Omni Speaker Options

The MBL speakers are pretty distinctive sounding, even among the omni class (as fas as I've heard examples of the class). The Ohms that I own couldn't sound more different from MBL if the designer made a point of trying. I've auditioned 4 models pretty extensively. The 121 w/sub, the 111, the 116 and the 101. The octave to octave balance of all the MBLs struck me as really distinctive with lots of energy in the mid bass and presence region. Not particularly neutral to my ear, but reasonably balanced overall. YMMV.

The 101 is a "knock your socks off" design and IMHO in a different league than the others, each of which does, however, have some real strengths.

I would add that the model 111 you're looking at has disappointing low end extension (I want to say mid to high 30hz range IIRC)for a speaker at that price point. Bass is very powerful to that point, but the lowest frequencies are MIA. Depending on your taste in program material, this may not matter a whit, but I thought it worth bringing to your attention, anyway. IMO, the MBLs are very exciting designs: what they do well, they do uniquely well (IME). Overall, however, I'm not sure I could live with them over the long haul.

Good Luck

Marty

I've heard the big Beolabs at the Beverly Hills B&O store on at least three occasions. They sound very good till the spl goes up - at which point they become a complete mess featuring compression, significant tonal shift and audible break-up. I'm not talking live rock concert level here, either. It could be unique to the sample/set up at that B&O store, but you would hope that the sales/mgmt people address the issue at some point and I heard the same problem on all 3 visits, which spanned more than a year.

Marty

Amil,

The MBLs are kind of unique in my experience. If you really like 'em, I'd be reluctant to suggest an alternative.

In addition to the distinctive omni design and the really 3d imaging that can result (given the right room and set-up), the MBLs are hugely dynamic and can play at ridiculous SPLs - especially the 101. The Ohms sound more neutral tonally to me, but they can't touch the MBL for high SPL, super dynamic fireworks.

I also own Verity Parsifal Encores. Like the MBL, they feature an audible mid bass hump. Unlike the MBL, they don't offset it with a presence region boost. The result is a more "polite" balance that, while also not -strictly speaking- neutral, often sounds strikingly like real music to me. If you dig MBL, I suspect these aren't a good alternative.

Wilson and B&W both make speakers that (in some ways) recall MBL. To my ear, they each share the a (significantly) milder variation of the "goosed" tonality as well as the great dynamic capability of the MBLs, but their conventional radiating pattern makes them sound different than the omnis. OTOH, the omnis I know reasonably well (Ohm, Mirage, and B&O) are tonally and dynamically different animals. None of the planars I know bark up the MBL tree in any meaningful way.

So I guess I'll second Pedrillo, if you like MBL, go with MBL.

Good Luck

Marty

One note about 121s. I had a similar thought to Pedrillo. I figured that 121s with a particular subwoofer set-up I had in mind might get the MBL glory with a more neutral tonality (or, at least, a tonality more to my taste). When I pursued this with a dealer who carried both the brand of sub that I was considering and MBL, he had some advice.

Evidently, the 121s have some unique design features surrounding their low frequency roll-off behavior. My understanding is that this was an attempt to optimize integration with MBLs own subwoofer. I'm not sure how it would impact their integration with third party subwoofers, but this dealer told me that his attempts to do so drove him nuts.

I guess the message is: proceed with caution.

I haven't heard the Giya, but the Vivid speakers I did hear (briefly @ the LA Stereophile show a couple of years back) also seemed to feature a somewhat "foreward" tonal balance.

Marty