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Pro bass for small space
Stories of beer crate bass and the bottom line
By Max Christoffersen
August 2001
M&K VX-100 subwoofer. $2599
Just like everyone else, I've seen the M&K ads. They're the ones with the pristine looking recording studio and studio monitors proudly boasting the M&K badge.
There
is not a person in sight but the impression is clear: this is real equipment
- for real enthusiasts. Only the really serious need apply.
Frankly, I like their style. But like many others that's about as much as I knew about this American company.
I did know they had a formidable reputation with their subwoofers and if others using their subs were any indication, I was about to be placed in good company. Their list of subwoofer clients reads like a who's who of modern film-making: Skywalker Sound, Sony Music, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, Dolby, DTS are all M&K listeners.
On first glance, you have to say M&K's street credentials are... well damn impressive. So when the small box arrived at the door my first impression was: "There's a sub in that? You're kidding." The box looked too small and too light to hold anything that was going to push my bass buttons.
Eat humble pie - course one
Little did I know that in this small box there was a small butt-kicking
sub that was about to put the kybosh on any lingering Max-prejudices about
big bass always requiring big boxes.
Out of the carton, the VX-100 is unusual in styling in that it looks like a smooth-rounded-kinda-wussy 'box' with no place for a driver anywhere. It's not on the front side or back. Instead welcome to a very smooth finished beer-crate sized sealed box. Not exactly the sort of thing I thought the pros would be getting all in a lather about. And at a mere sized 37 x33 x28cm that's not a lot of box to get the excitement factor moving.
Eat humble pie - course two
Only then you see underneath is the 8" driver located somewhat beneath
and behind and there is an ingenious length-wise port that only comes
into action when the unit is on the floor. (It can also be used vertically
and the M&K badge swivels to match the vertical orientation).
Still the design cosmetics will either turn you on or off. To my eyes it looks like a fine piece of work and there is also the strong hint that this box has been talked, thought and argued and rethought and talked and argued over a-lot by the boys at M&K. That's what design innovation takes.
The simple fact is this box works.
And not just cosmetically. But while this sub was a sonic breath of fresh ear, the connections are sparse and may be described as somewhat entry level. There is no auto on/off, no high pass leads, no line out, no 'video EQ' type switch and no protection system. On the back there are two line levels in (at last! - one labelled 'mono'), a by-pass filter, volume/gain knob, a by-pass switch, phase switch and a heat sink. It is though magnetically shielded and comes with a 5-year warranty (to the original owner).
Experience says that subs tend to demonstrate their character pretty quickly. The trick is taming or tuning their basic character by appropriate room placement (and given the 'chuff-proof' port, acoustic loading is definitely part of the set-up requirements for the VX-100) to complement their intended performance envelope.
The best advice is head for the room corner and experiment with it. And with a footprint of around a square foot, this box is small enough to find a home out-of-sight. Which is exactly the idea.
Eat humble pie - course three
I did head for the room corner, and I set the crossover point to a low
40Hz and sat back to listen to Is This the End (track 5) of Creed's
2CD set of Human Clay. This track is a sub-killer because it goes
both deep and loud. With Creed wailing, the VX-100 has a nice feel of
mid-bass transient kick-drum 'thwack' when you need it while
it is also capable of rendering fretless bass with a sense of body and
precision (Eagles Hell Freezes Over).
The tactile bass extension of space vehicles in Starship Troopers was also on show, but remember this is an 8" driver and some caution should be used!
But there is genuine body to the M&K bass - more body than any 8" subwoofer has a right to be able to provide. But it does. If you didn't know you would guess this has a much larger driver and amplifier.
There was definite sense of control with this sub: no flab, no excess, just tightly controlled and beautifully rendered rounded bass. It may not extend all the way down with authority (if it did there would be no market for the bigger M&K models) but it gets damn close!
What is genuinely smile-inducing about this sub is that it has the power to fill a room. Now consider this is from a standard 100 watt amplifier and a small driver in a small cabinet. The reason why this sub works so well is a finely matched amplifier and an 8" long-throw driver which appear to have been wed from birth. It proves that size isn't everything - good design is!
But here's humble pie number four: the price. At $2599 that's a lot for a small sub.
But
consider this: to get a small sub working in a small room is no easy trick.
You can go for a bigger unit and have no where to put it; or go small,
pay the price and get the right performance envelope for that sized room.
In the 8" subwoofer class, you get what you pay for. And in this
case, that's a lot of humble pie and a class act from M&K! I look
differently at the M&K ads now.
Experience counts. And I can now look at their with a smile of appreciation for some down-home-good-quality Yank audio!
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