MEN220 question

[Jeff Penneys]

I have a MC152 connected to a MA5300 which is being used as a preamp.

I just got my MEN220, and was thinking that I may want to turn off the tone controls on the preamp?

Thoughts?

 

[jdcarlson]

I have two MEN220s.
Earlier in my life I was a musician, conductor, and substitute recording engineer for a 50 piece volunteer orchestra.
So I hope I can shed some light on this for you.
The MEN220 will balance the sound from your system with your room environment, and will do an outstanding job of that.
HOWEVER - it will not compensate for differences in the source material. Not all material is properly recorded. Not all recordings are made in a proper place (one venue the volunteer orchestra played in was a large round concrete building - 10,000 seat capacity - with a concrete floor, and a domed ceiling - an acoustic nightmare!!) That is what your tone controls are for. To make up for variances (or faults) in the source material.
Thanks,
Jim

 

[Jeff Penneys]

I have two MEN220s.
Earlier in my life I was a musician, conductor, and substitute recording engineer for a 50 piece volunteer orchestra.
So I hope I can shed some light on this for you.
The MEN220 will balance the sound from your system with your room environment, and will do an outstanding job of that.
HOWEVER - it will not compensate for differences in the source material. Not all material is properly recorded. Not all recordings are made in a proper place (one venue the volunteer orchestra played in was a large round concrete building - 10,000 seat capacity - with a concrete floor, and a domed ceiling - an acoustic nightmare!!) That is what your tone controls are for. To make up for variances (or faults) in the source material.
Thanks,
Jim

Should I dial in the MEN220 with no tone controls first, and then MAYBE adjust the tone controls after?

 

[Bill Ferris]

Should I dial in the MEN220 with no tone controls first, and then MAYBE adjust the tone controls after?

Yes Jeff, all the room tunings/voicings using the MEN220 are best done with all tone controls disabled/left in their flat positions..
Same goes for loudness control/switches and any high/low pass filters.

After successful run of the MEN220, then the use of any tone controls, etc. will usually be more effective when adjusting for the desired differences because of various SQ of the source material..

Also be aware, that the room`s furniture, carpet contents & placement plus the speakers should be static (no movement, or add & subtract stuffy furniture/items in the room afterwards) and it`s best to first get the sound from the system to sound as best as you can first before running the MEN220..

 

[jdcarlson]

Should I dial in the MEN220 with no tone controls first, and then MAYBE adjust the tone controls after?

YES - that is how I have used it in my old house, my office, and our new retirement apartment.

 

[kevzep]

I have a MC152 connected to a MA5300 which is being used as a preamp.

I just got my MEN220, and was thinking that I may want to turn off the tone controls on the preamp?

Thoughts?

You only need to use the Room Perfect function if you have problems with the listening space. In my previous house, I had to use Room Perfect, in my current house, my room is great and although I did run Room Perfect, I actually have it bypassed as it didn't actually improve anything at all, it in fact coloured the sound which I did not like.
So make sure once you have run Room Perfect, you drop it in and out to compare the system with, and without Room Perfect, as it can take you down a path and affect your system tuning negatively if you are not careful.

 

[twiiii]

Being a musician you may not like what a Men 220 does. It analyzes the room and the speakers and voices the system while maintaining the characteristic sound of the speaker. So lets say the speaker is a little to forward, well when the 220 gets thru it will remain slightly forward. Or the speaker maybe a little dry, well a 220 isn't going to fix that either. Thats why I use a MQ 107 for my stereo system and Crown parametric EQ's in the HT system rather that the Room perfect system built into my MX 151 HT processor. I would audition one before buying it. I had hoped to retire my Crown eq2 parametric EQ's but they are still doing the voicing of my speakers. =/- 2 db from 25 to 4000 Hz and then a slight roll off being down 6 db at 18,000 HZ. That I can correct with the Crown tones controls quite easily as they have a variable frequency pivot. But I just don't use that option normally using the remote controlled tone controls on the HT processor.

So thats why I recommend following the gentleman's recommendation to get the speakers to be the best they can be and the ideal listening position chosen before using the 220.

 

[pgena]

If your Men 220 is between the preamp and amp, the tone controls on the preamp will have no effect on the Room Perfect processing, as the Men 220 generates its own tones directly to the amp. Of course, once the analysis is over and the algorithm is created, play back through your system will be sensitive to your tone controls as usual.

 

[twiiii]

The MEN 220 also has 5 or 6 parametric filters you can program with a PC to modify the sound to your taste after the unit has done its work.