As the title implies, I bought a new pair of their MKII’s, and so far, I’m impressed and love what the ultra near field adds to my setup, as well as how the built-in RC helps with my current acoustic space. I can switch between headphones and monitors with hardly any noticeable EQ curve between them.
However, there is one thing I am experiencing that I need confirmation from other users on to determine whether I have a faulty pair or if there is a design flaw by default. So, what’s my issue?
With the bass extension set to anything lower than 60 Hz, there are some bass-heavy tracks that cause the bass port/cabinet to self-resonate, even at very low volumes. It’s similar to the sound that occurs when driving in your car at a certain speed with your rear window open, specifically in the 39-59 Hz range. This becomes very obvious when running a sine wave generator set to that frequency. Because of this, some kick drums trigger the same behavior, which is annoying for a pair that costs almost $1,000. Above this point, the MTMs can go very loud without any problems across the whole frequency range.
Do other users notice the same issue? I’m afraid it’s by design, but if it isn’t, I will have to swap them. I have reached out to IK, but so far, I have only received the response, “If you aren’t happy, return them.” I hope someone here is more understanding and willing to verify their experience with their set. That’s all I am asking.
checked firmware, placement, cables, source, flat and calibration and every other possible cause to get those out of the equation. Swapped left and right and so on.
That does not seem like very good customer support at all. And not a company I’d choose to deal with if that’s how they handle issues with paying customers. There are too many other great companies out there willing to support their products than have to deal with that when you drop a $1000 on one of their products.
Unfortunately, I can’t help you but I do hope that you get things sorted.
I ran into this issue with the original MTMs and the MTM micros. I couldn’t get rid of it on the micros, but after setting the low pass to 50hz on the MTMs I didn’t run into it anymore during regular use. I recently upgraded to the MTM MK2s where I just set it to 50hz from the start (there’s a super sharp drop in frequency response below that anyway) and didn’t run into this in regular use anymore either.
I do vaguely remember hearing it when running filter sweeps on my AH+FX at really high resonance and very (very) low frequencies though. Yet it seemed quite reasonable to me that the speakers would distort at that point as those were extremely low frequencies (felt more than heard) at a very high volume (due to the very high resonance).
If it’s useful for you, I’d be happy to test my set with a song where you notice this and/or confirm by playing some sines at low frequencies.
That would be great!
Can i drop Tidal links?
A plain sinewave on the sweetspot of 46 hz is causing the most prominent even on low to moderate volume. But it goes all the way to 59 hz.
I don’t think Tidal will be necessary, I already ran some tests for you with pure sine waves.
Here’s what I found:
Using the MTM in ‘flat’ mode and 40hz low pass, I hear the distortion you’re talking about when I set the volume very high (higher than I normally would when using them as near field monitors – but I don’t need to max out the AH+FX). The distortion is strongest when playing an F#1 (~46hz) or G1 (~49hz) – so that’s consistent with what you noticed.
Using my own settings (MTM low pass at 50hz, running in ‘cal’ mode) I don’t hear any distortion even maxing out the volume of my AH+FX running into the MTM MK2 when playing any pure sine wave note. Note that this volume is unbearably loud – I typically run at 50% volume or below as I’m using the MTM as near field monitors. Setting the low pass to 40hz doesn’t make any difference. I’m pretty sure I don’t hear the distortion in this case since my calibration significantly reduces the volume of the lowest frequencies since my MTMs are quite close to a wall (see my avatar), so it’s counteracting the bass boost this induces.
The distortion sounded like port noise to me and, indeed, if I block the port (the hole at the back) with my hand, the noise is gone. Of course, so too is the bass, since blocking the port will get rid of its effect (which is boosting the bass frequencies). It seems IK didn’t completely get rid of the port noise in the MK2 version although it seems they were aware of the issues in the first issue since the port is significantly larger and shaped differently. For my use I’m still really happy with the MK2 version since with my calibration (for my room) the MTMs don’t have to produce high volume low frequencies as they are boosted by the wall already – but if that’s not the case for you and you do run them at high volumes I can see how this could get really annoying…
Do note that (but you may not want to do this) you can add a filter for these specific frequencies in the MTMs software. That filter will be active even when the MTMs aren’t connected to the software / pc.
Thank you! This is exactly what I needed. I had a strong sense that this problem is by design, and I’m not surprised. These cabinets are quite small, especially considering they house only 3.5-inch woofers. Ultimately, it all comes down to the laws of physics, and achieving such low bass extension from these speakers is already quite an accomplishment.
The only difference I noticed in your account compared to my observations is that you seem to need to push them hard to reach the territory of bass port resonance. In my experience, they start to break up at a much lower level—around 30% of the maximum volume, well below the calibration sweep level. So in theory the calibration mic could measure an enormous hump in the room, which is actually coming from the speaker itself. Well i guess i have to deside if i can live with this. Besides this thing i get more and more attached to these baby’s.
On second though, i think i’m gonna try to copy your setup by placing them closer to the wall then i have now. Perhaps the calibration on this placement can achieve a dip in the 48 hz area that can work in my favor.
It’s quite possible that the volume difference is just due to differences in the signal we feed it and how we’ve set our MTMs. I always keep my MTMs at the notched / 12 o clock volume, and control the volume itself with the input signal. This comes from my AH+FX, which itself attenuates the input signal by quite a bit to leave headroom for its effects, filter resonance, etc. So even a nearly-clipped sine wave would not be close to full signal by the time it arrives at the MTMs.
I’d put my money on your MTMs just doing exactly the same thing mine do, and this just being a design trade-off (many speakers have ports that chuff when pushed at certain frequencies; I’ve owned quite a few that did it). Some active speakers that don’t do it use DSP to limit the level of these frequencies. The advantage is that they won’t produce noise – but they’d also have a frequency response that depends on the volume with no obvious way to tell whether you’re still in ‘linear response level’ or already running into the limiting. I could see why IK would opt for linearity for a monitor since at least you notice when you’ve reached the speaker’s limits.
On the calibration: good point, although I don’t think it needs to be a problem. That port noise is at a significantly higher frequency than the signal. If IK/ARC is smart about how it uses the sweep and response, they’d also look at the response of the frequency that matches the signal at any given point in time. No idea whether they do so though, but in my case the calibration significantly improves the sound (closer to my linear headphones and no more nasty booming of certain frequencies).
Thanks again. I am so grateful for your fast and detailed replies. This saves me al lot of hassle and time by not sending monitors forth and back with zero results. strong textAnother confirmation this forum is valuable. Have a nice weekend.
Hi Guys
I’m on the fence with these speakers, I want to upgrade my Iloud Micro’s to the MTM mk2, I absoultly adore the micro’s, I saw people complain about the port noise but it’s not existing on my set.
Anyway, Do you feel like the MTM MKii are good investment? do you feel the problem in the low end is noticable? The main reason I want to upgrade is of course because I’m looking for less congested sound with better low end, but these are indeed expensive and I don’t want to burn my money on them if I will get some distortion in the 40hz-50hz
Thank you!
I kept them and decided to live with the limitations. The pro’s make up for the cons. These are really nice ultranear monitors and using them as advertised they serve me well. The build in dsp room correction is a godsend in a situation like mine where i don’t want to route my audio thru a daw just for room correction software. They have a nice balance between a linear response and a joy to listen and jam on. I was close to trade them with a pair of Neumanns in the same pricerange after noticing the port resonance listening to certain tracks, but realized the low end extension is great to have without the need for a sub. If needed you can decide to roll of the low end and get rid of the occasional port noise and still end up with the same frequency range as monitors from the competition.
Hi
So I’ve received the MTM’s MKii, I wanted to ask something, maybe it’s my room but I feel they are a bit mellow and the top end is too smooth, I had previously the micro who I think had more “in your face sound” or maybe it’s just something I need to get use to, because the MTM’s have more depth from the micro obviously.
I also had a chance to hear the Genelec 8020 at a friend house and they seemed more lively and open but to all fairness he have treatment in the room and I don’t.
What do you guys think?
Hard to judge from here, but i would suggest to take the MTM’s to your friends home if possible and compare in the same room. Both at default settings and run a calibration straight from DSP. Wonder how they compete actually.
After 2 years of having the MTM mk.1 speakers to the right side of the studio desk in a 90 degrees angle, closer to a wall, they were never distorted, even at very loud volumes. I recently moved them over to the left side, further from another wall. After I re-tuned them, they have gotten this huge ‘huuuuh’ distortion in the bass, running them at 40Hz lowpass at around 90dB, playing House music. It’s really annoying, and I wonder (in any case) if I should get the mk. II’s. (but of course, it could sometimes be an indication to balance/lower the volume of that ‘great sub-bass’, which afterwards does not seem too low on a pair of Dynaudio 15A’s and 6A’s). For the time being I have just stopped using the mk.1’s. But the stereo field on these speakers are great. (Better than the 15A’s, although untuned) ). There’s always the the 50Hz lowpass filter, but then the MTM’s sound like really small, ‘boxy’ speakers. BTW, anyone tried the new iLoud Micro Pro’s?