New B&W MM-1 computer speakers and other options

Okay. I asked the same question as the OP a LONG time ago, but got virtually squat response.

Nice to see the topic come up again!

Slightly off topic, but still entirely related to the OP's original question, what do people think of these from Dynaudio:

Dynaudio-MC15_bg.jpg


The MC15's. Dynaudio's multimedia offering that can be hooked up to PC. Active speakers too mind.

Much dearer than the MM1's @ $1200.

But based on specs or if anyone has listened to them ...... are they any good?

I was looking at the MM1's too but got turned off by the (going by appearences) questionable build/solidity.
 
I like having connectivity available instead of being chained to 1 or 2 inputs on powered monitors. For $1200 you can get a receiver and a pair of quality bookshelf speakers.

The power switch looks like it is on the back which is not very user-friendly in a desk setup.

And I hate LED lights especially nighttime gaming :p
 
It looks the MC-15's use ~$150 Dynaudio tweeters and the same $70 6" HiVi woofers that Swan uses in their D2.1 speakers, so at least the drivers are in line with the price. However, for $1,200 I'm sure you could piece together something better (although bigger if a receiver were to be used) or make it yourself for cheaper (with a T-amp, and assuming you know how to work with MDF). However, as a student, I could never spend that amount of money, while to some those Dynaudios might be a good value. I'm guessing there's no way to hook a sub to them, or any internal bass management, as studio monitors are usually 2.0.
 
I'm guessing there's no way to hook a sub to them, or any internal bass management, as studio monitors are usually 2.0.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the MC15's are studio monitors.

So....I think you can connect a sub, but simply don't need an amp because they are actives.

For $1200 you can get a receiver and a pair of quality bookshelf speakers.
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What bookshelf speakers can you get for this price? Because Dynaudio bookshelf are more like $2000 a pair for quality.

Also are they made in Denmark like the Dynaudios? This I presume ramps up the price a bit.
 
I don't think it would be that hard to find $2,000/pr speakers that are better than $1,000 Dynaudios.

Revel, Paradigm Signature, Usher, Sonus Farber, Energy Veritas, PSB.
 
I have the Dyanudio Contour and Confidence and do not run them full range, they are cut 70hz on down...

I use JL Audio and TC Sounds to reproduce the depths, nothing like a properly matched sub arrays.

As for the tiny B&W PC speakers they are overpriced , get some Genelec or ADAM monitors at that price and you will leave the PC speaker farce in the dust SQ wise.
 
kavvika said:
It looks the MC-15's use ~$150 Dynaudio tweeters and the same $70 6" HiVi woofers that Swan uses in their D2.1 speakers, so at least the drivers are in line with the price. However, for $1,200 I'm sure you could piece together something better (although bigger if a receiver were to be used) or make it yourself for cheaper (with a T-amp, and assuming you know how to work with MDF). However, as a student, I could never spend that amount of money, while to some those Dynaudios might be a good value. I'm guessing there's no way to hook a sub to them, or any internal bass management, as studio monitors are usually 2.0.
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First let me get a few things clear.

Dynaudio does NOT use Hi-Vi drivers and will never use them. Dynuadio is the real deal while Hi-Vi is a Dynaudio copycat.

....$70 Hi-Vi woofers...LOL Please these are Dynaudio mid-bass drivers and these run around $150 each. The amps ,drivers and crossover are matched in a way you cannot at home simply purchasing more costly components. Perfect integration always beats pieced parts.

Yes you can use a sub with ANY powered monitor speakers, very simple in fact.
 
astrallite said:
I don't think it would be that hard to find $2,000/pr speakers that are better than $1,000 Dynaudios.

Revel, Paradigm Signature, Usher, Sonus Farber, Energy Veritas, PSB.
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Revel is about the only company that can compete price and quality with Dynaudio, Paradigm and PSB while competitive fall short(I have Paradigm's Signature series and PSB Silver ...BTW). Usher makes some nice speakers and quite good quality drivers, the new series using diamond domes tries to take aim at B&W and Accuton. They are NOT even close to Accuton, Accuton is the top of the mountain when it comes to all out tweeters and mid-bass drivers.

Dynaudio is one of the very few pioneers of speaker design, their soft dome tweeters are THE gold standard. They are known for superb drivers and speakers.
They do not outsource to save some bucks and bring quality down.
 
BSOD4U2 said:
As for the tiny B&W PC speakers they are overpriced , get some Genelec or ADAM monitors at that price and you will leave the PC speaker farce in the dust SQ wise.
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True, if I could afford it, I would love to get a pair of Adam A5s. But I can't so I guess its no point thinking about it. :( Next for me are a pair of small NHT passives. :p
 
Sorry, I don't know much about Dynaudio. I just figured they outsourced like is so common now and noticed the design looked similar to HiVi's drivers. Thanks for clearing that up though; I don't like supporting companies that copy others' designs.

While hooking up those Dynaudios to a sub would be easy with a y-splitter, volume would have to be controlled at the source to keep the speakers and subwoofer balanced, something that I prefer not to do (and can't, as my volume control tray icon always disappears after restarting). If you had a multimedia keyboard, however, then my point is moot.
 
Hi-Vi drivers while of very good quality are obviously very "inspired" by Dynaudio and some Focal designs.

TangBand for example is a more creative company, the drivers they offer are unique.
 
Wow you learn new things every day. I didn't realize Revel was the only brand that came close to having half the value of Dynaudios.

I guess us proletarians have been fed garbage, now I see that you can truly get bourgeois value with a plebeian budget.
 
Interestingly, Audioholics (the only site that has the balls to do real speaker shoot-outs with no fear of pointing out cheaper speakers sound better to their ears) has described the Dynaudio Audience 52SE ($1400) as having "par midrange" performance, while the May 2006 article by Wes Philips at Stereophile (who almost never has anything negative to say about speakers) has described himself as "suffering" while listening to the Dynaudio Focus 140.

The Focus 140 certainly has one of the worst dampened cabinets I've seen for a bookshelf over $1,000 (and they retail at $1,800).

506140fig2.jpg


In comparison, here is the Paradigm Signature S2:

705PS2fig02.jpg


Dynaudio certainly has a mystical pedigree next to it's name, I'll give you that.
 
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I can answer, yes -- the grills do come off of the MM-1s with some scissors, a screw driver, and a Dremel tool with a cutting attachment.

(Also almost certainly liberates one from their warranty...)
 
B&W promised a firmware upgrade over 8 months ago, still nothing. The hiss coming from them is terrible and like the Z-680s, likely caused by the DSP. Plugging my Sennheiser HD650 headphones into my laptop's onboard resulted in no hiss at even full volume, yet putting them in the MM-1's headphone jack results in the same loud hiss that the speakers exhibit.

I picked up a pair because I needed travel speakers. They are definitely overpriced and the lack of support and cheap DAC/pre-amp unit leaves one desiring for more quality. The bass is bloated, but the tweeter is exceptionally clear for computer speakers--note, I am not necessarily saying the tweeter is good.

The sound from these are probably worse than your typical $80 bookshelf speakers from Best Buy, but do fulfill some needs, like minimalistic design, small footprint, and pretty sturdy with the drivers well protected. Honestly they probably could have sold the MM-1s for $150 and still made a large profit.
 
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For on the go alone these seem like ok speakers, but honestly there are better buys for the money. And if you loose them/have them stolen that's $600 to spend all over again.

If I were going to buy a pair of speakers for at home listening on the computer I'd go with something like KRK's RP5 or RP6. You really can't do much better then that for $500.
 
dragonhawke said:
B&W promised a firmware upgrade over 8 months ago, still nothing. The hiss coming from them is terrible and like the Z-680s, likely caused by the DSP. Plugging my Sennheiser HD650 headphones into my laptop's onboard resulted in no hiss at even full volume, yet putting them in the MM-1's headphone jack results in the same loud hiss that the speakers exhibit.

I picked up a pair because I needed travel speakers. They are definitely overpriced and the lack of support and cheap DAC/pre-amp unit leaves one desiring for more quality. The bass is bloated, but the tweeter is exceptionally clear for computer speakers--note, I am not necessarily saying the tweeter is good.

The sound from these are probably worse than your typical $80 bookshelf speakers from Best Buy, but do fulfill some needs, like minimalistic design, small footprint, and pretty sturdy with the drivers well protected. Honestly they probably could have sold the MM-1s for $150 and still made a large profit.
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The MM-1s are generally very well regarded. Can you still return them under warranty for repair or replacement? (I can hear a hiss if I put my ear right up against the speaker, but it's very minimal. And much less than the studio monitors I listened to. Sounds like your MM-1s are broken or otherwise defective...)
 
dragonhawke said:
B&W promised a firmware upgrade over 8 months ago, still nothing. The hiss coming from them is terrible and like the Z-680s, likely caused by the DSP. Plugging my Sennheiser HD650 headphones into my laptop's onboard resulted in no hiss at even full volume, yet putting them in the MM-1's headphone jack results in the same loud hiss that the speakers exhibit.

I picked up a pair because I needed travel speakers. They are definitely overpriced and the lack of support and cheap DAC/pre-amp unit leaves one desiring for more quality. The bass is bloated, but the tweeter is exceptionally clear for computer speakers--note, I am not necessarily saying the tweeter is good.

The sound from these are probably worse than your typical $80 bookshelf speakers from Best Buy, but do fulfill some needs, like minimalistic design, small footprint, and pretty sturdy with the drivers well protected. Honestly they probably could have sold the MM-1s for $150 and still made a large profit.
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Wow you must have a broken set of mm-1s. I got a set about a week ago and they smoke my Audioengine P4 and Nuforce Icon amp. I bought them expecting them to sound far worse but they really surprised me. To my ears they sound superior in every way. I have no background hiss that I can hear and my FLAC files sound amazing. I'm actually listening to more music using my mm-1s than I am with my Xonar STX and Denon AHD5000s. The only issue I have with them is severe background noise if I have my Mac plugged in via USB and my PC via Aux in at the same time. If I unplug one or the other the noise completely goes away. I just tried plugging my Denons in to the mm-1s which are connected to my Mac via usb. Turned them up to max volume and there was complete silence with no hiss at all. Yours had to have been broken.
 
mumstead said:
Wow you must have a broken set of mm-1s. I got a set about a week ago and they smoke my Audioengine P4 and Nuforce Icon amp. I bought them expecting them to sound far worse but they really surprised me. To my ears they sound superior in every way. I have no background hiss that I can hear and my FLAC files sound amazing. I'm actually listening to more music using my mm-1s than I am with my Xonar STX and Denon AHD5000s. The only issue I have with them is severe background noise if I have my Mac plugged in via USB and my PC via Aux in at the same time. If I unplug one or the other the noise completely goes away. I just tried plugging my Denons in to the mm-1s which are connected to my Mac via usb. Turned them up to max volume and there was complete silence with no hiss at all. Yours had to have been broken.
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I highly doubt mine is broken.

I went to the Apple store while in line for the ipad2 and talked to the rep about the MM-1s and they had two up on display, one connected to a macbook pro and another to an imac. Both sets had hissing tweeters.

B&W themselves admit it's a problem and there are threads all over online about it.

You must have a magical version of the MM-1s.
 
I originally tried studio monitors, but had to abandon that idea because of the loud hum from their amps. With the MM-1, if I put the tweeter directly against my ear, I hear the hum. But not otherwise.

FWIW, I am connected USB only. Never have used the auxilliary input, which appears to be the source of complaint in some of those threads I just skimmed.

Needed a 2.0 system for my desk. Listened to a bunch of music last night on them. They sound great for what they are.
 
I'm not saying the MM-1s are some duds. I've owned and still have a few computer speakers. And they all hiss like this--the MM-1s don't stand out among the crowd in this capacity. In fact I would say Logitech speakers are quite a bit worse. However, none of them cost $500 for a pair of small satellites which is why *perhaps* I've used hyperbole when saying they are $150 speakers.

The quality of the pre-amp goes a long way towards controlling the speaker hiss--which all tweeters endure. With these tiny built-in electronics I'm sure there's a limit to what you can accomplish as far as noise floor. Note most of my speakers are in the $2000+ range with higher end amps so perhaps I was expecting too much out of this product (with regards to the tweeter hiss).

I imagine this is the same for most of the people who are complaining on AV forums; they are used to higher end speaker setups and when they grab a pair of PC speakers for their laptop, they get upset at the perceived lack of quality; although in this case, also partially a fair assessment because there are quite a few 2.0 PC speakers in the $150 bracket and for $500 perhaps they were expecting some sort of magic that's not possible with a tiny enclosure.
 
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dragonhawke said:
I highly doubt mine is broken.

I went to the Apple store while in line for the ipad2 and talked to the rep about the MM-1s and they had two up on display, one connected to a macbook pro and another to an imac. Both sets had hissing tweeters.

B&W themselves admit it's a problem and there are threads all over online about it.

You must have a magical version of the MM-1s.
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Hmm... I guess mine are broken because they don't hiss at all. I guess there may be some tweeter hiss that I cant hear over the ambient noise in my basement. But there is absolutely no hiss from the headphone out. None. Nada. Zip. Honestly it is completely silent at max volume.
 
I must admit, I was also surprised that they have not released firmware updates. Maybe they are making fixes behind the scenes though and the disparity in experiences corresponds to those with older units versus newer ones...

I do hear a hiss if my ear is close enough, but not from my normal desktop seating position. (When I thought I heard something, it was actually a very quiet hum from my CRT monitor...)

However, if the analog to digital circuit is bad, I have no way to test that presently...
 
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