Just moved house again and vowed to upgrade my AV system as I was fed up with carting speakers and wires around, setting it up and blah blah. Was about to punt several K on a Sony set up when the Hekla came into view, I have a separate music room for my main system but use a gen 2 Mu-so in the sitting room for general purposes. Nice box, does what it’s supposed to do, no dramas and more than happy with it.
Took the plunge with the Hekla without a demo and it arrived on Friday and frankly, I don’t like it. I’ve set it up using the ADAPT function in the app but I don’t really get a surround experience. I know it won’t completely replace a dedicated system but even so, I ain’t feeling it.
The music though, wow. Bloody awful. The bass is just overpowering to the point that it dominates everything, it’s boomy, reverberates around the room and is just horrible. It’s almost cartoon like. The two settings; Sphere and Dolby and poles apart and I simply can’t decide which I prefer. If I’m playing something quietly, I use Dolby but if I whack it up, use Sphere but then the bass ruins it. I’ve got it on its lowest equaliser setting but it’s still there, smacking you in the chops.
I’m so disappointed. I don’t really know what to do with it, I could send it back and just use the Mu-so as a soundbar (I don’t really watch a lot of TV anyway so it’s not critical to have surround) or I could just persevere and hope it settles down or my ears just get used to it. There’s no escaping that bass though, it’s properly dominant.
We use a Gen 2 MuSo as a soundbar and lounge music player. It is genuinely more than adequate and knocks out previous Sonos system into a cocked hat.
We don’t watch a lot of TV either and it genuinely regularly amazes me with its musical prowess.
Possibly the corner positioning is the issue, might be interesting as a test to move it out to on front of the fireplace on a table and see if there’s any difference. Anyway, you’re never going to get any surround or atmos effects with it in a corner
Aye, that was something I considered but I had no issues with the Mu-so in the same spot. I know it’s in the wrong place for full on surround effect but I had hoped it would be better than it is.
Out of curiosity, how many hours has the Hekla been used? Maybe some running in is needed. If you wanted, you could put some absorber behind it and see how it behaves. However if you have strong doubts about your purchase, I’d get rid of it if you have the chance.
The real Hekla is just very nice instead @Biggles.
My impressions of the Hekla were that it was a bit relentless for regular 2 channel music use, so perhaps similar to your findings. I didn’t do any of the setup or control myself, but my impression was that it might be possible to tame it with further configuration. If anyone can help with this it might be @Paul.B ?
Due to the nature of the side firing drive units, the Hekla really is designed to be out into the room, rather than in a corner.
It has been tuned for being in the middle of a room, and I agree that putting it into a corner can cause it to be heavy on the low end.
The DSP team are working on improvements to the ADAPT to identify when it’s in a corner to try and tame this a bit, but before that there will be a firmware update with some other improvements in terms of sound.
However, being situated so close to the wall will never give the proper surround effect, as the side firing units don’t have the room to angle the reflections to the right place.
We’re hoping to have the first update ready by early April, but I’m not sure that’s very helpful right now! Is there any way you could temporarily try it in the middle of the room, just to see if you like the unit when it’s not in a corner, and if it behaves a bit better?
The product have been developed to deliver the most accurate sound immersive reproduction, whether it is used for Home Cinema and Music. However, a few simple rules should be followed to optimise their performance and to guarantee good tonal balance and a realistic sound image.
Ideally, the tweeter will be positioned between 25 to 70 cm from the floor.
The product should be equidistant from the left and right walls to recreate a symmetrical configuration. The listening position will be more enjoyable at maximum 150 cm from a rear wall.
Do not place the product too close to a corner of the room. This will have the effect of exciting certain resonances of the room and artificially increasing the bass level and surround effects. On the other hand, if the bass level is deemed insufficient, be sure the product is positioned close enough to the back wall to rebalance it.
Use later our ADAPT technology in the “Focal & Naim” application to set the position of your product in your room. ADAPT will tailor the audio output of MU-SO HEKLA to your room.
Hi @Fatcat
The official guidelines from the documentation are:
• Ideally, the tweeter will be positioned between 25 to 70 cm from the floor.
• The product should be equidistant from the left and right walls to recreate a symmetrical configuration.
• The listening position will be more enjoyable at maximum 150 cm from a rear wall.
• Do not place the product too close to a corner of the room. This will have the effect of exciting certain resonances of the room and artificially increasing the bass level and surround effects.
Focal Audio Modes uses the room walls and ceiling to reflect sound waves back to the listener. The sound beams are sent and physically spatialized to the listening area for a more realistic reproduction. The audio immersive listening point is englobing up to 4 people.
In both cases, the way the audio behave depends on the room’s acoustics, the positioning of the product within the room and the listener’s location.
