MBL 101e's vs. Soundlab U-1's


I have decided to change my speakers. I have had Dynaudio Temptations for 2 years, and for the past few months I have felt that there is something missing. Bass presence, ambience, I really wasn't sure. My system has been very stable over the past year: a Boulder 2060 amp, and ARC Ref3 preamp and an Esoteric X01 limited cd player. That was actually a recent switch, from the Meitner gear. I decided to listen to MBL 101e's and Soundlab U-1's. I picked those speakers since along with Von Schweikert VR 9's those were the speakers that I remember giving me great, almost spooky "you are there" performance. There are no Von Schweikert dealers in the area, and the VR 9's are too expensive fpr me anyway. I considered the VR 7SE's, but there is nowhere to listen to them.
I started with an extended demo of the MBL's. I found that the MBL's have some strengths that the Dyns don't have. Unbelievable staging, bass (not boomy), and a sense of presence and ambience
that the dyns actually do approach, but do not equal. I brought several different types of music. I started with one of my very favorite cuts, "The Maker', by Emmylou Harris on Spyboy. There was a palpable presence of the musicians, with the drum thwacks at the end reverberating in my chest. As Valin says in his review, the speakers need to be played at a somewhat higher volume to really open up, but not overly loud. As was mentioned by a few people the sound did ring or was kind of "steely". Ron, the dealer, said that he felt that it was due to the MBL preamp, rather than the speaker itself. He changed to a Griffin pre, and the sound was much smoother, at the expense of some dynamic presence. Next up was Johnny Cash, American Man IV. This is meant to be played at a lower volume than EmmyLou. It sound great, with Johnny centered and the guitars to either side. Finally, the new Dixie Chicks, higher energy Southern rock. All the MBL strengths were there, staging, imaging, dynamics, etc.
The downside to these speakers is that they are very difficult to set up. The room acoustics can be tricky and the required amplification is very expensive. Hopefully, my Boulder 2060 is up to it.
Next up were the Soundlabs. Yesterday, I heard a convincing demo of the Soundlab U-1, not the U-1x which is apparently the updated model. These are scary good. I brought the same cuts that I used during the MBL demo. BTW, in each case the speakers were driven with a powerful SS amp, and a tube preamp, in the case of the Soundlabs.They actually sound very similar to the MBL's. The pros are that my Boulder will drive them without any problem. They also need relatively less room treatment, due to their radiating pattern. They are incredibly dynamic with an unbelievable soundstage. There is excellent taut bass. The demo was in the house of the local dealer, in an old living room with almost no treatment. The room is substantially smaller than mine.
The con is their size. I have to do some meaurements to make sure that they would fit into the constraints of my room.
I am having a ball with this next phase of my audio life. After these two demos, it's hard to see why people would be satisfied with box speakers. Although, given the constraints imposed by these speakers, it can be difficult to get either working optimally.

David Shapiro
deshapiro
Hi,
My room is good size, 18' x 26' x 8'. It's bigger than the room that I demoed it in. My concern was regards the Soundlab U-1's. While my room could take it, there are constraints since it also a HT room, with a 10' wide screen. It makes speaker placement problematic. That is only one of the reasons I'm leaning towards the MBL's.

David
Sounds like you are set on the MBL 101e - I must admit they look simply awesome. Having never heard these beauties and being curious about their design...how do they dampen the lamellas in order to avoid what would be termed "cone break up" in a conventional driver?
David, I've been following your decision making process here and at the AVS Forum. All of the suggestions in this thead are excellent. I've heard a number of the above speakers, but ended up with the 101E's as well as the MBL 6010D preamp and a pair of 9008A monoblocks.

My room is a 15' x 35' x 10' multi purpose living room that bleeds into a kitchen. There is a 6' wide open archway on one side wall that leads into another 15' x 25' x 10' room (i.e., totally open floor plan) so a lot of sound escapes. Behind the speakers is a half wall, so essentially there is a wall behind the right speaker but not the left. That's more open space leading into another room. On the other side wall there are a pair of 6' wide sliding glass doors. No blinds or curtains, just a thin layer black felt material hanging loosely to block out the light. There are no room treatments at all other than a large area rug in front of the speakers. In other words, there are plenty of reasons why these speakers shouldn't sound good, but they're simply amazing!

My personal speaker evolution in this room is from Martin Logan Aeruis to Newform Research R645 to Talon Khorus (also had the Peregrines set up in here at one point). Each of these speakers have significant strengths, but I always felt that the room limitations kept me from getting to a point of nirvana. Now that sense is gone and it kind of scares me a bit (in the sense of just how much further the 101E's can be taken) because I know that the room presents many serious "issues".

The only reasons I haven't treated this room are: 1) I've always known that one day I would build on a dedicated HT room so it would be throwing away money to treat a room that I will one day abandon, and 2) some of the issues, like the open archway, would not be easy to deal with even if I was determined to do so.

It could be that my previous speakers and electronics just haven't been up to task, but the Talons in particular are outstanding performers. A more likely explanation in my view is that, contrary to what seems to be popular opinion these days, the MBLs are not very room/position sensitive at all. This may presuppose that you have a fairly large room to work with, and that you can get them sufficiently away from the rear and side walls (which I can). But they're not bouncing off everything and creating all sorts of nodes. In fact, they pretty much sound equally good no matter where you move within the room. There is absolutely no such thing as a "sweet spot" with these speakers.

Mind you, I'm not intending for this post to be gushing praise about a new toy. I'd like to think I'm above the fanboy stuff, and I'm not here to pat you (or myself) on the back for making this decision since there are so many other equally good speakers that each have their won strengths. Yes, I'm quite happy with the 101E's in terms of the sonic characteristics that you've described (dynamics being chief among them, and what impressed me most at the show I heard them at), but I knew that I would be before I got them.

So what I'm getting at with this post is that what has really surprised me most, and in a very good way, is how well they've integrated in a much less than optimal room environment. Of course I know that they can and will get much better in a well designed and treated room and that day will come, but I'm much relieved that the construction project doesn't need to start tomorrow. You should be comforted by this as well given that your room os of similar size.
That is good to hear. My room is treated, but probably not optimally. That will wait for another day. You're right, I have made my decision, although I do really like the Sound Lab rep. Now I'm just trying to figure out which deal on the MBL's to go for, since I have been offered 3 different pairs :).

David
I hope you're leaning towards buying them from the dealer who gave you what sounds like an extensive demo. Using a dealer for demo purposes and then shopping for price is seriously uncool business.