Hi Chris, thanks for the reply back and info. what is the inside distance between your speakers? I don't even have the 101's as of yet, I'm still awaiting for them to arrive which I suppose should now be close to the end of Nov. I really wanted Silver but originally was told would not be able to get them until Feb. next year so I opted for Black/Chrome which is also attractive to get them sooner but received a email yesterday the if I wait until the end of this month I can get Silver so I'll wait.

Regarding the CAT. I currently don't own one but have been looking into getting one, I actually have been communicating with a few individuals and they all seem to be saying that the JL2 Sig. Stereo piece is the one to go with and if for some reason I need even more power than buy another one. Currently I have been very happy with my electronics's including the PASS X-600.5's mono blocks which should drive the MBL's easily but new speakers may mean some changes. I actually just bought the Butler Monrad mono blocks that will be interesting to hear, I have always wanted to get a pair the first time I read the theory behind them along with the build quality and looks. A good friend swears by them and has them hooked-up with Wilson MAXX 2's which replaced his Lamm's and VTL's and he doesn't even look any more for amps. So now I have two sets of amps to play with and which ever one I prefer then the other one will get sold, I'll at that time either get the CAT or VAC. and do it all over again but so far it seems that I'll have to buy new as you don't see any used come up for sale.

I use to own VTL Sig. 450's and the 7.5 pre that was set-up with my Avalon Diamonds which I had set-up in my designated room but all is sold and this room sits empty for now, the Diamonds just could not fill the room appropriately.

Once I get done with my current set-up that room will be next on the list and be a all out assault room, I have my eyes on the big MBL's and some other contenders but I have to say the list price on the MBL's is pretty intense and I may not go that route. I'll put that $$$ towards the new Bentley GT I want and go with say the MM3's etc.

dev November 13, 2007 04:23

Dev.. let's see I answer your questions one at a time.
1. MBL no offers all silver, although I could paint them I suppose... still an option, once I am pretty set, then I will make this acoustically and aestetically better. I spent too much time changing cables, etc, to do new fireplace until I am reasonable??? done.

2. The room is 13 feet wide, I have them closer than optimal I am sure, but it is so the couches don't get in the way of the first soundwave. The soundstage ends up being deeper and less wide, but you definitely want primary sound waves coming at you before the diffused. Other systems, including my quasi-home stereo, I always dampen the first reflection point on the walls, this one I cannot on one side. So the couches actually, because the speakers are sort of inside of them, act to damp some reflected waves.

3. toe-in... It just seems to help the soundstage, and helps tighten the base. and makes a better stereo image. I know what you are saying about the omnis... but I experiment with my stuff infinitely to get my best sound, and they sound better toed-in exactly like that. Imaging on 101s is not razor sharp like watt puppies anyways, it is a little more diffuse, which i think is a good thing, as to me, it makes it seem like each instrument or vocal is its own, unique point source.

4. 9008s... I loved them, I ordered them, they weren't going to come in for awhile, and I was made an offer with trades I couldn;t refuse. I do not use the 3rd amplifier switch on 9011s as it adds a little bit of dynamics, but to me, at the expense of a tad bit of distortion. In fact, for smaller ensembles, I switch off the second amp. According to the dealer, the third switch is for bigger rooms than mine. I will tell you though, that the 9011s have scary scary scary scary dynamics... The closest to live I can imagine, i have to be careful on certain songs.. for instance... Bolero.... something I never really worried about with tubes. I would get the 9008s under most circumstances, they did fine in my room.

5. I would have loved to have heard these with Cats. Paul Hales, who was the president of Hales Designs, told me those were the best amps he ever used, and his stuff had pretty complex impedence curves at times. I know they sounded gorgeous at his factory. I would have loved to try those or the VTLs, but I knew of nowhere to get the CATs, and couldn't audition the VTLs in a timeframe acceptable to me. I loved how the vtls s400 sounded on JMLabs Utopia Be... I really liked the sound of my Mac on the 101s, but not enough cojones... let me know how your CAT sounds.

Cheers,
Chris

mount_rose_music November 12, 2007 19:55

Vinyl, vinyl, enough with the vinyl! oi. vey vinyl...vinyl.... seriously... in my old system I had a benz micro glider, basis 2000 and pass xono, and it kicked butt on any cd player I had (linn magic, krell 20i, wadia 861 but that was decently close) Then I added a Koetsu Black and used the internal option of the 6010d, and it didn;t sound very good. Now I didn't spend a whole lotta time adjusting it in, I was busy with other upgrades, but it really didn't do it for me on the first few listens.

On order right now is a transrotor orfeo 30/20/10 and graham arm, not sure what kinda cartridge to get. I've been waiting for months for the graham arm, anybody else have this problem? but now I have another problem, if I get the turntable, I can't really get a top loading cd player IE the 1611/1621 combo, which is just visually stunning at least, and incredibly smooth and transient. I may just cancel the turntable combo if the arm takes any more time...grrr... so I am thinking transfiguration orpheus, only because so many people I respect seem to use them , AJ Conti to name one. Why get rid of the basis? Just because I heard the transrotor with triplanar and shelter, it sounded very good, and then it looked exquisite. Also for whatever reasons, the combo I have now just no soundy good, and again, i freely admit it could be me just not spending enough time dialing it in. What happens mostly is I come home from work, stressed, and pop in a cd and make trouble go away... like a glass of wine for most people. The ritual of cleaning the vinyl, zapping it, etc, mostly, I end up just too tired or lazy to go through that much... but then again, nothing beats Aja on heavy plastic

mount_rose_music November 12, 2007 19:21

What a great looking system! Glad to see you are planning on adding a turntable. All I could think when I first viewed your system was, "all this no vinyl." Once you get dialed in with a vinyl rig that is on par with your system you will be in heaven.

ejlif November 12, 2007 16:53

Pretty sweet view from your place!

linnie01 November 11, 2007 14:01

Hi Chris, it's looking great and I'm sure the sound most likely competes with the view you have. Those 9011's sure are big, does MBL not offer all silver, I noticed the face is silver but the rest is all black. If one could get them in all silver they would at least appear less dominating in appearance.

Where your speakers are positioned how wide is this area from (left) window to (right) wall, how far off the side walls are they? I noticed you have them toed in substantially, the top driver components working as a 360 dispersion really should not matter regarding sound characteristics or does it? If so what? is it the base part of the speakers with the 2 ports on the front that seem to make the most difference in changing the sound characteristics? This is going to be a whole new learning curve for me because mostly I'm use to dialing in driver speakers and normally end up with the tweeter firing just outside of my ears. Chris I believe you had mentioned that you had the 9008 mono blocks which are substantially less in $$$ than the 9011's, what did you find in the sound characteristics going to the big boys 9011's.

I should be getting my 101's in a couple of weeks as for what ever reason their first delivery time was changed.

It's going to be interesting to find out how they sound with my current gear, I would like to hear them paired up with a CAT JL2 Sig. stereo amp and if I like that sound then move up to hearing them with the JL3 Sig. mono blocks and also with two VAC 300.1's and their Sig. pre.

dev November 11, 2007 04:42

System edited: The Tara Power Screen is a big improvement in this system over the Shunyata Hydra 8. Instruments sound like instruments. A metallic sheen that the system had is now gone. Wanna see MOST of the cable contenders I have been messing with.. see the posted pix.. The one thing I can say definitely is that my system does not like anything much with Silver in it, it may be because 101s have tipped up highs, but it is what it is. Still gotta do dedicated lines... and I could rant about sound treatments, but with the view I have, I am not going to cover the windows(30 feet long stretching from ceiling to floor). If you look closely, between the rug, the plant, the rack, the vase on the rack, the fireplace screen, the heavy couches and pillows, you can see a lot of subtle room treatments not obvious to a novice in acoustics:) Tried the 1611 1621 combo, smooth smooth smooth, but I am not sure realistic. I think dealers listen so much that they do not necessarily like real, they like easy on the ears... I try to use live music as much as I can to compare, I play tenor sax and flute, my daughter plays cello and drums..... now if my wife could only sing we could be the Kinda Diana Krall trio Cheers. C

mount_rose_music November 10, 2007 23:41

added recent pix, but audiogon ate the edit

mount_rose_music November 10, 2007 23:20

should post tonight. Haven't updated the pix for a year.

mount_rose_music November 09, 2007 08:36

Great system. Hope you will post pictures of your current setup with the MBL monos!

hobby November 09, 2007 01:19

dgad...I am surprised as well, but it is what it is. I have a dealer who has transrotor.. triplanar and 901x... I want him to bring it over. The only other thing I can figure is that maybe the phone section of the 6010d may not be a good match, or a good phono section, but the analogue rig as is just is not good, relatively:(
thanks for your input.

mount_rose_music April 06, 2007 00:47

Reading your turntable comments. Wow. Meitner creams them. I barely turn on my Meitner - though not the SE. It is good but nothing compares to Analogue for me. I would suggest that buy one of the great combinations. Find a proven combination. Triplanar or Phantom, and a good turntable. Try the right cartridge in the right arm & you are set.

dgad April 04, 2007 21:21

Great system. I've enjoyed following its progress. You asked about power conditioning. Here's my 2 cents copied from another thread (the moral is, I recommend a passive unit):

I have a dedicated 20A line for my amp and another for my preamp+front end. Porter Ports on each line (thanks Albert-excellent product.)

Initially, I tried various combinations of plugging my amp, preamp, and front end into an ExactPower EP-15A voltage regulator/conditioner. The system sounded better than with no conditioner, yet constrained. So, I tried a Nordost Thor passive unit. With the passive unit, the system really opened up. There was more life.

I now plug the amp straight into the wall; use the Thor for the preamp and front end; and have relegated my Exactpower to another circuit for video components, where it noticeably improves the video quality of my plasma. Downside is the Thor's expensive. There are less expensive options.

bigamp March 30, 2007 03:50

Glenhifi, thanks. I think my wife would rather have it hidden in bottom room though ;) her friends tell her they wouldn't allow it in their house, good thing I owned the house before I married her!

mount_rose_music March 27, 2007 23:07

System edited: Finally I make an amplifier decision... and the big change, after 4 monthes and 7 different amps was.... big MBLs. I didn't want an all same brand system, I didn't want those "coffins" as my wife calls them. But welll, by selling every single extra piece of hifi I have collected over the past 12 years to a more than fair dealer... here they are.. the big 9011s! Without, bashing other brands, the MBL amps gave me the headroom and oomph that I could not get from my beloved tubes, the bass oomph that allowed me to, for the first time, get rid of my also beloved Rel Stentor II that were required for Watt Puppies, Alto BEs and Revel Studios. There are other very fine amps out there, and this very careful, very thought out upgrade has taught me that complete system matching is most critical. I am many months into this and I still have to do power conditioner comparisons, try to get a dedicated circuit in that room, check different pre-amp to amp cables, and probably continue to mess around with speaker cables. Tried Nordost Tyre with Magic Woofer, bad... changed the bottom of the biamp to Acoustic Zen shotgun and satori, still sucked. Replaced the bottom end with Heimdahl, pretty good. changed the nordost for satori on top, and shotguy on the bottom, better. Magic Woofer on top, Transparent Super on bottom, bad bad bad. Think I need to keep looking for ultimate speaker cables and no, I am not so crazy as to try what MBL recommends, the Tara Labs Zero. No cable unless gold braided with EMC shielded enclosure is worth that much in my opinion. Then again, six months ago I would have said there is no way I would buy the 9011s. I am going to try a Transrotor table with Triplanar arm. The Basis 2000 with Rega 300 and Koetsu black sounds like crap conpared to the Meitner rig. But, the Meitner rig has had the CD replaced 4 months ago because it broke with the CDSE, and that just broke, which has really broken my heart as I love the sound, but don't want to keep sending a unit back. 18,000 stuff shouldn;t break twice in four months with two different units. Quite frankly, when most of my old Krell stuff broke 8 years ago, it got me so upset that I left the hobby for 7 years. So cable recommendations, power conditioners and turntable rig recommendations are solicited now. I am going to use the preamp in the MBL preamp...no room on my rack for a different preamp..pix to follow, thanks for looking.

mount_rose_music March 27, 2007 23:01

Great system plus.. hooray on your comments of having a system the whole family can listen too and enjoy from various points in the your house. Music for everyday real world living is even better yet as you can listen all the more.

glenfihi March 12, 2007 11:21

bflowers.... haven't tried yet. The Halcro DM-88s are actually very very good, as opposed to my opinion of the older Halcros... I need to try them single ended vs balanced in the current mode, and then I try the Boulders, the only way I can get a home demo on the Boulder is to prepay the entire cost, which kinda sucks.

Cheers!
C

mount_rose_music January 09, 2007 08:41

Any follow up on the Boulder 2060?

bflowers January 04, 2007 20:55

Loxodrome.. thanks:)

mount_rose_music January 04, 2007 15:11

tboooe
I think it is a wonderful preamp...very very transparent with a hint of sweetness is about the only thing I can find wrong with it. I always had ARC preamps previously. I can't say enough good about it except the price:) thanks for the compliments on the system, gotta show a new pic

Sorry it took so long to answer, I am demoing Halcro DM-88s recently:)

Cheers!
Chris

mount_rose_music January 04, 2007 15:10

Excelent. I fully agree about the "sweet spot". For acoustics I suggest you research the Acoustic Systems Resonators. These will do all you ever wanted without killing your aestathics. Even Harry Pearson has discovered them. Look at 6moons.com for 2 reviews.

loxodrome December 30, 2006 01:13

Very nice system! I heard the MBL speakers and loved them.

bobgates December 29, 2006 13:37

Hi, I luv your system. I am curious what you think about the MBL preamp? I am seriously considering a major upgrade to my Classe cp-700 pre, possibly to tubes. Even though the MBL is not tube based I have heard good things about it. I would appreciate any feedback you can give.

Thanks in advance.

tboooe December 29, 2006 10:30

System edited: Added the MBL 6010d to the mix... great preamp and it gives me the ability to add 4 amps...so maybe I can still have tubes. Tried Nordost Heimdahl, Transparent Ultra, Nordost Frey on the high side of the MBLs and actually, for much less money, the Acoustic Zen Hologram II sounded better, and the Satori sounded better than all the above on the bass of the bi-wire... I replaced the Synergistic with Nordost Valhala between cd player and amp, and it was much more transparent, a little less body, better soundstaging, definitely more "natural".. I had also tried Harmonic Tech Pro Silway II, transparent Ultra and Harmonic Tech Magic cables, but the Valhalla trumped them all, at least in this spot. Also tried the Meridian 808 for fun against the Meitner.. OWWW... not good. I had to makey the Meridian go bye bye fast. Nice when you get confirmation that what you bought is pretty damn good. Now then, gotta find those perfect amps... have demoed the MBL9008a (really good, but only demoed them about 2 hours, and also the Halcro DM88s, which seem to get better with time and experimenting with the setting in the back of the MBLs, they seem to get pretty congested with orchestral or complex passages, but I can say they are worlds better than the previous Halcros... much more musical. I got fooled once in awhile with the MBLs, but not with the Halcros, at least thus far. MORE TO COME.......Stay tuned...

mount_rose_music December 27, 2006 14:08

I love your posts. No pretentiousness,, no axe to grind with anyone, looked at some of your other ones. You are the second person that has recommended the Boulder, but I am such a damn glass head. You may not need the REL, but I have yet to have speakers, including two iterations of WattPuppies, JMLab Altos, Revel Studios, that didn't benefit in varying degrees by adding a sub just to fill in the lower level. Play the theme from Mission Impossible, or the Eagles live Hotel California, and I think you'll see you will want to keep the REL. Course, hving not used solid state for about 8 years, maybe not;)

Cheers and thanks for the input,
Chris

mount_rose_music November 30, 2006 10:50