Mbl Magic?

Pedrillo,

I belive he sells SoundLabs that he would say competes with MBL. With all due respect though, they don't. MBL's are the only speaker IMO that just do it. If money is no concern, they are the way to go.

Also, I will say that Duke's speaker (Dream Maker) that I heard at RMAF 2007 is great. I was VERY impressed. I personally thought with certain music they suck you in. I played blues and they reproduced just ammazing. They have a certain tone that you will either like or not. Interesting and worth a listen. Very good sound at a moderate price ($9k I think).

Good Luck

MBL isn't the only manuracturer who gives these characteristic high priority.

Yes this wide even dispersion charateristic was demonstrated by Dr. Floyd Toole in listening tests in the 70's as sounding most pleasing, natural and life-like convincing.

MBL's will work well placed well out into a room. They won't work as well up against a wall because of the strong rear radiation - so be careful about placing them in a small room without treatments -if you have the space then these are a great choice. There are a great many good conventional speakers with wide dispersion although sadily most two ways will "beam" in the upper midrange and therefore fail to sound convincing there you can somewhat overcome this by listening in a close near-field position).

Revel Studio 2 and Dynaudio Sapphire lare extremely good. Kharma's and other speakers with the accution mids and Dunlavy's Iv and V's are also worth checking out.

My guess is that "dynamics' may have something to do with your observations too. Real instrunents are actually very loud but they don't sound loud.

Good Luck in your search.

Ohm Walsh series can be had for much less than MBL and may share some of the unique qualities many admire with MBLs and other omni-oriented designs.

Pedrillo,
One of your questions concerns the "why", and that I cannot answer without getting into speculation about the engineering that I am not qualified to discuss.

However, about a year ago I replaced most of my system with MBL 111E, MBL 8011AM mono amps, and MBL 5011 line stage preamp. All at once, I retired Vandersteen 5 speakers powered by Ayre V1 amp and Ayre K1 preamp. I felt it was important to pair the MBL speakers with MBL amplification, since the speakers are power hungry.

I mostly listen to classical orchestral music and some jazz, and I attend live concerts often. The sound of live music is my reference, and attaining realistic reproduction of a full orchestra is quite a bit more difficult than reproducing a small jazz ensemble. In my experience, this MBL based system has made me truly happy. Prior to this, I had spent much time and money attempting to reduce the level of my un-happiness. The improvement is not incremental, it is a qualitative leap. This system now has a sense of life and energy that I experienced only once before, when my speakers were Martin-Logan Quest, but those speakers had a serious lack of coherent bass. I have been told that Martin-Logan's latest models are much improved in bass response, and they certainly are less costly. However, if you like their sound, do not skimp on amplification as electrostatic speakers are power hungry as well. I recommend at least 100 wpc and be certain the amp can deal with the speaker's wide impedance swings.

However, the MBL combination has no significant faults that I have found in a year of listening, and I am likely to gain additional realism by improving the front end (turntable). For the first time ever, I can come home after a live concert, put on an LP, and not hate the comparison. Most highly recommended.

Jtwrace, you know me all too well. Yup I like the SoundLabs a lot. My bipolars actually copy the radiation pattern of the A-1 over much of the spectrum, at least in the horizontal plane: 90 degrees, front and back.

Assuming the upper end of our hypothetical price ballpark is the MBL 116, others contenders include the Wolcott Omnisphere, Duevels, big Shanihians, Genesis 5 series, and in my opinion even big Maggies.

I agree with Shadorne that the MBLS (as well as other omnis, dipoles, and bipoles) should be placed far enough away from walls to give an adequate time delay before the additional reflected energy starts to arrive. If such placement isn't possible, you're probably better served by monopoles. The tiltback of the Shahinian's drivers helps to delay the arrival of the reflected energy by bouncing it off the walls at an upwards angle, so these are probably the most small-room-friendly speakers in this general category.

Duke