M-Vave IR Box review

[stubbsonic]

In the Android App, the Q goes for 1-16 in steps of 1-- (vs iOS which has 1-160 in steps of one, i.e. 10X resolution).

 

[stubbsonic]

After one successful edit session with Android, I can't seem to get it to detect the IR box a second time. It's just not showing up. I've tried restarting Android and IR Box in various orders etc. No big thing. Just seems like Android isn't so reliable at this point.

 

[Bevan777]

I’m interested in one of these purely as an always on HPF, any drawbacks for using like this?

 

[stubbsonic]

I’m interested in one of these purely as an always on HPF, any drawbacks for using like this?

Should work well for that purpose. In addition to it having not one but two HPF; the low cut knob on the unit, and the low cut in the 9-band-- you can use one or the other or both. You can also shape/contour the slope very flexibly because you can use the low shelf and any of the mid bands

On another topic, it turns out the Android app has a serious issue. I saved a preset with EQ on the android, and had the Q of a band set to 16 (the max allowable on the Android), but it didn't look very narrow.. I opened the same preset on the iOS app, it it was at 16 out of 160, and there was that whole range of 17-160 to make it WAY more narrow.

I'll report it to the m-vave people, but I'm afraid that renders the Android version pretty useless.

My Android device (Samsung Galaxy Tab) requires me to unpair and re-pair before the tablet can see the IR Box. Sometimes I have to do it twice.

 

[ETJ]

I’m interested in one of these purely as an always on HPF, any drawbacks for using like this?

Yes you sure could. You could even save different frequencies for hpf in different memories for, say, 4 string vs 5, or Geddy vs Jamerson.

 

[Bevan777]

Should work well for that purpose. In addition to it having not one but two HPF; the low cut knob on the unit, and the low cut in the 9-band-- you can use one or the other or both. You can also shape/contour the slope very flexibly because you can use the low shelf and any of the mid bands

On another topic, it turns out the Android app has a serious issue. I saved a preset with EQ on the android, and had the Q of a band set to 16 (the max allowable on the Android), but it didn't look very narrow.. I opened the same preset on the iOS app, it it was at 16 out of 160, and there was that whole range of 17-160 to make it WAY more narrow.

I'll report it to the m-vave people, but I'm afraid that renders the Android version pretty useless.

My Android device (Samsung Galaxy Tab) requires me to unpair and re-pair before the tablet can see the IR Box. Sometimes I have to do it twice.

Thanks for that, I like the thought of setting it on the 9 band so then I can’t accidentally change it.

 

[Bevan777]

Yes you sure could. You could even save different frequencies for hpf in different memories for, say, 4 string vs 5, or Geddy vs Jamerson.

Yes nice idea. Thanks.

 

[stubbsonic]

I have an acoustic guitar with a Black Angel pickup. The output level is really low, and when I crank the input of the receiving device, it's noisy.

I plugged the guitar into the IR Box and turned up the level knob on the IR Box, and the signal for some reason was considerably quieter and louder without clipping.

Perhaps the IR Box is a good candidate for an acoustic guitar "preamp"/processor. I don't think an acoustic guitar IR at 2048 samples is going to give you that thumpy resonance, but probably along with the EQ, one can get a good tone.

 

[Bill059]

M-Vave is a bit of a sleeper with some cool products, but I just hate those cheezy knobbies.

The IR is an incredible value. It nails the 4x10 SVT as I compared it to my own cab. Yeah the knobs aren’t the best but for me I run it after my Ampeg SCRDI as a set and forget! Sounds great live!

 

[InkCow]

I finally tried mine out today (it arrived a couple of weeks ago) and it’s really nice! I’m not sure if it will knock my NUX MLD off my board, since that lets you enable the IR just to the XLR out and not affect the signal to the amp, but I really appreciated the form factor of the M-Vave.

I didn’t try loading any 3rd party IRs, but I liked the factory Ampeg 410. The rest were kind of meh, but most of the factory IRs on the NUX were, too, so I can’t really hold that against it.

 

[ChrisPCrunch]

Hi, I am new here. I was looking for info about the M-Vave IR Box and this thread was one of the few places I could find. I just bought one on AliExpress for $30 Canadian. I am pretty impressed!

I wanted to add a few comments from my experience with this pedal. I see someone mentioned that the headphone output is very HOT (high output). I agree on that one.
The user mentioned that on Mac you cannot turn down the volume on the USB audio output; however, I am on Windows and I can adjust the output volume for the USB audio output. The Windows volume control has a range of 0 to 100 and I have the volume set to 5 which shows you how loud the headphone output is! One other thing I noticed, is that when I play stereo audio from my Windows PC through the IR Box the left and right channels on the headphone jack are reversed! I tested with an audio file that plays right channel and then left channel and they are definitely reversed. The same audio file plays correctly when I hook up my headphones directly to my laptop's headphone jack.

The latency seems pretty good. I did a test and it seems to be around 2 ms which is close to what they claim for the pedal.

The PC app works fine and I was able to load IRs from OwnHammer and York Audio with no issues.

Also, it is cool that you can power the pedal using USB. When I have it hooked up to my PC via USB it powers the Pedal just fine. I don't know how much current a PC USB port can deliver, but it works fine, so I doubt it requires that much power.

I only tried the Android app briefly so far. Of course you have to download the APK and side load the app, so of course my Pixel 7a raised a few warnings before letting me install it. However, once I got it running, it seems to work fine and syncs via bluetooth without any issues. However, as another user noted, the range for the Q paramater in the EQ isn't working correctly on Android, but works fine on the PC. Otherwise everything works okay.

Chris

 

[stubbsonic]

Thanks, Chris. Would you be willing to contact m-vave (the link is on the cuvave.com site) about the android Q problem? I emailed and messaged them from the site but maybe they need to hear from more people?

Interesting about the USB stereo channels being swapped. I’ll check that here.

 

[InkCow]

I don't know how much current a PC USB port can deliver, but it works fine, so I doubt it requires that much power

USB 2 provides 500 mA and USB 3 gives 900, so it could require a considerable amount of power.

(ETA) Granted, that’s at 5V vs. 9.

 

[stubbsonic]

Just confirmed, the USB stereo audio feed from the computer has Left & Right channels swapped. Not a big deal, but useful to know. Good catch, Mr. Crunch.

One small correction, I said the Mac didn't offer the volume controls, but that wasn't correct (user error). In my case, using the Mac's volume buttons is not the way to go. With headphones directly connected, both the level and the noise are crazy loud. Reducing volume with the Mac's volume control doesn't reduce the noise; just the signal level. I have a cheap inline volume control adapter thingy from Koss. When using that to reduce the volume, (keeping the Mac's volume all the way up), the noise level is greatly reduced-- giving proper signal to noise performance. The signal is clean and clear.

So, yes, if you want to lift the ground, maybe you have a little adapter. If you want to listen to USB audio with decent noise specs, and L/R channels correct, you could use an inline volume control and a little cross-wired adapter to fix L/R. It may sound like I'm pissing & moaning, but actually, these aren't particularly bothersome flaws, given the price.

I do hope they fix the Android app.

 

[ChrisPCrunch]

Stubbsonic, as you suggested, I contacted M-Vave using the link on their site and requested they fix the Android app issue. We'll see if they respond.

However, I haven't noticed any noise when using the headphones while connected to my PC. As I mentioned, it is crazy loud, but I don't hear any noise. When I turn down the volume from my PC it sounds fine. I wonder why you are getting so much noise? Do you get any noise over the other outputs (the 1/4 inch or XLR outs)? I wonder if there is some sort of ground loop? How are you powering the IR Box when hooked up to your Mac? Are you using a 9v power supply or just powering it over the USB port from the computer. When I was using the IR Box with my computer I just used the USB power from the computer.

 

[ChrisPCrunch]

Stubbsonic, you also mentioned you had some issues connecting the IR Box on your Samsung device. However, as I mentioned I am using a Google Pixel 7a phone and it seems to connect fine with Bluetooth without any issues. In fact, yesterday I forgot that I had turned off my Bluetooth on my phone and when I opened the CubeSuite app my phone actually asked me "do you want to turn on Bluetooth" I clicked yes and it connected right away.

Also, when I installed the app on my phone, I got a couple of warnings. I think I remember one of them saying something about it using an old bluetooth version that could compromise security or something like that. I can't remember the exact wording. I just said okay and it installed fine. I wonder if it has something to do with that. I also had to give it a few permissions. It would be nice if the app was updated and released on the Google Play store.

Chris

 

[stubbsonic]

I think the noise is likely USB bus power noise which can vary on different systems/environments. I’m definitely hearing 24-bits of dynamic range, so I can’t complain.

I’m personally glad that the android app is a direct apk download because I don’t do any Google $#!+ if I can avoid it. OTOH it would provide another option for user feedback.

 

[stubbsonic]

I wanted to see if the high Q set in iOS would carry over if I loaded the same preset into the Android app. I wasn't listening, just looking at the graph. It did have a narrower display of that band but it wasn't smooth or symmetrical. And as soon as I moved the Q slider it went back to being a wide Q equal to 1 thru 16 out of 1-160.

I have a couple questions for those if you who are deeper into the use of this box.

1. Is the range of the level knob on the unit -inf to unity? Seems so to me.
2. Is the level control inside the preset capable of adding clean boost, and if so, how much?

 

[arlypbarley]

I haven't seen this one discussed here, but wow this is a cool piece of kit and it is dirt cheap. I think I paid $25ish from AliExpress.

This is basically an IR loader, but it does a lot more that hasn't been emphasized in the marketing:

I got a great one!

I heard that, with the ART Tube MP, running balanced and unbalanced outputs, unbalanced the whole thing!

any such problem with the m vave?

 

[stubbsonic]

UPDATE! m-vave/cuvave released an iOS update a few days ago that reportedly fixed some bugs.

Out of curiosity, I downloaded and installed the "CubeSuit" (sic) Android app. Since there are no release notes, no versioning numbers, and no release dates given, I had to just install and run it to see if it was new/different. The great news is that they seem to have fixed the Q adjustment bug in the Android app. It now shows a range of 160 values and the display responds appropriately to the entire range. Also, and it may have just been luck, but I had no trouble getting the device to connect via BT-- before it took multiple attempts.