Mordaunt reviews
By Hifi Choice:
Mordaunt-Short 902
A couple of years ago, it looked like that the Mordaunt-Short name might disappear forever, when then parent company TGI decided to concentrate its resources on the Tannoy and GLL parts of the operation. The Mordaunt-Short brand was put up for sale, and in stepped The Audio Partnership, which already has electronics brands such as Cambridge Audio under its umbrella.Although the changeover represented something of a hiatus, some continuity was retained through the services of Senior Designer Graeme Foy. And even though it has taken quite some time to get this all-new range onto the market, the wait seems to have been worthwhile. The 900-series and this 902 in particular are amongst the classiest looking speakers this reviewer has ever seen, notwithstanding the very modest £150 price tag attached to this compact stand-mount.The combination of an aluminium 'skin' on the front panel, with aluminium alloy for the diaphragms of both main driver and tweeter, looks seriously chic, especially the embossed name, while the oval 'dish' indentation around the tweeter reinforces the traditional Mordaunt-Short brand identity, as well as the dish-shaped main diaphragm.The super-clean look is only slightly spoiled by the inset rubber grommets used to hold the grille in place, and the instruction manual suggests this is used, rather paradoxically, as it covers up all the shiny cosmetics. I daresay most users will choose to ignore both this advice and the grilles entirely, though thin metal diaphragms are more easily cosmetically damaged than other popular cone materials. A separate mesh covers the delicate tweeter dome: this is magnetically held and its removal is recommended for best results - but take care, it's tricky.In order to create that super-clean front panel, the drivers are actually mounted from behind. The rear-ported box is very solidly built, with a double thickness back and an internal stiffening brace, while the crossover network is a minimalist affair (in the M-S tradition), fed by two terminal pairs. The plastic frame main driver incorporates magnetic shielding and uses a small 100mm diameter diaphragm, while the tweeter has a 25mm metal dome.The combination of a small enclosure and main driver, a port tuned to a highish 65Hz, and an amplifier load that's rather less demanding than most of the others assembled for this group test, has inevitable consequences in a relatively modest 87dB sensitivity rating, and an in-room bass extension that goes down to 50Hz, but no lower.Perhaps surprisingly, the bass alignment favours keeping the 902 well clear of room boundaries, whereupon it delivers an overall in-room balance which is for the most part impressively smooth, flat and well ordered. For the most part, that is, save for an isolated little peak up at 4.5kHz (probably the main driver diaphragm's first break-up mode), and the suggestion of another up at around 10kHz.Sound QualityEven with the grilles in place to cover up the shiny appearance, the 902 has a distinctly shiny sonic character. This proved quite effective at clarifying diction when playing the speakers quietly, but proved rather less engaging when the volume was turned up, especially when reproducing the applause of a live performance. The introduction to Christy Moore's Live at the Point - admittedly a recording with forward tendencies, but of exceptional quality nonetheless - was quite unpleasant when played loud.That said, this speaker has an engaging total coherence with fine communication skills, which help to drag the listener into the music and which seemed to make unfamiliar types of material interesting and involving. Inevitably, the bottom end lacks both weight and warmth, and tonal colours seemed a little bleached in the lower octaves, but this speaker always stays light on its feet and manages to drive the music along at a convincing pace.ConclusionThis gorgeous little speaker sets new standards for style at any price, never mind a beer budget £150 a pair. One wonders, however, to what extent the cosmetics have dictated the performance, as the sound quality is not quite as impressive, being a little thin, forward and shiny. But it doesn't disgrace itself by any means, and this 902 will probably sell by the shed-load just because it looks so good.
By HiFi video Home Cinema:
Désormais distribuée par Marantz, la marque d'enceintes Mordaunt Short revient en France. Pour saluer son retour, nous avons choisi de vous présenter le plus petit modèle de sa gamme. Il s’agit de la MS 902 qui, avec ses haut-parleurs à membrane en aluminium et son coffret très sérieux, impressionne par la qualité de sa construction.La Mordaunt Short MS 902 est une petite enceinte compacte, équipée de deux haut-parleurs chargés en mode bass-reflex et répondant au qualificatif de "modèle de bibliothèque".Son boomer est une unité blindé de 14 cm doté d’une membrane en aluminium, réalisée selon un procédé propre à la marque, appelé CPC ("Continuous Profile Cone"), qui garantit une épaisseur de cône optimisée avec des tolérances sérées.Le tweeter utilise un aimant néodyme blindé de bonne taille, est lui aussi équipé d’un diaphragme en aluminium.L’ébénisterie de la MS 902 est à la hauteur des transducteurs qu’elle emploie avec un contre-baffle en aluminium, moulé d’une seule pièce et des parois renforcéesen médite de 12 à 15 mm d’épaisseur.L’esthétique sonore proposée à l’écoute par la MS 902 est à l’image de son apparence extérieure. Son équilibre tonal extrêmement clair met en avant les moindres détails d’un enregistrement.
By HiFi Choice Uk:Marantz & Mordaunt assieme.****stars
Marantz has clearly taken a stance with these champagne-hued CD and amp behemoth siblings. It's almost as if they've been designed to satisfy a bizarrely loaded questionnaire. Are you fed up with titchy hi-fi? Do you mourn the passing of tone controls and gauges that light up? Got an aversion to silver and black? And, pssst, wanna hi-fi that everyone will notice?
Well this is it. Big, bold and oh-so glamorous. Actually, we like it. As an alternative to skinny, bleached minimalism, it does a great job. The £800 CD17 mkII is the marginally leaner component. Fascia controls are full but not fiddly, the dot matrix display usefully large and legible. The basic digital hardware is hardly hot off the press but it is thoroughly engineered, comprising a dual differential version of the bitstream DAC7 (four D/A
converters in all) and Marantz's discreet HDAM output op-amp. The transport reads CD-RW discs and the Marantz will respond to CD text where available.
The £1,500 PM-17 MkII KI amp is about three inches deeper than the CD player and weighs enough to make you wonder why there isn't more than the claimed 60 watts per channel. Then again, it's crammed with facilities. There are five source inputs (including a
moving magnet/moving coil phono stage), 'source direct' defeatable bass and treble controls and HDAM four-gang active volume control with feedback to minimise noise at normal listening levels. The KI (Ken Ishiwata) Signature badge clicks audiophile credibility on a couple of notches with the usual smattering of high grade components and sturdier base plate.
Tall, deep and loaded with a novel side-firing, 25cm woofer housed in its own lower chamber, Mordaunt-Short's largest floorstander, the 908, rounds off the XXL theme nicely. The rest of the driver complement comprises a 13cm bass/mid unit and a 25mm aluminium dome tweeter and, with a claimed system sensitivity of 90dB/m, going loud is unlikely to be a problem.
The sound of this system is every bit as substantial, physical and, indeed,
room-filling as the appearance of its components. Deep Purple Live In Japan, for instance, is nothing more or less than Deep Purple live in Japan. This rig will whisk you back in time to the very venue - and, if you're not careful with the volume knob, reproduce the ringing in your ears as well. Which is both good and a little disappointing. What's great is that the Marantz/M-S is not a combo that will ever tie itself in knots trying to resolve musical minutiae. That simply isn't its style. It's much more of a broad brushstroke artist that puts scale and dynamics before itty-bitty detail. By the standards of this group, transparency isn't a notable strength.
Neither does it have the broadest spectrum of shades in its tonal palette. But it does sound convincingly weighty and it does sound controlled. It gets to grip with the 'architecture' of a performance better than most, especially as delivered by the big, sensitive Mordaunt-Shorts which really do seem to motor all the way down to 30Hz as claimed.
In a nutshell, what we have here is a system which is fully capable of projecting the big picture and presenting music in a tangible,
coherent way with good drive and rhythmic integrity. Violets don't come into it, shrunken or otherwise.
elevato rapporto qualita'/prezzo: 
Questo funziona bene! low cost!
