All I Want for Xmas is an MBL

All I Want for Xmas is an MBL​

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Oh, Santa. Santa Baby. Dear Santa Baby. Please make that a Reference Line Combination D ($259,700 total). I won't even ask you to sit on my lap, if only you and Rudolph bring me a pair of MBL 101E Mk.II Radialstrahler speakers, along with an MBL 1621 A CD transport, 1611 F D/A converter, 6010 D preamplifier, and 9011 power amplifier. In snow white, please, just as in the photo.​

This same Combo platter received my hands up and down "Best of Show" at AXPONA 2012 in Jacksonville. Here it sounded almost as good. The music on a recording of Shelley Manne was lusciously warm and well-extended on bottom. Elvis' recording of "Fever" on Elvis is Back was even more so. The detail was delicious, the ability to feel up and personal with the great one a rare experience.​

No matter what we played, sound staging was breathtaking, and the tonality warm. The only drawback was due to what MBL's Jeremy Bryan had to do to tame the room. When I mentioned that I was missing the lowest undertones on Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's mezzo-soprano, Jeremy brought my attention to the mattresses that he had used to fill the rear alcoves in the room. Without them, the sound would have been boomy; with them, just a bit too much bass was absorbed. I wonder what would have happened if the mattresses had been extra firm.​

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Source : http://www.stereophile.com/content/all-i-want-xmas-mbl​

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BTW these are available for audition in Chennai and i've listen to them a few times.​

 

Okay .. honestly .. It looked like some kitchen appliance at first glace ..

 

You have to look at the black colored setup in Chennai

IF i were setup my two channel system for that kind of budget i will never buy the MBL, i have some really good other options.

 

1.3 Crores!!! whew! and available for audition!

RajaPraveen - Any word on sensitivity/special features??

 

I don't know, i've listened to these for about 12 hours in total, they have smooth mid range and decent vocals. It is just like any other two channel setup but the speaker uses a omni directional mind range mount so it appears like the voice is kind of three dimensional.

How do i say, its like a Ferrari, i mean you know a 80K USD GTR will beat a 200K USD Ferrari but still not everyone will buy the GTR.

I have heard many speakers which sound better than the MBL, but MBL are like a luxury for a super rich man who likes the bling along with the sound. The dealer in Chennai is the sole re seller of MBL products in India and he said he had sold 4 complete reference setups in India till date. In fact he said one gentleman built an entire room from ground up to accommodate these.

The entire setup with the source and amp and speaker will weight a few tons i think.


BTW there much more expensive two channel setups which are available and two channel audio can get seriously expensive if you have the money to spend.

 

^^ Absolutely. Will require minimum 18 inch walls, with sound deadening all around and suitable wooden paneling for damping.

The purists pull a separate line straight from the power supply coming from the electricity board, hook it up to a signal cleaner/stabilizer, and then powering their equipment with it.

In terms of pricing, the highest that I would have seen would be around 30-32Lakhs, and similarly the dude customized his whole room to suit the sound system.

 

I have my room setup this way

Also when one spends that kind of money they most certainly have to hire a consultant and work on acoustically treating the room and speaker placement and what not.

 

^^ Now I am tempted to come to Chennai to listen to it.

I did the same stuff, but for my car install.

I can understand the need for sound deadening/filtering, however personally I feel, that your baseline should be good. A decent distortion free amp. Decently powerful and sensitive speakers with a good overall frequency response. Good interconnects and wiring.

It should sound right at the first go, and require minimum tweaking. Thats my requirement.

 

yeah, you have to choose your amplification based on your speakers. If you have a fairly good efficient speaker then a low wattage high current amp is the best choice.If the speaker is low efficient then high wattage is required.

Also audition and synergy is the key(matching your audio chain properly). good measurements don't always mean good likable sound,every humans have a different taste in terms of audio and most of the equipment that people liked in blind tests are never great in terms of measurements.

Good stable clean power power is the most import thing to make any audio or video equipment work good, if you setup stable supply of clean power to your amplifiers they will make the speakers sing at their full potential.

 

Jeebus .. dedicated power line for Audio Equipment

 

Its not jeebus, its black jeebus

 

Monstercables are moronically overrated ..
This is of no comparison to Speakers ..

 

Well i can tell the difference if speakers cables,interconnects,digital cable or coupling capacitors are changed in my setup without my knowledge in a blind test, but not all over cooked audiophile myths about high end cable doing wonders to a system is true.

Cables can make a difference but depends upon how revealing is your setup. i never used monster cables but i do use a bit expensive cables(my speaker cables costed me 35k for 2 meters), i choose my cable to match the characteristic of my system.

On non revealing poor setup no cable can make big difference.

generally bulk mogami pure copper cable is more than enough for a system.

 

Again,in audio things are just too personal, there is no good or bad, its just what one personally likes. I don't care if people like how my system sounds, i simply am happy that i like the way it sounds and i have worked hard many years to make it sound the way i like. The same way i might not like the sound of certain setups but it does not mean it is bad rather it just states that particular setup ain't my cup of tea.

That is why audition is the key, you need to build your setup form ground up based on your musical preference and taste, also how well one can hear and how sensitive are one's hearing abilities can play a major role on what kind of setups they like.


EDIT: looks like this is my 100th post so back of tendulkar i have a century now

 

Yes.. very much so .. we are now dealing in all aspects of digital lifestyle ..