Amp./Preamp. sugg. for MBL 111 speakers

Bi-amp a pair of Jeff Rowland model 10T. You won't regret!

I agree that you will need a MONSTER amp. Finding something that is both powerful and has great bass control while still retaining finesse, sweetness, air and detail is a trick in itself. Since the price of these speakers is up there, i'm assuming that your price range is "less constricted". This opens up quite a few options. The Rowland's, the big McCormack, older Threshold mono-block's, etc... are what initially come to mind. All of those are up to the task. What you use as a preamp would be the deciding factor on tonal balance, etc... Like anything else in audio, this is all up to personal interpretation. Like you, i find these speakers very intriguing. Definetly not good for "shaking the house" though : ) Sean >

Thanks for the input, guys! I have not heard the Rowland amp, though I can imagine that they would sound great. Sean, these speakers are expensive, but I'm getting a pretty good deal on them, so my amp budget is probably more constricted than you might imagine. In terms of their "house-shaking" ability, I've wondered about that myself. I've been demoing them in my house with my Denon 5800 (believe it or not!)as part of my HT (believe it or not!) and even with this amp they sound very good (believe it or not!), but there is something lacking, mostly with music that is more dynamic (ie. rock, more uptempo,propulsive jazz). In a word, I can't get these things to rock, they seem more reserved. I think it's because they need a more powerful amp, hence my question. The flip side of this coin is that they are suprisingly excellent with HT material. Their inherently wide soundstage and imaging has really brought movie sound to life. And given their frequency extension they have really added punch to the bass, augmenting the subwoofer I'm using tremendously. So if they can rock with movies, why not with certain music - I am perplexed. I have been considering biamping them with the EAD Powermaster 2000, using 4 channels for the MBL's and the remaining channel for the center channel. Any opinions on whether this amp might do the trick? Thanks for everyone's input, Brian