CES 2012 – MBL North America
[OK. It is about 4:00pm on the 2nd day. Done with 4 of 6 wings on the 29th and 30th floors of the Venetian Towers. We now popup to the 34th and 35th floors for a bit – not too many rooms up here but we will only do about half of them now (my camera’s memory cards filled up) – and then jet over to the Flamingo, get another memory card, and do the shorter hallway on the 4th floor before closing at 6:30pm]
It is hard to communicate, and almost impossible to overstate, the spectacle of the setup in this room.
This was very, very impressive visually – this is a large, large room. The IsoMike / EmmLabs room is like this, but there the Sony speakers are normal sized, and even the previous setups with the big SoundLab speakers there in years past was… well, that was close. Not quite as dynamic or relentlessly engulfing as this was however.
I included several photos of the room [should have taken one with the people and the seating] to try and convey the sense of being there. When we put this in the Gallery Photos, the full-screen photos should do a better job.
It was also impressive sonically. As an aside, I cannot remember a single room playing their system too loud at this show – including this one, one of the prime offenders in years past.
The sound was very well-balanced top to bottom, good even handed dynamics, Enjoyable… I remember thinking that a casual listener, and what I imagine to be the desires of many non-audiophiles out there – would be quite satisfied with this sound – especially for entertaining their friends, at parties etc.
The real problem, from an audiophile / avid listener / music fanatic point of view is that there is not enough subtle details / micro-dynamics etc. for there to be much transparency at all – it is just extremely hard to imagine that there is really a piano ‘out there’, or a guitar, or whatever. To determine if it is a keyboard playing or a piano. Disbelief does not get suspended.
Not sure how important any of this is to the average person [I would guess NOT], but these speakers just do not do these things that we take for granted with other high-end speakers.
But it is really fun to listen to.
The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeakers
The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeakers
The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeakers and MBL amplifiers
The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeakers and MBL amplifiers
The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeaker
The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeaker and 101E MkII speakers
The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeaker
The MBL 101E MkII loudspeaker without cover / cage
The MBL 101E MkII loudspeaker cover / cage
The MBL 101E MkII loudspeaker with cover / cage
Some unknown, potentially faux, MBL Audio component
Some unknown, potentially faux, MBL Audio component
The MBL 1621 Redbook CD transport
The MBL 1621 Redbook CD transport
The MBL 1611 DAC
The MBL 6010 D preamplifier
The MBL 6010 D preamplifier
The MBL 9011 amplifiers
The MBL 9011 amplifiers (white) and 9008 A amplifiers (black)
The MBL 9011 amplifier
Very nice pictures of an awesome looking room Mike! Have you any idea of the king’s ransom for this equipment package? I remember being in a somewhat smaller MBL room at RMAF (2008, 2010?) and not being all that impressed. But if it was the 2008 RMAF, the Marten Coltrane Supremes were more impressive than anything else I heard that year. Although in my price range and size room I also thought the Raidho Ayra C3.0’s were awesome – they ended up in my system. Although I doubt I’ll ever make it to CES, I do plan on attending RMAF again. And reading your blog is proving rewarding. Thanks, Leonard
Have no idea what could be better with this system, nor what lack if detail could possibly be considered “missing”. I have heard MBL at a few shows and I find the detail MUCH better than any conventional cone and dome speaker “this” listener has ever heard. Actually from time to time I read these reports that talk about lack of focus or this or that is missing, and all I can come up with is WTF are they talking about!!!!!!!!!!! I tend to think that some people’s brains are just adjusted to a lifetime of listening from a flat faced box and that’s all they know. When I was a child I spoke as a child, kinda thing???
I listened to Springsteen singing ‘Ghost of Tom Joad’ (for one), and with eyes closed Bruce himself was in the room singing in front of me, all the inner detail all the magic, wanting for nothing. Then when his harp came in holy &$%*, I was at the concert.
Hi S. McKee,
Thanks for your perspective on eat you heard at the show, on this and the other rooms.
I don’t think we should turn this into a what’s right with MBL what’s wrong with MBL thread, but I can say that we ourselves have spent many years each with the SoundLab Ultimate speakers [electrostatic], Acapella Triolon speakers [horn, plasma and box] and of course assorted other box speakers.
I think a better argument for MBL is not that I am wrong in not hearing these things, but whether people should care about these things at all, these things that some people call just meaningless affectations of audiophiles and which have nothing to do with music. Several people with a lot of experience in this industry with the best equipment available have this opinion. I, however, do not [but I listen to their point of view and in the end all I can say is that I sure do enjoy this ‘being wrong’ a heckuva lot! :-)].
Take care,
-Mike
Hi Mike,
Let me say great pictures of the show, you may have the best pictures anywhere on the web of CES 2012! That’s what led me to comment on some of the rooms, (so far anyway). I look forward to possibly sharing some of my thoughts on other rooms time allowing of course.
As far as your thoughts on MBL I may see the problem, horns.
Homie don’t play that! No horns for me my ears won’t stand for horns, I have tried them many times and I despise their artificial detail and sound in general.
So this may fall down to a fact that people hear differently, I happen to have fantastic hearing, always have. Consequently I dislike audio equipment on the detailed side of neutral. What I hear with MBL is “natural detail” nothing over done nothing artificial. Also to calibrate my perception of what is natural I attend the symphony or operas on a regular basis. No amplified music just instruments or singers in a space, the real deal. Real instruments are not focused at you like a plasma laser or a horn, they are not articulated in an attempt to extract more detail than existed in real life, they flow and evolve in three dimensional space.
In addition to your great pictures thanks for letting people bla, bla, bla about their hobby and desire for the best sounding music they can afford. Just as people eat all kinds of food and all tastes are different, so are tastes in sound reproduction. I stick by my impressions simply because what I spend my hard earned money on, I must like.
Great web site hope to see the same great coverage at the next show!