MTX speakers?

[don philipe]

Doing a little research for a friend.What do you guys know about MTX speakers? Particularly AAL212B model.
Not a lot on the web about value or sound quality.

 

[BOUXY]

More than likely not a major brand

 

[DChen]

Never heard their home speakers but they have been in car audio for a long time. If these speakers sound anything like their car audio, RUN, don't walk but RUN away. Very boomy, no highs, no midrange, crappy bass otherwise they are great.

 

[swechsler]

Unless they're really cheap (e.g. <= $50/pair), there are much better options available.

 

[pauldrewry]

I've heard MTX speakers in bars and I would stay away. They sound worse as the volume goes up.

 

[Lavane]

I've seen MTX at booths at swap meets that sell cheap white van audio equipment and "pro" audio stuff. Usually the speakers have a row of piezo tweeters and or bullet horns with a big woofer.

 

[Airjmax]

I agree with the general consensus that there are many better and affordable options. I have flipped a few pairs, and sound tested them. Not much engineering going on when these were produced. Stay away and wait for one of the more reputable brands.

 

[DChen]

^^^And that is saying something as good speaker design and tech is nothing new. Parts, diagrams, design and technique can easily be obtained in the public domain. One have to go out of their way to design an incompetent speaker these days. As a bare minimum, for a commercial speaker, it should sound like an average box store home theater speaker. Nothing special, good price but sounds OK and not offensive.

 

[kevintomb]

They are very cheap DJ, Party, PA speakers. They will sound okay at moderate volumes, and are somewhat efficient, but basically like a Poor man's Cerwin Vega or similar......

No deep bass, boomy mid bass, grating midrange and highs.

Great for a a party, but not high fidelity at all.

 

[DChen]

Great for a a party, but not high fidelity at all.

A party of none or great for clearing a room.

 

[teal'c]

They do make very nice amplifiers.

 

[xero-D-hero]

The AAL in the part number indicates that these are MTX's version of earlier AAL speakers.
AAL (American Acoustic Labs) speakers was eventually renamed MTX back in the late 80's ~ early 90's.
I believe that was around the same time they bought out Soundcraftsmen IIRC.

MTX audio was called Matrecs in 1979. The MTX name came in when Loyd Ivey, then owner of his own company American Acoustic Labs, bought out the Matrecs name in 1979 and changed it to MTX under Ivey’s parent company Mitek. In 1991, MTX Audio acquired Soundcrafstman, a defunct audio equipment manufacturer which was located in Santa Anna California, and was called MTX Soundcraftsmen until 1999.

The AAL 212b is the 8ohm version of a speaker they originally offered in a 4ohm version (the AAL 2230).
Before that AAL offered a similar speaker with the same basic driver arrangement using a phenolic ring tweeter vs. the horn.

Before becoming MTX the original AAL speaker co. was mostly a regional "house brand" for the most part.
Thus they were being marketed largely by retailers like American TV & appliance based outta Madison Wi. .
I remember my brother owning a pair of AAL with white woofers (using CTS drivers I believe) that he bought @ American.
And yeah they are pretty much the definition of "party speakers" more-so than brands like CV or such.

I actually own a pair of AAL 212b,but the funny thing is I cant tell you what they sound like as I have'nt even listened to them yet.
And I've owned them for something like 5-6 years minimum now,,,so what does that tell you 'bout my POV of 'em,,,LOL...

My plan was to mod them if I did'nt like something specific about them.
And I fully expected to lose the horn tweeter as I'm pretty sure it's a piezo item.
Also I'm not too sure if there is even a proper crossover in them either.

But yeah definitely not anything too special,so dont overpay for them.

There have been threads about them here in the past,so I's recommend doing an advanced search for AAL or similar.

HTH

Bret P.

 

[swechsler]

The AAL in the part number indicates that these are MTX's version of earlier AAL speakers.
AAL (American Acoustic Labs) speakers was eventually renamed MTX back in the late 80's ~ early 90's.

Interesting, I didn't know that. I remember having a catalog from AAL way back in the day; it seemed they had multiple lines of speakers with no discernible quality differences (i.e. they all seemed to play in the same price range), but nothing that really said "buy me". Never saw them in real life and didn't know anything about house brand speakers at the time.

 

[txturbo]

I had a pair of the AAL's with the 12 inch drivers and white woofers. They sounded like you would expect for a couple hundred bucks. Better than flea market speakers but not by much. If I remember I picked them up in Palatine IL at a place called MusicCraft about 30 years ago. Actually I think my older brother still has them.

 

[dzkfraser]

I had a pair of the AAL's with the 12 inch drivers and white woofers. They sounded like you would expect for a couple hundred bucks. Better than flea market speakers but not by much. If I remember I picked them up in Palatine IL at a place called MusicCraft about 30 years ago. Actually I think my older brother still has them.

Please define flea market speakers, I've gotten some very nice speakers at the flea market

 

[bowtie427ss]

I believe that was around the same time they bought out Soundcraftsmen IIRC.

Also about the time they bought/acquired Oaktron(affectionately mis-pronounced oh-whack-a-tron) which provided them tooling to build their own cone type drivers, and continuation of a few Oaktron drivers.

A few of them were pretty good. The 5C10 5 inch full range MTX/Oaktron driver is a pretty respectable little fella, and can fit a wide variety of applications.

 

[teal'c]

Please define flea market speakers, I've gotten some very nice speakers at the flea market

You know, speakers like Magnepan SMGa’s, Tannoy 225's, Infinite Slope 1.8s, DCM CX-17s, Cerwin Vega VS-150's, KLH Model 24s, Klipsch Heresy..
You know, junk.

 

[don philipe]

Thank you all for the info.Sounds like the consensus is they're mediocre or less speakers.Just doing this for a friend who is not an audiophile and wants to get rid of them.He'll probably take them to the thrift store,some teenager will go gaga over them.

 

[Jimmydest]

Doing a little research for a friend.What do you guys know about MTX speakers? Particularly AAL212B model.
Not a lot on the web about value or sound quality.

I have a lot of vintage speakers including JBL I never heard of mtx picked up a pair of aal 62 speakers, very cheap and they sound great, I'm using a modern Yamaha receiver, these speakers are sleepers, if you can find them, buy them

 

[SpkrRebuilds]

The last set of MTX professional speskers i picked up, MTX used Eminence Kappa Pro woofers and compression horns.