New Neumann MA 1 - Automatic Monitor Alignment

[DJBonoBobo]

On which kind of music did you tried? Was it high quality recording of some acoustic music or some pop/ rock or electronic music? I don't hear the difference on any kind of music, some records are the same, and of course only if my mind is fresh, not when I am tired.
Biggest difference seams to me acoustic DSD played via DAC to analog vs. converted to 88kHz and played via digital.

I have not compared this systematically. I simply switched from ADI-2 to the UCX2 with digital connections at some point, have been using it with various music (mostly metal) since and have not noticed any problems with it. I don't believe in high res music and only use 44Khz (mainly) or sometimes 48khz.

 

[audafreak]

Thanks. I also did not see noticeable differences with similar kind of music. It is usually not so good quality with big dynamic compression, often even limitation.
I am asking because I already received some info from Neumann about digital input, but I would like first some more unbiased answers from users to confirm or not my personal thoughts based on this info.

 

[Lemarchand]

Thanks. I also did not see noticeable differences with similar kind of music. It is usually not so good quality with big dynamic compression, often even limitation.
I am asking because I already received some info from Neumann about digital input, but I would like first some more unbiased answers from users to confirm or not my personal thoughts based on this info.

Could you share this info about digital input please?

 

[DJBonoBobo]

FWIW: I tested the new version 1.4 successfully. For me, everything worked as described in the manual. Still not a big fan of the UI, but glad to see Neumann is working on it, adding very helpful functionality and removing a major caveat of earlier versions.

 

[tifune]

A lot to parse here, sorry fi this has already been answered. I know MA1 introduced dual 750 support awhile back, but is it still rudimentary? I believe, at the time, it was basically same settings as sub1 plus small tweaks like -6dB volume (something like that).

As a owner of both 310's and 120's, it's frustrating that even if I were willing to buy a 2nd 750 there's no way to leverage the DSP without dedicating the 2nd sub to the stereo pair. Ideally I'd have 310 as front L/R and 120 as surround L/R, both DSP enabled, but MA1 won't give me that unless my 120's act as a 2.1 which is rather overkill for nearfield surrounds (.75m). Do I have that right?

On page 10 of the 750 manual, there's an explanation of how the sub will accept uncompressed AES and lays out the subframe A/B channels, but it's not clear if the sub will accept a 7.1 signal or if it's just informational and you have to stick with a dedicated 2ch signal. If it accepts 7.1, even if the DSP were resource constrained I'd expect I could extract 2ch of my choosing and route those via analog out while using the sub for LFE.

Normally I'd just try it out myself, but Neumann.Control is laughably bad. I understand it's free but they should realize that app will be seen by most as a "demo" or intro to their paid offering and should receive R&D thusly. So, I'm very hesitant to spend $ on their software especially once you add in all the weird behavior I see with my 750/80's with network mode enabled. (750 won't come out of sleep, 80s won't stay in sleep, etc)

 

[badboygolf16v]

MA 1 now supports automatic configuration of two KH 750s in a 2.2 setup. In a 2.2 setup it aligns each sub individually.

No multichannel routing or support AFAIK, so think you're out of luck there. In the past I've got informative responses from [email protected], so maybe see what they suggest for your use case.

 

[tifune]

MA 1 now supports automatic configuration of two KH 750s in a 2.2 setup. In a 2.2 setup it aligns each sub individually.

No multichannel routing or support AFAIK, so think you're out of luck there. In the past I've got informative responses from [email protected], so maybe see what they suggest for your use case.

Thanks, I did finally get ahold of Neumann support. They basically said sell the 120's and buy 80's. He also said multichannel configs aren't supported yet, I didn't realize that? You have to create alignments in pairs, sub optional if you're using KH80's?

 

[badboygolf16v]

I've got 2 KH 80 and 2 KH 750 and due to space/cost constraints I'll never go multichannel so MA 1 is OK for me. If I was going multichannel I would choose Genelec SAM.

 

[baccus]

hello i have a question can the MA 1 be used as a normal microphone for example for discord?

 

[DJBonoBobo]

hello i have a question can the MA 1 be used as a normal microphone for example for discord?

You can use it as a normal and neutral omnidirectional microphone, if you have an interface with 48V phantom power mic-preamp.
It is designed as a measurement mic, and you can generate a cal-file on the Neumann-homepage for this use case, so it´s perfect for REW and similar tools.
I never tried speaking into it though. I guess it is not ideal, because you don´t have a foam protector against popping sound or saliva, so i don´t know if it´s recommended to use it that way regularly. Maybe ask Neumann directly? They should know a lot about microphones.

 

[mightycicadalord]

hello i have a question can the MA 1 be used as a normal microphone for example for discord?

I messed around the MA-1 mic for other stuff.

You can probably get away with using it for discord. It does have a lot of self noise and being an omni mic it doesn't get proximity effect so you have to turn it up quite a bit to get your voice to overpower the noise of the mic and room. Just not the greatest mic for the task.

I wanted to use it as a room mic when tracking but it just has way too much noise.

 

[timpani808]

Hey guys, I know this isnt the right place for this, but I cant get help anywhere else (Neumann/Sennheiser Support too).

Recenty my KH 750 switches, a few minutes after start-up, into a mode, where it stops playing anything and the LED starts flashing red non stop (for hours).
I tried a factory reset, new messurements, different outlets, but nothing seems to change that behavior.

Anybody who can help a man out here? This is very frustrating.

 

[tifune]

MA-1 owners, when you add speakers for alignment do you have to add them in pairs? Or, for example, could I add a 310 and 120 on sub1 and 310+120 on sub2? The idea being I can use the MA1 to correct my 120's acting as surrounds but keep dual-sub mains integration on front L/R. Otherwise I have to dedicate an entire 750 to surround L/R which isn't exactly a great value, especially with my primary use case of Auro upmixing. The manual suggests this isn't possible, but wanted to confirm

 

[DJBonoBobo]

Hey guys, I know this isnt the right place for this, but I cant get help anywhere else (Neumann/Sennheiser Support too).

Recenty my KH 750 switches, a few minutes after start-up, into a mode, where it stops playing anything and the LED starts flashing red non stop (for hours).
I tried a factory reset, new messurements, different outlets, but nothing seems to change that behavior.

Anybody who can help a man out here? This is very frustrating.

Did you try [email protected]? That´s the adress @jj-wohlgemuth always mentiones.

MA-1 owners, when you add speakers for alignment do you have to add them in pairs? Or, for example, could I add a 310 and 120 on sub1 and 310+120 on sub2? The idea being I can use the MA1 to correct my 120's acting as surrounds but keep dual-sub mains integration on front L/R. Otherwise I have to dedicate an entire 750 to surround L/R which isn't exactly a great value, especially with my primary use case of Auro upmixing. The manual suggests this isn't possible, but wanted to confirm

The MA-1-software supports only 1 pair of the same mains and only stereo setups (edit: and mono). If you use it for dual subs, both have to receive the same signal. So AFAIK it is not possible.

 

[timpani808]

Did you try [email protected]? That´s the adress @jj-wohlgemuth always mentiones.


The MA-1-software supports only 1 pair of the same mains and only stereo setups (edit: and mono). If you use it for dual subs, both have to receive the same signal. So AFAIK it is not possible.

Not yet, but ill give it a try. Thank you very much sir. Having high hopes with this one.

 

[DJBonoBobo]

New software version 1.4.1 has been released today, but i don't see an updated changelog.

 

[badboygolf16v]

Would be nice to know if it's just bug fixes or adds any new functionality. Or something exciting like adding KH 310 DSP support...

 

[tifune]

The problem with Dirac is that the software has no idea about the directivity of the particular speakers being "corrected". The dedicated Neumann software probably knows this (based on the speaker model -- and the speakers are all very consistent) and so likely it takes that information into account, for sure.

You have a great point here. I've been scanning this whole thread trying to determine: especially in the case of the analog models, exactly how big is the advantage of Neumann knowing the speaker behavior/design over something like Dirac or Accourate?

 

[DJBonoBobo]

You have a great point here. I've been scanning this whole thread trying to determine: especially in the case of the analog models, exactly how big is the advantage of Neumann knowing the speaker behavior/design over something like Dirac or Accourate?

I have both Dirac and MA 1, but I can't answer this seriously.
Just subjectively from my experience: I have never really been satisfied with Dirac when it went beyond the Schroeder frequency - I have never found a setting that really convinced me in the longer term. With the MA 1 it was the exact opposite: Here it fit from the beginning, it is for me a clear and definite improvement and I never felt the need to adjust the automatic target curve.
I had now recently intended to use Dirac still for multichannel, but then I had the problem of latency and picture and sound were no longer synchronous.

As I said, I don't want to say that Dirac is bad, but I never got along well with it.

 

[artishard116]

Is there a way to overwrite or delete alignments on the newest software? Every time I make a change I have to create a new one and they are piling up.