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JulesK

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 17, 2002
530
94
I thought that the speakers on my 24" ACD would be sufficient, but they aren't, so I'm looking for a good pair of speakers (2.0, not 2.1). Small size and sound quality at lower volumes are a priority; I will not be blasting these. I've narrowed it down to these two speakers, and had a chance to listen to the Bose speakers in the Bose store. They sounded nice, but seemed to really shine at higher volume levels. My local Apple stores are overrun and I haven't been able to listen properly to the MM-1s they have set up.

Any thoughts between these two? The B&W's obviously are much more expensive, but I prefer their design.

Thanks in advance.
 

TMRaven

macrumors 68020
Nov 5, 2009
2,099
1
Bowers and wilkins is a great audio company. Bose is overly commercialized and their products are overpriced for what they offer. However if your budget extends to the cost of the MM1, there's a whole bunch of studio monitors and/or small bookshelves to choose from as well.
 

JulesK

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 17, 2002
530
94
Bowers and wilkins is a great audio company. Bose is overly commercialized and their products are overpriced for what they offer. However if your budget extends to the cost of the MM1, there's a whole bunch of studio monitors and/or small bookshelves to choose from as well.

Many thanks for the response. I realize that for $500 you can get a good set of speakers and an amp, but I'm looking for the minimalist solution here. The speakers on the 24" ACD were disappointing; the built-in speakers on my 5-year old iMac sound much better. I did pick up a pair of the MM-1s yesterday at the Apple Store; I have until early January to demo them. I'll report back.
 

JulesK

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 17, 2002
530
94
First Impressions of the MM-1

OP here - The MM-1s sound about a million times better than the built-in speakers in the 24" ACD, which is to be expected given that they cost almost as much as I paid for the display. I'm going to give them an extended audition, but I do like them generally. Two things I don't like: (i) They emit a faint white-noise/hiss whenever they are on, which is noticeable only when they are not playing anything and the room is very quiet. From searching the web, this is just a characteristic of these speakers, and I'm going to have to decide whether I can live with the hiss. (ii) They are always on, unless you turn them off separately. The computer sleeping has no effect on the speakers.

Relatively speaking, they cost a fortune, but the form factor/design is great.
 

TMRaven

macrumors 68020
Nov 5, 2009
2,099
1
Are they usb powered? If they plug into a wall to be fed power, try seeing if disconnecting them from the computer removes the noise. Might be that you'd want an external dac/amp.
 

JulesK

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 17, 2002
530
94
Are they usb powered? If they plug into a wall to be fed power, try seeing if disconnecting them from the computer removes the noise. Might be that you'd want an external dac/amp.

The MM-1s use USB to get the digital signal (it has a separate DAC, which hopefully accounts for a lot of the crazy high cost), and if you mute the speakers, the hiss goes away. It doesn't if you just sleep the computer. I suspect it's just a characteristic of this speaker. But the sound is so full even at low volumes that I'll probably keep them. Many thanks for your responses.
 
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