MTX Speakers (1 Viewer)

[Troy S]

Hey guys, are MTX speakers any good?

 

[LanceJ]

Troy: I personally think of them as cousins to Cerwin-Vegas and the big DCMs.

They are on the bright side, but IMO have no obvious flaws so they sound fine to me. The larger models use a large 6.5" midbass/midrange. And they have nice punchy bass: At a local Circuit City I heard the 12" models powered by an Onkyo receiver while listening to the CD of the Beastie Boys' The In Sound From Way Out! (great instrumentals, and sounds very good too). They are quite sensitive too so you don't need a powerful receiver for them.

I'm pretty sure they don't a have large price tag only because they haven't been highly "tweaked" by their designers (research time = $$$), so can't compete with B&Ws or Paradigms. But this is a relative thing--they still sound good to me, considering their price tag. And nowadays their enclosures have been slimmed down so they don't look so clunky. MTX Monitor Series

Update: I just took a look at their website and they have a new line of box speakers called the AAL Series--these are not what I listened to. And in my humble opinion, these look a little too......budget-minded......if you know what I mean.

LJ

 

[Joe Tilley]

personally I think they suck. There Big & Ugly & sound like crap... I work at CC & haven't seen the first person who really liked them. We have several much smaller & better looking floorstanders that beat out the MTX in all aspests.
I guess to be fair you would spend a little more money. But it's pretty bad when two little 6&1/2 in a tower will outperform a 10" or 12".
Buy some decent bookshelves or floorstanding speakers & a good sub, you'll get much better performance.

 

[LanceJ]

Jeez. These kinds of speakers sure polarize people don't they?

At the CC store when we--me & the salesguy--turned them on they sounded very thin (the salesman said he & the other guys didn't like them either). I knew that the Beastie Boys CD had very powerful bass so something wasn't right. Bass control turned down all the way? Nope. Receiver's bass manager activated? Nope. Speakers hooked up to a sub's high-level outputs (these contain a bass filter)? Nope.

So based (haha ) on past experiences, I asked him to reverse the polarity of the wires on ONE speaker. He gave me a confused look but did it anyway. Turned the receiver back on and pushed play.

Wow.

NOW there was no other speaker in that particular room that could match those MTX's bass output. It was clean and tight, perfect headbanger bass. The next largest speakers--Infinity Alphas with two 8 inchers--were left in the dust. Now they have two brand new Polks with three 7" woofers.......they were left in the dust too. It was fun (I mean this in a non-sarcastic way) to see the salesguy's reaction after performing such a simple fix as this--he had never heard of an out-of-phase speaker system.

If a speaker with a good reputation sounds really bad, especially in a questionably-maintained listening room, check the wiring. And DON'T go by the stripes on the wires either (speakers are actually AC devices).I've seen $1500 subs connected backwards this way too that ended up sounding like garbage.

As far as other floorstanders are concerned, ya just can't compete with a big hunky woofer situated near the floor in a large ported cabinet that's all tuned for loudness. It may not be super deep bass but it sure was powerful.

People need to quit reading certain audiophile sales brochures and believing all the pseudo-scientific New Age crap in them and make their own judgements on what sounds good.

LJ

 

[LanceJ]

Also: just like subwoofers, floorstanders also are very much affected by where they are positioned as far as their bass output is concerned. So take that into consideration also when comparing speakers.

LJ

 

[Matt`G]

My good buddy picked up the MTX floorstanders with the 12" woofers last year. They sound pretty decent. They're not audiophile quality, and I don't think they shoot to be. They're speakers that can kick out a helluva lotta bass and not be too thin in the mid / highs. My friend picked them up for his college dorm room, and they are more than enough for dorm room bangers. If you're lookin for the "college atmosphere speakers" that sound good enough for normal listening, but can easily be cranked to provide for parties, you might want to consider them.

As for whether or not they put out some bass? Well, they were powered by a H/K AVR125, and they sounded clean with strong bass to pretty darn loud volumes. It was enough to shake the walls of the room... and I'm sure the rooms next to him ... and below him ... and above him

 

[Troy S]

Thanks for the review Lance. Any experience with them for HT? I need fronts and center and can't afford to spend high dollars right now. Floor standers seem to be what I need to get strong bass and mids which is what I prefer. I will add a sub eventually to hopefully get that movie theater bass rumbling, but would like to set at least the fronts to large on the receiver and get full range from them.

The more I listen to satellites/sub setups, the more I don't care for them. They just seem to be lacking to me.

 

[Joe Tilley]

Lance, I'm not trying to argue with your opion. But from what we have done with them they always sounded like crap. We normally run them off an H/K 525 & doing side by side comparisons they have always sounded crappy. Yes they may actley may put out a little more bass, but it's usually muddy, & distored. I do agree that CC dose not have the best habits of keeping up there sound rooms & I will be the first to say that they normally hire a bunch of dumb ass kids who don't know jack. But there are still some of us who know what we are doing there.
We have compared them to several speakers side by side at the same vol levels & same settings & have never cared much for them. For the money if your going cheap than a pair of them could sound half way decent I guess. Seing how your going to spend at least 100 bucks more for something that dose keep up in bass performance. But to me I would rather spend the extra money on a better built speaker that looks nicer than the MTX & to me sounds better as well.
Just my .02

 

[LanceJ]

Joe: I just figured a pair of (nearly) full-range speakers for only $400 per pair was a good deal. And another reason big speakers like this can't be priced very high: they're too big! Skinny and/or small is what sells these days. ........:frowning: Getting uptight about audio equipment choices isn't my thing either--it's just not worth it.

I know a separate sub can outperform these as far as extremely low movie bass is concerned, but a decent sub to do that will cost at least $400. And IMO a pair of satellite speakers large enough to blend with it properly (response to @60Hz) will cost another $300. Maybe it's because I grew up with large floorstanders but most of the time when I hear smaller sats (with 5" or smaller woofers) I can always tell it's a SATELLITE plus a SUBWOOFER system at work.

If you're ever offered the chance to hear really good big-box speakers, do it. They won't impress THX movie fans, but to me and many other old farts they are rich and effortless sounding--and it isn't just warm-n-fuzzy nostalgia that makes us think that way. Then you'll know why certain people talk so highly of JBL's old Century L100s, those Large Advents, 1970s-era KLH Model Six's, or Boston Acoustics' A100/150 series (this BA series used a tall, but shallow and very wide cabinet--read the explanation for this here (nope I didn't write this).

LJ

 

[LanceJ]

Troy: check your PM box.

LJ