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Micca RB42 Bookshelf Speaker Review

joentell

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I'm just going to tell myself that they sounded great in the youtube reviewer's rooms because they wouldn't lie to me, right?

I'm looking forward to more speakers, including name brands available in big box stores, in this price range getting tested to see if this performance is the norm for the price or if people were really being guided towards junk by the 'influencers'. Is this an example of us being in the audio version of the Fyre Festival with so many poor performing products getting gushed all over?
You can see my in-room measurement posted by SmackDaddies. Maybe my room was lying to me. ;-)
 

Thomas_A

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With respect to frequency response curve this is also an "opposite" to the "Harbeth-type of sound". Probably a bit bright, hard and forward sounding due to the lower power in the 1-2 kHz region compared to 2-5 kHz. Get your ears tired fast...
 

617

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To paraphrase Tolstoy, good speakers are all alike; bad speakers are all bad in their own way.
 

joentell

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With respect to frequency response curve this is also an "opposite" to the "Harbeth-type of sound". Probably a bit bright, hard and forward sounding due to the lower power in the 1-2 kHz region compared to 2-5 kHz. Get your ears tired fast...
Interpretation of the frequency response graphs gets into the subjective territory. We could listen to the same speakers and come to different conclusions about what's bright, hard, or forward to us right? We have to specify that these are relative and subjective, not absolutes.
 

MZKM

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You can see my in-room measurement posted by SmackDaddies. Maybe my room was lying to me. ;-)
Welcome Joe.
Your measurements are for sure different: just a difference in vertical scale mostly, see here.
Screen Shot 2020-02-04 at 3.58.27 PM.png
 
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joentell

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Welcome Joe.
Your measurements are for sure different:
View attachment 48650
I don't know what you're pointing at specifically, but if you're referring to low-frequency response below 400hz, then I would take my measurement with a grain of salt. This is an IN-ROOM response, not anechoic or pseudo-anechoic. Not claiming that at all. I was mainly referring to the top-end response Amir was talking about.
 

joentell

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Welcome Joe.
Your measurements are similar, just a difference in vertical scale mostly.
View attachment 48651
Yes exactly! I wouldn't trust anything below 400hz. That's more room than speaker-dependent. That's why I tell my viewers in my reviews, that this is just to tell you what the speaker was doing in MY room while I was evaluating it. It's NOT representative of the speaker's absolute performance and is not a repeatable measurement because of the changes in bass response depending on the room.

My next video is actually going to be about that. I'm measuring the frequency response of a speaker placed all around my room to show how much it affects the bass mostly.
 

617

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Yes exactly! I wouldn't trust anything below 400hz. That's more room than speaker-dependent. That's why I tell my viewers in my reviews, that this is just to tell you what the speaker was doing in MY room while I was evaluating it. It's NOT representative of the speaker's absolute performance and is not a repeatable measurement because of the changes in bass response depending on the room.

My next video is actually going to be about that. I'm measuring the frequency response of a speaker placed all around my room to show how much it affects the bass mostly.

You could also just move the mic.
 

MZKM

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I don't know what you're pointing at specifically, but if you're referring to low-frequency response below 400hz, then I would take my measurement with a grain of salt. This is an IN-ROOM response, not anechoic or pseudo-anechoic. Not claiming that at all. I was mainly referring to the top-end response Amir was talking about.
I just looked again, your measurement is actually very similar, the vertical axis is just not as stretched.
Here is my graph with your scale:
Screen Shot 2020-02-04 at 4.05.54 PM.png
 

joentell

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I don't want to spend too much more time here simply because I'm already on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, email, Twitter, Reddit, on our weekly podcast, and many other places where people reach out to me to comment, compliment me, argue with me, or ask questions. Feel free to reach out to me on those channels.
 

joentell

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I just looked again, your measurement is actually very similar, the vertical axis is just not as stretched.
Here is my graph with your scale:
View attachment 48652
Looking at that graph, I wouldn't interpret that as a bright speaker. I'll show you some of my measurements of other popular speakers and you'll see a bright speaker! :)
 

bobbooo

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Compare their graphs, they actually aren't far off, the KEF is much better vertically as one would expect. These graphs don't tell you how easy it can be powered, max SPL, distortion, etc.
As I also pointed out, the formula does have limitations (doesn't weight frequencies), so it for sure isn't perfect.

And, if you never compared them side-by-side (ideally in an elaborate DBS like Harman does, but thats unrealistic for people to do at home), don't discount "cheap" stuff. Not saying it's the case here, but tell a person with a $5000 boutique DAC that a $200 Chinese one is better and they'll claim the measurements are wrong or don't tell the whole story.

I think these measurements show this speaker isn't actually too bad for the price, and equally that the KEF LS50 is a mediocre speaker for its high price tag, despite its large following and 'hi-fi' reviewer praise, which could very well be at least partially down to unconscious biases. Pretty designs, build quality, marketing and brand presence can definitely falsely influence perceptions of sound quality.
 
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MZKM

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Looking at that graph, I wouldn't interpret that as a bright speaker. I'll show you some of my measurements of other popular speakers and you'll see a bright speaker! :)
In your measurements as well as Amir's there is a slight rise in the presence region (2kHz-4kHz), this is where our hearing is most sensitive, so depending on the listening level, room, and placement, it can sound very bright or not very bright.

However, this is just on-axis, if you look at the horizontal and vertical off-axis, treble energy is retained. When you do an averaged measurement around the room like you talked about (including slightly different heights), you will see even more treble energy compared to an amazingly accurate speaker.
 

joentell

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In your measurements as well as Amir's there is a slight rise in the presence region (2kHz-4kHz), this is where our hearing is most sensitive, so depending on the listening level, room, and placement, it can sound very bright or not very bright.
I would agree with your comment that a rise in that region would be what most people would refer to when they say something is "bright." When I'm looking at my measurements using psychoacoustic smoothing, it's maybe a bump of +2dB. I wouldn't consider that bright in my opinion. Others may find any speaker with a lack of a dip in that region bright. It's so subjective when it comes to interpreting what the graph is telling us about the sound.
 

Haint

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So this beats out the KEF LS50? Clearly the formula needs some work?

It has failed 15-20% of the time in some of the formal experiments hasn't it?


I would agree with your comment that a rise in that region would be what most people would refer to when they say something is "bright." When I'm looking at my measurements using psychoacoustic smoothing, it's maybe a bump of +2dB. I wouldn't consider that bright in my opinion. Others may find any speaker with a lack of a dip in that region bright. It's so subjective when it comes to interpreting what the graph is telling us about the sound.

Hey Joe, do you have a public album available of all your measurements like the one SmackDaddy posted: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=U0pKaFBJRkU3bzVYX0tOdnNDaFBFbTRZYnVvN3Bn
 

Mosiris

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I am now super interested to see the MB42X. I had those for a few years and never understood the high praise. The pioneers in the same price range sound leagues better imo (Amir may need to review that too).
 

Sgt. Ear Ache

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I use these little guys in a room about 13 by 17 feet...not a near field set up. It's an apartment so I don't want to use a sub. They don't sound over bright to me at all. In fact, I have the bass EQ'd down some (mind you, I think I have the 2-4khz range EQ'd down a tad too). The room is quite "boomy." I find them to have really pretty amazing imaging/soundstage. They fill the space very well...of course I'm not trying to pump out high SPLs at all. Don't want to get noise complaints.
 
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