You are in for a special treat. I have what could arguably be called the best vintage speaker in the world that is ever produced. That you haven't heard of its designation, MC-1000, is not my issue. Please allow me to introduce you to the Realistic MC-1000:
Don't let the low price of US $59.95 fool you. This speaker used state-of-the-art components, far better than anything available today. Besides, that was the price in 1978. Today, it would be $5,595.
I have not one, but two samples of this beauty! And a beauty it is with its walnut veneer and brownish grill.
OK, you are not here to praise my prized possessions but to see how this marvel of acoustic engineering performs. So let's get into that.
Measurements are performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics) to subtract room reflections. It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
Spinorama Audio Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker can be used. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
What? Maybe I didn't have the polarity of the wires straight. Surely it is a far better speaker than this. Maybe I can change the vertical scale enough to make the on-axis response flat as great speakers should have.
What's that? The directivity index has a lot of ups and downs? Let me see:
OK, I confess. The early reflection directivity index should be straight like the arrow that I have drawn. Maybe if you close your eyes, and listen to music with lights off, you won't hear those reflections around your room having little relationship with the direct sound. You know, they make a soup that just might be tasty on the 100th play of Eagle's LP you keep spinning.
If you want a picture of said soup, here it is:
You don't need to buy a parametric EQ anymore. You have one built-into this speaker which works wonders for all your music. A nice peak above 10 kHz would do wonders in keeping you awake.
Speaker Impedance Measurements
Here is how the impedance (and phase) of the speaker vary based on frequency:
Any little "kinks" in the phase/impedance curves indicates a resonance. And we have plenty of this. Translation: this is a very musical speaker, playing along its own tunes with your band. A solo becomes a duo. A duo becomes a trio and so on. You put in one, and you get two. Or three.
And oh, you can see the same in frequency response measurement:
Distortion Measurements
Ignore the low frequencies as these measurements are supposed to be performed in anechoic chamber:
Fascinating to see the high distortions above 1 kHz.
Advanced Measurements
Spin data is enclosed (main reason for this review).
Eye Candy Speaker Measurement
At 20 kHz, we should just see a narrow cone pushing energy forward:
These graphs should have similar color in the center and smoothly fading into blue:
This one makes a nice impressionistic painting. What Van Gogh would paint if he measured speakers:
Conclusions
Yeh, I know. The golden era of speakers and hifi is long gone. Looked up the MC-1000 online and they go for $150 which proves this thing has appreciated in value. I plan to put then on my desk and listen to music with them to drawn out complains about my speaker measurements....
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
I make this simple: you have money, and I need some of that. So please donate what you can using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Don't let the low price of US $59.95 fool you. This speaker used state-of-the-art components, far better than anything available today. Besides, that was the price in 1978. Today, it would be $5,595.
I have not one, but two samples of this beauty! And a beauty it is with its walnut veneer and brownish grill.
OK, you are not here to praise my prized possessions but to see how this marvel of acoustic engineering performs. So let's get into that.
Measurements are performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics) to subtract room reflections. It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
Spinorama Audio Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker can be used. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
What? Maybe I didn't have the polarity of the wires straight. Surely it is a far better speaker than this. Maybe I can change the vertical scale enough to make the on-axis response flat as great speakers should have.
What's that? The directivity index has a lot of ups and downs? Let me see:
OK, I confess. The early reflection directivity index should be straight like the arrow that I have drawn. Maybe if you close your eyes, and listen to music with lights off, you won't hear those reflections around your room having little relationship with the direct sound. You know, they make a soup that just might be tasty on the 100th play of Eagle's LP you keep spinning.
If you want a picture of said soup, here it is:
You don't need to buy a parametric EQ anymore. You have one built-into this speaker which works wonders for all your music. A nice peak above 10 kHz would do wonders in keeping you awake.
Speaker Impedance Measurements
Here is how the impedance (and phase) of the speaker vary based on frequency:
Any little "kinks" in the phase/impedance curves indicates a resonance. And we have plenty of this. Translation: this is a very musical speaker, playing along its own tunes with your band. A solo becomes a duo. A duo becomes a trio and so on. You put in one, and you get two. Or three.
And oh, you can see the same in frequency response measurement:
Distortion Measurements
Ignore the low frequencies as these measurements are supposed to be performed in anechoic chamber:
Fascinating to see the high distortions above 1 kHz.
Advanced Measurements
Spin data is enclosed (main reason for this review).
Eye Candy Speaker Measurement
At 20 kHz, we should just see a narrow cone pushing energy forward:
These graphs should have similar color in the center and smoothly fading into blue:
This one makes a nice impressionistic painting. What Van Gogh would paint if he measured speakers:
Conclusions
Yeh, I know. The golden era of speakers and hifi is long gone. Looked up the MC-1000 online and they go for $150 which proves this thing has appreciated in value. I plan to put then on my desk and listen to music with them to drawn out complains about my speaker measurements....
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
I make this simple: you have money, and I need some of that. So please donate what you can using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
