MJ Acoustics. Reference I Reviews.

Reference I Reviews

See the magazines "star" / "globe" ratings.

June edition 2003.
An active approach to bass from MJ Acoustics.

MJ Acoustics Reference I - 5 stars.

For - Great sound, both with music and movies; fine finish; flexibility.Against - Nothing at this price.
Verdict - A top performer in every sense, and a strong rival to REL and B&W in this class.

"the Reference I sound excellent. In stereo use, it's musical and articulate, relaying complex rythmns with an agility to match its outright weight, and as with all the best subs - it boasts an enviable ability to 'disappear' from the balance".

"should you want to shake your foundations with some action movie mayhem, the Reference I can oblige".

"This is a great subwoofer, and it should go straight on to your must - try list".

Essential Home Cinema - Issue 18 - Jan 2003.
MJ Acoustics Reference I subwoofer. When you absolutely, positively, godda deafen every mother in the room… Ian Collen accepts no sub-stitute.

There aren't many companies you'd congratulate on hitting a new low, but MJ Acoustics will continue to draw praise for the depths its subwoofers can reach, especially if it keeps making them like this.

The Reference 1 offers a slight diversion from the traditions of subwoofer design, with a digital display on the back that immediately draws attention. This isn't going to drastically alter the face of subwoofers into a world of LEDs and LCDs, but the precise indication of crossover levels makes it a lot easier to balance your system.

This is certainly a more sizeable piece of equipment compared to MJ Acoustics' universally acclaimed Pro 50 that we gave a lot o' lovin' to earlier this year. It's big enough to use as a coffee table, so the subtlety factor is a little low and the significantly inflated price demands a substantial performance to surpass its predecessor.

“A superb example of how a quality sub can make a significant difference to your system"

Whilst the basic black satin finish looks good, if you can stretch your budget by an extra £100 you can upgrade to the sumptuous real wood veneered finish that drips with refinement and reverberates style in any environment. And it's the quality of that reverberation that justifies the price.

Besides the slick DAMP patch displaying the crossover frequency, the Reference 1 is easy to use, with variable dials for high and low gain levels and phase control. Standard connections for low-Ievel input from your amplifier are there, along with high-level speaker access, and music fans can also make use of the balanced XLR socket for hooking up a professional mixing desk and the like.

All you need to do is make your choice, stick on the spiked feet and you're ready to rock and roll. From then on the Reference 1 can take control of your living room, as it rocks with the action and rolls with the punches during some key scenes from We Were Soldiers and Blade 2.

For most film fans the test of a subwoofer's mettle is found in a hail of bullets and the thunder of explosions, and on the battlefield the Reference 1 excels. The blades of helicopters swirl with increased vigour as the sub lifts them to a swift crescendo in a seamless transition of strength with a smooth sound. Then the bombs start falling and the EHC test room registered far enough up the Richter Scale to surpass any seismic activity Manchester saw a couple of months back.

Upping the crossover and dropping the gain brought an even cleaner performance and maintained an excellent, distortion-free level of bass, rumbling at depths that make Barry White sound like a choirboy. If you want an even greater, potentially epic, display of power try combining low-level input with a high-level input through the center channel, then sit back and enjoy the ride. What makes the Reference 1 stand out though, is the continuity of quality through the more sedate scenes and a sweetly subtle touch with music.

If you don't want the sub to dominate the film, as the Reference 1 clearly is capable of, or are using a smaller room, you can drop the gain a little further and then it shows a crisp texture and beautifully balanced sound away from the demands of a Vin Diesel movie.

Some subs can match the power of the Reference 1 while others provide a similarly well-controlled and orchestrated bass performance, yet few can combine the two as impressively. Unfortunately, the height of the price isn't matched much either, but this is a superb example of how a quality subwoofer can make a significant difference to your system.

BEST FEATURE:
Digitally Accurate MicroProcessor.
Damp in your living room is bad, but DAMP in your subwoofer is certainly a welcome addition. This controlled crossover gives even greater control over the Reference I's output, and the fresh-faced digital display gives a clear indication of your current settings. Turn the control all the way round and the LFE bypass kicks in to skip any pre-filtered signal. Not revolutionary, but pretty cool.

FINAL VERDICT:
Ease of use: *****
Looks: *****
Features: ****
Sound: *****
Value: ****

OVERALL: *****
It’s a big bundle of cash but a massive bundle of bass that thunders class.

EHC – Issue 18.

High-tech subwoofer delivers the full force
Awards Gramophone 2002.

Sub-bass systems are often misunderstood, says Tony Williams, but this new model deserves serious auditioning.

Subwoofers aren't hard to make, are they? All you need is a big drive unit in a suitable cabinet, as large an amplifier as you can cram in without the whole thing going up in flames, and some basic controls to let you adjust the level and set the upper frequency at which the unit will work. Hook it up to an amplifier, sling it in a comer to give maximum thump and sit back as the walls shake, windows rattle and the china ducks fall off the wall.

Well, that sums up just about all of the fallacies about sub-bass systems. It also illustrates why there are so many bad
subwoofers on the market, even if these rumble-monsters are probably just right for the people at whom they're being pitched. The demand from some elements of the home cinema market is for room-shaking ability, for onscreen explosions that have the neighbours phoning for the Armed Response Unit, to the extent that you can even buy exciters that bolt to your sofa and shake it.

This kind of low frequency delivery isn't musical. It's exciting on the superficial theme-park ride level of many box-office hit films, but it's not realistic musical bass. Building a subwoofer that delivers music is a much trickier prospect, and one that has challenged many a company.

In Britain the subwoofer leader has long been Welsh company REL Acoustics -subwoofers are all it makes -but recently its domination of this market has been challenged by new start-up MJ Acoustics, which debuted with the little Pro 50 subwoofer last year. Since then MJ has developed its range, drawing on its founders' experience in the pro audio field, and in general terms its products have been well received. The Pro 50 is a favourite of this magazine, as is the-larger Pro l00, and James Vesey rather liked its Cinema I/Pro 50 package a few months back (Audio, August).

The Reference 1 looks smart in its cherry veneer, which is a £l00 option on the unit -it's also available in satin black paint for £699. Inputs are provided on a Neutrik socket for speaker level connection (with a suitable cable being provided) as well as low level, for example from a preamp or the subwoofer output of an A V amplifier. A balanced input on an XLR socket allows the Reference 1 to be used with professional mixing desks and so on. Outputs at line level allow the subwoofer to be connected between a preamp and power amplifier, and there's a balanced output for professional applications.

The controls here operate the subwoofer's Digitally Accurate MicroProcessor (or DAMP) setup, with separate high and low level gain adjustments, 0-180° phase and a crossover able to set upper frequency roll-off between 30Hz and 120Hz. An LED readout shows the frequency selected, making this rather more accurate than the roll-off controls fitted to some other subwoofers.

The 'engine-room' of the Reference 1 is an aluminium cone 25cm drive unit built on a massive die-cast chassis and firing down, powered by a 120W DC-coupled bipolar power amp fed from a huge power supply, using a 150VA transformer and 10A/60V bridge rectifier. All of this ensures the subwoofer has plenty of power in reserve, but an electronic speaker protection system is fitted to avoid damage should the amp ever approach its clipping point.

Performance.
Setting up the Reference 1 isn't exactly hard: you only need to fit the spikes provided into the threads in the feet, then
connect up the unit however you prefer. I tried the subwoofer in parallel with my usual speakers using the cable provided, and running at line level fed from an A V processor's subwoofer output, the roll off at the LFE position, and in each configuration it worked well. Setting up the controls is also easy: check your main speakers' specification to find their low frequency limit, then set up the crossover to a point around 5-10Hz higher, giving a gentle overlap. But most important of all, don't turn the subwoofer up too loud or it will dominate matters, especially if you decide to use it against a wall or in a corner- the right level is the one at which you can no longer 'hear' the sub.

Once in and run for a few days, the Reference 1 proved itself with a wide range of music. It's easy to get used to the
greater solidity of stereo image, and the apparent gains in mid band openness -and the more powerful bass -to the extent that it only becomes apparent how much it's doing when you switch the subwoofer off and listen to the system without it. That's the beauty of a sub - once heard, it proves an addictive component in a system, and the MJ Acoustics unit dissapears more effectively than most, thanks to the precision with which it can be set up, while contributing a tightly controlled and highly tuneful low-end extension to proceedings.

This is a very accomplished subwoofer, and while it will do the ‘thump and boom’ with explosive film tracks from DVD (it has an unfiltered LFE setting fro Dolby Digital/dts processors), it’s more impressive when playing music. Instruments and voices gain both texture and character, and the way the scale of an orchestra is revealed. That's true even when the unit is used with relatively small speakers such as the excellent Quad 77 –11Ls.

Bass-heavy recordings -organ works and the likes of the 'Dies Irae' from Verdi's Requiem -have massive low-end impact when required, but more to the point is the overall richness and warmth to the presentation, even with unlikely candidates such as solo violin. And given that, as I had it set up, the Reference 1 was only working from about 50Hz down, that's quite uncanny.

Piano also benefits from the presence of the MJ subwoofer , with not a hint of slowness or excessive bloom: instead there's simply greater openness in the lower octaves, and that lovely sense of power again.

This is a fine subwoofer, and well worthy of auditioning. If you're convinced of what subwoofers can do in your system, this is one of the best available for the money; if you're not, it could just change the way you think.

See the magazines "star" / "globe" ratings.