MK Sound LCR 950 speaker review.

T

Techlord

Audioholic
I have enjoyed my 750's since early 2001 and they have impressed me along with family and friends, one of the best buy's in home theater speakers in the last ten years! It has been a pretty easy speaker system to setup and they sound excellent off axis that most speakers couldn't match for anywhere near the same price point, but I felt it was the right time to upgrade. From the time I unpackaged the beautiful 950's, they have impressed me with every one of my CDs, SACD's and BD movies! Over the years my ears have adjusted to the way my 750's sound, sort of like a photographic memory. Every minute I spend with the 950's I'm noticing that this sound is very different than what I have been accustomed to, the high frequencies sounds fuller, richer, much more detailed and spacious.

The thing that impressed me was the dialogue coming from the 950 center which is really just a L/R speaker only laying horizontally with the THX/MK Sound logo placed on the end or bottom of the speaker. I haven't been able to hear any difference between horizontal or vertical placement. The 950 speakers are in no way bright sounding like the 750's can be, instead of hearing a somewhat lively or brightened sound I'm hearing a more detailed soundstage that is very smooth within it's operating frequency range, I also think the 5.25" mid-woofers are more active than the the ones in the 750's which gives it a more bold sound with fast, tight and articulate mid-bass. At some points I had to mute the sub to find out where the mid-bass was coming from, the 950's blend in much better with the SB-1250 250W subwoofer!

I stated in an earlier post that I was unhappy with my MK Sound SB1250 250W subwoofer, it did not blend-in well with my 750's at all! It was almost as if there was this large gap of bass/mid-bass between the 750 speakers and the SB1250 subwoofer, with the 950's it is quite difficult to determine where the 950 meets the SB1250! Now with the 950's mid-woofer being much more active and bolder sounding than the 750's I believe this is why the 950's blend seamlessly with the SB-1250. The 750 speakers are years apart in there release (2001) when compared to the release of the VX1250 (2007) and SB1250 subwoofers, I have heard from a few that there was a slight improvement in the M&K 750 speakers after a few year of release.

The 950 speakers cabinets are extremely dense thick and rock hard, very smoothly contoured like a high dollar sports cars paint job. The 950's are by a huge margin better sounding with 2 channel music using the subwoofer than the 750's ever were, the sound in 2 channel is also much more dynamic and much fuller sounding as if there were more than two speakers being driven! I had to get up and check to make sure my center 950 speaker wasn't producing any sound, it was indeed silent as the SACD was on the high res 2 channel track. Angling the 950 toe-in does give better imaging while still giving you that off axis imaging. Speaking about imaging, the 950 has the best imaging of any speaker I have ever heard! I can't tell you in words how incredible the 950 imaging really is, I don't see how it can get any better with any speaker brand! In the next few months I will be buying the MK Sound's SUR95T tripole speakers and will review them as well when I get them.

Closing thoughts: MK Sound has hit a home run with these 950 speakers and there just waiting to be discovered, I'm sure that if MK Sound had more dealers in the US these 950 speakers demand would explode!

Best regards,
Techlord.
 
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C

Chicagorep

Junior Audioholic
I had the 750LCR's for about 6 years and they were great Theater spekers but they really lacked for Music playback, that's the man reason I sold them. Glad to hear the 950's are more musical.
 
T

Techlord

Audioholic
I had the 750LCR's for about 6 years and they were great Theater spekers but they really lacked for Music playback, that's the man reason I sold them. Glad to hear the 950's are more musical.
The main reasom why I believe they weren't good for music was because of the metal mesh grill and the 4.7 degree angled tweeter, they gave a sort of very wide unfocused image. The 950 however are a different breed of animal, the metal mesh grills are inert and the imaging superb.

Regards,
Techlord.
 
Jack Hammer

Jack Hammer

Audioholic Field Marshall
Nice review, I'm glad to hear you are happy with your new speakers and hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of them.
 
T

Techlord

Audioholic
Nice review, I'm glad to hear you are happy with your new speakers and hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of them.
My next purchase will be room treatments, I believe room treatments are the next most important step to getting great sound out of excellent speakers! No amount of money spent on a receiver or pre-amp processor could do more for your speakers, your speakers sound as good as the rooms acoustics. I don't pretend to know how much room treatment is optimal for a particular room... ? Installing too much and the sound is dead and lifeless, to little and you get my point. :D

Regards,
Techlord.
 
Jack Hammer

Jack Hammer

Audioholic Field Marshall
My next purchase will be room treatments, I believe room treatments are the next most important step to getting great sound out of excellent speakers! No amount of money spent on a receiver or pre-amp processor could do more for your speakers, your speakers sound as good as the rooms acoustics. I don't pretend to know how much room treatment is optimal for a particular room... ? Installing too much and the sound is dead and lifeless, to little and you get my point. :D

Regards,
Techlord.
My setup is in a tiny place with narrow walls and a low ceiling, so room treatments made a very dramatic and noticable difference for me. If you read up in the room treatment forum, you will likely find a lot of info to help with which questions to start asking.
 
C

Chicagorep

Junior Audioholic
The main reasom why I believe they weren't good for music was because of the metal mesh grill and the 4.7 degree angled tweeter, they gave a sort of very wide unfocused image. The 950 however are a different breed of animal, the metal mesh grills are inert and the imaging superb.

Regards,
Techlord.
Good point but I don't think the 750's sounded very musical regardless. As far as acoustic treatment just add a few panels, move them around and see how the room sounds.
 

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