Description and design This is a gorgeous loudspeaker. As audiophiles, devoted to the pursuit of high accuracy and musicality in sound reproduction, we may protest that sound quality is the only thing thats important. But the fact is that speakers are objects in the listening/living room that you have to look at even when theyre silent—appearance can be an important determinant of overall satisfaction. The Mahlers slim, backward-leaning cabinet and impeccable glossy finish on all sides (rosewood in the review samples) are elegant without being overly fussy. For a full-range speaker, the Mahler is of modest size, with a relatively small footprint and a narrow front panel, so its more likely to blend into a rooms d;aecor than to dominate it. According to John Hunter of Sumiko, Vienna Acoustics US importer, the design of the Mahler began with the selection of the Scan-Speak 7 midrange driver, felt by many speaker people to be the best unit of its type. This driver can cover a wide range, and I know of some designs in which its used to cover the bass as well as the midrange. (Scan-Speak calls it a mid/woofer.) However, Vienna Acoustics designer Peter Gansterer feels that using the Scan-Speak midrange to extend all the way down would result in impaired dynamics and transparency, so, after much experimentation (John Hunter says he participated in listening sessions that involved 73 iterative changes!), 70Hz was selected as the lower limit for the midrange drivers. The lower of the two drivers has a crossover that rolls off its response above 200Hz, using a simple 6dB slope, with additional crossover points at 400Hz (12dB/octave) and 800Hz (18dB/octave)—an approach intended to produce a smooth transition to the treble. The other midrange driver is crossed over to the tweeter at 3.6kHz, so that it covers about a 5½-octave range. Each midrange driver is in its own sealed subcabinet. The lower bass is handled by two side-firing 10 Eton woofers, a carbon-fiber honeycomb-cone driver preferred by Peter Gansterer for its high stiffness and speed. Each woofer has its subcabinet, with nonparallel walls, and is vented out the back. The woofers begin crossing over at 50Hz, and are filtered more at 100Hz, and again at 200Hz. The tweeter is a variant of Scan-Speaks D-29 1.2 silk dome, well-known for its smoothness and silkiness. To ensure that the tweeter is not disturbed by vibrations from the cabinet, its mounted with silicone gel injected into the cabinet recess. This effectively floats the tweeter, with no rigid mechanical connection to the cabinet—a clever bit of engineering. The crossover uses parts of the highest quality, including a $70 German MKP Select capacitor, chosen because it sounded best in listening tests. The Mahler uses only a single set of five-way binding posts, Peter Gansterer not being a fan of bi- or triwiring. A toggle switch allows the tweeters response to be attenuated by 0.6dB above 6kHz; another switch selects a bass emphasis of 2dB below 50Hz. The Mahler rests on a plinth that doesnt extend all the way to the front, giving the speaker a floating appearance while maintaining structural stability. Three screw-in metal cones are provided to improve coupling to the floor. These are beautifully made but only 5/8 high, and would not penetrate the heavy carpet and underpadding in my listening room. I ended up using German Acoustic cones, which have longer, pointed spikes. The cabinet itself is heavily braced, with 2.5-thick front and rear panels. The veneers (in addition to rosewood, the Mahler is also available in beech flame, so-called because of a flame-patterned burl within the wood) are matched and hand-selected by Peter Gansterer himself, who assigns precise locations for each panel of veneer. Talk about old-world craftsmanship! Setup Its fairly common for representatives of speaker manufacturers to visit Stereophile reviewers to assist in setting up the speakers being reviewed. Some readers question the appropriateness of this practice (Jim Thiel doesnt drop by to help set up my speakers!), but I think of this practice as equivalent to the normal post-sale service that any customer should receive from an authorized dealer of high-end audio equipment. Furthermore, its only fair that manufacturers/designers should have a chance to ensure that their products are performing as intended. Of course, reviewers must be careful during these visits to provide no clues about what they think of a products performance, but the mandatory training Stereophile reviewers receive at the International Academy of Poker is helpful here. In the Mahlers case, the visitor was John Hunter, well-known for his setup expertise and familiar with my listening room from his visit at the beginning of the Mozarts review period. He was quite confident that hed have speaker setup optimized in about half an hour—an estimate that turned out to be off by several hours. Shaking his head and, from time to time, muttering Difficult room..., Hunter listened, moved the speakers, listened again, tweaked the toe-in, adjusted the vertical angle, removed the array of RoomLenses I normally have in the room, then replaced and repositioned them. Finally, the sound was to his satisfaction. I normally set up speakers so that they form an angle of at least 60 degrees to the listening seat, toed-in to point almost directly at the listener. Johns setup subtended an even wider angle, with the speakers closer to the back and side walls than usual, and the woofers facing the side walls. The result was a huge soundstage with tremendous depth and very powerful bass. The sound was most impressive, but after Hunter had left, I came to feel that the bass was too powerful, tilting the tonal balance. I started to do some setup tweaking of my own, aimed at preserving the soundstage while getting better control over the bass. A bit of informal testing at the listening seat with Stereophiles Test CD 3 and the RadioShack SPL meter revealed a peak of about 9dB in the 50Hz region (footnote 1). I had observed similar peaks with some other speakers in this room, but not to this extent. (The smoothest bass response in my room has been with the Dunlavy SC-IV/A, which is probably a function of its over-and-under woofer configuration.) To tame the bass, I tried all sorts of tricks: stuffing one or both of the rear-facing ports with rolled-up socks (which reduced the bass extension without reducing the peak); placing ASC Tube Traps in the corners (which only reduced the midbass, in the 200Hz range); trying different spikes/cones (no effect); switching left and right speakers so that the woofers faced inward (impairment of bass extension, little effect on the peak); adding three more RoomLenses, two of them behind the listening chair (less room sound from the midrange up, to the point of dulling, but no effect on the bass peak); and, in time-honored fashion, moving the speakers around. My final setup had the speakers farther away from the walls and corners than in Hunters initial setup, with both treble and bass switches in the flat position, two RoomLenses forming a wing outside each speaker, and one near the wall between the speakers. (The Mahler is provided with a removable grille; it stayed removed.) The midrange driver of each speaker was 39 from the back wall and 34 from the side wall (all measurements from the center of the midrange cone), the speakers set up along the 16 side of my 16 by 14 by 7.5 listening room. The included angle was about 70 degrees; the speakers were toed-in so that they were pointing almost (but not quite) at the listening chair. The bass peak was still there, but its amplitude at the listening position was reduced by 2-3dB. Moving the listening chair forward from its usual nearly-against-the-wall position led to a further 2dB reduction of the bass peak, but impaired center focus. I moved it back. Sound The Mahler was at its very best when reproducing large-scale symphonic music, big-band jazz, opera, and musicals. The challenges in reproducing this type of material are formidable: the speaker has to be able to maintain the individual instrumental and vocal threads while allowing the blending that is characteristic of the real sound, and to retain its composure at the high levels that stress the individual speaker components. As the overall level rises, theres a tendency for a speaker to lose sonic details and for the sound to acquire a pushed, strained quality, like a singer whos trying to produce a big sound that is beyond his or her comfortable range. The Mahler was able to play at high levels with ease and smoothness, maintaining the level of detail that was characteristic of lower playback levels. In its ability to play at very high levels without sounding strained, the Mahler surpassed every other speaker Ive had for review. The Dunlavy SC-IV/ADunlavy SC-IV/A, my longtime reference loudspeaker, starts to lose focus and to acquire a bit of an edge at levels at which the Mahler was still sailing along comfortably. The SC-IV/A is an exceedingly fine speaker, and if you do your listening at more moderate levels, the Mahlers higher dynamic ceiling may not be of much importance. Most of my listening is at fairly low levels, but once in a while I like to let er rip (footnote 2). At these times, I was able to listen with the certainty that my ears were going to give up before the speakers would. At more normal levels, the Mahlers exceptional dynamic capability was evident in its communication of musics subtle ebb and flow, and in its ability to track transient peaks. The new La Bohème (London/Decca 466 070-2) seems to have been recorded expressly to test a systems dynamic capabilities: Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu at full tilt at the end of O Soave Fanciulla make an exciting, powerful sound, and maestro Riccardo Chailly keeps up a crackling pace in the Cafe Momus scene. The Mahlers took it all in stride, keeping up the pace and rising to the dynamic peaks. Opera fans who like to listen loud will love these speakers. Allied to this sense of dynamic freedom was a great sense of openness, a kind of see-through quality, with the speakers somehow getting out of the way as apparent sources of sound, leaving only the music behind. The speakers were able to create a soundstage of exceptional width and depth, with a specificity of vocal and instrumental images that rivaled the Dunlavy SC-IV/As. To check the Mahlers accuracy of depth information, I dug out Best of Chesky Jazz and More Audiophile Tests, Volume 2 (Chesky JD68), which has a clicker recorded in a large studio at various distances from the microphone. With most speakers, the audible differentiation of distances holds up to perhaps 50, the clicker sounding much the same at 60, 70, and 80. However, with the Mahlers, the sound of the clicker continued to recede into the distance, to the limit of the recording. In the General Image and Resolution Test (track 47) people are marching around the room, with a plausible illusion of them passing behind the listener. The height of the soundstage was projected to be somewhat above the speakers, which is just how I like it. The term tonal balance is an apt one, in that a speakers tonal quality represents a kind of balancing act, with plenty of opportunities for slipping. It goes without saying that a speaker should not emphasize any part of the frequency range, but consideration of on-axis frequency response is only the first step in designing a speaker that sounds lifelike. There are certainly speakers out there that have a flat on-axis frequency response, but other aspects of their performance (eg, polar-response irregularities, delayed resonances, nonlinear distortions) make them sound artificial, more like mechanical contrivances and less like live music. The skillful designer balances all aspects of speaker performance that have an influence on its sound; arguments about objective accuracy notwithstanding, there is always a degree of subjectivity in making these design choices, as indeed there is in the listeners evaluation of the results. To describe the Mahler as having a musical tonal balance—which is how I would describe it—is not to imply that it deliberately deviates from absolute tonal neutrality, but that the choices the designer made serve the music while adhering to the ideal of high fidelity. Instruments and voices reproduced through the Mahlers sounded much as they do in life, with a minimum of mechanical/electronic artifacts to remind me that I was listening to a reproduction. The midrange balance was just about ideal: neither unduly laid-back nor consistently in my face. The top end was smooth and extended, perhaps departing slightly from absolute neutrality in the direction of sweetness, making it easier to listen to what are otherwise harsh-sounding CDs. The Mahlers also managed the difficult trick of providing high resolution of musical detail without sounding clinical or overly analytical. Natural-sounding reproduction of voices has high priority for me, and this happened to be one of the Mahlers strong suits. A recording Ive been playing a lot lately is A Christmas Survival Guide (Car-Jam 2die4 99032, available from Car-Jam), a collection of Christmas songs—some traditional, some sharply satirical—tied together with a mock self-help narrative. The performers include some of Broadways best, including Christiane Noll, Marin Mazzie, Alice Ripley, and Emily Skinner. Listening to the CD through the Mahlers, I had a strong sense that I was hearing a good facsimile of what these singers sound like live, the distinctive quality of each voice preserved with a minimum of added mechanical resonances. As chronicled in Setup, optimization of the Mahlers bass response in my listening room was a difficult task, and I was able to only reduce, not eliminate, a peak in the 50Hz region. I suspect that the problem was mostly—perhaps entirely—a function of the speaker exciting standing waves that are a room characteristic; John Atkinsons measurements should shed light on the extent to which the peak represents the behavior of the speaker rather than the room. Subjectively, the bass peak was generally not intrusive, and sometimes lent a welcome sense of richness to the sound. But occasionally—with string bass or bass guitar recorded in a spotlit manner—the bass could get thumpy and not ideally tight. My listening room is on the small side; the Mahler would be a better match with a larger room in which the speakers could be placed farther from the side and back walls and still retain a wide soundstage. But even in my non-optimal room, the extension and power of the Mahlers bass was most impressive, reaching the low 20s with the sort of authority that is normally the domain of subwoofers and giant full-range speakers. Conclusion Vienna Acoustics stated goals in designing the Mahler were to produce, in a reasonably compact enclosure, a no-compromise loudspeaker capable of reproducing music on a completely convincing scale, and able to transform the listening room and transport the listener. In my view, they have succeeded admirably in meeting these goals. I have some remaining doubt about the smoothness of the Mahlers bass—a problem that may represent mostly, if not entirely, interaction with my listening rooms acoustics—but in every other respect the performance of the Mahler is state-of-the-art. In addition to having all the characteristics that audiophiles want in a loudspeaker—neutral tonal balance, transparency, expansive soundstage, precise imaging, high dynamic capability—the Mahler has the propensity thats perhaps the most important for long-term satisfaction: the ability to sound musical, and provide a rewarding listening experience with sources that vary widely in quality. The fact that the speaker is sufficiently compact to not dominate the visual environment is a welcome bonus. The Mahler uses components of the highest quality, and its appearance is enhanced by a level of cabinet finish found only on very expensive furniture. Ive been told that the costs of materials and labor are such that the Mahlers retail price represents a smaller-than-usual margin for the manufacturer and distributor, and I dont doubt it. Still, in my book, $10,000 is a lot of money for a pair of speakers—but for those who can afford it, the Mahler represents outstanding performance and value. Description: Three-way, floorstanding, reflex-loaded dynamic loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1.2 silk-dome tweeter, two 7 pulp-cone midranges, two 10 side-mounted honey-comb-cone woofers. Frequency range: 22Hz-25kHz (limits not specified). Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m. Impedance: 6 ohms average. Dimensions: 51.2 H by 8.6 W by 18.3 D. Weight: 150 lbs. Finishes: beech flame. Description and design This is a gorgeous loudspeaker. As audiophiles, devoted to the pursuit of high accuracy and musicality in sound reproduction, we may protest that sound quality is the only thing thats important. But the fact is that speakers are objects in the listening/living room that you have to look at even when theyre silent—appearance can be an important determinant of overall satisfaction. The Mahlers slim, backward-leaning cabinet and impeccable glossy finish on all sides (rosewood in the review samples) are elegant without being overly fussy. For a full-range speaker, the Mahler is of modest size, with a relatively small footprint and a narrow front panel, so its more likely to blend into a rooms d;aecor than to dominate it. According to John Hunter of Sumiko, Vienna Acoustics US importer, the design of the Mahler began with the selection of the Scan-Speak 7 midrange driver, felt by many speaker people to be the best unit of its type. This driver can cover a wide range, and I know of some designs in which its used to cover the bass as well as the midrange. (Scan-Speak calls it a mid/woofer.) However, Vienna Acoustics designer Peter Gansterer feels that using the Scan-Speak midrange to extend all the way down would result in impaired dynamics and transparency, so, after much experimentation (John Hunter says he participated in listening sessions that involved 73 iterative changes!), 70Hz was selected as the lower limit for the midrange drivers. The lower of the two drivers has a crossover that rolls off its response above 200Hz, using a simple 6dB slope, with additional crossover points at 400Hz (12dB/octave) and 800Hz (18dB/octave)—an approach intended to produce a smooth transition to the treble. The other midrange driver is crossed over to the tweeter at 3.6kHz, so that it covers about a 5½-octave range. Each midrange driver is in its own sealed subcabinet. The lower bass is handled by two side-firing 10 Eton woofers, a carbon-fiber honeycomb-cone driver preferred by Peter Gansterer for its high stiffness and speed. Each woofer has its subcabinet, with nonparallel walls, and is vented out the back. The woofers begin crossing over at 50Hz, and are filtered more at 100Hz, and again at 200Hz. The tweeter is a variant of Scan-Speaks D-29 1.2 silk dome, well-known for its smoothness and silkiness. To ensure that the tweeter is not disturbed by vibrations from the cabinet, its mounted with silicone gel injected into the cabinet recess. This effectively floats the tweeter, with no rigid mechanical connection to the cabinet—a clever bit of engineering. The crossover uses parts of the highest quality, including a $70 German MKP Select capacitor, chosen because it sounded best in listening tests. The Mahler uses only a single set of five-way binding posts, Peter Gansterer not being a fan of bi- or triwiring. A toggle switch allows the tweeters response to be attenuated by 0.6dB above 6kHz; another switch selects a bass emphasis of 2dB below 50Hz. The Mahler rests on a plinth that doesnt extend all the way to the front, giving the speaker a floating appearance while maintaining structural stability. Three screw-in metal cones are provided to improve coupling to the floor. These are beautifully made but only 5/8 high, and would not penetrate the heavy carpet and underpadding in my listening room. I ended up using German Acoustic cones, which have longer, pointed spikes. The cabinet itself is heavily braced, with 2.5-thick front and rear panels. The veneers (in addition to rosewood, the Mahler is also available in beech flame, so-called because of a flame-patterned burl within the wood) are matched and hand-selected by Peter Gansterer himself, who assigns precise locations for each panel of veneer. Talk about old-world craftsmanship! Setup Its fairly common for representatives of speaker manufacturers to visit Stereophile reviewers to assist in setting up the speakers being reviewed. Some readers question the appropriateness of this practice (Jim Thiel doesnt drop by to help set up my speakers!), but I think of this practice as equivalent to the normal post-sale service that any customer should receive from an authorized dealer of high-end audio equipment. Furthermore, its only fair that manufacturers/designers should have a chance to ensure that their products are performing as intended. Of course, reviewers must be careful during these visits to provide no clues about what they think of a products performance, but the mandatory training Stereophile reviewers receive at the International Academy of Poker is helpful here. In the Mahlers case, the visitor was John Hunter, well-known for his setup expertise and familiar with my listening room from his visit at the beginning of the Mozarts review period. He was quite confident that hed have speaker setup optimized in about half an hour—an estimate that turned out to be off by several hours. Shaking his head and, from time to time, muttering Difficult room..., Hunter listened, moved the speakers, listened again, tweaked the toe-in, adjusted the vertical angle, removed the array of RoomLenses I normally have in the room, then replaced and repositioned them. Finally, the sound was to his satisfaction. I normally set up speakers so that they form an angle of at least 60 degrees to the listening seat, toed-in to point almost directly at the listener. Johns setup subtended an even wider angle, with the speakers closer to the back and side walls than usual, and the woofers facing the side walls. The result was a huge soundstage with tremendous depth and very powerful bass. The sound was most impressive, but after Hunter had left, I came to feel that the bass was too powerful, tilting the tonal balance. I started to do some setup tweaking of my own, aimed at preserving the soundstage while getting better control over the bass. A bit of informal testing at the listening seat with Stereophiles Test CD 3 and the RadioShack SPL meter revealed a peak of about 9dB in the 50Hz region (footnote 1). I had observed similar peaks with some other speakers in this room, but not to this extent. (The smoothest bass response in my room has been with the Dunlavy SC-IV/A, which is probably a function of its over-and-under woofer configuration.) To tame the bass, I tried all sorts of tricks: stuffing one or both of the rear-facing ports with rolled-up socks (which reduced the bass extension without reducing the peak); placing ASC Tube Traps in the corners (which only reduced the midbass, in the 200Hz range); trying different spikes/cones (no effect); switching left and right speakers so that the woofers faced inward (impairment of bass extension, little effect on the peak); adding three more RoomLenses, two of them behind the listening chair (less room sound from the midrange up, to the point of dulling, but no effect on the bass peak); and, in time-honored fashion, moving the speakers around. My final setup had the speakers farther away from the walls and corners than in Hunters initial setup, with both treble and bass switches in the flat position, two RoomLenses forming a wing outside each speaker, and one near the wall between the speakers. (The Mahler is provided with a removable grille; it stayed removed.) The midrange driver of each speaker was 39 from the back wall and 34 from the side wall (all measurements from the center of the midrange cone), the speakers set up along the 16 side of my 16 by 14 by 7.5 listening room. The included angle was about 70 degrees; the speakers were toed-in so that they were pointing almost (but not quite) at the listening chair. The bass peak was still there, but its amplitude at the listening position was reduced by 2-3dB. Moving the listening chair forward from its usual nearly-against-the-wall position led to a further 2dB reduction of the bass peak, but impaired center focus. I moved it back. Sound The Mahler was at its very best when reproducing large-scale symphonic music, big-band jazz, opera, and musicals. The challenges in reproducing this type of material are formidable: the speaker has to be able to maintain the individual instrumental and vocal threads while allowing the blending that is characteristic of the real sound, and to retain its composure at the high levels that stress the individual speaker components. As the overall level rises, theres a tendency for a speaker to lose sonic details and for the sound to acquire a pushed, strained quality, like a singer whos trying to produce a big sound that is beyond his or her comfortable range. The Mahler was able to play at high levels with ease and smoothness, maintaining the level of detail that was characteristic of lower playback levels. In its ability to play at very high levels without sounding strained, the Mahler surpassed every other speaker Ive had for review. The Dunlavy SC-IV/ADunlavy SC-IV/A, my longtime reference loudspeaker, starts to lose focus and to acquire a bit of an edge at levels at which the Mahler was still sailing along comfortably. The SC-IV/A is an exceedingly fine speaker, and if you do your listening at more moderate levels, the Mahlers higher dynamic ceiling may not be of much importance. Most of my listening is at fairly low levels, but once in a while I like to let er rip (footnote 2). At these times, I was able to listen with the certainty that my ears were going to give up before the speakers would. At more normal levels, the Mahlers exceptional dynamic capability was evident in its communication of musics subtle ebb and flow, and in its ability to track transient peaks. The new La Bohème (London/Decca 466 070-2) seems to have been recorded expressly to test a systems dynamic capabilities: Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu at full tilt at the end of O Soave Fanciulla make an exciting, powerful sound, and maestro Riccardo Chailly keeps up a crackling pace in the Cafe Momus scene. The Mahlers took it all in stride, keeping up the pace and rising to the dynamic peaks. Opera fans who like to listen loud will love these speakers. Allied to this sense of dynamic freedom was a great sense of openness, a kind of see-through quality, with the speakers somehow getting out of the way as apparent sources of sound, leaving only the music behind. The speakers were able to create a soundstage of exceptional width and depth, with a specificity of vocal and instrumental images that rivaled the Dunlavy SC-IV/As. To check the Mahlers accuracy of depth information, I dug out Best of Chesky Jazz and More Audiophile Tests, Volume 2 (Chesky JD68), which has a clicker recorded in a large studio at various distances from the microphone. With most speakers, the audible differentiation of distances holds up to perhaps 50, the clicker sounding much the same at 60, 70, and 80. However, with the Mahlers, the sound of the clicker continued to recede into the distance, to the limit of the recording. In the General Image and Resolution Test (track 47) people are marching around the room, with a plausible illusion of them passing behind the listener. The height of the soundstage was projected to be somewhat above the speakers, which is just how I like it. The term tonal balance is an apt one, in that a speakers tonal quality represents a kind of balancing act, with plenty of opportunities for slipping. It goes without saying that a speaker should not emphasize any part of the frequency range, but consideration of on-axis frequency response is only the first step in designing a speaker that sounds lifelike. There are certainly speakers out there that have a flat on-axis frequency response, but other aspects of their performance (eg, polar-response irregularities, delayed resonances, nonlinear distortions) make them sound artificial, more like mechanical contrivances and less like live music. The skillful designer balances all aspects of speaker performance that have an influence on its sound; arguments about objective accuracy notwithstanding, there is always a degree of subjectivity in making these design choices, as indeed there is in the listeners evaluation of the results. To describe the Mahler as having a musical tonal balance—which is how I would describe it—is not to imply that it deliberately deviates from absolute tonal neutrality, but that the choices the designer made serve the music while adhering to the ideal of high fidelity. Instruments and voices reproduced through the Mahlers sounded much as they do in life, with a minimum of mechanical/electronic artifacts to remind me that I was listening to a reproduction. The midrange balance was just about ideal: neither unduly laid-back nor consistently in my face. The top end was smooth and extended, perhaps departing slightly from absolute neutrality in the direction of sweetness, making it easier to listen to what are otherwise harsh-sounding CDs. The Mahlers also managed the difficult trick of providing high resolution of musical detail without sounding clinical or overly analytical. Natural-sounding reproduction of voices has high priority for me, and this happened to be one of the Mahlers strong suits. A recording Ive been playing a lot lately is A Christmas Survival Guide (Car-Jam 2die4 99032, available from Car-Jam), a collection of Christmas songs—some traditional, some sharply satirical—tied together with a mock self-help narrative. The performers include some of Broadways best, including Christiane Noll, Marin Mazzie, Alice Ripley, and Emily Skinner. Listening to the CD through the Mahlers, I had a strong sense that I was hearing a good facsimile of what these singers sound like live, the distinctive quality of each voice preserved with a minimum of added mechanical resonances. As chronicled in Setup, optimization of the Mahlers bass response in my listening room was a difficult task, and I was able to only reduce, not eliminate, a peak in the 50Hz region. I suspect that the problem was mostly—perhaps entirely—a function of the speaker exciting standing waves that are a room characteristic; John Atkinsons measurements should shed light on the extent to which the peak represents the behavior of the speaker rather than the room. Subjectively, the bass peak was generally not intrusive, and sometimes lent a welcome sense of richness to the sound. But occasionally—with string bass or bass guitar recorded in a spotlit manner—the bass could get thumpy and not ideally tight. My listening room is on the small side; the Mahler would be a better match with a larger room in which the speakers could be placed farther from the side and back walls and still retain a wide soundstage. But even in my non-optimal room, the extension and power of the Mahlers bass was most impressive, reaching the low 20s with the sort of authority that is normally the domain of subwoofers and giant full-range speakers. Conclusion Vienna Acoustics stated goals in designing the Mahler were to produce, in a reasonably compact enclosure, a no-compromise loudspeaker capable of reproducing music on a completely convincing scale, and able to transform the listening room and transport the listener. In my view, they have succeeded admirably in meeting these goals. I have some remaining doubt about the smoothness of the Mahlers bass—a problem that may represent mostly, if not entirely, interaction with my listening rooms acoustics—but in every other respect the performance of the Mahler is state-of-the-art. In addition to having all the characteristics that audiophiles want in a loudspeaker—neutral tonal balance, transparency, expansive soundstage, precise imaging, high dynamic capability—the Mahler has the propensity thats perhaps the most important for long-term satisfaction: the ability to sound musical, and provide a rewarding listening experience with sources that vary widely in quality. The fact that the speaker is sufficiently compact to not dominate the visual environment is a welcome bonus. The Mahler uses components of the highest quality, and its appearance is enhanced by a level of cabinet finish found only on very expensive furniture. Ive been told that the costs of materials and labor are such that the Mahlers retail price represents a smaller-than-usual margin for the manufacturer and distributor, and I dont doubt it. Still, in my book, $10,000 is a lot of money for a pair of speakers—but for those who can afford it, the Mahler represents outstanding performance and value.  Description: Three-way, floorstanding, reflex-loaded dynamic loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1.2 silk-dome tweeter, two 7 pulp-cone midranges, two 10 side-mounted honey-comb-cone woofers. Frequency range: 22Hz-25kHz (limits not specified). Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m. Impedance: 6 ohms average. Dimensions: 51.2 H by 8.6 W by 18.3 D. Weight: 150 lbs. Finishes: beech flame.   Get images that make Supersized seem small. THE simple solution for eBay sellers.

Experience the rich and unparalleled sound quality of the Vienna Acoustics Mahler standing speaker. This masterpiece from the renowned brand delivers an amazing audio experience that will leave you in awe. Perfectly engineered to fit your wired connectivity needs, this speaker is a must-have for any home audio setup. Indulge in the symphonic sound that the Mahler produces without worrying about its state. This Vienna Acoustic speaker is in great working condition and will take your audio experience to a whole new level. Add this to your home speakers and subwoofers collection today and enjoy the immersive audio experience that you deserve. Local pickup SOCAL prefer. Have original crates. Or Buyer arrange own shipping. Minor scratches please examine the photos.I am the second owner for last 15 years. Selling because I want a bigger speaker system. New retail price was $10000https://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/296/index.html

I have a pair of rarely offered Vienna Acoustics Mahlers in rosewood and are in very nice shape with very few blemishes , they are upgraded with Steel high end outriggers with adjustable spike cones . The Mahler were Vienna Acoustics reference speaker for years at a cost over 10K new . They were hand made with no expense spared in components and drivers . There is plenty of information online about them and great reviews . They have always performed flawless with me and by far one of the best sounding speakers I have owned or heard. At over 160 lbs each and I don’t have the original crates , they will be offered local pickup only . Feel free to ask any questions, thanks.

Local pickup prefer. Have original crates. Buyer arrange own shipping. Minor scratches please examine the photos. Sounds very musical. Can never get tired of the sound. New retail price was $10000 https://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/296/index.html