McIntosh MQ-107 Custom Environmental Equalizer

what do yo guys think of this unit? i can get one for not a lot of money would this something that would increase my listening pleasure?

I doubt. This is intended to be used with McIntosh speakers.
Have a look at Roger Russell's website for details on design.
I always wondered about age of those capacitors, as well.

Having said this, you could buy it and put it on 'bay if price is good. :scratch2:

I disagree, TR6. The MQ-107 is, essentially, a programmable equalizer in hardware. IIRC, it was intended to be used by Mac techs who would take measurements in the home of the well-heeled buyer and then adjust the EQ's settings to compensate for the deficiencies found. I believe AK member, c_dk, can enlighten further on that.

There's no reason I can see why this approach could not be used with other speakers and the MQ-107.

Cheers,

David

Well heeled???? Certainly no elitism on my part. I have voiced and eq'd speakers in homes with wheels as well as mansions.

Too many with large checkbooks could give a rat's ass about good sound.

The Vandersteens do not have the "headroom" that the Mac speakers have built into their design to accommodate the ability to eq. Would need to be very careful....

What would you measure the room response with?

Except for the lowest filter, the MQ 107 is like any other parametric equalizer except for the fact it is manual. You have to choose the components to select the frequency and the bandwidth you want to use to correct for your speakers deficiencies and the rooms acoustical properties. The main issue is knowing how and having the proper analyzer to voice the system with the 107. If you don't have Mac speakers of the ML or early XR variety with the critically damped woofers, you just down use the bottom filter. Like I have said using the Room Perfect of the MX 151, 150 or MEN 220 or the Odessey of the 121 is a lot easier, but takes some knowledge, too. And of course there are other choices out there, too.

My personal experience tells me the less signal processing, the better the sound. I would not process the signal going to the speakers unless it really needed it, to compensate for poor room response.

c_dk said:

Well heeled???? Certainly no elitism on my part. I have voiced and eq'd speakers in homes with wheels as well as mansions.

Too many with large checkbooks could give a rat's ass about good sound.

The Vandersteens do not have the "headroom" that the Mac speakers have built into their design to accommodate the ability to eq. Would need to be very careful....

What would you measure the room response with?

Click to expand...

i dont know what i would measure the room with, a spectrum analyzer? my den is very well furnished i am not sure what i would need to make the sound better? ( the sound is good just trying to learn and push the envelope) the more you navigate this site the more you want...lol

Sillver79 said:

i dont know what i would measure the room with, a spectrum analyzer? my den is very well furnished i am not sure what i would need to make the sound better? ( the sound is good just trying to learn and push the envelope) the more you navigate this site the more you want...lol

Click to expand...

Amen on that.

As c_dk says, the only effective way to obtain desired results would be to have an acoustical analysis done by a trained expert, otherwise you're pretty much shooting in the dark.

MQ 107 is a more complex type of EQ and you need the full resistor set supplied with it in order to make the needed adjustments.

Also, make sure you have some extra space somewhere for it - they are BIG.

I stand corrected, David.
I thought 107 is just upgraded 102, I see it is clearly not.

Thanx

Igor

Easy to do, TR6! Mac made a number of these EQs over the years so its easy to mix them up. Since they're just equalizers, they can be used with other speakers but they're clearly designed to work appropriately with Mac speakers.

Roger Russell is quite the guy for all that system set up!

Cheers,

David

In the 90's Altec made an analyzer that would tell you which anomalies in frequency response you could correct and which ones you couldn't with 1/3, 1/6, and parametric EQ's. . How by measuring the phase properties of the direct signal from the speaker. It took into account the characteristics of the filter of the equalizer and the phase or time distortions of the speaker. You adjusted the filters to smooth the response and at the same time corrected for the correctable deficiencies of the speaker. But if the speakers had complex crossovers and impedance correcting networks, then odds were the whole thing would go tilt. Anomalies narrower than a 1/6th octave were uncorrectable and if standing waves were a source of inconsistency they were uncorrectable too. So the room had to be well built with some thought and the speakers should have been tri-amped or bi-amped with external electronic crossovers with minimum phase filters for the system to work. Remember you can't equalize the reverberant field of a room. Your best compromise is to correct the system at Dc, critical distance, which is where the reverberant field and the direct field are equal. If you try to EQ your system at your seating location and you are in the reverberant field then the direct sound that arrives to your ear first will not sound natural. And people with point source speakers the Dc can be very short, under 4 to 6 ft. from the speaker, while the line arrays from the XRT 30, XR =290, XRT1k, XRT2k can approach the length of a soft room room.