MBL alternatives

Beolab 5 - not my cup of tea but excellent tight bass, lovely wide soundstage and they look awesome.

Yes, it's all about the sound. I could care less about what it looks like. $10k on the used market is fine as well.

At this price used you have plenty of alternatives. If you like MBL's and final sound then I assume you listen at low levels and you like a speaker with great ambient sound? Neither of these will play loud. What genre's do you like?

Is this correct - can you elaborate a bit. It hard to make a suggestion as it is not clear why you think Final Sound and MBL are the best speakers out there (for you)

What do you think of Soundlabs A-1 ?

Soundlabs.

Love them but don't have the room (size) for them...

OK - then try to audition ATC SCM50ASL - Gordon Holt had sound labs for ages (and loved them too) - apparently ATC are his current favorites - as you know he has probably heard more speakers than most.

I run the Classic Audio Reproductions T-3. It is set up with dual 15" woofers, has 20Hz-45KHz bandwidth, nice flat impedance curve, 97 db 1 watt/1 meter and matches the transparency and detail of the best ESLs with its field-coil drivers. Nuance, bandwidth and efficiency all in one package

That is like a custom studio main monitor design - this is serious stuff - only the highest quality drivers period. And four 15" 1602 TAD woofers to boot! I could live with these and be in heaven - although I have not heard them the driver pedigree is enough to know they must sound awesome - unlike anything else - outside of a prestigious studio...

I don't doubt you when you say you get the bottom end impact that most speakers (including ATC) only hint at! (Certainly true for ATC's domestic line which stops at one 15 inch woofer and ATC tend to be voiced bass light)

How about a pair of these ? Now 8 15" TAD woofers in one room is sure to knock one's socks off - as well as precipitate the filing of divorce papers! Wonderful stuff - drool, drool...

Check out Dlanselm comments on ATC. He used to have the 50's and I think he still has the 20's. ATC are not necessarily "the last word" in sound in any one area but they load a room very evenly (wide dispersion) and have among the most convincing natural sound and timbre, IMHO. Kind of panel-like midrange but with some of the most serious dynamics a box speaker can deliver (close to big horn like dynamics/loudness). They don't have huge bass which is more understated - solid, tight and detailed - meaning most tracks sound markedly different in bass but very few are overwhelming (apart from organ or that occasional kick drum that hasn't been compressed by the sound engineer) Imaging/soudstage is excellent and solid life like convincing but they certainly won't play impressive tricks like some "holographic" speakers. I think they are very easy to listen too or non fatiguing non demanding on the ear, however, they do like to be played loud - so be warned - the thinner bass and effortless clarity, with low distortion at extremely high levels, will make you listen louder than normal - NOT a good thing if you are in an appartment. Two cents and yes I am biased.

Shadorne, now those are some speakers I could DEFINITELY use in an HT system!!!! Infact, I might just look into em for such.

Indeed. Given the hypercompression in modern pop/rock music, the dynamic range of ATC's are more useful with classical orchestral, big band jazz & funk, and movie soundtracks - or similar stuff. They are used in mastering studios for soundtracks. Gavin Lursen uses them.