mbl - is there a problem?


For a while now I've been planning on purchasing the new Magnepan 20.7's when they become available.
However I've always been intrigued by the idea of the MBL's - partly because they are so pretty and partly because it would be nice to have a speaker with a larger sweet spot.(I've owned and listened to Maggies for about 35 years but have never had the opportunity to hear the MBL's)
Since I've already purchased mongo electronics to power my new Maggies I think they would likely also power the MBL's.
And with the new discounts on the MBL's, they become more price competitive with the Maggies.
So I was thinking of flying somewhere to actually hear the MBL's.
But the website for MBL was disconcerting. Partly is is because the discounts are so large. Partly it is because they say that and warranty work now has to be arranged from Germany. As an experiment I tried to see what to do if I had an MBL speaker that needed to work and what would I do and I did not find an easy answer.
I have a fear of purchasing an expensive set of speakers and being unable to fix a problem.
From everything I've read on Audiogon these seem like wonderful speakers and maybe I should buy a cheap airplane ticket to where I can hear them. But I worry about the service. Maybe I'm just better off purchasing speakers from Magnepan - this company must be so succesful that even if the whole town was destroyed by a large meteor somebody else would pick it up.
Does anybody know if MBL is a safe speaker to purchase?
nottop
..let me explain more fully... In the home system I have heard these, (MBL amp and preamp, Ortofon cartridge,) the bass is very boomy with no depth or space at all. If indeed it is the room, then it very well may be a design flaw if this expensive equipment also needs a special room. If I can compare it to video.... if you take your color intensity control and turn it way up so that the picture looks like a cartoon, you have what this stereo sounds like. Somneone made fun of my Vandersteen 5A's on these posts. Well one of the very important attributes of this speaker is that it can be made to sound excellent in any room. ...not to say it sounds exactly the same in every room I've heard it, but it always sounds good. Someone spending this amount of money for sound, should factor all attributes of any component, car, plane, wine, etc. including support.
"the bass is very boomy with no depth or space at all. If indeed it is the room, then it very well may be a design flaw if this expensive equipment also needs a special room.

Speakers always have to be rightsized and integrated properly into the room for best results. omnis are no exception except having distance from the rear wall in particular is generally more important with omnis.

If the bass is boomy and undefined more likely a design flaw by whoever integrated the system into the room, not with the speakers.
Mapman...the system was set up by the dealer. Don't you think that an outlay of this much money would be designed so that the room or speakers aren't that critical of each other?..or could it be that the bass is boomy and undefined and the right room can suck up these flaws??
String.

"Don't you think that an outlay of this much money would be designed so that the room or speakers aren't that critical of each other?"

No clue.

What dealer?

The good mbl demo I heard (mbl 111s) was at United Home Audio in Annapolis Junction, MD. in a good sized showroom. Bass was not boomy.

"or could it be that the bass is boomy and undefined and the right room can suck up these flaws??"

Not sure any room can make a bad sounding speaker that is inherently boomy and undefined into one that isn't?

Rather, a good setup is key to bringing out the best in whatever is played in it. Results are usually only as good as the weakest link in the chain.
Why is it so difficult for some people to accept that someone somewhere heard an MBL speaker and didn't like it? Odds are, it will happen again.