MJ or REL

Which would you go for MJ pro 50 or REL Storm?

Thanks

 

The roll-off frequency needs to be capable of being set very low for music use. I think my REL roll-off settings start at 28 Hz and that's the setting I use. This is because room-boom occurs in the 35 to 45 Hz region and you don't want to make it worse.

I don't know what settings are available on the MJ but this is one feature to look out for if you'll use the sub for music.

 

good tip.. thanks.

 

Surely it depends where the main speakers roll off doesn't it? I mean, if your mains only drop to 60Hz then you aren't going to set the crossover on the sub to 28Hz unless you want a big hole in the frequency spectrum. I agree though that it is handy for the sub's crossover to go nice and low so that it can be blended in with the bigger speakers.

Back to the original question, I would say that the Storm is in a different league to the Pro 50 (as you would expect seeing that it costs about three times as much). The Pro 50 is a nice little sub but it won't do a great deal below 30Hz. The much bigger Storm will go a lot lower - probably down to 20Hz in room.

I'd go for the Storm everytime - is it a Storm III by the way?

Matt.

 

Actually I'd say the Storm, being reflex, could be harder to integrate than a Strata III, or even better, a pair of Strata III... :MILD:

 

So logic might lead one to think but it's not the case. For example, I had a pair of ATC SCM12's on dem and these start to roll off at 60 Hz but the flattest response was still obtained with the sub set to 28 Hz. This is because the room makes such a large contribution around the 35 - 45 Hz mark. The size of the contribution will depend on the construction of the room (i.e. brick, hollow) and the number of parallel walls and windows but even so, it is unlikely that you will want a higher roll-off point than 28 Hz.

This doesn't mean that the sub delivers nothing above 28 Hz. My measurements indicate that it is fairly flat up to 28 Hz and only ceases to contribute above about 40 Hz (i.e. just low enough to not make my room peak any worse).

 

Sorry im being a dumbo I meant an REL Quake.

 

Yeah, what Antonio said. :beer:

Or why not try both to see which one of those two RELs best suits your room/system - I'd probably put money on the Strata to go with the LS3/5a's. If you're going to try the Storm III, I'd also suggest the Reference 1 from MJ Acoustics. Both have a different type of sound, neither one is better, just depends on personal preferences. I've own(ed) both a Storm III and an MJ Reference 1. FWIW, the REL has more body and warmth, whilst the MJ Ref 1 majors on speed, punch and slam but is still tuneful. Both do a great job on music.

If your main interest is in using the sub for music, I'd go straight for the ST range (i.e. any models with an ST prefix in their name) if you're looking at REL. The Q series subs are targetted more at a/v rather than music.

 

Well in that case I'd say the MJA Pro 50. This is based on what I've heard from those who have compared the two rather than from my own experience though.

Matt.

 

for that money try the MJ reference 100 over the pro 50. way better than the quake.

 

Hi jools, at this price point my vote would go for the MJ pro 100, cracking sub, very fast and musical, and at £350 not rude either. Wm

 

I haven't heard the REL Quake but I have the MJA Pro 50 and it's a corker. Took a while and a lot of fiddling with position and settings to integrate but now it's sweet.

However, I think that for the extra £50 the Pro 100 would be the one to go for. I was well gutted that they launched the Pro 100 at £350 just 3 weeks after I'd paid the same price for the Pro 50

Michael.

 

Regarding room boom and crossover settings - Technobear's experience with 35-40Hz room boom is unique to his room. Everyone's room behaves differently. It also depends heavily on where your speakers and sub are positioned.

I used to have my speakers in a bay window firing down the length of the room. In this position, I got a nasty boom at 32Hz, and another not so nasty one at around 70Hz, with a deep dip at around 41Hz. I've since rearranged my room by 90 degrees and now I have two nasty modes, one at 47Hz and one at 78Hz, and no significant dips.

Moral of the story: get a sub with a wide range of crossover settings and experiment. (Lots.) It's the only way to get it right.

Dunc

 

I agree - for proper sub integration you really need to have some way of analysing your room response. Test Tone CD and an SPL meter is the absolute minimum. I started that way but quickly got myself a copy of ETF 5 software and the necessary bits and pieces (already had the laptop of course, otherwise it wouldn't have been worth it ).

My Dynaudios go down to 35Hz in theory and I have the sub xover freq (MJA Pro 50) set at it's lowest setting which is 40Hz which is quite a gentle xover and still lets plenty through upto about 100Hz. This is handy since I also use it with my AV system (via the lo-level input) and my cheapo Marantz SR4200 receiver has a fixed xover at 100Hz and it lets me set my front speakers to "small".

Still, for stereo use I played around with many xover frequencies, phase settings and sub & speaker positions. In the end I managed to get about as flat a response as anyone is likely to achieve without major room treatments and/or equalisation.

I did have a huge peak at about 45Hz and a massive suckout at around 70Hz but these have been pretty much "tamed" by my settings.

So, setting up a sub to integrate well with speakers for stereo can be a real pain and I nearly gave up and just used it for AV but in the end the perseverance was worth it

Michael.