad))

Can confirm from my own measurements, which Look very similar.