Manger speakers ???

you may wanna have also a look at the newtronics mega
still one of the top10 speakers in the world, as long as you got $70.000 pettycash :o)
www.newtronics.de

Sean,

I had auditioned the Manger Zerobox 109 speakers in my home for a few months. This is the smaller 2-way model with the ScanSpeak 8" woofer and a single Manger driver. The list price is about $5,000/pair.

My initial impressions were very favorable, because the speaker sounds very fast, coherent, and clear. Dynamic contrasts are very good, but tend to compress at loud levels.

The midrange to lower octaves seemed slightly thin, proceeding to well-controlled bass that appeared to roll off steeply below 50 Hz. To my ears, and compared to many other speakers, the extreme high frequencies lacked air and seemed slightly rolled off.

Over time I came to realize that for whatever reason (possibly the midrange anomalies Robert Greene noted in his TAS review) the 109s didn't sound quite right when reproducing violins, brass, and piano. There seemed to be something odd happening in the upper midrange or lower high-frequency area that could be related to the narrow spike at 4 kHz that Greene pointed out. Oddly, I thought the Mangers did a very good job of reproducing vocals, and provided excellent lyric comprehension.

But ultimately, the 109s failed to please me over time due to their inability to sound authentic on the above-mentioned instruments, especially violins and cellos.

I am told that the more expensive, multiple-driver Manger models do a better job in some of the areas where I found the 109s to be deficient. I can see where the bass response, apparent high frequency extension, ability to play LOUD without compression, and overall frequency balance could all be improved. But the upper-end Mangers are fairly pricey, and I don't see how using more Manger drivers could negate the existing driver anomalies. I don't know whether or not the anomalies in the Manger driver can be eliminated or reduced, or whether the Manger company is working on it or is simply satisfied with what it has achieved.

I read another review of the Zerobox 109s, at TNT Audio and the author described their character as being warm, smooth, very relaxing and natural sounding. To me this review is misleading and not representative of what one can expect from these speakers. I thought the 109s sounded more analytical than musical (certainly not warm) and should not really be characterized as being "natural" or "authentic" sounding. I used them in conjunction with the InnerSound ESL amplifier, which is known to be a fast, smooth-sounding amp with plenty of power. YMMV

Since A-Physics uses these, you might try www.immediasound.com. Also, Manger have their own site which has an english version, if I'm not mistaken: www.manger-msw.com / or a US site (haven't checked this one) www.mangerusa.com

I had Manger loaded speakers for a while at home (A-Physics Medea). The sound was, at first, strange: I had the impetus and "volume" of a boxed speaker -- but sounds were coming across extremely fast. Also the tonal balance sounded "linear" across a very wide spectrum, going up very high. So, sounds that were just perceptible with my (then) e-stats, were much more evident here.

The sound was liquid and clear. The partnering with Medea's active sub sounded good (to my ears). The difficulty I had was in actually driving these speakers. The Medea have 3 Manger units per channel. Although not a difficult speaker to get sound out of, I had to borrow giga horsepower amplification to make them sing.

Anyway, I hope this helps a tad...

Cheers!