I gotta agree with Marko there.
Assuming you already had a half decent headunit with time alignment, etc., then for the price of the JBL MS-8, you could buy a standard 32 band EQ AND all of the measurement tools you would need to tune your stereo.
For just over half of the cost of an MS-8 I have bought:
- A DSO Nano Oscilloscope
- An Alpine RTA
- A TiEQ30
Measuring speaker delays with a microphone is not complicated either. I have free software on my laptop that does this as well as some RTAing (though my Alpine is easier to use in the car). I would argue that by doing it manually, with tons of verification, a bit of knowhow and modest tuning by ear as well, you would get much better results overall than a machine could be programmed to do for you.
Of course the convenience is missing, and for the layman who wouldn't want to spend the time tuning his stereo it makes some sense. However, people looking at something like the MS-8 are rarely "layman" car stereo guys anyways.
Another benefit of my deciscion is that I have tuned quite a few cars and home stereos with my tools. Hell I even use them for other non-audio related diagnosis, especially the oscilloscope! The MS-8 ties you down to using it in one car alone... it's very single purpose.
So while I think it's an awesome gadget and while I have no doubt it will make most stereos sound a lot better, there are definitely alternatives to go about it if you don't mind spending the time with your stereo to get things right.
