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Author Topic: Mackie MR5 mk3s  (Read 2338 times)

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Deep Funk

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Re: Mackie MR5 mk3s
« Reply #10 on: May 30, 2015, 09:11:00 PM »
Quote from: ultrabike on May 29, 2015, 10:00:09 PM
Buy one speaker. Buy one of these or the such:

http://www.amazon.com/HomeSpot-NFC-Enabled-Bluetooth-Receiver-System/dp/B009OBCAW2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432936750&sr=8-1&keywords=bluetooth+receiver

Put it in the kitchen and call it your phone-boombox.

Logitech has a portable speaker range that can be surprisingly good with a clean audio source. When I bought my old speakers like you I went the to the pro-audio store, auditioned a few and picked the M-Audio BX5 at the time. Sometimes there are bargains in the old stock and you can get great sound for (very) reasonable prices.

In my current student set-up I have the Pico DAC feeding the signal to a low budget Logitech S715. Pretty decent sound for Youtube and Spotify.
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ultrabike

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Re: Mackie MR5 mk3s
« Reply #11 on: May 31, 2015, 04:36:12 AM »
Yup. Those are good. But for almost the same kind of kash you can get two Mackies with bigger drivers and even moar awesome sauce (problem is size though). You do loose some extras, and that is why I was also eyeing these (were on special for $170 something last week):

http://www.amazon.com/Presonus-C4-5BT-Powered-Speakers-Bluetooth/dp/B00NBOGPMY/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1433046810&sr=1-1-fkmr1&keywords=samson+c4.5+speakers

which besides Bluetooth include a Sub output. But still Mackies and JBLs sound better IMO.

Typically I find Altec Lansing to be not so good, but the Logitechs in general are K relative to their peers. Competitive to what Creative has. I would say my BA MM220s are in this class.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2015, 05:19:10 AM by ultrabike »
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Solderdude

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Re: Mackie MR5 mk3s
« Reply #12 on: May 31, 2015, 03:55:11 PM »
I replaced my previous PC speakers (Logitech X-230) speakers which only sounded decent with some EQ with (slightly modified) Dali Lektor 1's.

They are now actively filtered (small external amplifiers) and have modified the X230 speaker/volume control so it acts as a volume control only and made a filter that crosses the speakers to the X230 sub at around 100Hz.
The Dali's don't sound that good below 100Hz so was needed to make them shine.

Really pleased with that setup and is tonally closer to the Mackie than the JBL but more 'hifi' and smoother but not nearly as loud as those monitors (small amplifiers of just 20W were used)



Still can easily recommend both the Mackie and JBL.
The Lektor 1's are about the same price as the mentioned monitors but should add the price of the X230 + small amplifiers (home brew) + filters + time.
In that case the Mackie and JBL's are great value and sound only slightly less 'pleasant' than the Dali's.
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ultrabike

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Re: Mackie MR5 mk3s
« Reply #13 on: May 31, 2015, 06:25:31 PM »
That's a nice setup. Main problem I see with it though is the proximity to the walls.

The good thing is that those are front firing ports. On the other hand even the side walls gave the MR5mk3s some issues in the bass region. One of the reasons I'm giving some though on where to put mine.

BTW maybe later I'll add more discussion and thoughts about the Mackies relative to this JBL305 review: http://noaudiophile.com/JBL_LSR305/

May add some off axis measurements as well. We'll see how well the Mackies waveguide works (I think it's not too bad subjectively speaking).

I'm not very familiar with the higher end Mackies (HR824 and HR624), but from what I've been reading, the MR5/6/8s are tuned similarly and somewhat similar waveguide. There are quite a few differences though.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2015, 06:42:55 PM by ultrabike »
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Re: Mackie MR5 mk3s
« Reply #14 on: May 31, 2015, 09:10:41 PM »
When auditioning the MR5 and 305 I walked to the left and right of the speaker and what was quite apparant was that the stereo image of the MR5 was more in the lows (as in mono type sound) where the treble had some 'phasing' effects when walking to the left and right. The amount of treble also changed slightly and the tonal balance differred when standing to the left or right.

All other speakers 'suffered' from the same effects in slightly more or less similar ways.

The 305 behaved VERY different. The tonal balance didn't change at all regardless of the position. It was more like panning the L/R button on the amp.
Also no phasing effects at all when moving the head. That waveguide really works extremely well. Didn't expect that and assumes it was marketting talk only.
It isn't, it really differs from other waveguides, even the well regarded Genelecs couldn't do the same.

I assumed the Genelecs would behave similar but they were between the 305 and other speakers in that regard.
I really liked those 305's BUT on some recordings I heard a 'peak' around 2-3kHz, mostly on a recording I knew well.
That, plus those darn Dynaudios decided it was time to leave.

Glad I did, after all as I am happy with these Dali's.

They are against a wall on the rear but as you said front firing. That gave me problems with the sound as with big bass the was literally a forcefull stream of air which (as they are pointed towards me) I felt in my eyes. Putting on the fronts solved that problem BUT ruined the treble response for me.
Solved that by covering the ports with loudspeaker cloth.

The speakers against the wall induced some 'honky' bass
Angling the speakers upwards improved that slightly.
Bass isn't the Lektor's strong point at all so decided to use a (very cheap) sub instead and filter off the bass actively.
Passive gives weird results because impedance is all over the place in that area because of the ports.
Problem solved.... nice clear and open sound.
The Sub works wonders but doesn'tgo below 35Hz, at least not convincingly.

I reckon the 305's and MR5's need room behind the speakers (which I haven't got) and would be better of on a mixing console with their rear ports.
So for me this solution works better....

The MR5's contains simple AB amps + trafo and linear power supply. Very service friendly.
The 305's is class D and has an SMPS and thus less easy to service or change something.

Ah.. the considerations.

Looking forward for more impressions / info on the MR5.
After all they were my number 2 choice.
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Re: Mackie MR5 mk3s
« Reply #15 on: June 02, 2015, 10:57:50 PM »
In a desktop configuration, I don't think you're going to like the JBL LSR305.  Their main problem is that they make a pretty audible hiss (louder than other active studio monitors IMHO) when on that is not impacted by gain, connector type, etc.  Its something fairly difficult to notice in a store but the hissing definitely gets on my OCD nerves in a very quiet home environment. 
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Re: Mackie MR5 mk3s
« Reply #16 on: June 03, 2015, 04:59:08 AM »
Excellent point... would annoy the hell out of me and indeed didn't check this in the music store which was crowded and had lots of ambient sounds...

UB.. How do those MR5 do on the hiss front ?
« Last Edit: June 03, 2015, 07:00:22 AM by Solderdude »
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ultrabike

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Re: Mackie MR5 mk3s
« Reply #17 on: June 04, 2015, 07:57:46 AM »
Well, so far no hiss bothering me actually. Quite happy so far.

Here is the "left" and "right" speaker measured again but with the mic and the speakers at the same location (to show driver/enclosure matching performance):



Conditions were: back wall close, no side walls, a bunch of crap to the left of the speakers, nothing to the right, 1 meter away, roughly 80 dB. Since speakers and mic are not exactly in the same location as when measured originally don't expect exactly the same results. Again, these are not anechoic chamber conditions.

Here are some more plots but at different angles:



Seems things are rolling off relatively gracefully with increasing horizontal angle even in my breakfast room.

So what happens if I put an ear to the mic?

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Re: Mackie MR5 mk3s
« Reply #18 on: June 04, 2015, 05:10:03 PM »
Extra energy at 5k bothersome? Are you listening completely on-axis?
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ultrabike

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Re: Mackie MR5 mk3s
« Reply #19 on: June 04, 2015, 05:48:32 PM »
Proly not. Just approximately. More than on-axis or not, I think those slight issues correspond more to room interactions and placement. Note original measurements in the first post don't have much of that. Measurements above might suggest a little brightish signature. It is not. By those standards the JBL305s would be banshees.

I'll try to do better measurements later today. Might run to Guitar Center and get meself a tripod and some speaker stands to do something moar proper.

Also, do not give the "ear" measurements any consideration. Those maybe used to demonstrate what would be recorded by a dummy head with mics in the ears (right-to-right and left-to-left channel w/o compensation).
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