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In Reply to: RE: MBL horrible to acceptable ..? posted by seas on April 27, 2015 at 15:17:54
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 :)
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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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