amps for MBL 121's, help please

Hi Sonrock, welcome! I noticed you just recently joined.

Below are some helpful pointers to assist

There is already lots of info. in relation to this, endless reading and in the end only personal opinions and yours might differ.

Click onto my "threads and Answers" and you will be able to find lots of info in relation to such, when you read other members comments you can do the same also and again read info. within.

It's endless, you can also go to the main page of Audiogon

Beside SEARCH type in MBL and click search.
Page will come up with MBL items for sale, scrow down the page to the lower part and you will see;

"mbl" in the Discussion Forums

and below that

"mbl" in the Virtual Systems

click on either and there is endless info.

You referred to CAT product, been there and done that and if you want to know more you can PM by clicking onto my member name and then you will see (send email) this is a personal email off site.

My system;

-MBL 101E's
-VAC Sig. MK2a pre w/phono
-VAC Statement 450 mono blocks
-TW Acustic Black Knight table placed upon a custom made Minus-K platform with a couple of arms/cart combos

The most extraordinary sound I heard with MBL 101 driven by Joule-Electra VZN-300. I am sure that '121" ia a bit easier to srive.

if you don;t want to deal with OTL amplifier's heat then second best, IMO, is the pair of Spectron Musician III monoblocks. Much better then JC-1 (as per reviewers) and less expensive too.

Plus, as you live in England, Musician III is a modular amp and if something going wrong you ship plug-in module(s) by air and in a few days get them back repaired, plug them into amplifier and enjoy the music again. Moreover, they increased warranty to 7 yrs I believe.

Finally, BAT VK600SE-M, Plinius Reference and Pass Labs XA 200.5 will drive these speakers very well too but $$$

Sonrock: You really should consider the Sanders Sound Systems Magtech amplifier. Check out the website at www.SandersSoundSystems.com. The amplifier is rated 500 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 900 watts into 4 ohms and sells for US dollars $5000 and comes with a lifetime warranty and a free 30 day trial. I have owned many high-priced well-known amps and the Magtech is the most satifying amp that I have ever owned. Try it and I really think you'll buy it. It also runs cool and only weighs 54 lbs. Check it out. Cheers and happy listening.

Sonrock, as you can already see from reading the few threads posted above even more amps are thrown into the ring, there is no best just different and unfortuantly you will have to be the one who decides what you prefer and the only real way to do this is to have such within your own set-up and live with for a while.

There's allot more going on than just changing your amps, your room, rest of associated gear and set-up.

My personal flavour when I used solid state amps is to have them paired up with a tube pre-amp.

Good luck and have fun!

Hey Dob, hows it going he doesn't have 101E speakers.

Spectron mono blocks with both upgrades, I had the opportunity to hear a pair within another members set-up who raves about his system as a whole, I was not impressed and without getting into a debate I was not familiar with the system as a whole so who knows what was contributing to this but now I bipass this persons threads posted because the credibilty just isn't there.

The prices of these amps sure have dropped, only a few years ago they were listed with both upgrades for close to $21K and now you can get them for .... substantially less.

Joule, I had the opportunity hear their mono blocks paired up with the MBL 101E's and it was very nice indeed. I was looking at purchasing a pair but then a opportunity came earlier this year "had to book a flight" to hear the 101's paired up with the VAC Statement 450 mono's.

I was there for three days, for me I have never heard anything like this before so I pulled the trigger.

Any changes within your set-up?

@Dob...

Hi, would you mind posting some links to comparisons between the Spectron and JC-1, not being snarky just missed this in my research.

Thanks.