-
WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
Verdict on iLoud MTM?
- Thread starter EPC
- Start date
Great near field, desktop speakers.
- Thread Starter
- #3
Would you recommend over small Genelecs?
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2018
- Messages
- 6,652
- Likes
- 9,406
Exactly as @JohnYang1997 says. With well-controlled vertical directivity they are really optimised to be listened to on a desktop (more so than many so-called desktop monitors, FWIW), but with their low amplifier power and small drivers, they will not play loud enough to be used in any other way (apart from as background music speakers).
- Thread Starter
- #6
I was actually considering the KH80..
I currently own the Presonus Spectre S6, and I'm not sure if the KH80 is going to be a down step
Well. Tonal wise I would expect KH80 to be more accurate. But as S6 has all the other features it's really hard to say. From my last time demoing S6 in the store it was very dry and mid focused. But definitely not ideal positioning.
Maybe get a pair from local store and return if it doesn't live up to the expectation.
I'm happy with the choice. I wanted accuracy (to use as smaller ref monitors for mixing), general computer audio use, listening to music at the computer, and not any more bulky than I could get away with.
I'm using these along side a 32" computer display, so being 5" wide (ignore anything you read that says otherwise) is far better for me than the wider alternatives, and the stands that come with these let me direct them at my ears. Traditional box studio monitors (KH 80, etc) would not work out as well for me, they'd need to be raised and are wide.
As far as volume and distortion, the bottom line is that most music can be played as loud as you'd ever want (near-field), cleanly. Music with deep low end must be turned down to modest by adequate listening levels. Making sure the low frequency selector is 50 or 60Hz helps. The biggest problem is when you want the 40 Hz setting. And also, I've read that it depends a bit on the ARC calibration, and your room, which might boost the bass more. For me, ARC sets 50 Hz, but it's a setting you can override and set to whichever level you want.
Many places you can buy these from accept free returns (I'm not sending mine back), so it's really up to individual needs.
As far as volume, pretty much anything I'm going to play on these I can have as loud as I'd ever want. Some of the "impress your friends" choices might not work out so well. Billie Eilish's "bad guy", I admit, sounds pretty awesome on a really loud system, but on these you can only listen at a respectable level without EQing. But you could crank Adele, or most any rock, including heavy stuff like Opeth. Most doesn't have much below low E on a 4-string bass, but even when they do, they don't like to spend the wattage of an unnecessary amount of bass. Certainly classic rock doesn't. Stuff that might be played in a club setting has more of a chance at being off-limits loud on the iLouds.
I'm using these along side a 32" computer display, so being 5" wide (ignore anything you read that says otherwise) is far better for me than the wider alternatives, and the stands that come with these let me direct them at my ears. Traditional box studio monitors (KH 80, etc) would not work out as well for me, they'd need to be raised and are wide.
As far as volume and distortion, the bottom line is that most music can be played as loud as you'd ever want (near-field), cleanly. Music with deep low end must be turned down to modest by adequate listening levels. Making sure the low frequency selector is 50 or 60Hz helps. The biggest problem is when you want the 40 Hz setting. And also, I've read that it depends a bit on the ARC calibration, and your room, which might boost the bass more. For me, ARC sets 50 Hz, but it's a setting you can override and set to whichever level you want.
Many places you can buy these from accept free returns (I'm not sending mine back), so it's really up to individual needs.
As far as volume, pretty much anything I'm going to play on these I can have as loud as I'd ever want. Some of the "impress your friends" choices might not work out so well. Billie Eilish's "bad guy", I admit, sounds pretty awesome on a really loud system, but on these you can only listen at a respectable level without EQing. But you could crank Adele, or most any rock, including heavy stuff like Opeth. Most doesn't have much below low E on a 4-string bass, but even when they do, they don't like to spend the wattage of an unnecessary amount of bass. Certainly classic rock doesn't. Stuff that might be played in a club setting has more of a chance at being off-limits loud on the iLouds.
Depend on where you are, the iLoud and 8020D are only separated by 10€ here, and I'd trust the 8020D a lot more for reliability and volume. Still, the iLoud is quite impressive; I'd just like to know at what point it goes into distorsion hell, as it could be anywhere between 86 and 96 dB.
Wow—$350 vs $535 in the US (each). And you're more likely to find the iLouds on sale than Genelecs. They were $280 Cyber Monday, nearly half the costs of the 8020Ds. But yeah, you can't go wrong with Genelecs, I think.
I think that's overstating it a bit. There is sufficient capability for volume, it's just that some music, especially at wide-open settings, will rob the headroom. So, I disagree with "if and only if". I think this paragraph from this SOS review sums it up fairly well:
IK Multimedia iLoud MTM
Ultimately it depends on the individual. If size and location weren't an issue, I probably wouldn't have considered taking a chance on them, but I'd also have been opening up the budget. $560 paid for these, they outperform even without size being a factor, and work out perfectly for me.
I played that earlier and it was plenty loud for me (and my son). They are perfect for nearfield use in my small home office (2.7m x 2.0m).
Agreed, I think it's plenty loud too, just an example of types of music that can't be played as loud as others—really, I haven't played a "worst case" that's a problem for me with level, and 90+% of what I put through them can be played too loud. Keeping in mind I have the low cutoff set to 50 Hz, not 40. Basically, the 40 Hz bottom comes with an asterisk—if you really intend to play bottom heavy music at that setting, you can't blast it.
And I'm just elaborating for people who otherwise could use good monitors at this price point, especially if size is a limiting factor. I'd hate for people to not even give them a look just because someone gave them the impression they can only play music softly.
As far as minimizing the width, which I wanted to do, I'm not sure what else would have been better for me. I might have picked up a pair of Equator Audio D5s, if they were still around (my main studio monitors are Equator Q10s, mid-fields—but in full disclosure, I did some work for them on the room correction software for the Q series). In a perfect world, I'd have great speakers that would tuck under my Pro Display XDR and sound incredible. These will do that, but not well, at minimum I'd have to prop the side stands to angle them upward at my ears, and that would quickly make them taller. But at only 5" wide, they work out nearly as well upright.
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2020
- Messages
- 4,804
- Likes
- 3,747
I just set mine up today. For me they are fulfilling the same use case as @earlevel.
First impression of the sound is not that positive. I agree they can get plenty loud (heck, we aren't even sitting 1 meter from them). They seem very mid-dominant and a bit shouty. I need to play around with the shelving filters and run ARC tomorrow and see what I can get out of them.
First impression of the sound is not that positive. I agree they can get plenty loud (heck, we aren't even sitting 1 meter from them). They seem very mid-dominant and a bit shouty. I need to play around with the shelving filters and run ARC tomorrow and see what I can get out of them.
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2020
- Messages
- 4,804
- Likes
- 3,747
Treating them like my other speakers seems to be helping - aimed mostly straight ahead now. Seems to have taken some of the edge off.
"Desk" cal sounds awful, it just neuters the bass.
They still sound mid-forward and...resonant. Makes me keep turning them down. We'll see if I can fix that. More tomorrow.
"Desk" cal sounds awful, it just neuters the bass.
They still sound mid-forward and...resonant. Makes me keep turning them down. We'll see if I can fix that. More tomorrow.
Last edited:
bennybbbx
Addicted to Fun and Learning
I have them set to 40 hz and cal.
here is a song with many low freq notes on a 5 string bass and bass is play louder(so thats a worse case) as usuaal. It sound very good(i hear no port noise) when you not go louder as max 80 db peaks on sound level meter. for normal hearing this is good. i mostly hear around 68 db. the speaker sound great i see no need as with kali to make it louder, because small speakers have better step response often amnd bringt better transients. if the KH 80 or 8020D is better, maybe maybe they have less port noise when you boost them as MTM. but specs say kh80 have 57 hz -3 db 8020 have -6 db. and when there should notes play with freq of 35-45 hz you need boost with EQ lots. the funny thing on MTM is, very low notes 30 hz 40 hz, have less hearable port noise as notes around 50 hz. so there can low freq boost. but if you want really go loud there is no way other than use a subwoofer. you should also remember that the 2* 3.5 inch speakers of mtm are in area size as a 5 inch speaker. kh 80 and 8020 have 4 inch have area 81 cm2 . 3.5 inch have 62 cm2. because there are 2 speakers there is 62*2 124 cm2. 5 inch speaker have 126 cm2
Last edited:
bennybbbx
Addicted to Fun and Learning
most rooms have much peaks around 100 hz upto 200 hz . so to see if the cal measure is bad you should verify with a room measure software. i have 10 db peek around 100 hz on all speakers. this give of course lots more bass, but it is not correct.
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2020
- Messages
- 4,804
- Likes
- 3,747
Ran the calibration today using my boom mic stand, same as with my Audyssey and Dirac runs.
More in the review thread: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...d-mtm-review-active-monitor.18347/post-616818
More in the review thread: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...d-mtm-review-active-monitor.18347/post-616818
Last edited:
mohragk
Member
I just want to give my two cents.
I've been running my MTM's for a couple of months now and I'm very, very pleased with them. I use them in a desktop setup and I find that they perform excellently in that scenario. I usually don't play my music too loud since I have some tinnitus tendencies, which means that if I listen to music too loud, it triggers my tinnitus. And these are excellent at low levels (as most speakers, I presume).
I run them at 50 Hz, since I'm sitting at close distances, and setting them to 40 Hz only triggers some room modes which are only heard at greater distances. Not very useful at all in my case and just a nuisance for my neighbours.
I've tried the built-in room correction, but found it was a bit too aggressive. I've done some correction myself using REW and the supplied calibration mics (which are a very nice bonus when buying these speakers!).
What I'm most impressed with is the imaging and the midrange clarity. I watch a lot of movies and series and these are excellent for dialogue heavy stuff. The bass performance is great as well, as long as you run them at 50 Hz. Which is honestly deep enough for most stuff I listen to. And the small form factor is a huge plus for me. I used to run Yamaha HS80M's, but those were ridiculous on my 1.5m wide IKEA desk. These huge blocks of blackness gave a real claustrophobic feel. The fact that these small bad boys provide a better image and go as deep as the HS80M's was what sold me. And still do.
I've been running my MTM's for a couple of months now and I'm very, very pleased with them. I use them in a desktop setup and I find that they perform excellently in that scenario. I usually don't play my music too loud since I have some tinnitus tendencies, which means that if I listen to music too loud, it triggers my tinnitus. And these are excellent at low levels (as most speakers, I presume).
I run them at 50 Hz, since I'm sitting at close distances, and setting them to 40 Hz only triggers some room modes which are only heard at greater distances. Not very useful at all in my case and just a nuisance for my neighbours.
I've tried the built-in room correction, but found it was a bit too aggressive. I've done some correction myself using REW and the supplied calibration mics (which are a very nice bonus when buying these speakers!).
What I'm most impressed with is the imaging and the midrange clarity. I watch a lot of movies and series and these are excellent for dialogue heavy stuff. The bass performance is great as well, as long as you run them at 50 Hz. Which is honestly deep enough for most stuff I listen to. And the small form factor is a huge plus for me. I used to run Yamaha HS80M's, but those were ridiculous on my 1.5m wide IKEA desk. These huge blocks of blackness gave a real claustrophobic feel. The fact that these small bad boys provide a better image and go as deep as the HS80M's was what sold me. And still do.
Similar threads
