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MBL 111F or 101E ????

Hi experts :)

I am looking to get a new system and I want to hear your input.

I am currently have a Devialet Expert 1000 Pro, my room is 4 meters wide, 9 meters in length because joining with dinning area and an open kitchen next to the dinning area, so it’s like a L shape opened space. I haven’t done any acoustic treatment to it yet.

i have a long tv bench, so the speaker going be about less than half meter away from side walls and may be about half meter away from back walls, this is the limitation I can’t change and will never change unless I move house.

i wondering according to my room space and current equipment, should I get a MBL 111F or 101E???? If 101E will performs better, how much better? Distinctly??? The 101E is quite a bit more expensive than 111F.

I can change my current amp to the MBL N51 integrated amp but that’s it. I cannot afford their 9008 amps and pre-amp combinations, and probably not in any soon future. I am not sure if the single N51(350wpc) will perform better than the Devialet 1000 Pro(1000wpc).

Can any MBL Expert give me some input?

Thanks a lot!!!
peppapig
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,911 posts
 
Only the 101 in a massive room with the sadly now discontinued MF bad boy 100 w amp the size of a small refrigerator- grorious but diffuse image

enjoy

pokey77
1,267 posts
 
@peppapig

"in your post you said even 126 sounds so close to the 101e mk2, can you give a bit more details? Like which aspects sounds similar? what about the soundstage, 126 as wide as 101e? And what about the tonal? As real as 101e?"

What I was trying to say is that MBL house sound is the same across the range of speakers. As the speaker gets larger the sound becomes more expansive; it scales up. I can't really name aspects that are similar except to say that they sound fairly similar, all with great timber and tone. 

The difference between  the 101E and 111F is mostly scale as I remember, a bigger soundstage. Either will provide a very nice listening experience, especially with the MBL electronics, at least in the Noble Line range of gear. 

I have no idea if they'll work in the corner but most any speaker is better when placed out into the room. Maybe you should call Jeremy @ MBL. He can tell you and he is a standup guy. Give him a ring.
prof
3,473 posts
 

I don't quite go along the idea the MBLs necessarily have a diffuse image.  Mine certainly don't (and I have decidedly non-diffuse Thiel speakers to compare them to).  Though I have a fairly well damped room.
I've also heard the 101D/Es in set ups where I found the imaging dense and focused.
peppapig OP
11 posts
 
To me I am ok with the MBL image,  sounds so live.
rcprince
3,070 posts
 

I wonder if you'd be better off with the stand-mounted 121s rather than the larger mbls.  That way, perhaps, you could more easily move them out into the room for serious listening and get the full benefit of their omni-directional presentation, to which I also am partial.  I honestly think that you'll never get to hear what they are best at with them close to the side and rear walls.  You should take pokey77's suggestion and call mbl, maybe they can make a recommendation for you.

And I agree with prof, while I would not call imaging with the mbls I've heard to be "pinpoint" (which I find to be unnatural, by the way), they do present a very natural placement of stable and three-dimensional images in a soundstage, certainly not diffuse. 

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