Not much discussion around MBL

Well, if you want some talk on MBLs...here’s a bunch :)

I own MBL speakers. (As well as currently owning Thiel 3.7 and 2.7 speakers, Spendor, Waveform, Hales...and like many here I’ve owned plenty of different speaker types and brands).

The first time I heard MBLs, as I remember, was at a CES show, around 2000 or so, so it was the 101Ds at the time.

I remember walking past various rooms and coming from one room was the sound of what actually seemed like a live band, playing jazz. Once inside I saw the MBL 101s and, as cool as they looked, the sound blew my mind. It wasn’t simply the spacious quality. It was the sound quality.
I’d heard every design under the sun playing at that show, and all sounded like hi-fi systems. This was the first time I’ve ever heard drums actually sound like live drums. The cymbals in particular. They weren’t that reduced, diminished "coming from a tweeter" sound exhibited by almost all the other speakers - so many hi-fi systems seem to make higher frequency sounds tinier than they are. They actually sounded like big, round, full cymbals - to the point breaking it into hi-fi speak didn’t make sense - they just sounded like real drum cymbals (and snare, etc).
And many of the other instruments had a similar tonal and dynamic realism.

So I think my initial interest in MBL started there. I later heard the MBLs at Absolute Sound reviewer Michael Gindi’s place, in a hilariously small but well treated room. Again: the most astonishingly realistic sound I’ve ever heard from a sound system. And since I’m a "timbre-first" guy, not a soundstaging-first guy, it’s not the spaciousness that got me so much as the sheer timbral realism and presence.

I’ve heard the MBLs sound not-great in some shows. But various auditions and other encounters in good set ups continued to give me the impression they are damned special.

I lost out on an auction of the 101Ds (or was it Es?) years ago. But happened upon a good bargain for the smaller stand mounted 121 speakers, which I’ve owned now for several years. They have the mid and tweeters of the big units and have the same MBL "voice" and attributes.

I switch around my speakers but every time I play the MBLs they still blow my mind. Yes, the soundstaging, disappearing act, imaging and 3D sound are almost second to none, but it’s also the qualities of timbre and resolution that make them so special in my experience. They have just about the most effortless super-resolution I’ve heard - where for instance fingers plucking a classical guitar aren’t just "wow listen to that tweeter, I can hear the fingers on the strings" in a sort of pushed-resolution way. Rather, fingers simply *become* a natural fleshy presence plucking the string, like when I play my guitar.

And, again, in my obsession with vocal and instrumental timbre: the one aspect of hi-fi that has most disappointed me is how reproduced sound becomes homogenized. The really specific tonal colors and differences between metal, plastic, wood, brass etc just aren’t totally there even with the most expensive systems I’ve heard (or, very rarely). To my ears, the MBLs create a wider rainbow of instrumental timbre than just about any speaker I’ve encountered. A cymbal, or a drum rim, really does sound metallic, wood like wood, plastic like plastic etc. Unlike most speaker systems where, once I’ve listened for a little while I can predict how drums, sax etc will sound, I actually get a continued sense of "surprise"
with the MBLs, when new instruments enter the mix, or from one track to another.

I’ve been auditioning plenty of excellent speakers again, recently, from Audio Physic, Magico, Rhaido, Audio Note and various others, and they are terrific. But to my ears, I still find some aspects of the MBL more impressive, particularly the chameleon believability of the sound.  I recently owned Harbeth SuperHL5Plus speakers,  Harbeth speakers being renowned for natural vocal reproduction.  They were indeed pretty special for vocals.  But not in the league with the MBLs which can sound spooky-real with voices.

Also, unrealistically sized imaging - e.g. the "superwide singer" effect Audio Doctor speaks of, isn’t mirrored by my experience with the larger MBLs over the years, or with my pair. Of course you can set up many speakers to produce spreading of the imaging. But MBLs can be set up to image quite realistically. If they had imaged unrealistically I’d never have thought the sound realistic in the first place. Vocalists, or other instruments on my MBLs, are no more unrealistically large than on my Thiel speakers, and the Thiels as good as they are, and as great as their reputation for resolution and precision, can not produce the realism I can hear on the MBLs.

Sorry about your "bad news," geoffkait.   I don't like how loud MBL tends to do their demos; I don't think this helps the sound.

I can't be sure it was CES 2000, or the year before or after (or THE SHOW) as I attended a couple around those years. 

I understand everyone has different reactions to sound systems and the MBLs seem to be fairly polarizing.  (And part of this I think can be from MBL's tendency to blare such loud levels, and perhaps the trickier interaction of the omnis with different rooms).

The more holistic picture of the MBL sound came, for me, through successive encounters in better controlled conditions.

pokey77,

Of course these are subjective opinions.  But that's audio for you.

I've been comparing live vs reproduced sound for a long time. I had many speakers pass through my room and had live recordings I'd made of familiar sounds, my acoustic guitar, my sons playing sax, trombone, my wife's voice etc.  I used to play them through a new pair of speakers and compare them directly to the real thing, just to get a sense of what the system was or wasn't doing.

Nothing has reproduced those recordings with the realism of the MBLs.
They certainly pass the "other room" test with flying colors.   If I play the recording of my son practicing saxophone through the MBLs, at realistic levels, from outside the room it just sounds uncannily like someone is playing a real sax in there.  Same with my guitar recordings.  I've fooled a couple people that my son was playing sax in the next room when it was the MBLs.  It's not just the spaciousness or the way they energize a room, but the reproduction of instrumental timbre can be startling.

I'd also add, as I believe I've mentioned before on the forum:

Understandably, especially given the very low sensitivity of the MBL speakers, they are regularly paired with huge current heavy SS amps.

But a number of folks have found success with tubes.  Best I ever heard the MBLs were at Michael Gindi's with tube amps (CAT if I remember).
Some have had success with VAC too, I believe.

In my case my CJ Premier 12s at 140w side have actually driven the MBL 121s splendidly.  (Though I don't listen at concert levels).

But I actually found one of the most magical combinations to be the 121s driven by my classic Eico HF-81, from the 60's, a mere 14W side of integrated amp tube glory.  The midrange, warmth and sparkle of the sound is mesmerizing, and the bass, while not quite as tight, goes deeper and the impression I get is the 121s becoming a sonically even larger speaker.

It's always fun to experiment.

Jim,

Although the MBLs are mainly known for their spectacularly realistic 3D imaging and soundstaging, that isn't the first thing that attracted me to them.  It was actually the tone and timbral realism (to my ears).

They sound open and realistic, and just seem to be able to re-create the different timbral qualities - from the solidity, and metallic quality of a struck chime or bell, or drum cymbal, to the brassiness of a horn, reediness of a sax, plastic/gut string of classical guitars, the golden sparkle of a regular acoustic guitar, etc.   Sounds are just more varied - and closer to the real thing - through the MBLs, in my experience.  And their resolution is second to none.  There is a relaxed, completely effortless level of resolution - the type that makes sounds actually more organic than the type that says "wow, listen to that tweeter!"  that makes regular speakers sound like they are "trying."  

Add that to the utter lack of box sound and the most realistic dimensional imaging around, and they are just more realistic sounding than just about any speaker I've encountered.  They make other speakers sound like "tweeters and cones in a box" by comparison, and they have a solidity to the sound that is more like a dynamic speaker rather than the thinner ghostly quality of most panel speakers.  They are the whole package.

Whenever I listen to the MBLs and go back to my box speakers, it takes a while to adjust back to tweeters 'n cones in a box.

That said, of course nothing is perfect and I have various other speakers for a reason.  Speakers sound different and I like those differences.

The MBLs, if not in the proper room and on the right electronics can get a bit "icey" in the top end.  But when controlled, that goes away leaving the rainbow of timbral colors.