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MBL 111F or 101E ????

Hi experts :)

I am looking to get a new system and I want to hear your input.

I am currently have a Devialet Expert 1000 Pro, my room is 4 meters wide, 9 meters in length because joining with dinning area and an open kitchen next to the dinning area, so it’s like a L shape opened space. I haven’t done any acoustic treatment to it yet.

i have a long tv bench, so the speaker going be about less than half meter away from side walls and may be about half meter away from back walls, this is the limitation I can’t change and will never change unless I move house.

i wondering according to my room space and current equipment, should I get a MBL 111F or 101E???? If 101E will performs better, how much better? Distinctly??? The 101E is quite a bit more expensive than 111F.

I can change my current amp to the MBL N51 integrated amp but that’s it. I cannot afford their 9008 amps and pre-amp combinations, and probably not in any soon future. I am not sure if the single N51(350wpc) will perform better than the Devialet 1000 Pro(1000wpc).

Can any MBL Expert give me some input?

Thanks a lot!!!
peppapig

Showing 3 responses by rcprince

rcprince
3,085 posts
 
I question whether you'll lose a lot of the omni magic that you get from mbl speakers if you're going to have them as close to the sidewalls.and rear wall as you indicte.  Whenever I have heard them, they have had a lot of space around them, and that's when they have had that amazing soundstage.  Maybe someone who owns them can comment, but you might be better off getting speakers that work better with your room placement constraints.
rcprince
3,085 posts
 
I'm sorry, but feel I have to raise it again--does anyone here who has heard the mbls (and I have heard them sound wonderful placed out in a room) think that they will work essentially placed in the corners of a room as the OP states (1/2 meter from both side and rear walls)?  I fear that the OP will be sorely disappointed with their performance in such a position, no matter what amplification he chooses, and that's a lot of money he's thinking of putting into those speakers.  Do you think the smaller 121s would work, Prof?
rcprince
3,085 posts
 

I wonder if you'd be better off with the stand-mounted 121s rather than the larger mbls.  That way, perhaps, you could more easily move them out into the room for serious listening and get the full benefit of their omni-directional presentation, to which I also am partial.  I honestly think that you'll never get to hear what they are best at with them close to the side and rear walls.  You should take pokey77's suggestion and call mbl, maybe they can make a recommendation for you.

And I agree with prof, while I would not call imaging with the mbls I've heard to be "pinpoint" (which I find to be unnatural, by the way), they do present a very natural placement of stable and three-dimensional images in a soundstage, certainly not diffuse. 

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