Morel Speakers: Worth a Demo (+Dynaudio, +Mcintosh)

[plasar]

Hi fellow Addicts. I got a demo of some cool Morel speakers at an excellent San Francisco car stereo shop called Audio Symphony. I recommend both. (Except Audio Symphony has a virus/trojan infection on their web site at the moment - they know about it. The Yelp page below has their info.)

Morel Loudspeakers
Audio Symphony - Yelp


A little background. I've been hemming and hawing about the premium audio in my '09 135i conv with iDrive for some time now. I've played with the bass (now like -4) and treble (now like -7), and the equalizer (now flat, tried boosting 100 Hz bass). I've tried a bunch of different tunes. I've got like 10 Gb of MP3s on the HDD. I thought maybe my ears would adjust. They haven't.

At home, I've got B&W 805 speakers (L/Middle/R) and M1 (L&R surround), Mcintosh MX120 AV unit and MC205 amp, and a Sunfire TS-EQ12 sub. Previous to this, it was the same speakers with a Rotel AV unit and amp, and REL sub. Previous to this, my first stereo, was Infinity speakers & sub and a Harmon Kardon integrated amp. (All pretty good stuff.)

With all of my home systems, I could keep my bass and treble flat, adjust the sub to the room and to taste for bass, and get excellent sound. For me the essential key is voice/midrange. If you can get a voice to sound great, not sibilant with ear splitting s's, not overboosted low end, everyone knows what a voice should sound like.

Then if you want the bass louder, or you want more thud to the drums, turn up the volume. I think with a good stereo, you'll hear the bass/drums get louder, but everything else stays in balance too. I think some people want the bass louder, so they turn up the bass, and the balance is shot. Voices sound like Howard Stern on his mic - huge bass boost. Same on the treble side.


With my '99 M3 conv, I was able to dial in a good sound with the premium HK system. Treble was -5, bass was -3, and everything was cool, except the volume - with the top down at about 60-80 mph, not enough power to comfortably crank a song. At Audio Symphony, the owner demoed me an E39 5-series that had the same stock Harmon Kardon speakers, but with a Mcintosh MC440 (100wx2, 50wx4) or MC4000 amp (MC4000M 300wx2, 100wx4). It sounded great with plenty of power. His opinion (and mine) were the HK speakers were fine, it just needed more and better power. I almost pulled the trigger on this upgrade... but didn't.

Mcintosh
Roger Russell - Mcintosh Car Amp History


Now back to the 1-series. I just cannot dial out the harsh high mid/low treble of this thing to get a good midrange without losing all the treble. I don't have the patience to go into the equalizer and start adjusting all those bands. I'm used to "flat" tones at home that sound great. I am told by Audio Symphony these speakers are OEMed from Nokia. I am convinced that low quality treble and midrange drivers are the source of this fail.

So Chris at Audio Symphony demoed the Morel speakers and Mcintosh amps for me. Both sounded great right away. The sound was almost "boring", but often it's the speakers that sound "interesting" because they are bright fatigue your ears after a few minutes. Awesome. For less "boring", we cranked it up. Yep, it stayed balanced, and now you could just "see" deeper into the music. And it was loud, enjoyable, and no "ice pick in the ear" treble. (BTW, Chris and the others at Audio Symphony seem like true professionals.)

We then patched in some Alpine class-D amps with the Morels, and Pioneer and Alpine speakers with the Mcintosh amps, and add a 12" subwoofer. I think you could pretty easily pick out the quality difference with the Morel speakers and Mcintosh amps. (To be honest, to really tell, you need to do blind A/B sound tests.)

Our music source was a CD and then my iPhone into a Mcintosh car head unit with flat tone controls. Morel crossovers have -2db/0db/+2db and 6db-12db/octave adjustments so you can tune a bit in the car.

BTW, a few years ago, I heard Dynaudio speakers, and right away could tell that they had that natural midrange too. Bugatti, Volvo, and Volkswagen use Dynaudio as OEMs.

Dynaudio


So my conclusion: Morel, Dynaudio, and Mcintosh have got the goods, but they are bloody expensive! If you are thinking about a 1-series stereo operation, I recommend you take a listen to these at a car audio shop near you. And then take out a home equity loan...


I think in the future, I will be relocating to NYC, so I will be selling my 1-er. No need to upgrade the stereo in this case.

[VP Electricity]

Nokia made the old speakers but the new ones are made in Hungary...

If only Dynaudio made 4" mids for less than $1400 set pair

I haven't heard any speakers that sound better than the Morel Hybrid Ovation in the new BMW door locations... and precious little fits under the seats besides EQ and Morel ADMW9

[plasar]

Thx for the update VP Electricity. BTW, your oeinterface.com site seems like a goldmine of info for installers and potential upgraders like me. Great site.

[BBK]

Yeah problem is finding a mid range that sounds good that goes down to 200ish hz... The Dyns have a 3" dome which sounds great but doesn't go low enough. Stupid BMW and their speaker mounts!

[Blue55]

Does anyone in Los Angeles do competent installs on BMWs? I can't seem to find a recommendation for anyone halfway decent and I've had some bad installs in the past.