Mbl Magic?

Maybe I am on the only one on the planet who is not crazy about MBL?

I took on an assignment in Singapore 2 years ago and have listened to MBL 116 & 101E several times since I was seriously considering 116 back when Euro was weaker. I do like the enveloping soundstage, the "ease" & "relax" presentation with tremendous amount of detail, and ample bass. But it's the "ample" bass when coupled with MBL amps that stopped me from getting a pair. I found the bass not catching up to the rest of the spectrum, was slow and muddy at times. This was true for both 116 and 101E in medium and large room, respectively. Dealer mentioned MBL amps are tuned to sound fuller and warmer unlike American amps which are fast and quick. I could not do any A/B comparison, so I have no way to validate his claim.

Also, the lower efficiency does "restrict" the jump factor that makes horn speakers attractive to many audiophiles. I used to own Dynaudio Confidence 5, a superb sounding speaker with midrange to die for. Though it has very low effciency, it has slightly better micro dynamic than Sonus Faber Extrema which I owned for years. Either one lacks the "jump factor" unless you feed them 300+ watts and 300+ tube watts are hard to come by not to mention the operating cost.

I believe MBL can be made to sound good or excellent but at the cost of very expensive gears behind them and more. To me, that's a very expensive investment just to make 2 speakers sound good while there are other approaches that can equal or surpass the end result at fraction of the cost.

Hi Semi if you refer to my first response to this thread you will see I said "MBL speakers like any other speaker will be a personal flavour, some will appreciate what they do and others will not and prefer other speakers and that's life."

I will say after reading your response you obviously have never heard a proper MBL set-up or possibly you might just fit into this category of not liking them which is okay but the issues that you mentioned defiantly don't exist in my MBL 101E set-up.

I don't use MBL electronics with my set-up, I did try the MBL 9008 mono blocks within my set-up but most definitely prefer the CAT mono blocks.

No doubt, the magic of the MBL omnidirectional models is the dispersion pattern—the linear polar response and power response. Dipole speakers also do this well with the advantage of less room interaction at the sides where the front and back wave cancel. I find either superior to conventional speakers, all other things being equal. Still, all speakers do benefit from breathing room. It's best to keep first reflections delayed by several milliseconds.

Not to surprised about the disappointing bass. I believe they use a bandpass configuration for the bass unit.

I believe they use a bandpass configuration for the bass unit.

Bose does this...the famous "acoustimass" bandpass design which they pretend to have invented and patented! Amazing amounts of bass from a very very small enclosure but often and particularly in the case of Bose - a recipe for one note bass. You rarely see this in high end and MBL's implementation is, of course, absolutely superb.

Never heard MBL so cannot comment on how they compare to other designs.

HAving owned Maggies and now Ohm's, which are fairly omnidirectional (though not totally) in design, and also various more conventional designs, like Dynaudio monitors, I can say with confidence that one almost has to learn how to listen to the performance and recording differently with an omni design compared to more conventional designs. The sound dispersion patterns and queues delivered to your ear are totally different and more like those you would receive at a live performance, in my opinion.

If you are used to listening to traditional dynamic box speaker designs only, your ears may be trained to listen a certain way and not be tuned in properly at first to the omnis.

Once you tune in properly and your ears adjust, then the magic occurs.

Even my Dynaudios, which deliver the goods extremely well in most every way for a pair of tiny monitors, leave me a bit dissatisfied in that I know I am listening to a (very good) reproduction on a pair of speakers when listening.

The Ohms leave me more convinced that what I'm hearing is much like what I would hear at a live performance.

I would expect similar characteristics from other good omni designs as well, like MBL, German Physiks, and Duevel. Unfortunately, I have ever had the pleasure to hear any of these, but I would love to, even though they may be out of my price range.