The Behringer Little Knob™. The World’s most unsuccessful Pro Audio product
After flaccid sales of the Behringer Little Knob™ the marketing people decided to re-name it to the Behringer Stonker™.
Sales growth spurted and has now outgrown the Big Knob. 
I use the JBL MSC-1 as I’d hoped it would allow me to avoid the hard work and expense of treating my 14’ x 12’ room at the top of my three story house. After being unimpressed with the room correction results, I gave in and treated the room. However the unit itself is great - I can switch between three input sources, drive a sub woofer, turn the main monitors off while leaving the headphones line on and it’s balanced line out for my active monitors. The EQ is effective and what’s more, it has a very big knob.
Not very good for what it was bought for, but unexpectedly useful in another role. 
By the way I just noticed Split’s little joke
After flaccid sales
The question is, after treating the room did you notice a big difference after re-calibrating with the JBL?
I’d like to know what your thought on that is too (please) I would imagine if you got your room sorted first then the difference should only be small.
The question is, after treating the room did you notice a big difference after re-calibrating with the JBL?
I realised as I completed the room treatment (in stages) that this was the answer and I agree with comments posted here that there is no substitute for physical acoustic treatment. The untreated room was acoustically not too bad, I had a node around 150hz which disappeared after I installed the bass traps, so I never bothered to recalibrate.
I’m sure some of the wildly differing verdicts on the JBL MSC-1 and KRK Ergo are as a result of all the wildly different acoustic environments. A common opinion expressed in the reviews and discussions, and one I now subscribe to, is that acoustic treatment is always preferable to electronic phase and frequency correction. Four or five hundred quid will get you lots of acoustic treatment material, especially if you build your own bass traps. (YouTube).
The anomolies of room acoustics are time based, which cannot properly be fixed by anything in the signal chain before the speakers.
Paul wrote
The anomolies of room acoustics are time based, which cannot properly be fixed by anything in the signal chain before the speakers.
Correct - which is why the analysis is done by comparing the pre-monitor signal with the monitor output and the anomalies generated by the “acoustic environment”. Okay - “room”.
The software (allegedly) corrects the anomalies with phase correction, e.q. and a fair bit of snake oil. It can “sort of” work and someone who has just spent four hundred quid or so is likely to “big-up” their new toy.
I was taken in by JBL’s convincing spiel, I’m just glad the MSC-1 turned out to be a very useful little monitor controller.
The anomolies change rapidly in different part of the room. Unless you clamp you head in a vice what it sounds like in the rest of the room and what’s coming out of the speakers will be worse than without it.
And if you’ve got any nodes near the mix position you can kiss good bye to your monitor amp and speaker headroom as the snake oil machine tries to fill in the trough.
Agreed, but the listening position (after my initial calibration) was acceptable, not that rigid. The standing waves in the room were more pronounced outside the listening position. I think we’re in general agreement Paul 
yup 
So it would seem that you think these devices are of little or no use even for small auto eq adjustments in a well treated room?
Split wrote
So it would seem that you think these devices are of little or no use even for small auto eq adjustments in a well treated room?
Personally, no - although I appreciate the equalisation facilities in the MSC-! (I raise the eq shelf at 7 khz slightly to compensate for my age-related high tone loss, so that my mixes aren’t too “bright” for younger ears) but of course you can do that with any eq system. The MSC-1 eq is switchable for comparisons, younger ears etc.
Even though my room is quite well treated now I’m aware of subtle dead spots and minor anomalies. I’ve just made sure my listening position is “clean” and my customer’s listening position isn’t in a dead spot. I’ve read reviews that say “I treated my room but the JBL MSC-1/KRK Ergo has provided the finishing touch, the icing on the cake”.
You have to decide whether the “icing on the cake” is worth the expense of these units, or get to know your “nearly perfect” room and get along with it. These gizmos haven’t exactly set the world on fire, and I wouldn’t have bought the MSC-1 if I’d done the room treatment thing first.
Interesting, my intrigue stems from the fact that it’s time to do a complete refurbishment of my studio, breath a lease of new life into the place. Looking at a complete strip out and reconfigure so obviously planning at an early stage is of great benefit. We will of course be planning acoustics at the heart of the rebuild (on a budget) and was really just considering ways of doing the final ring out in the control room.
On this same subject… I know this is very wrong, but I am often standing up and getting right up between my speakers to listen to a mix… simply because it sounds better.
Kind of like a pair of giant headphones
twilightsong said
On this same subject… I know this is very wrong, but I am often standing up and getting right up between my speakers to listen to a mix… simply because it sounds better. >
Well, Split wasn’t far wrong with his “giant headphones” - that’s what headphones do really well - keep the room out of the mix. So maybe not so very wrong, unless some joker suddenly winds the faders up! 