MBL’s Extreme Journey with Concerto Oköln

MBL’s Chief Engineer, Jürgen Reis (beneath), additionally records Cologne’s famed period-instrument ensemble, Concerto Oköln. It was thus solely becoming that two musicians from the ensemble, bassist Jean-Michel Forêt and violoncellist Alexander Scherf (who can also be music director of Concerto Oköln), visited the MBL room at Munich High End to play some music, discuss music historical past, and allow comparability of dwell vs. reproduced sound.

Given the damped nature of MBL’s giant room and the dwell acoustic favored for the ensemble’s CD, nevertheless, comparability wasn’t in in the slightest degree honest. Nonetheless, due to Reis’s superlative engineering, it was attainable to understand how nicely the system granted big presence to the ensemble’s gut-stringed violins. Those strings additionally had a pure liquidity and uncanny breadth of expression. Transparency was supreme.

Doing the honors was MBL’s RX-02 Extreme System (base value $754,400): A 101 X-Treme MkII Radialstrahler system ($389,000/pair in black chrome end) that consists of an enormous pair of audio system and matching sub towers; 4 9011 mono energy amplifiers ($64,100/every), 1621 A CD transport ($33,400), 1611 F D/A processor ($34,200), and 6010 D preamplifier ($32,400).