I JBL MS-8 I

Specifications:


CEA Power Output: 18W x 8 channels @ 4 ohms
Maximum Output Power: 30W x 8 channels @ 2 ohms
Frequency Response: 20Hz - 20kHz
Signal to Noise Ratio (Line-in/Line out): >90dB
Signal to Noise Ratio (Line-in/Speaker out): >85dB
Maximum Input Voltage (Speaker-Level Input): 15V
Maximum Input Voltage (Line Input): 2.8V
Maximum Output Voltage (Line Output): 2.8V
Maximum Current Draw: 16A
Stand-by Current Draw: <0.01A

Default Re: JBL's MS-8 processor!
alright, here a few things I noticed tonight:

1) Setup is unbelievably easy. I did the input setup to find a good headunit volume to set things up at, which wound up being around 32 out of 40 on my pioneer z110bt and set the ms-8 output volume to 35, iirc.. Within 5 minutes I had already ran driver setup, and acoustic calibration for both front seats. The on screen directions make it kindergarten easy.
Additonally, volume is not a problem. I re-ran setup with the headunit volume a bit lower, and with the ms-8 volume set at about 25. Plenty of volume and no audible distortion, at least that I can hear.

2) When the setup tells you to look at x mirror, do it. I tried toying around with this and the further away I looked out (past the mirror), the more the center was skewed. If you look exactly at the mirror, as told, you get a DEAD center phantom.

3) Andy was talking a mean game about this whole subwoofer integration thing. I honestly thought the man was full of it (no offense, Andy). He speaks the truth. The initial setting leaves some to be desired for me, so I up'd the bass output. It NEVER pulls to the rear. Not even at full friggin tilt. Sub/midbass crossover is at 80hz, 24dB/oct. I'll try 60hz later for fun. But I like 80hz for the safety of my drivers...

4) Speaking of which, everything sounds great. Rap, rock, jazz, whatever. So far everything sounds very nice. I've only bumped the 'bass' up about 3 notches. Still solid impact.

5) System Noise: None. Although, I had very little with the bitone. I did have some noise floor. I can't hear anything of the sort now with the ms-8. Maybe it's magic? Who knows. I do know that I can get to the same volume (actually, a bit higher now) as I could with the bitone when it's outputs were max'd so that tells me that something in this stream has a higher output and even with that, I have no system noise (crossing fingers for when I turn the alt on... in the garage, can't check tonight).

6) Alright, my music collection varies and I use a lot of stuff to demo systems (not very traditional stuff either, but so be it). Here are my thoughts on the ms-8 5 minute auto-tune vs. my own bitone manual tune which took a few months to get to where I was really happy:


Rage Against the Machine "Take the Power Back":
Kick drum echo! woohoo, baby! It's there! Do you know how LONG it took me to get ambience of that kick with my own tune? Seriously! wtf!
Bass guitar/kick: Very easily identifiable as separate. This is tough to do. A lot in the midbass/subbass has to be right to get this separation because both are centered right up front. If the system you're listening to isn't set up well, you'll get the two instruments confused (ie: why does that bass guitar have so much punch?! :eek

Dire Straits "Walk of Life":
The beginning of this track has cymbal taps that have different tonality. I've worked really hard (and listened to some higher end gear in a local recording engineer's house) to make sure this is right. The ms-8 does it perfectly ... or as perfect as I can tell. The taps walk about 2-3" apart, as I believe they should, and have a distinct tonality. I've rarely been able to tell this and I listen hard for it in other systems.

Norah Jones "Chasing Pirates":
At the beginning of this track there are (what I call) the sound of bubbles... yea, horrible description, I know.
Anyway, typically this is very faint and, in my car, they sound to be coming to the left of the stage. With the ms-8 they're closer to me but yet still further outside of the car. I was left as to how it got this, but hey... I'll take it.

Eric Clapton "Layla (Unplugged)":
Pretty well known song, I believe. The guitar at the beginning has a lot of picking going on. I could hear detail in the picks that I hadn't heard before such as: resonance of the strings themselves - hope this makes sense, because resonance in the strings is how we get the sound, but I'm talking about abruptly stopped strings - and they have more body to them. Never noticed that with my other tune.

P.O.D "The Messenjah":
This song has a lot of stuff going on it. Not a reference track, by any means, but one I really love.
Sonny's voice shines clear through and you can almost feel the passion when he's screaming through the chorus. The music breaks down a lot in this song and everytime it does, the system does an excellent job of keeping up (transients). I've been listening to this song on HEAVY rotation the past week and hadn't noticed it before. Not saying the ms-8 is doing it, but it's something I've never noticed before.

Peter Gabriel "Sledgehammer":
About 22 seconds into the song, right as the flute (presumably) stops and right before the music really kicks in, there's a bit of silence. In this bit of silence, I've never heard anything. But, now I can hear the song's intro right before it really starts. Sounds crazy, I know. I've listened to this song about a million times... or so... and I've NEVER heard this before. Ever. Scary!

Natalie Merchant has never sounded so wonderful. The stand up bass in "Carnival" is the best I've ever heard it.

Last but not least... the thing that made me literally say 'WTF' to myself as I was listening..
Alison Krauss & Union Station "Man of Constant Sorrow (Live DVD Version)"
I know this performance well as it's a favorite song of mine, so I've heard it on many different systems. Having said that, I've always heard the singer as being centered and singing outward. Alright...
About 15 seconds into the song I thought I heard his voice shift as if it was facing the right side of the stage. He says "I bid farewell to ol' Kentucky" and I SWEAR I thought he was singing to my passenger. I couldn't believe it... I came inside to check the DVD and sure enough... he's facing the right side of the stage (his left). I about crapped a brick. I heard his voice shift around as he was moving his head. I've NEVER heard that before. I'm sold.

Stage width is at least as good as I was able to get on my own. On a few tracks, I noticed it was clearly wider.

9) Stage depth is a little bit better, but not a whole lot.

10) Stage layering (front to back instruments/singers) is better by far than it ever was. It is very evident when a musician is behind another or back and to the side. My previous tune didn't do this too well. There was a lot of blending. Now there is clear separation.

11) Finally, to you guys who like to drive looking at the car next to you: you can turn your head a full 180* and the stage stays put. There's NOTHING I've ever heard that would do this.

12) The remote is very nice. Ergonomic, it is (/yoda). Getting around the options, etc on the screen via the remote is very intuitive and extremely easy. However, I've noticed some minor lag, but nothing major at all... barely worth noting (seriously) but for full disclosure, I'm noting it. I associated it with RF (as I assume it's not IR) lag. I get that inside my house with my TV remote, lol.
On the plus side, you can pretty much point it anywhere and it works. +1. I love remotes.


I'm going to do some listening from the passenger's side tomorrow. I plan to also take some measurements on the preouts and system FR via RTA so I can see what the MS-8 has done to the signal that has worked so well.

I'll try to get a review up sometime in the coming days. I guess now that this is installed and tuned, I don't have anything to do tomorrow.
Which actually brings up a rant. I imagine, now that I no longer have to manually tune my car a few hours ever couple weeks, that I'll now have to start actually doing something else like doing laundry or cleaning dishes. Man, this sucks.
Of course, my wife will probably be sending JBL a personal thank you letter.