Read All JBL MS-8 Customer reviews
Ratings
Category: Electronics
Brand: JBL
Model: MS-8
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JBL MS-8 Customer reviews
JBL MS-8 Review by rommelrommel
What you get for the price is is simply unreal, especially now that these are down in the 450-500 dollar range. It will sum and de-EQ your factory unit, provides 8 channels of completely flexible output in terms of crossover assignment, the onboard amp is capable of a reasonable amount of output, acceptable for most end users (outside of a subwoofer) and the auto-tune is excellent, for an auto tune. I have no doubt that it's possible to do better, but I don't have the time or equipment or skills to approach what the MS8 does.
JBL MS-8 Review by Mikhail Arkhipov (Woodinville, WA United States)
I installed MS-8 in my car. In overall unit makes good sound. But not great. Speakers are not to blame, they are top-end Morels. The problem is in calibration. MS-8 seem to calibrate to so-called "house curve", rather that to a flat response. I.e. treble level is lacking and has to be compensated in tone controls/EQ. I understand that JBL wanted out-of-the box experience satisfactory for most people (i.e. those happy with 128KBps MP3) and selected what *most* people like as did cinema theaters when they created "house curve". However, this is a high end product (or at least priced/marketed as such) and hence should have appropriate calibration settings: if I want flat, I should be able to get one.
BTW, if I defeat processing, treble is back, so there is nothing wrong with speakers or connections: it's calibration target that is wrong.
Now, remote display UI is pretty bad. First of all, it is very slow. Adjusting anything is unsafe during driving since you have to watch the screen. Simple buttons like 'next/pre favorite' and +/- on bass and treble would be much better. Now, JBL sells separate wireless bass control. OK, if they have wireless bass control with a normal rotary button, why MS-8 is only controllable via wired screen from remote???
And for Pete's sake, why do one have to go through complete setup process and specify every input connection again when all that I want is to change crossover frequency???
So in overall: unit quality and functionality is good, software and remote screen UI are horrible. Hence 3/5
Update. Due to unfortunate lack of calibration options MS-8 has issues when speakers are not placed at typical locations. For example, it uses bass sweep for subwoofer calibration and regular signal for other speakers. This causes issues when woofers are located under seats, like, for instance, in BMW. In order to have proper calibration under-seat woofers have to be specified as subwoofers so MS-8 uses sweep signal to calibrate them. But there is a catch: MS-8 is only able to handle two subwoofers and it is impossible to add real subwoofer to it (unless crossed separately).
So rating remains the same. MS-8 is a nice device, amps are good quality, nice processing, but it really needs to offer various calibration targets as well as options which signal to use for low end calibration and perhaps allow more than two subs - quite a few cars have woofers under seats and sub in a trunk.
JBL MS-8 Review by esscue
I've been in high end audio for a long time (both stage, vehicle and studio config).
the MS-8 replaced my Rockford 3sixty.2, which replaced dual Rockford Symmetry EPXs (28band eq's), which replaced AudioControl DQX (30bandeq).
i've also had for the longest time an indash eq (audiocontrol four.1, which replaced rockford pa3).
I have around $10k of tuning equipment, have been taught how to use it, and have considerable experience using it. (please dont think im talking myself up - just want to say that i have professional experience, and been taught by a number of experience and well respected people in this field. its my passion).
the ms-8 achieves what absolute fine-tuning would take me 2-3 months. generally a very good tune using existing methods would take 4 hours, but to get that best extra bit out of a system is a process of driving and refining for about 2-3 months. when you do this you really need to switch back and forth between presets quickly as the ears quickly fatigue.. and you really want to hear if you made it better or actually worse.
the sound quality is just amazing, and all tuned in only 2-3 minutes. incredible.
i would say that anyone who is as critical as i am will be amazed with the product, but, still find very minor issues with the auto-tune. i also found that retuning at different levels and different distances (forward/backward) made slight differences. but still it is a significant improvement on anything in the market.
that being said, the remote control feels like a toy. pressing the buttons is a bit hit and miss, and a bit slow..
i planned on using the remote to control system volume, but it doesn't respond reliably enough to be a volume control. so i set it to a decent level and use the headunit for level control - im actually happier with this solution.
the interface is good, but its a shame the designers didnt design everything that would want to be changed on a single screen. or for example, a button on the remote that cycled between the user saved favourites, or, even the seat settings.
that being said the unit is incredible and has brought a new level to my system
front: focal utopia 3 way (running single channel per side using focal supplied xovers)
center: none.
sub: focal utopia 13"
rears: stock.
amps: 2x alpine 1507
headunit: pioneer dex-p88r (old school SQ)
i plan to separate the midbass from the mid+high in the fronts, mainly because the mid+high are in the kick panels and mid bass in the doors. it sounds fine with all 3 combined from a single channel, but, i can hear some time alignment issues with the mid-bass/sub, therefore i plan/suggest running a separate channel for each speaker location. just the 1507 amp is a monster (in size) and it feels not right to have it running a single pair of 6.5" midbass speakers.
the overall staging is excellent. i did find a few hiccups when auto-tuning at different volume levels (stage pulled slightly in one direction). i found it best to tune at the level you listen to the most. as the stage is spot on at that level.
for the longest time i've had headunit Loudness control disabled. but found that (especially when having passengers) that the loudness control helped smooth out the levels when down low. (so auto-tuned at mostly loud level, as thats where i like to listen to it, but on those occasions where it needs to be softer the loudness control fixes that up).. note the loudness control flattens out as the headunit raises in volume. excellent.
i tried using the supplied CD (which supposedly contains an audio track used for calibrating oem headunits). i could find no audio track on the disc when testing in 4-5 players, and, also when trying to rip. (and no.. i'm not a noob).
i contacted jbl at this via the website (where they claim to respond in 24hrs).. 3 weeks later, no response.
-it should be noted that this CD is not required when using an aftermarket headunit.
the manual doesnt make a bunch of things clear. such as:
1. when tuning for more than one passenger, should i actually have a second person? i understand tuning for driver is basically a single person scenario, but front tuning? should that require two people so it takes into account both people? or not?
in any case i dont know how i ever lived without this product.
switching between user-saved presets is fairly quick, and, im happy that it can apply the 30band differences very quickly (almost instantaneously). so testing how different EQ settings sound is great. unlike the Rockford 3Sixty.2 which requires about 40 seconds to upload the different settings. what im trying to say here is there is no delay in switching between presets, you can compare presets easily.
one important note is this: it will auto tune and set things up, but once it has done so you can ONLY change a single 30band eq which is applied to all speakers. (ie you cannot adjust a particular frequency for a single speaker, eg, front left).
you also MUST provide the speaker specifications of each speaker (or collection of speakers if you passively crossovered them) before it will autotune. that is, you must give a crossover slope, low pass and high pass setting etc.
the system also doesn't allow you to double up on the frequencies between front and sub. (eg set high pass of fronts to 45hz, and, low pass of sub to 80hz, ie 45~80hz being played by both speakers). which is a bit annoying. (that being said you can change the slope of the crossover point between them, but, there is only ONE, not individual for each). hope that makes sense?
what im trying to say here is it's not easy to have the fronts and sub both playing the same frequency range, its one or the other. :-( but fiddling with the crossover slopes can resolve it.. just takes time.
another point is anytime you want to make a crossover setting change, you have to completely recalibrate the entire system (it takes 3-5 minutes). example, say i want to shift the xover point between sub and fronts from 60hz to 70hz. I actually need to:
1. erase all settings (you dont get a choice)
2. tell the unit individually about _ALL_ your speakers (that's wherever they exist: what their LPF/HPF/Xover/slope are)
3. tell the unit which of the outputs matchup to your actual outputs (eg output 1 = front left)
its a bit annoying.
one other point that is annoying is that you will get NO SOUND from the unit until you have gone through the above steps at least once.
but, you really should have your levels fairly balanced (before using the ms-8). (note: you can go through it once, and the disable processing... set levels and do again.. but still... a bit strange/counter-intuitive)
my feeling on the product is this:
1. its an awesome product
2. feels like all the attention went to the audio processing side of things (which is great) but
3. the user interface side of things is lacking, also there is no way to turn the displays backlight off.
4. the remote is a bit terrible, and without looking at it you cant work out which way is up (all the buttons are symmetrically placed, so you cant determine orientation by "feel").
5. in terms of amplification setup. my take on it is "whether there is a speaker located" amp it separately. if there are a couple of speakers very close (such as mid and tweeter in kick boards, ie 1inch apart) - then these are fine to be passively crossovered and run off 1 of the ms8's outputs (instead of soaking up two)
6. the rear processing is quite good, i still find it puts a little bit too much vocals behind me, and i adjust accordingly... though i keep resetting it back to default here... so it is pretty good out of the box. i did notice that the front stage raised with the addition of the rear speakers (as is with tuning normally), and i was happy to hear this.
7. the ms-8 did a very good job of matching the tonality of my rears vs fronts (ie theyre different speakers). but they have now lost their individual characteristics and sound similar (well in the ranges the cheaper ones can play anyway).
8. its designed as a best-fits device. it does everything, but, it hides the nitty gritty away from those who would like to play with it. so if you actually need to make some modification (eg increase 3khz by 2db for the left speaker only) you cant. (im not saying you would need to, just that you cant..) however, you get balance/fade/sub level/rear level/ side level controls individually.
its an awesome product. i totally recommend it to anyone who is even considering changing their system.
i would put this device as higher priority in the list of what-to-do first, especially given that it has an 8 channel amplifier included (its enough to give most standard speakers what they want).
i tossed and turned about upgrading from the 3Sixty.2 and i am very very glad i did.
more and more i drive now, i fiddle less and just enjoy... to anyone who knows me they would know thats something incredible in itself (for me not to fiddle).
cheers.
i totally recommend reading the first persons comment (and tracking down that forum post) as thats what tipped me over the edge into ordering it.
last point, it took nearly 5-6 weeks for amazon to post it to me. :-( even though it said 10days.
More Reviews...
JBL MS-8 MS Series Digital Processor:: Technical Details
- Auto tune automatically adjusts all aspects of the system using included binaural headset microphone
- DSP Time Correction calibrates arrival time in every listening location; Auto DSP equalization compensates for speakers and vehicle interior issues
- Logic 7 surround processor creates a 5.1- or 7.1-channel surround experience from two-channel source material
- Improves audio performance of virtually any car audio system, including frequency response, bass performance, clarity, detail and stereo imaging
- Precise, user selectable crossover points and crossover slopes for up to eight separate outputs
- Item Dimensions: 8 x 3 x 11 inches; 0 pounds
- Brand: JBL
- Model: MS-8
- Product Type: Electronics
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