Greets all,
Disclaimer: This is NOT a scientific, waveform spectrograph isolation room triple-blind study or metallurgic analysis of solder components, pcb boards and potentiometers. It's just one old man's ears and impressions comparing the two systems.
TL;DR: The MF.10s still win it for me. They're light, they sound massive, zero complaints with them. To paraphrase Ferris Bueller: Playing through them is SO choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking some up.
Longer version: I've had my MF.10's for 2.5 years. Very familiar with their sound at low/medium/high volume. Been very happy with them paired with my FM9. My main playing room is untreated at the moment, carpet floor, angled ceiling, some furniture but nothing exciting. Prior to these I've had Matrix NL12s, EV12 something or others, the dreaded HeadRush 112 and 108s and various desktop near-field monitors going all the way back to ye olde AxeFX Ultra days.
I received a pair of FR-10s last week and out of the box, no hiss. No hiss that I can hear. That said, even with no hiss, I'm still going to get the @WKSmith v2 mod because, well just because.
Question: How can you compare MF.10s after 2.5 years of playing through them daily to new speakers you played through for about a week?
Answer: Simple. I used my ears (which as of this writing, still mostly work).
My opinion is mine, your mileage will vary but to my ears, the FR-10s sound damned good out of the box. I did find some "grainy/grindy" high end with the highcut at 7-8 o'clock (Off as far as I can tell, no cut). Not horrifying grain, just enough to hear. I have them tilted back and I have them away from walls and corners in the room. I'm finding presets that were dialed in on the MF.10s, whether high gain, mid gain or clean, do not require a lot of drastic tweaking to sound "good" to me. In fact, most require zero tweaks.
I also didn't notice a lot of boomy, boxy bougie fat-bottomed bass from the FR-10s. Not saying they can't be made to, just didn't hear it with my presets.
Regarding presets, what's worked for me recently, regardless of the guitar (most of mine are passive pickup "super strat" style with coil taps) is the following:
7 band (Constant Q) output EQ on all amps, regardless of which amp and regardless of whether its clean, mid or high gain. EQ db cuts -3-4, -2-3, -2-1 and -0-1 for bands 100, 240, 400 and 800 respectively. To me it takes out a bit of the "mud" factor. I will in turn up the treble on a given amp if it needs it or via that graphic EQ. Bass on most amps is set to 9 o'clock or less, upping it as needed here and there. Depth is almost always zero. Mids are anywhere from 10-3 o'clock. Presence is zero to noon in most cases. With humbuckers this amp starting point just "works" for me. I also incorporate @Cooper Carter's input EQ recommendation to cut through the mix by upping ~2300Hz a couple db or scooping it, depending on the context.
Lastly on presets, I run my dynacab or factory IRs with NO low-cut. I know Cooper and others recommend 60-80 or 100Hz cut, I just haven't found the need to do that with the other cuts in the output EQ. On the high end of the dynacab or IRs though, I am always cutting from 6500 down to 5000 or sometimes 4500 depending on the sound, playing alone or in a mix, etc.
I haven't noticed any annoying directionality - if that's a word from using the FR-10s in stereo about 5-10 feet apart. Not saying it isn't a thing but so far it isn't an issue. Very happy with the FR-10s and plan on keeping (and modding them). I'd recommend them to anyone looking to improve their backline. I run volume between 10 and 1 o'clock, all other controls are "flat" or neutral at 12 o'clock. They sound good at low volume and high volume, again, to my ears.
Bottom Line: The MF.10s are Ferraris, the FR-10s are like Bimmer M3s (the old e46 and previous versions). Totally capable, badass in their own right but the MF.10s... they're just in a class of their own.
Cheers.
Disclaimer: This is NOT a scientific, waveform spectrograph isolation room triple-blind study or metallurgic analysis of solder components, pcb boards and potentiometers. It's just one old man's ears and impressions comparing the two systems.
TL;DR: The MF.10s still win it for me. They're light, they sound massive, zero complaints with them. To paraphrase Ferris Bueller: Playing through them is SO choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking some up.
Longer version: I've had my MF.10's for 2.5 years. Very familiar with their sound at low/medium/high volume. Been very happy with them paired with my FM9. My main playing room is untreated at the moment, carpet floor, angled ceiling, some furniture but nothing exciting. Prior to these I've had Matrix NL12s, EV12 something or others, the dreaded HeadRush 112 and 108s and various desktop near-field monitors going all the way back to ye olde AxeFX Ultra days.
I received a pair of FR-10s last week and out of the box, no hiss. No hiss that I can hear. That said, even with no hiss, I'm still going to get the @WKSmith v2 mod because, well just because.
Question: How can you compare MF.10s after 2.5 years of playing through them daily to new speakers you played through for about a week?
Answer: Simple. I used my ears (which as of this writing, still mostly work).
My opinion is mine, your mileage will vary but to my ears, the FR-10s sound damned good out of the box. I did find some "grainy/grindy" high end with the highcut at 7-8 o'clock (Off as far as I can tell, no cut). Not horrifying grain, just enough to hear. I have them tilted back and I have them away from walls and corners in the room. I'm finding presets that were dialed in on the MF.10s, whether high gain, mid gain or clean, do not require a lot of drastic tweaking to sound "good" to me. In fact, most require zero tweaks.
I also didn't notice a lot of boomy, boxy bougie fat-bottomed bass from the FR-10s. Not saying they can't be made to, just didn't hear it with my presets.
Regarding presets, what's worked for me recently, regardless of the guitar (most of mine are passive pickup "super strat" style with coil taps) is the following:
7 band (Constant Q) output EQ on all amps, regardless of which amp and regardless of whether its clean, mid or high gain. EQ db cuts -3-4, -2-3, -2-1 and -0-1 for bands 100, 240, 400 and 800 respectively. To me it takes out a bit of the "mud" factor. I will in turn up the treble on a given amp if it needs it or via that graphic EQ. Bass on most amps is set to 9 o'clock or less, upping it as needed here and there. Depth is almost always zero. Mids are anywhere from 10-3 o'clock. Presence is zero to noon in most cases. With humbuckers this amp starting point just "works" for me. I also incorporate @Cooper Carter's input EQ recommendation to cut through the mix by upping ~2300Hz a couple db or scooping it, depending on the context.
Lastly on presets, I run my dynacab or factory IRs with NO low-cut. I know Cooper and others recommend 60-80 or 100Hz cut, I just haven't found the need to do that with the other cuts in the output EQ. On the high end of the dynacab or IRs though, I am always cutting from 6500 down to 5000 or sometimes 4500 depending on the sound, playing alone or in a mix, etc.
I haven't noticed any annoying directionality - if that's a word from using the FR-10s in stereo about 5-10 feet apart. Not saying it isn't a thing but so far it isn't an issue. Very happy with the FR-10s and plan on keeping (and modding them). I'd recommend them to anyone looking to improve their backline. I run volume between 10 and 1 o'clock, all other controls are "flat" or neutral at 12 o'clock. They sound good at low volume and high volume, again, to my ears.
Bottom Line: The MF.10s are Ferraris, the FR-10s are like Bimmer M3s (the old e46 and previous versions). Totally capable, badass in their own right but the MF.10s... they're just in a class of their own.
Cheers.
