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mbl - is there a problem?

For a while now I've been planning on purchasing the new Magnepan 20.7's when they become available.
However I've always been intrigued by the idea of the MBL's - partly because they are so pretty and partly because it would be nice to have a speaker with a larger sweet spot.(I've owned and listened to Maggies for about 35 years but have never had the opportunity to hear the MBL's)
Since I've already purchased mongo electronics to power my new Maggies I think they would likely also power the MBL's.
And with the new discounts on the MBL's, they become more price competitive with the Maggies.
So I was thinking of flying somewhere to actually hear the MBL's.
But the website for MBL was disconcerting. Partly is is because the discounts are so large. Partly it is because they say that and warranty work now has to be arranged from Germany. As an experiment I tried to see what to do if I had an MBL speaker that needed to work and what would I do and I did not find an easy answer.
I have a fear of purchasing an expensive set of speakers and being unable to fix a problem.
From everything I've read on Audiogon these seem like wonderful speakers and maybe I should buy a cheap airplane ticket to where I can hear them. But I worry about the service. Maybe I'm just better off purchasing speakers from Magnepan - this company must be so succesful that even if the whole town was destroyed by a large meteor somebody else would pick it up.
Does anybody know if MBL is a safe speaker to purchase?
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Showing 3 responses by martykl

martykl
3,578 posts
 
Okay, it appears to be a bit more complicated than anyone here has addressed, but here's what (I think) is going on:

Audiogon links you to the web site of the former American MBL distributor (MBL North America, evidently an independent company) which is unloading inventory at 50% (or more) off. I'm guessing that these serial #s won't be serviced by the new (parent company owned) distributor MBL-USA.

As Larry advised, make some phoe calls....but be sure to call both firms.

Good Luck

Marty

BTW, I like both MBLs and Maggies very much...different strengths. The Maggies might be more neutral, but - if you can get the bottom two octaves reasonably balanced in your listening room, the 101s are showstoppers (IMHO).
martykl
3,578 posts
 
People are certainly going to have mixed opinions on any product. Further (to String's point), I have heard the big MBL sound boomy on a couple of different occasions. I've always thought that they need a very large room for the bass to sound natural and, even when that is optimized, I still find the bottom 2 octaves the speaker's greatest weakness. However,....

IME, the holographic 3D effect that the 101s reproduce is just stunning. It really is in a different league (in this respect) than anything else that I've ever heard, and I've heard a fair number of mega$ loudspeaker systems. (The only meaningful challenge that I recall came from an audition of the original Wilson WAMM, back in the day, and - if memory serves - that wasn't the equal of the 101).

When set-up well, the MBL can really produce a "reach out and touch it" illusion, and I specifically recall an electric guitar (at very high SPL) just hanging in space way in front of the accompanying rhythm section at the LA Stereophile show some years back. Like 'em or not, I have a very hard time believing that anyone could fail to be impressed by that specific aspect of the 101s performance.

The comment regarding "no depth or space at all" suggests to me that there was a real problem with the set-up that String heard.

Marty
martykl
3,578 posts
 
Map,

The little MBLs are funny animals. They're designed with a low end roll-off that is supposed to match certain characteristics of the MBL subwoofer, making them a tough match for other subwoofer brands (according to my local MBL dealer, anyway - so maybe a grain of salt should be added to that statement). I don't know if the MBL subs are available anymore (I didn't see any on the web site last I looked), so I'm not sure where the 121/newer versions fit these days. The 121s that I've heard (in a small to medium sized room) on a couple of occasions lacked bottom end power (surprise!) as a stand-alone and (IIRC) the MBL subs they were paired with were too much for the room (to my ear, as set up by that dealer, anyway).

The "in-between" floor standers (111,116) seem to be the better choices for medium sized rooms. However, like the 121, these do not feature the radial midrange driver of the 101. I thought that the 121 w/sub, the 116, and the 111 each sounded pretty good in its own way - and shared a definite "family resemblance" to each other. However, at the end of the day, the 101 strikes me as a fundamentally different (and much more fun) animal than the less expensive models in the MBL line.

Marty

Caveat: All observations from a couple of years back when I was seriously thinking about buying MBL speakers and auditioning the various models with some frequency. The model line-up has since changed a bit and I can't be sure that these observations are applicable to the current line.
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