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Rowland Amps with MBL Speakers vs. All MBL System

My reference is the Jeff Rowland Synergy IIi Pre & Model 302 Power Amp.

I recently heard MBL's omni-directional speakers for the 1st time, and was absolutely blown away by their amazing life-like performance. They were in an all MBL system.

Regarding this, I am looking for input from folks who are familiar with both of these lines, or have done some head to head comparrisons of Rowland vs. MBL electronics.

1) In general, how would you decribe the sonic differences between these Rowland components in comparrison to MBL's "Noble" pre and power amps?

2) Do the MBL speakers need to be in an all MBL system to do their magic, or could the MBL speakers be a good match with my Rowland gear?

Any feedback from personal experience would be appreciated.

Thanks
barrelchief
srfeinst
3 posts
 
Hi,

I recently upgraded to MBL 7008 (int. amp in Noble line). I previously had McIntosh C46/MC402 and still have Chord components. I think the MBL amp is very, very good. I've found it to have a somewhat lush midrange, great slam and bottom end kick, very extended, somewhat analytical treble, high pace and rythm - it's definitely a high current design. It is dead silent and build quality is very high. I've been told that it would be a good match for the MBL 121 speaker, but if you go further up the MBL speaker chain, it would be best to go to the 8011 or above.
copperbop
5 posts
 
I currently am driving a full compliment of Mbl speakers with Chord Electronics equipment and I think they sound fantastic together on anything/everything I have thrown at them! I have 101E's on the front L&R, 111RC center channel and 121's on the rear surrounds. I have a Chord DSP 8000 7.1 processor, Chord PM 6000 mono-amps on the front L&R and two Chord SPM 1200c's for the center and surrounds. I was lucky enough to audition the MBL 9008's and new Pass Labs X350.5's at home in my actual system in place of the two Chord 6000's and they both also sounded very good, but I preferred the sound with all the Chord pieces working together. Please understand the Mbl and Pass Labs amps are extrememly good pieces also and I can't think of 1 negative thing to say about them based on the performance in my system! FYI, I rated the X350.5's next best followed by the Mbl 9008's. It is hard to put my finger on exactly why or what caused the Chord amps to sound better to me in my system/room but maybe it is because I am also using a Chord processor and/or the combo with the my Esoteric UX-1.? The Chord pieces are really pretty amazing though in my viewpoint as the 6000's seem to very easily throw out a clean and quiet 1500 w/channel at 4 ohms without even breating hard or getting very hot!

One thing I have found that you probably already know, is that you have to have some pretty serious power/current at 4 ohms to really let the Mbl's, especially the 101E's, perform up to their capability.
mike
30 posts
 
I own Rowland 201's and plan on using them on the mbl 111E's.
My friend is using the mbl 5011 pre with his 201's and it's spectacular drving his Avalons.
I just took delivery of the mbl 6010D pre and hope to ultimately get the 101E spks. when I do, I will first try using two sets of 201's in a bi-amp configuration on the 101E's. There should be more than enough power and the cost compated to the mbl 9006's is so much less.
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