Head to Head: Mackie MR Monitors
The newly upgraded MR Series offers a step up for these affordable monitors, so we thought we’d put the whole range through a group test. Jon Musgrave gets unpacking.
Overall, the new MRs are pretty decent monitors that offer excellent value
Mackie’s MR series is their key mid-priced monitor, sitting between the budget CRs and premium HR and XR series. The new MRs come in three models based on three LF driver sizes (5, 6.5 and 8 inch), and if desired any of these can be paired with the MRS10 subwoofer to form a sub plus satellite 2.1 setup. As you might expect, there are plenty of similarities with their predecessors (the Mk3), including the rear ported bass design, Class A/B amps for the monitors and Class D amplification for the subwoofer. LF drivers are polypropylene (glass aramid composite for the subwoofer) and as before all three monitors use the same 1-inch silk dome tweeter. You’ve also got a choice of three connector types for the monitors (TRS jack, XLR and RCA phono) and two types for the subwoofer (XLR and TRS jack), which also includes filter-compensated pass-through outputs. Despite the technical similarities, the new MR monitors certainly look quite different. In part this is down to their new logarithmic tweeter waveguide, which is a feature inherited from the XR series. But there’s also new styling, moving the MRs away from the green and black of the MR Mk3 and CR range. I have to say, out of the box they look and feel very professional.
On the technical front, the new MRs retain the rear panel HF shelving filter tweaker (0, +2dB, -2dB at 3kHz). To my ears, the +2dB setting makes the MR624 in particular sound a bit too upfront. Even so, on all monitors, the HF tweak is not overly dramatic, and the flat position on all three sounds fine to me. For LF adjustment, the Mk3’s rather unrefined bass boost has been replaced with Mackie’s Acoustic Space option (inherited from the HR and XRs). This sounds quite grand, but really just tailors a bass cut filter to reduce low frequency build up. The three options (freestanding, against the wall and in the corner) are pretty self explanatory, and work well in practice. Overall, I think the MRs deliver a consistent sonic signature across all three sizes, and although the midrange isn’t quite as refined as their more upmarket monitors, it’s good for this price bracket.
The MRs feel reasonably compact for their respective driver sizes, and I think even the MR824 is workable in a smallish studio. The MRS10 on the other hand is large, heavy and a bit more of a bruiser than it needs to be. Even so, setup is simple enough, and with phase invert, adjustable high-pass filter (40Hz to 180Hz) and level control, a workable volume and frequency balance is easy to achieve. The included footswitch also allows combined bypass of the sub and high-pass filter, so you can easily switch out the sub and hear the full frequency range from the monitors.
Overall, the new MRs are pretty decent monitors that offer excellent value. Nevertheless, for me the winning aspect is the MRS10 sub. Add this and you’ve got a decent and affordable full-frequency monitoring system that can easily switch between just two monitors and monitors plus sub, and that straightforward flexibility could seriously improve the quality of your mixes.