MATRIX Matrix Tuner MR600

I loved my old Seiko metronome. I bought it around 1992. It lasted 29 years. This doesn’t look as nice as the Seiko, but it operates in exactly the same manner. The volume has a huge range from very soft to quite loud. I was so happy to find a replacement that works just like my old one. Very happy with it!

Exactly what I expected. Good loud click with volume control when softer sounds required, works in every situation. The perfect metronome imho.

Buenas prestaciones, pero frágil en su diseño.

There is a love/hate relationship with the metronome, but it is a valuable tool for all musicians, and music students.
There are several advantages to this model. 1. It is a metronome and clicks the pulse for you. 2. It can also be set to play a tone on the first beat of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, note groupings to match meters in music. 3. You can control the volume to be less noticeable, or to be so loud you cannot ignore it, or to use with an ensemble to keep everyone together until familiar with the music. 4. There is a light pattern at the top that mimics an old-fashioned wind-up metronome. 5. Perhaps most helpful to me is the analog aspect: there is a round dial for selecting the sbox!peed-much faster than digital models. 6. There is a builtin equal temperament tuner for a few octaves All in 1

Excelente producto.

What the pros know that the amateurs always resist is that if you are not working with a metronome in practice, (including band practice!) your tempo and timing is forever going to need work and sound unprofessional. Maybe the best advice I could give any beginner musician, is that the metronome will do a lot more to help you than you realize. Use it daily.

This is still my favorite metronome, but the quality of the battery connector is disappointing and destroyed my first unit. (see below.) Sadly, I think they may have discontinued this model in favor of the MR-800 which has NO VOLUME CONTROL and apparently an excessively loud click. My previous favorite metronome was the Wittner MT-50. That is a great and simple metronome, and a good value at $20. However, it lacked a volume knob, and at times was too overbearingly loud. So I finally added this MR-600 to my collection, primarily to obtain the volume control. At Max volume, it is about the same volume as the Wittner.

Unfortunately, the battery connector was so cheap that when changing a battery, the contact literally tore off the wire and stayed in the battery – and no, I was not being too rough with it. I was being careful, it was just poor quality.

PROs
* Simple rotating dial makes this and the MT-50 from Whittner better in my opinion than all the push button electronic metronomes.
* Volume Control. Max volume is about the same as the MT-50, but the MR-600 can get quieter which is nice.
* Metronome can place a downbeat on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th beat, which can be helpful, or not.
* Has a “tuning fork” type tuning capability — and can play notes across a little more than 4 octaves, from B2b to C6#
* Tuning also has the ability to sharp up to 5 Hz (i.e. 440, 441, 442, 443, 444, 445) or similar adjustment sharp on any note for players who like to tune slightly sharp.

CONs
* The thumbwheel adjustment is slightly less simple to dial in than the Whittner, but it’s still pretty convenient.
* I prefer the single LED found on the MR-500 and the MT-50, to the “strobe” LEDs across the top of the MR-600.
* Size is about 20% thicker and 20% taller than the MT-50
* Price is $35 vs. $20 for the Whittner MT-50 so you pay a lot for the extra features.
* Battery connector broke, could not be successfully replaced without damaging circuit board.

SUMMARY
Matrix MR-600 is a good metronome, but the cheap battery connector was the end of mine and that is disappointing at the price point. The single best feature of this is the volume control. If on a tight budget and could only spend $20, I’d buy the Wittner over the MR-500, which is matrix’s next model down and which also sells for $20. (For the center knob) If you buy the MR-600, it will work well for you – until it doesn’t which might be due to early failure like some reviewers have noted, or like in my case, when the battery connector breaks off in the battery! Unfortunately, you’ll find similar cheap components in any metronome you buy so this is just the poor quality, cost reduced, throw-away foreign garbage that is the consumer electronics market.

RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVES
At $10 lower price point, if you don’t need the volume control, I’d go with the Wittner MT-50.At a higher price point ($89 list), you can get a lot more functionality with the TAMA RW200. It was made for drummers but is great for other instruments too has the ability to pipe out to a mixer, amp or powered speaker, as well as onboard volume control for it’s internal speaker. It has 1/8″ and 1/4″ outputs, the ability to start/stop or advance through programmed beats with a footswitch (not included), the ability to program a setlist of 30 beats/tempos etc for performance, and the ability to mount to a (drum) mount, plus a wider tempo range (30-250), tap tempo, dial control down to the 1 beat increments, and the ability to mix/adjust volume of individual beats and the master volume. It can do more complex rhythm subdivisions with a simple dial in, doing 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and triplets. And more. It is considerably more money though so it all depends what you need and will use.

I was not a fan of the Seiko metronomes – I tried the two models similar to this MR-600 and had issues with both. See my reviews on those too.

For a combined tuner/metronome in a compact package handy for travel, I like the Boss TU-80 which you can still find used for $10-15. The TU-30 is similar, but lacks an output jack to pass the instrument signal through to an amp, so you have to plug/unplug the TU-30 to use it then play. And neither are “dial” metronomes which I think are much better for speed training exercises where you increment a lot.