Phrases like “beyond state-of-the-art”, “beyond one’s imagination” and “absolute best” come to mind when discussing certain special items, like the Bugatti Veyron (shown below). After my listening experience yesterday at the CA|BOOM3 Show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, any one of those phrases, or all three for that matter, would apply to the MBL Hi Fi “Reference” system that you see above, the Abso!ute Sound magazine Editors’ Choice Award winner for 2005 all wired together by cables and with power conditioning supplied by Tara Labs.

The picture is a bit dramatic, the speaker towers are only about 6 feet tall, and the system that I listened to had components all in piano-gloss black with sexy crystal-blue lighting and info displays. But like with the Veyron, it’s not really the looks that get you, (although they do!) — but the quickness, speed and competence that matters. With this MBL setup, it’s all about the sound!

But I do need to set this up just a little bit, ’cause it’s a might hard for this ol’ Okie to articulate into words what it was like to listen to music coming out of those melon-shaped speakers — but I’m gonna give it a try! First of all, the reason that I was at this show is because one of my longtime client/friends is a dealer for MBL Hi-Fi, and I had prepared some materials for his exhibit and an initial web presence — we’ll be building out his entire site, the Audio Salon, over the next few weeks.

Second, a trade show booth in a large high-ceiling space is not a great listening environment — metal outer walls, the afore mentioned 30-40 ft. ceilings, hard concrete floor — but everything was sounding pretty fine as I walked up to his exhibit. Set up like a small 10 x 15 foot room, with the Reference system on the long “back wall”, and the red system set up on the short side “back wall” — yeah, he had scored a corner space in the very back, which is a very good thing. He plays a few tunes — Alicia Keys, the Boss, Boz Skaggs — then some modern French love songs — a bit of opera. This was truly music becomes eclectic!

Crowds came and went, most are astounded at the quality of the sound — a few pick up information — there’s an understanding that if you need to ask the price, well, you know. Then a very California-looking couple, very Napa Valley, stopped by and were intrigued. “How much?” for the big system? “Oh, that much?” Well, the red system is about 1/5th the price, and we had the Andrea Bocelli CD Romanza in that one, cued up and ready to go. He played the duet with Sarah Brightman, Time to Say Goodbye.

“Amazing! Sounds great!” She turns to him and says, “Remember, we saw this at the Bowl?”

Then my buddy says, “Wait until you hear this”, as he takes the CD over to the Reference system. The woman turns to me saying, “It can’t possibly sound any better than that.”

“Just wait”, I replied. “Prepare to be amazed.”

The volume was set up way less than half on the preamp — no way to really crank it up in that environment — might get thrown out of the show! The music began, and everyone visiting the booth gasped. If you closed your eyes, you would have sworn that you were center-stage, first-section at the Hollywood Bowl. It was that clean, that definitive, that powerful!

I looked at her and she was wiping her eyes. The music had brought her to tears. She leaned over to her husband and said, “Maybe instead of redoing the house, we’ll buy a stereo system.” When I left a half hour later, they were still there . . . listening, enjoying.

I bit down on my own knuckle in order to maintain some decorum — I was that moved. I’ve quite frankly never heard anything like what was coming out of a sound system. It acutally sounded live — you could place all the instruments in the sound space, and you never had the feeling that the sound was coming from those odd-shaped speakers. Like I wrote before, it sounded/felt like you were at a Hollywood Bowl type event. I’ve been assured that it sounds even better in a home. Hard to imagine.

So, bottom line — how much? Well, how ’bout we don’t be gauche — instead of talking in cold-hard-cash, let’s talk cars. A beginner system would cost you a base-level Pontiac Solstice, the red system a base level 3-Series BMW, and the Reference system would set you back about three well-optioned Cadillac Escalades with a forth ‘Sclade thrown in to cover the Tara Labs’ goodies. Yeah, if you have to ask . . .

I told my friend that this experience reminded me of Jeremy Clarkson’s Top Gear road test of the amazing Bugatti Veyron where he relates this.

“Why dream”, I asked, “about something there’s no point dreaming about?”
(…)
Why bother? It’s too expensive. I’m not going to dangle such a thing under the noses of the readers knowing full well their chances of having enough money to buy one are about the same as being gnawed to death by a platoon of woodlice.
(…)
The team had been given the shape of the body and told there could be no alterations. They’d been told too that it must do 400kph [252 mph] and must produce 1,000bhp.

They weren’t fighting to beat Mercedes or BMW. These guys were fighting to beat heat, and friction and lift. They were fighting nature.
(…)
At a stroke then, the Veyron has rendered everything I’ve ever said about any other car obsolete. It’s rewritten the rule book, moved the goalposts and in the process, given Mother Nature a bloody nose.

I can’t find the quote from the end of his 38 minute Veyron video, but the gist is that the experience of driving this amazing car from Italy to London is bittersweet, because he knows that he had driven the finest, highest performing automobile ever built, and that most likely will never be eclipsed — and that he’ll never again experience driving that 1.2 million dollar plus machine.

I felt a bit like that yesterday. Aspiring to own an MBL Reference system is not in my personal reality. But, unlike Clarkson and the Veyron, I’ve got a buddy that says I can come over anytime I feel like really listening to my music. Bringing much joy to life — now that’s what good friends are for! (db)

Technorati Tags: MBL Hi-Fi, Bugatti Veyron, CA Boom, the Audio Salon

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 25th, 2006 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Blinded by Science, Just Too Cool!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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