Miller & Kreisel back from the dead, has new speakers to prove it

by Steven Kim posted Mar 10th 2008 at 5:32AM

Fans of MK speakers, rejoice! After a small rough patch last year that saw the company use both sides of its "closed for business" / "yes we're open" sign, MK is showing signs of stability with product announcements. Based on their pro monitors, the MK Sound M-series includes the SB-8 and SB-12 subwoofers 8- and 12-inch cones, duh), M5 and M7 primary speakers, and the M-4T tripole surrounds (for when dipolar or bipolar surrounds just aren't diffuse enough). Naturally, all speakers are sonically and aesthetically matched, with 1-inch tweeters and 4-inch midrange drivers in the primary and surround channels (the M7 adds an additional 4-inch driver for a little more bass). If you're into accurate monitor-type sound, you might want to show some support for the new iteration of this mature brand.

Filed under: Industry, Speakers

Tags: audio, M4T, M5, M7, Miller Kreisel, MillerKreisel, MK, MK Sound, MkSound, SB-12, SB-8, tripolar

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

loyed @ Mar 10th 2008 8:42AM

Man, I love my MKs so I hope they last.... but they have lasted a long time so I really don' t need any new ones!

Neutral

FreshJulius @ Mar 10th 2008 9:23AM

I hope this is the beginning of a line of speakers that build from this release. M&K's IP was bought out by a Danish company and is now being headed-up by one of M&K's former engineers. What, if any role Ken Kreisel or his sidekick the Magna-Cum-Engineer Barry Ober has in this iteration of M&K seems to be unknown.

It will be interesting to see[hear] if they can deliver on the performance of M&K's past or if they'll be content to ride the name alone. Other than the tripole design, these speakers look more like a miniaturized, value-engineered versions of the former great speakers of M&K.

Just looking at the new M-Series vs the 750s, I can't say I'm impressed, much less vs the 150s... but of course it'll take an actual listen to form an opinion. Currently though, color me skeptical.

Neutral

Tony DiDino @ Mar 10th 2008 10:40PM

I heard Gary Ober is with JL Audio now..

Neutral

locke6854 @ Mar 10th 2008 10:56AM

I noticed they got lazy and designed the center speaker identical to the fronts... They could have at least put the tweeter between the woofer, for those who like the grills off and like symmetrical aesthetics.

Neutral

FreshJulius @ Mar 10th 2008 12:27PM

Yeah, that's not done out of laziness at all, in speakers that have mid/woffer-tweeter-mid/woofer arrangements, you tend to get a "lobing" effect that cancels out a significant portion of the sound that's being produced, hence the asymmetrical design.

The metal grills on M&K's WERE part of the high-transmission tweeter arrangement found on the 750s that place the tweeter at a ~5 degree angle to improve the narrow sound stage and imaging found in a lot of HT speakers... not sure these silk-dome, stright-ahead tweeter take much advantage of them in the same way.

Neutral

Britton Yoder @ Mar 10th 2008 11:51AM

It's designed that way for a reason. Acoustics above aesthetics. Also the grills are part of this speaker design assisting in better sound dispersion. They are curved metallic grates not speaker cloth and can't really be removed.

Neutral

locke6854 @ Mar 10th 2008 12:50PM

Well I'm not sure I have the lobing effect... I don't hear it. I have a horn tweeter. My speaker can't be a front on its side, because horns are very directional. A horn on its side will have a vertical soundstage rather than a horizontal... therefore the speaker needs to be redesigned.

http://www.bicamerica.com/showpage.php?brand=1&type=6&spkrID=23

I keep the grills on, but mine are removable cloth, and I was unaware that it did much to the acoustics.

Neutral

FreshJulius @ Mar 10th 2008 3:15PM

A cloth grill will have negligible affect on the sound, and IMO, the curved metal grills of the 750 series only change the sound slightly, but do seem to have an affect.

Horns are very directional, as are the tweeters used in the 750s and 150s, hence the respective solutions to expanding the sound-stage of both models.

The lobing [I hope I'm using the right term here] has less to do with your tweeter and more to do with the mid-range and lower frequencies wavelengths that can cancel each other out... it's not as much what you'd hear, as much as what you wouldn't hear... if that makes sense.

Neutral

AudioDude @ Mar 10th 2008 6:12PM

Not a new product. Just a repackaging of the K-Series.

Neutral

Tony DiDino @ Mar 10th 2008 10:41PM

Ooops.. I mean Barry...

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