Hansen Emperor or MBL 101E or Avalon Isis

I'm not an owner, but IMHO.

As the server says about the restaurant's menu, "its all good you can't go wrong". Then, "I'll take the Hansen's please", especially if you're looking for organic. I liked them every time I've heard them.

Bonjour Emigene,

I haven't heard the Hansens, but really like Avalon as well as MBL. I would probably be an Avalon dealer if I wasn't pursuing my own speaker venture.

I have worked with speakers having polydirectional radiation characteristics, conceptually similar to the MBL's as far as room interaction goes. In my opinion the MBL's should be positioned far enough from room boundaries that the extra reverberant energy arrives 10 milliseconds (or more) behind the direct sound. This corresponds to a path length difference of about 11 feet, or 3.4 meters. You see, the ear/brain system tends to interpret early-arriving reflections as colorations, but late-arriving reflections are interpreted as ambience and richness. Given proper setup and proper amplification, the MBLs would be my choice from your list.

But as Gerrym5 says, everything on that menu looks good!

Duke
dealer/manufacturer

p.s. - You may be wondering why I said I'd consider being an Avalon dealer when here I'm picking MBL over Avalon (by a slim margin, and stipulating correct setup and amplification). The reason is, I'm already dealer for a speaker line that (in my opinion) is competitive with MBL in the dipole/bipole/polydirectional/omnidirectional/quasiomnidirectional category.

I would go with Avalons, but def with different electronics. I have personally never liked the Avalon/Spectral combo since it always sounded too thin to my ears. I would consider CAT (tube) or Vitus Audio (SS) to go with Avalons.