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In Reply to: RE: All these rooms made a very favorable impression posted by A.Wayne on April 26, 2015 at 17:43:36
Based on my 3 years of going to shows, I have always thought that MBL was the most overhyped product on display. This time I thought their room was ok but nothing to write about here. Previous years I thought they sounded TERRIBLE!
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I heard MBL Friday night and was not impressed but I could only stand in back. Sunday we went in again, the guy played a couple master tape tracks and I had a seat, not sure what to attribute the difference to but Sunday's listen was most impressive. If anyone missed the Tidal room you missed my pick for best at show. The Bricasti was also outstanding.
Those Merrill amps driving the 108 dB wild looking Sadurni, incredible sounding, horns, were Class D. I could not believe those were Class D and sounded so good, and through horns.
The ATC room sounded good to me. I have to admit I liked the Quad speakers. The rep says Quad will be distributed in the U.S. again, by a division of Mobile Fidelity.
Parasound was the power for the KEF room. I talked a while with Richard Schram who is very nice. His new integrated has to be the best bang for the buck product to hit.... well, since his last BFB product. The preamp section is identical to the P5, built in DAC and high power output for MSRP of $2500.00. He said the DAC in the integrated is better than the one KEF was using in the auditions.
Another value product, Vanatoo's incredible powered speakers at only $499.00 a pair. Tons of features, even built in dac.
Thanks to Patricia Barber for being gracious enough to sign CD's after her show. Shame on the Weston for making us stand during her show after a day of walking around, LOL.
Also, shame on you guys who hijacked this thread to talk about political/social garbage we see and hear enough of other places, take it some place else.
Shame on Chicago for not informing people you still have to pay for parking downtown, at night, even if you don't see a parking meter, LOL.
I thought the show was well attended, especially Saturday. Any more people and it wouldn't have been too much fun trying to get into a room. A good time.
+10 Peabody, thanks for the show reminder ......
Well someone is enjoying them ... :)
My usual issue with their show displays is that they're always playing them too loud.
I heard the 121s in an all-MBL system at a show in Sydney, playing jazz at a comfortable volume in a large hotel suite, and they sounded pretty awesome. As expected, the soundstaging was like nothing else. I was also very impressed by the amount of resolution and extension. They could be a little bright for some people though. I would consider them if I had a bigger room.
Lots of people have complained about the loud volume levels commonly found at US shows. I guess they're trying to beat Fletcher-Munson, or maybe drown out the loud volume coming leaking in from the room next door :)
I personally didn't find the demo music too loud in general. We were usually asked about the volume, in some rooms it could have been a bit louder to over come side conversations. I think it depends on whether some one was there to talk or listen as to how they perceive the volume. For example, before D'Agostino went concert level who ever was doing the music announced they would end with some Rock and it may be a bit loud. It's like if you own a Porsche are you always going to do the speed limit or are you tempted to open it up when opportunit presents itself?
I wasn't at this Axpona show so I don't know what volume level was used in the MBL room, but I agree with seas that the MBL rooms at US shows tend to be overly loud.
I can appreciate a system's ability to play loud cleanly, but only in a room suitable for it. In a typical hotel room, I find that room coloration and reverberation start to take over at higher volumes and make good systems sound like crap.
I think the Porsche analogy is a bit off the mark because the performance of a high end audio system is not defined by how loud it goes. But I'll run with it and offer a related analogy: trying to demonstrate clean playback at high volume in a typical hotel room is like trying to demonstrate the speed potential a Porsche in a parking lot.
The best sounding show demos I've heard have come from demonstrators who work with and working within the room, by bringing right sized systems for their space, judicious use of room treatments, and proper setup.
But I think there are a lot of demonstrators who just show up, plonk their system down in a visually typical setup, don't measure or optimize, and get inconsistent results. And they're often the first to blame the room. And then there are the people who try to stuff giant speakers in a closet, so to speak.
MBL had a large room, possibly a conference room. Them and Sadurni were using some very effective room treatments from SMT, diffusers that still allow the music to sound good without deadening it.
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