Omni Speaker Options

Amicar...strongly urge you to listen to your choice before you plunk down money. I couldn't live with MBL's if I were paid for it. Someone on this discussion said they had great fireworks, and I do agree. To my trained, professional violinist ears, they are anything but natural sounding. I suppose a lot has to do with the feeding ancillaries...I heard them with MBL electronics. It would be awful to get these set up in your listening room and hate them.

I've heard the big Beolabs at the Beverly Hills B&O store on at least three occasions. They sound very good till the spl goes up - at which point they become a complete mess featuring compression, significant tonal shift and audible break-up. I'm not talking live rock concert level here, either. It could be unique to the sample/set up at that B&O store, but you would hope that the sales/mgmt people address the issue at some point and I heard the same problem on all 3 visits, which spanned more than a year.

Marty

Don't listen to the naysayers, the mbl's are one of the best speakers out there. One of my experiences with them was at a show, I couldn't believe how they drew me in and had me appreciating all sorts of music including rap which I never like. In a nutshell I was enjoying myself and I think that matters most.
If a particular system helps me appreciate new genres of music that's the one I want. I would like to enjoy jazz, but I can't on most systems, but on the mbls I do, it makes listening a fun event as it should be. Though there I should add other systems did that for me too though not to the same degree.

Thanks Pedrillo, and Stringreen too. One of the best suggestions I received from a well known audio industry expert was that at the end of the day, "...it is your ears that must make the final decision about this most important component in your system, not the price tag." I don't doubt that Stringreen's hearing was fatigued when he auditioned the MBLs. Yet I have spoken to a well regarded concert pianist who is one of the biggest advocates for MBLs. Both persons no doubt are excellent musicians in their own right, but their sensibility around a common product diverges. And if the MBLs made you tap your feet to rap, well that says a hell of a lot. And if you enjoyed my favorite genre, jazz, via the MBLs, then this puts a check mark in my preferred column in comparing speakers.

Amilcar...why would you say that my hearing was fatigued?? It was not. The total MBL system I heard sounded heavy, ponderous and fake. That's not to say that you will like or not like them. That is what I heard. My post was a suggestion that you listen to them with your ears. Instead of putting checks on a piece of paper with reviews of strangers, listen yourself.