View Full Version : Edirol MA-15D warning

2005-12-21, 03:47
...well, not so much a warning as something to look out for if you are hyper-crytical (which I'm not).

I recently purchased a pair of these powered monitors and as they have a spdif input they are ideal to use with the SB3.

Actually, they are excellent speakers and I highly recommend them. However, they feature a bass-enhancment option which you can switch in or out on the rear of one of the speakers. Although you get complete silence when nothing is playing (hurray), I was convinced that I was hearing some sort of white noise over the top of tracks that were actually playing and, in fact, if you stop a track that is playing, for about 500ms or so you can hear this white noise in isolation after the track has stopped.
At first I thought this was an SB3 problem as it happened with all the outputs, but after a bit of experimenting I've found that the culprit is the bass enhancement feature. If you switch it off the problem goes away. As this bass feature is psycho-acoustic it is adding some degree of unpleasant side-effect to the music.
I must admit that the bass effect is quite good in itself and you have to be really listening hard to hear the white noise but it is there and I thought I'd just post my findings in case any of you were experiencing the same thing.

2005-12-21, 14:01
Thanks for the info - I'm about to pony up the $$ for a set of these if I can't find a better alternative. I was wondering about the 'bass-enhancement' - seems kind of counter-productive for something that purports to be somewhat of a 'monitor'.
How big a room are you using them in? Are they sufficient for ambient listening? How long is the cable that they ship for connecting the 2 units? (of course they don't mention this anywhere in any specs, but I think I might need a longer one...).

2005-12-21, 15:41
They are great speakers for the price, especially considering that they are active and accept both optical and coax. If you switch the bass enhance off and they are as clean as a whistle but lacking in bass (obviously). I can actually live with the bass enhancement switched on as the bass it adds is actually very nice and the noise it introduces is virtually imperceptible at the levels you would normally listen at.
I'm using them in both the kids bedrooms, quite small rooms.
The lead they ship between speakers is around 1.5 to 2m long but is not the best quality lead. It's only a phono to phono though so you can replace this no problem.

Anyway, I thouroughly recommend them.

2005-12-22, 09:44
Much appreciated! Where did you get them from? I'm finding the MA-15D's a little harder to source in Canada than either the 10D's or the 20D's (which I don't want because each speaker requires AC!)

2005-12-22, 12:23
There are plenty of companies in the UK that stock them. DolphinMusic is probably the cheapest but I used StudioSpares here as we have an account with them.

2005-12-22, 12:29
The UK, that is. Lived in Derby for 2 years. What I wouldn't do for a nice breakfast cob some days! (and a CAMRA pub right down the street wasn't a bad thing either!)

2005-12-22, 13:52
aah, Real Ale, It must be hard over there. :)