Cart: 0 Item (s)
AU$1,781.00
MK S150 THX 5.1 Ultra Speaker System
Home Cinema Choice
June 2010
Feel the Force: A 5.1 speaker system with Star Wars approval
The only trouble with truly durable performance-bred professional items is that they don't need upgrading or replacing too often. Which might be why Miller & Kreisel, renamed MK Sound after a restructuring a while back, now sells regular consumer speaker systems.
These S150 THX cabinets aren't to be underestimated, though; they're big boxes that sound rich, sweet, damned loud and breathtakingly dynamic.
The children's 'toon Madagascar is a great test disc, with the surround mix provoking a lovely sense of Africa, and this MK Sound array revelled in it.
The susurrations of the grasslands and the night sounds were deliciously clean and divorced from the boxes, and I was immersed into the environment the sound designers created. That all the many zebras are voiced by Chris Rock is funny, and yet I could make out dozens of slightly different Chris Rocks chattering away during the herd scenes.
Cranked up, and it just got louder without any trace of stress or effort. The flashback sequence where Alex the lion is stolen and nailed inside a crate nearly lifted me off the seat with each hammer blow.
Now this has to be down to the incredibly efficient subwoofers I had on test. Although sold as a package with one MX350 MkII, HCC also auditioned a 5.2 set and, oh my, was it better than just twice the bass! The sheer scale of all of the sound was immense – with four 12in drivers and around 750W of a power, the air-shifting ease is fabulous.
The woofers pack their twin drivers in a push-pull configuration, so when one is all the way into its magnet gap and ready to shove violently back out, the other is at its mechanical limit and ready to spring back into the chassis. This offers both cones a degree of electro-mechanical support to each other and, with the lower driver's acoustic loading (I reckon the bottom chamber is in fact a massively wide-angled ported device rather than simply an exit point) the result can de-bone you down to way lower than 20Hz. Blimey.
The rears are what MK Sound calls 'Tripoles', as they have a regular direct radiating midbass and tweeter on the front but also a pair drivers firing fore and aft, dipole style. These 3.5in cones are big enough to play mids but small enough to reach into high frequencies, and add the dipolar ambience that gives them THX adherence and a great snappy presentation.
And the fronts? Well, these big, sealed lumps are pig-ugly with their grilles off, as the designer has simply slapped a lump of foam on the front baffles to keep the three tweeters' outputs from interfering with each other close to the box.
As the sound extends a bit further out, though, you get the synergy of all three tweeters added together, along with some real dark-arts stuff going on in the internal crossover department.
The resulting sound makes them professional grade – there's a set of these in the sound design and editing suites at Lucas film's Skywalker Ranch.
Rick McCallum, producer of the originally Star Wars trilogy swears by 'em, apparently
Anything good enough for Rick is good enough for us, but remember these are for dedicated cinema rooms only, where the lights are dimmed and you won't be able to see the speakers mounted on walls via their threaded bushings.
As they only come in Henry Ford's choice of shades, they are meant to be heard and yet visually ignored. In normal living rooms, they'll look as domestic as a HumVee in khaki. But if you're planning a full-on cinema install, do yourself a favour and audition this system.
LA Audio File
September 2009
by Kevin Nakano
MK Sound has re-released the legacy S-150THX speaker system with SS-150 Surrounds and the MX-350THX subwoofer, all of which have been updated with significant changes using the latest driver and circuit design technology. We had the opportunity to review the new S-150THX for our front LCR channels along with the new MX-350THX subwoofer. Our current speaker system uses the original S150THX speakers with a pair of original MX-350THX subwoofers, so it was of great interest to us to hear the new products.
Legacy versus Latest
Our original S-150THX front channels have provided our home theater with reference quality audio for the past 8 years. Needless to say we were quite excited to hear the new S-150THX from the Danish company that took over M&K. Much of the original S-150THX remains intact with a newer and improved tweeter design that is said to offer lower distortion and more definition. The new S150THX speaker looks virtually the same as the legacy model we bought back in 2001. With slight differences in the cabinetry with smoother edges and a glossy finish. Sonically, they are surprisingly similar and in fact slightly more defined than what we currently have in our system. We say slightly because the sound is so similar it might be a matter of taste. Those who liked the original S150THX will most likely enjoy the sound of the new design.
On the Back
The all-metal binding posts on the back of the new S-150THX speakers are similar to the old design and accept a wide variety of cable termination options. We connected banana plugs into our speakers and find that they work very well. What has changed on the back of the S-150THX is the mounting pattern. Since the new speaker has a smaller termination panel, the mounting patterns are provided on the top and bottom.
S-150THX Impedance
The S-150THX has a nominal impedance rating of 4 ohms. We measured the impedance of the S-150THX using our Sencore SP295 Sound Analyzer, sweeping frequencies from 20-20kHz. The lowest impedance we measured was 3.3 ohms at 200 Hz. The peak impedance was 27.7 ohms at 2kHz. Our measurements concur with the nominal impedance rating of this speaker. We also recommend using a good, high current power amplifier given the impedance characteristics of this speaker.
MX-350THX Subwoofer
The new MX-350THX subwoofer takes on most of the attributes of the original design, yet has changed the main power amplifier from a traditional linear amplifier to a new high efficiency design. The push-pull dual driver configuration in a sealed cabinet delivers deep, high impact bass with excellent articulation. The design virtually eliminates even-order harmonic distortion by having both the front and back of the drivers work together to double the sound output while canceling out driver non-linearities. The result is in-room response flat to well below 20 Hz with amazing power and authority. The long-throw bass drivers use an undercut core with an asymmetrical voice coil mounting assembly with a very linear magnetic motor. The drivers look and feel much the same as the earlier design with treated cones. The surround material on our 8 year old MX-350THX subwoofers have held up well, so we expect the same longevity from the new design. MK Sound implements their proprietary Headroom Maximizer IV circuitry that is designed to prevent amplifier clipping for enhanced deep bass resolution with reduced distortion. The Linear Phase Low-pass Filter optimizes system performance and simplifies set-up. In virtually all cases, regardless of the room, listener location, or speakers, the overlapping acoustic output of the satellites and subwoofer will sum to create a seamless transition between the upper range of the subwoofer and the lower range of the S-150THX satellite speakers. MK Sound tightly controls the System Q, keeping the drivers, enclosure and the amplifier tightly damped (low Q), which results in extremely tight and articulate bass.
Instead of the rough matte black finish of the legacy subwoofer, the new MK Sound MX-350THX has a smooth satin surface that matches the finish of the new S-150THX speakers. The cabinet also has a nice thin cut along the top that adds to the modern look. MK Sound includes a set of rubber feet that screw into the base of the cabinet to adjust for uneven surfaces. They even provide a set of white gloves to keep finger print off the smooth surface when handling the unit.
The original MX350THX weighs 78 pounds with its linear amplifier and conventional power supply. The new MX350THX subwoofer weighs 56 pounds, 22 pounds less than the earlier design. The subwoofer measures 23.5” x 15.3” x 20” and has not changed in size. The cabinet is heavily braced and provides the most stable platform for the drivers to eliminate any resonances, buzzes and rattles that are common in cheaply constructed subwoofers.
Legacy MX-350THX
The original M&K Sound MX-350THX MK II subwoofer used a linear power amplifier to drive the pair of 12-inch bass drivers. The majority of the back panel was dedicated to a large heatsink to dissipate the power generated by the amplifier. The heavy cabinet design, drivers and the power supply and amplifier resulted in a subwoofer weighing almost 80 pounds. Power supplies for the USA and European markets are different, which further complicates the required inventory on the legacy design. The original MX-350THX MKII did not have a power switch, so once plugged in, it stayed on constantly. Some audiophiles prefer this as it keeps the amplifiers at a constant temperature for optimal performance.
New MX-350THX
The new MX-350THX subwoofer has a much cleaner look on the rear panels thanks to the new BASH (Bridged Amplifier Switching Hybrid) amplifier technology. In addition to more power (400W versus 350W) with the new design, the BASH amplifier offers many benefits to subwoofer manufacturers that make it an attractive alternative to conventional linear designs. BASH takes the best of Class AB (sonic performance) and Class D (efficiency) amplifiers to create a new breed of power amplifiers. The result is a great sounding amplifier with excellent efficiency. In addition, the switching power supply design does not require heavy magnetics or large transformers making the overall amplifier much lighter and cheaper to manufacture. In addition, the design works with both 120V/60Hz (USA) as well as 220V-240V/50Hz (European) power with a simple fuse change.
The BASH amplifier tracks the incoming signal so that the amplifier’s supply rails are just above the amplifier’s voltage output reducing the amount of heat generated by the output devices. The sonic differences between the legacy design and the new design was somewhat noticeable, yet we did not hear a significant sonic advantage over the legacy design. Like the earlier design, the new MX-350THX subwoofer produced very satisfying levels of clean articulate low frequency bass for our audio and home theater system.
The three-way Power switch has the option of being set to Auto On that saves power when no input signal is detected. Some users may find this mode annoying as you have to wait for the subwoofer to turn on when music or a movie soundtrack starts. Keeping the subwoofer on also has the potential advantage of maintaining thermal stability for optimal audio performance. While most of the controls and features are the same from the earlier design, MK Sound has added a balance XLR input and pass-through on the rear panel. This is a great addition for those with long cable runs since this interface offers much better 60 Hz hum noise immunity.
The Low-pass Filter control can be set to one of three different settings. The first is the THX mode, which bypasses all low-pass filtering in the subwoofer and completely relies on the THX controller to provide the low-frequency signal to the subwoofer with the 80Hz and 24-dB/octave crossover characteristics. The variable mode allows the user to select the best crossover frequency for his/her setup with a variable control. The third setting is a fixed 80Hz and 24-dB/octave low-pass filter built into the subwoofer.
The Bass Level can be set to two different settings depending on the type of processor used in the system. The THX mode has a fixed level and is designed to be used with a THX certified processor. The variable mode allows the user to adjust the level of the subwoofer using the variable control. When using the variable mode, the setting marked Reference is the same level the THX mode uses.
The Bass EQ switch has two settings, THX and Anechoic. The THX setting produces the flattest response and is recommended for most installations. The Anechoic setting produces a flat anechoic response, which results in an increase in level below 30Hz due to room gain. This increase is about 12 dB/octave. The Anechoic setting is provided for measurement purposes and for those who might want this sonic profile. However, this setting limits the subwoofer's output and dynamic range.
The Phase switch is used to control the phase of the subwoofer output. There are two positions, "+" for in-phase and "-" for inverted-phase. The only way to know what the best setting should be is to try both and determine which position produces the highest level output. Positioning of the subwoofer as well as room dimensions affect the desired phase setting.
Bottom Driver
The new MX-350THX has a different looking driver than the legacy design, but has similar build quality and construction. The large magnet structure used to be a concern for those with CRT-based displays, so M&K placed a second (bucking) magnet in the opposite direction to reduce the stray magnetic field of the woofer. This effectively cancels much of the stray B field, which can cause problems with conventional CRT displays. The older design had the additional magnet glued to the bottom as seen in the photo. The latest MK350THX MkII driver design has the bucking magnet integrated in the base of the driver. I also noticed the speaker wiring was a bit heavier in the older design, but this should not be an issue with the short wire run.
We didn't use the internal low-pass filter mode in the MX-350THX because our THX processor took care of this for us. Instead, we set the subwoofer crossover switch to THX and took advantage of our THX processor, which allowed us to seamlessly blend the MX-350THX with the our S-150THX front and SS-250 rear channels. While the SS-150THX surrounds may work well for the vast majority of home theater systems, we like the idea of having a full set of five S-150THX channels in our listening environment. For our review, we used our legacy SS-250 surround speakers in the rear to match the front channels and the results were spectacular.
System Performance
Our review system took advantage of Denon's highly regarded AVR-5308CI receiver for the front-end electronics. This THX-Ultra2 rated receiver has amazing sound from an all-in-one unit. The crossover frequency was set to the standard THX reference of 80Hz. We used our OPPO BDP-83 Blu-ray player to provide a variety of source material from various disc formats. This player has excellent performance and supports Blu-ray, DVD-Audio, multi-channel SACD as well as most other formats. We played the DVD-Audio mix of the Eagles - Hotel California in 5.1 and it was quite an experience. The acoustic guitar on the Hotel California track sounded fantastic on this speaker system with transient detail as each string was picked. Deep bass reproduction was tight and made for an impressive demonstration of the system's capabilities. The sonic character of the new S-150THX maintains a well-focused image with minimal vertical dispersion to keep floor and ceiling reflections under control. The result is a focused sound without secondary reflections to blur the image. MK Sound recommends using an amplifier rated at 25-400 watts, but we feel anything less than 100W is insufficient for this speaker especially if you are expecting what we do out of this design. In our case, the Denon line level outputs fed a Parasound 5-channel HCA2205AT amplifier that provided excellent drive capability. The sound produced by the S-150THX speakers were both articulate and powerful, something not always easy for a speaker to do. We can see why they work so well for studio engineers who mix movie soundtracks. What I like most about the S-150THX design is the ability to drive these speakers hard and still get a satisfying and non-fatiguing sound from them. The new S-150THX is excellent and has much of the same character of the original design.
The MK Sound S-150 speaker system is designed for the serious audio and home theater enthusiast with five S-150THX channels and a single MX-350THX subwoofer. Build quality of this system is excellent and sets it apart from most of the multi-channel speaker systems we have reviewed. We were very pleased with the performance with music as well as movies.
Blu-Ray
Movie soundtracks were exceptionally clear and subtle nuances were reproduced with fine textures. Both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks decoded on our Denon AVR-5308CI delivered unprecedented resolution and dynamic range. The Blu-ray version of Wall-E demonstrated the virtual reality state-of-the-art animation can provide in our own theater rooms. Stunning picture quality accompanied by high resolution multi-channel audio made for an virtual world experience. The MK Sound S-150 system provided the ability to reproduce the soundtrack in its entirety from the subtle mechanical movements to the thunderous explosions of rocket engines firing. The MX-350THX subwoofer not only reproduced deep bass from these scenes, but did so in a way that didn't sound muddy or boomy. Bass reproduction was tight and punchy with the authority of well designed subwoofer. Even at higher levels the MX-350THX produced excellent bass without breaking up or bottoming out.
Conclusion
While MK Sound has recently changed hands, the company's product line continues to be solid and provides the sonic experience the original M&K was well known for. We are pleased with the new S-150THX speakers and MX-350THX subwoofer and believe customers will be quite happy with the build and sound quality. The original S-150THX speakers have a well established history in the professional audio industry with numerous awards for "Best Sound" on many popular soundtracks.
MK Sound products are distributed by The Dolphin Group (in the USA) and sold through ABT Electronics (a large family-owned business located in Illinois). ABT Electronics has been around since 1936 and has a knowledgeable and experienced sales team. The company also has more than 90 percent of its business from repeat and referred customers, which is incredible and is a testament to their customer satisfaction.
The S-150 Speaker System is designed to offer customers great sound with excellent build quality, whether the need is for home theater or audio. While the cost of the standard S-150 system ($7,400 retail) is significant, performance and build quality is among the best out there. For those looking to have the ultimate speaker system with five S-150THX speakers as well as a second MX-350THX subwoofer, the system price will jump to $10,800. We have been using the M&K S150 system for all of our reviews and have not had the urge to change speakers in eight years.
Stereophile
March 1997
by Wes Phillips
In the summer of 1996, SGHT editor Lawrence Ullman made me an offer I couldn't refuse: "Wes," he asked, "how would you like to review M&K's new THX speaker package?"
"Sure," I replied.
"Great! M&K president Ken Kreisel wants to come to Santa Fe to set it all up and demonstrate his high-tech test array."
I knew what that meant—I was going to have to clean up the home theater. No sacrifice is too great for SGHT, so I vacuumed and spritzed and polished in preparation for the visit.
In 1973, M&K (Miller & Kreisel Sound Corporation) more or less invented the satellite/subwoofer configuration that dominates an entire sector of the loudspeaker market today. It could even be argued that in freeing loudspeakers from the size constraints inherent in full-range designs, subwoofers made multichannel home theaters possible. (For more on this, see my interview with Ken Kreisel elsewhere in this issue.)
No matter. M&K have used the last 20-plus years to hone their original concept, while consistently providing audiophiles and, more recently, videophiles, with intelligently designed, completely thought-out, compact speaker systems—which, thanks to their state-of-the-art subwoofers, sacrifice none of the transient impact or bottom-end bloom of live music.
Stand and deliver
Several days before Kreisel's arrival, we received an immense shipment of boxes. While the system itself consists of two subwoofers, two surrounds, and left, right, and center speakers, we also received two large cast-iron speaker-stand bases (ST-1), two smaller speaker-stand bases (ST-2), two sizes of mounting brackets (Standard ST Tilt Bracket and Short ST Tilt Bracket), and several of M&K's passive high-pass filters and volume controls. Obviously, the M&K system is mature—it includes every accessory necessary to work under any circumstance.
M&K offers something like 50 mounting accessories, but I was most impressed by their cast-iron speaker-stand bases. Manufactured by York (the barbell people), these bases are heavy. They're threaded to accept ¾" pipe with standard plumbing thread, which means you can order the length of pipe you need at any full-service hardware store. I did, and walked out with the correct pipes for front and rear speakers in less than half an hour. M&K also sells pipe covers, which present a more civilized appearance than the raw pipe, but I bought some foam pipe wrap at the hardware store that worked just fine and cost next to nothing.
I've installed wood mounting plates in my home theater to allow me to change surrounds frequently without Swiss-cheesing my walls, but the cast-iron base/pipe/tilting bracket system from M&K is easier to use and infinitely adjustable. I can meet THX spec, with the surrounds two feet above the listener's head, or change the length of pipe and really float the speaker up on high. The ST-2 base and 6" of pipe allow you to mount center-channel speakers where they do the most good—either on top of a monitor or under a screen—and then aim them at the listening position through the 17-degree range of tilt capability. Even if you're not interested in M&K's speakers, you should consider their mounting hardware. It has become my new standard.
S-150 and S-150AC THX speakers
Given the thought that has gone into something as basic as mounting hardware, you'd assume that the S-150 satellite speakers would be thoroughly considered—and you'd be right. The speakers are compact, measuring 12½" tall by 10½" wide by 12½" deep. They are not, however, conventionally boxlike—the face of the speaker angles 45 degrees, putting the three vertically mounted tweeters on the outside edge and farther into the room than the two midrange drivers.
There are foam pads between the two 5¼" midrange cones as well as between the three tweeters; this novel driver array is designed to make the speakers as directional as possible in the vertical dimension. Says designer Kreisel, "The goal is to make a vertically directional loudspeaker, so that it doesn't cause ceiling and floor reflections. The S-150 is designed to be listened to on-axis in the vertical plane. Period. The physics that make it directional also make it have lobing off-axis, and it's the lobing that gives the speaker directivity. These speakers are designed to be listened to on-axis, plus or minus a couple of degrees." According to Kreisel, this is part of the THX specification that is not commonly understood—you're supposed to listen to THX speakers on-axis, plus or minus nothing.
There's an additional benefit that derives from the use of multiple drivers: power handling capabilities are substantially increased. For the 150 series, Kreisel designed what he calls a Phase Focused Crossover, which takes a three-dimensional approach to designing the circuit. "Normally, when you design a crossover, you pick a point in space, put your measurement device there, and design to produce optimum results at that spot. One of THX's specifications concerns horizontal symmetry: on one hand they want the speaker to be directional vertically—which produces lobing—but on the other hand, they want it to be very symmetrical in the horizontal plane, which means no lobing. To achieve that goal required the development of the Phase Focused Crossover. Other THX speakers usually have a tweeter and woofer arrayed vertically—that's almost the only way to get smooth horizontal directional characteristics.
"We developed our Phase Focused Crossover with multiple microphones and a time-based computational measurement system—[DRA Labs'] MLSSA, [Maximum Length Sequence Susyem Analyzer]—and that development has shocked most people in the industry—people can't believe that we got rid of lobing in the horizontal plane.
"It takes hundreds and hundreds of measurements and calculations to make it work—I'm not about to say too much and give away the secret. Most crossovers optimize the phase and amplitude characteristics of the driver to one specific point in space. Move off-axis—get closer to the midrange driver and farther away from the tweeter—and the phase characteristics of those two drivers have changed and the crossover is no longer optimized for that new point in space. The Phase Focused Crossover looks at the phase and amplitude characteristics of the drivers at many, many points in space and optimizes them to eliminate the dips and peaks in response. These are time-domain measurements, not frequency response. We did this work attempting to design a successful center channel, but found that it carried over to all of the front speakers."
The S-150's cabinet is made from ¾" MDF, coated with M&K's proprietary lacquered glass-bead finish, a 14-step painting process that, according to Kreisel, further acoustically deadens the cabinet.
The Angled Center Channel (AC) version of the 150 changes the angle of the face-plate: it rakes back from the top toward the bottom, while the tweeter and midrange arrays remain vertically aligned. This makes the AC-150 easy to focus on the listening position from the top of a large monitor. But turn the speaker upside down, and it becomes simple to focus it upward when the AC-150 is mounted below a screen. The top of the speaker also incorporates a five-degree rake-back to further reduce parallel-wall-induced reinforcement nodes. It's magnetically shielded to simplify top-of-monitor placement.
All the 150 series speakers have one pair of knurled metal binding posts that facilitate connections with bare wire, spade lugs, or bananas. Kreisel does not feel that benefits accrue from biwiring. "If you design the crossover properly, you don't end up with strange loading characteristics in the first place."
S-150 Tripole surround speakers
The SS-150 surround speakers are a novel design that Kreisel calls "Tripoles." "Think of it as a dipole surround speaker that also includes a very high-quality direct radiating speaker," he explains. The sidewalls of the speaker angle-in slightly to the forward-facing front panel and contain a dipole array of 1" soft-dome tweeter and 3½" woofer/midrange. The front panel has an additional 5¼ driver that has reduced output compared with the dipole drivers.
Actually, the SS-150s are flexible to a fault: they can operate as true dipoles, with no information added by the direct-radiating driver, or as direct-radiating surrounds, with no information added by the dipole speakers, or you can adjust the output of either the dipoles or the direct radiator for a host of blended operations.
I thought I understood the THX concept of the "null" pretty well: If you locate dipolar speakers so that the listener's ears sit between the two sets of radiating drivers, the sound doesn't appear to emanate from the speaker boxes, but rather from throughout the room. I asked Kreisel how the addition of a direct radiating driver was supposed to improve on that.
"The theory behind THX is that every movie has been mixed in a dubbing studio using an array of multiple surround speakers for playback in theaters, which also have multiple surround arrays," he explained. "The reason theaters have multiple surrounds—in a line-source around the room, if you will—is to provide uniform illumination of the surround information to every seat in the hall. It's like using fluorescent lights instead of spotlights. What THX knew was that it's hard enough to get interior decorators (or even serious movie buffs) to accept two loudspeakers in the back of a room, much less more than that, so they attempted to duplicate the effect of multiple speakers with dipoles—or in the case of Pro Logic, which is monaural, dipoles plus decorrelation.
"In practice, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't—it's dependent on room acoustics. Of course, we're not using true dipoles in THX—two drivers out of phase with one another is not the same thing as a single diaphragm radiating in both directions—especially those speakers with the drivers at a 90-degree angle as opposed to a 180-degree angle. In fact, the theory was to have some direct energy perceivable at the listening position and most dipoles do not accomplish that. The Tripole is, therefore, in line with the theory behind the THX use of dipoles."
MX-150 THX subwoofer
As M&K is the granddaddy of subwoofer manufacturers, you'd expect their MX-150 to deliver—and deliver it do. It has two 12" drivers mounted in what M&K calls a "push-pull" configuration—that is, one driver mounted in the nonported cabinet conventionally, firing forward, and the other loading into the enclosure, with its rear hanging down toward the floor and its polarity reversed in order to keep the room-radiation in phase. You wouldn't know any of this by looking at the enclosure, however; all the naughty bits are discretely concealed behind the black cloth grille.
The rear panel has a three-position bass-level control (with calibrations at reference, -3dB, and -6dB), a switch choosing between variable-level and fixed-level THX inputs, left/mono and right-channel RCA inputs, a phase-reversal switch, and a low-pass filter switch that chooses between a built-in 80Hz, 24dB/octave roll-off or no low-pass filtering at all (for use with processors having their own built-in filters).
Implementation in a THX system is dirt-simple—just plug the subwoofer output from the THX controller into the left/mono RCA input and set all adjustments to THX. Although only one MX-150 is required to meet THX spec, I used two in parallel for my auditioning. (I split the processor's single subwoofer output using an RCA Y adapter.)
For a non-THX system, M&K makes a variety of passive high-pass filters and volume controls that optimize integration of the MX-150 subwoofer to satellites, no matter what provisions your processor or preamp might have—or lack.
Set 'em up...
With the obvious exception of the loudspeakers, the system I used to audition the S-150THX speakers was the same one I described in the Aerial Acoustics review elsewhere in this issue.
The morning Ken Kreisel came to set it up, he found my home-theater spic'n'span and me bleary-eyed. Not realizing just how complex the 150 series was, I'd put off unpacking it until late the night before—and had stayed up 'til the wee hours exploring the possibilities.
Kreisel arrived in a car packed with test gear and cool tools—my favorite was a level incorporating a laser—which made aligning speakers with the listening position a piece of cake. Truth be told, however, I found set-up of the 150THX system to be simple and straightforward. Pay attention to simple placement rules and you won't need anything fancier than a tape measure to get the job done.
Because of the angled faces of the S-150s, side-wall reflections and interference from that big ol' monitor in between the speakers were both greatly reduced. Focusing the S-150AC was also a snap, as its downward angle went a long way toward aiming it at the listening position to begin with.
The trickiest part of the procedure was determining where to put the subwoofers. We started by testing response in the front corners, but the MLSSA measurement system showed real doubling and discontinuity problems. We began to creep the woofer along the side walls and found two positions—reasonably close to the listening position, I should point out—that tested well. But after hours of testing and fiddling, the single best position for the subwoofer—according to some very expensive time-domain test gear—was in front of the closed door of the room's only entrance! Or, as my wife had predicted that morning, in the single most inconvenient place it could possibly go. We backed the subwoofer several feet along the rear wall, which allowed the door to open about two-thirds—MLSSA told us that this was almost as good, so that's where it stayed. Or should I say, they, as I stacked the second woofer on top of the first.
So, without the fancy test equipment, how close would I have come to the optimal subwoofer placement? That's a poser. I'd already begun experimenting with bringing subs out along the side walls, almost but not quite as far as the two positions that tested well near the listening position. Because of the rule of reciprocity, there is a simple way to eliminate major room nodes in subwoofer placement. All you have to do is put the subwoofer in the listening position and listen to it from the points at which you'd like to place it. You'd be amazed at how much variation there can be from point to point. I'd done this, but suffered from a failure of imagination—it had never occurred to me that the best position might be the length of the room away from the front speakers. So persevere and try everything—even if you're sure you already know the answer.
...and knock him down
I had certain preconceived notions about THX systems going into this review. Since I knew that THX specs don't guarantee "good" sound, I had begun to believe that THX don't sound good. Certainly, many of the systems I've heard did not. A number of them had a harsh, clangy sound that offended the audiophile in me. I knew that THX-certified systems could play loud—that's in the specs—but I questioned whether they could sound involving. You've got to watch those preconceptions; to follow them blindly is to wallow in ignorance.
The M&K system proved to sound natural, dynamic, and detailed. It's certainly one of the best I've ever heard. Elsewhere in this issue, I review the Aerial Acoustics surround-sound speaker system—which is also truly spectacular—but is quite a different kettle of fish. While the Aerial is accurate and dynamic, it doesn't match the M&K in those categories. Does that make the M&K "better"? In those parameters, perhaps. But it would be a mistake to discount the Aerial's strengths, which include an amiability that I find irresistible.
I'll tell you one thing: If you value bass impact and extension, you'd be hard-pressed to find a rival for the M&K system. Kreisel had brought along some demonstration material and we settled down to savor it. Early on in Broken Arrow, a B-1 bomber, flying at extremely low levels, blasts past a Forest Ranger, and the shock wave and shock value knock her on her keister. It darn near knocked me off my sofa. Similarly, the torpedo-launches and near-misses—not to mention the direct hit—in Crimson Tide were almost physically hard to take when played back at THX reference level. I may have heard the MX-150's equal at preserving the transient impact of low-frequency sound, but I have certainly never heard their superior.
The 150 front-channel speakers are superb. They sound, for the most part, extremely natural and uncolored. I qualify that statement because they can lean toward hardness and sibilance—or could it be that they are accurately reflecting the bright and unforgiving nature of most soundtracks themselves. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but the Marantz/Chiro electronics I auditioned them with do not exacerbate these qualities—those using equipment that emphasizes the brightness region should listen to these speakers with their own gear before committing to a purchase.
That said, I heard details in films that had previously passed un-noticed. Of course, once you pass a certain quality level, who's to say whether newly uncovered information isn't merely the result of hearing it for the fifth time? What really impressed me about the 150 front channels, though, was how effortlessly they reported what was on the soundtrack. Even if you played the speakers really loud, you couldn't make them strain.
Angels and Insects is a quiet film—not a car chase or explosion in the whole thing—yet the 150s unraveled layer upon layer of quiet country life, down to the ripple of the slowly moving river in several scenes. Or, for that matter, the wing-buzz of the stinging flies that break up a cream tea on the lawn.
One reason for that effortless focus—as well as the 150's ability to reveal differing acoustics within films—may have to do with the success of Kreisel's vertically directional design. I certainly heard less interaction with the room's boundaries than with any other speaker I've had in my listening room. This, in fact, may be the biggest difference between the M&K and the Aerial systems. Due to their size and design, the Aerials "bloom" in the room and couple to it. The M&Ks do not, or do so minimally, resulting in a leaner, lighter sound—a sound that shares a lot with that of a mixing stage.
As to the Tripole surrounds, they worked as promised in my relatively small home theater. In that room, the rear wall can be dominant with dipoles, so the "even illumination" of the Tripole seemed an improvement. That's from my regular couch-potato position smack dab in the sweet spot, however. Taking Ken Kreisel's point about the fallacy of assuming only one row of listeners, I tried moving around in the room. Sure enough, the Tripole did not change its character when I sat forward or farther back. For many people, this could be a significant surround option.
Every disc is a Wow! disc
I had my head turned by the natural, dynamic, and uncolored sound of this THX surround-speaker system. The individual speakers are built to a very high standard and M&K has incorporated a wide range of user-friendly options and accessories. It is competitive with the very finest surround systems I've heard, and in some areas—specifically deep bass extension and impact—is second to none.
In my heart of hearts, I prefer the Aerial Acoustics system, but the M&K S-150THX makes me wonder if some of that beguiling bloom I'm so wild about doesn't sacrifice a certain degree of accuracy. Anyway, you can buy the entire M&K system, including stands, brackets, pipes, and two subwoofers, for just a few hundred dollars more than the Aerial 10Ts alone—making the S-150s a bargain. If you could settle for just one subwoofer, as most people with normal-size rooms surely could, you'd knock more off the system price.
That's one heck of a bargain. If you can find a better one, buy it on the spot. Until then, the M&K S-150THX surround-speaker system sets the performance standard for the price.
| Pre-Sales Enquiries About Us FAQ Payment Options Our Guarantee Shipping Policy Returns Policy Testimonials Contact Us |
Post Purchase Enquiries Login To Account Track Past Orders View My Favourites Return An Item Warranty Claim Customer Support |
Popular Sections Package Deals Product Reviews |
Wholesale & B2B Wholesale Hi-Fi |
E-commerce By: Payments By:  Security By: |
