mbl - is there a problem?

Holographic presentation is the unique strength of mbl. If that is important to you, definitely do not buy until you audition mbl. Otherwise, you may not care so much.

Having heard a lot of top notch systems over the years, I'd say without question mbl is the champ at doing holography on a large scale. "On a large scale" is key. You have to have a large and well set up room though I think, at least for the larger floor standing models.

Other aspects of their performance compared to the competition is more debatable in my mind. I would say they are very solid in most every other regard as well assuming proper setup and matching to room, but other lines might easily be preferred in certain regards depending on personal tastes.

I can see where the larger mbls would easily overpower smaller rooms which does not make them a good choice for many.

Anybody know how the mbl 121s perform in smaller rooms in comparison to the larger floorstanding mbls in larger rooms?

I have Dynaudio Contour 1.3mkII monitors tuned in very nicely currently in a 12X12 listening room. I often wonder if mbl 121s could work well in a room like that. I think I have the amp needed to drive them (Bel Canto Ref 1000m monoblocks) in that I understand they are extremely inefficient.

DEV...

This thread is to help nottop to find his next speaker. I don't want to go into mr. Albert system discussion. When I was on my quest to find my sonic taste, he was kind enough to let me listen to his reference system and help me out with my turntable issues. Btw, mr. Albert have never listen to my system. Maybe he have listen to the older model of MBL and that is why he have that kind of opions toward MBL. You see, my system is doing double duty. I listen to musics and watch movies 50/50 and that is why I can't go with tubes gears. I really like my all MBL gears and thats just me.

Map,

The little MBLs are funny animals. They're designed with a low end roll-off that is supposed to match certain characteristics of the MBL subwoofer, making them a tough match for other subwoofer brands (according to my local MBL dealer, anyway - so maybe a grain of salt should be added to that statement). I don't know if the MBL subs are available anymore (I didn't see any on the web site last I looked), so I'm not sure where the 121/newer versions fit these days. The 121s that I've heard (in a small to medium sized room) on a couple of occasions lacked bottom end power (surprise!) as a stand-alone and (IIRC) the MBL subs they were paired with were too much for the room (to my ear, as set up by that dealer, anyway).

The "in-between" floor standers (111,116) seem to be the better choices for medium sized rooms. However, like the 121, these do not feature the radial midrange driver of the 101. I thought that the 121 w/sub, the 116, and the 111 each sounded pretty good in its own way - and shared a definite "family resemblance" to each other. However, at the end of the day, the 101 strikes me as a fundamentally different (and much more fun) animal than the less expensive models in the MBL line.

Marty

Caveat: All observations from a couple of years back when I was seriously thinking about buying MBL speakers and auditioning the various models with some frequency. The model line-up has since changed a bit and I can't be sure that these observations are applicable to the current line.

Marty,

Thanks for the info.

I'd love to try smaller mbls sometime in comparison to my Dynaudio monitors in the smaller room. It would probably require a significant additional investment to do it though, so it may be awhile with two kids to still send to college and all.