I think I'll throw my two cents in. Until a few months ago I was a perfectly happy Kharma 3.2 Fe owner. All the hype was justified in my mind. Where else can you find a truly full range speaker that is so small and easy to drive? One that has world class imaging and transparency dynamic contrast etc. The only thing missing is ultimate loudness. A two way can only play SO loud after all. But they actually play loud enough to make my ears hurt so, as I said, I was perfectly happy. Sure I've heard the Magico mini and respected them a lot but they are just different. Maybe better, maybe not, mostly just different.
Then I stumbled on a set of articles regarding how we hear music. This led me around the net to read about a professional set up in a European theater where side firing speakers of lower sensitivity ( -6 db)are used to augment the main speakers. I just happened to own a pair of Spendor S3/5s ( 5 db less sensitive than the Kharma)so I gave it a try. I hooked them up to the rear of the mains firing out to the sides, exactly like the QUAD 63 setup at the SME lab. Now I realize I'm adding distortion, but low and behold the rig sounded better, a lot better. Orchestra for sure, I expected that. But what surprised me was how much better solo guitar sounded, much more focused and present. Mind you, the Spendors were barely audible in comparison to the Kharmas, they only contributed to the ambience.
This experience led to a exhaustive search that landed a pair of MBL 101E's. I did as much shopping as I could and I must agree with Dev that a properly set up set of MBL 101s do things that NO box speaker in my experience can do. ( I've heard almost everything in some shape or fashion) Like it or not every speaker lights up the entire room with sound and that sound is reflected back to the listener. All normal box speakers should sound and measure, for example, flat in front but as you walk around them the frequency response changes dramatically and flat becomes ' not-so-flat'. The not-so-flat gets mixed in with the flat and the result is the typical "box speaker" sound. Before I get flamed, I understand that all music is a mix of reflections with various phase shifts. But.... MBL speakers light up the room evenly and I think that makes them special.
People who don't own MBLs like to criticize them for boomy bass. Well that's true but they have internal adjustments, and for the record MBLs actually HAVE bass unlike virtually all the competition ( that's not fair.. change to "most of the competition") so they need to be placed carefully. As a tweak I have mine sitting on about $1000 of Black Diamond products, well into the room. You would swear that mine are light in the bass until you put on something like track 6 from " The Thin Red Line" and you feel like you chair legs are going to break from all the bass energy. Once the bass is delt with The MBLs exibit a transparancy that is on par with my other speakers (Quad 57's)
Unfortunately MBLs are expensive and hard to drive but if price were not a consideration I have yet to hear their overall equal.
