Not much discussion around MBL

There have been many posts about MBL. Yes pricey.

If you like MBL take a look at German Physiks or OHM. OHMs do not take a big financial commitment to try the waters.

I’ve heard MBL on several occasions once in a well designed dealer showroom and they are special indeed especially if one is able to give them a proper setup.

I also heard GErman Physiks recently for first time at Capital Audiofest and it was best sound in show for me.

I’ve also been an OHM Walsh owner for many years.

I am a fan of more omni-directional speakers obviously. Also of speakers designed to deliver coherent sound. OHMs and GPs are probably better at that than MBL. I also own more conventional monitor speakers that I enjoy a lot but on different terms.

I've done some consulting work for mbl in Germany.

I have heard just about everything out there over the almost 40 years I've been in the high-end business.

Without question, the mbl Master Reference System is the absolute best that I have ever heard.  Of course, you need a room, (properly designed to work with these) and a lot of money, but if you have both, IMHO you can't buy better.

Last time I was in Germany, I was able to tag along on the final setup of this system in a room that the owner had custom built (over $100K USD for just the room).  It was the most awesome sound I will probably ever hear in my life....BREATHTAKING.

The current retail of this system is around $550,000, (sans room).  Yes that's an astronomical amount, but again, if you have the funds...

You can take this as you wish.  In our opinion Omni's are too flawed by design to work well in most rooms.

An Omni by its very nature is directing sound 360 around the loudspeakers this does create a very realistic recreation of space, however, with that being said, unless you have the right room and right positioning what you get in many times sounds like a distortion of reality.

I would also add many large diapole speakers speakers into this mix as well.

The issue is image size and being able to create a believable yet palpable image. Most of the Omni's create an image which spreads out the performers into a mix which is larger then life.

The question is not is the sound spacious but does it mirror reality, if you enjoy listening to a recording where the lead singer sounds like he or she is eight feet tall and eight feet wide then you have a fantastic speaker.

Omni's can sound fantastic for classical where you are trying to recreate the sound of a huge orchestra but other than that you have a great tendency to create an image which is just too large or too spread out to sound like what you get from a close miked live recording or what an engineer can create when mixing for a stereo image.

When you also factor in  that for an Omni to work well you have to carefully make sure rear and side reflections don't screw up the image to begin with and you can see that Omini's can be very difficult beasts to make work in real world environments.

In terms of speed, clarity,  dynamic range and bass, the MBL are fantastic, it just depends on if you can listen around what they do or enjoy the super stereo effect.

Give me a high quality direct radiator anytime.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ