Downstairs. Backed by our premium cast for a best-case show, it was obvious right off. This ~€2.2K/pr monitor's resolving powers sat a few rungs below my usual €10K sound|kaos Vox3a or extended loan of €5.5K Qualio IQ selling direct. What thus equally bites is the Raidho reality. We can't hope to magically clone its extreme insight with a just fractional investment. Nobody sane would expect to. Still, hope eternal roots for underdogs. Here that dog is toothless. The gap is simply too wide; just as it ought to be. Curiously if perhaps only to hardcore hi-ressers was that after acknowledging this, listening enjoyment didn't diminish. Like any other Irish day which starts out bright and sunny for half an hour before reinstating the usual overcast, it was noted then embraced. That's the major takeaway. It usually shows up at the end but here embeds now. It's why past this paragraph, you won't read more on lower resolution. It wouldn't be relevant. Judged on its own merit, the MB1B is rather clever at concealing inevitable compromises of size and budget. That focus—on the brilliant not limited bits—thus informed the remainder of this gig.

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For one gorgeous example of bandwidth sufficiency on the queen of instruments—no sub required—follow the piano across this track of Rire avec Charlie. None of it fell beyond the compact speaker's reach.

How about e-bass you ask? Patrick Chartol's "Unexpected" workout from Peaceful World Project answered in like fashion. The Danish monitor needed no low-down help, period.

To keep it real and turn tables, here's a track where the subwoofer addition did show more was possible right from the start.

With the sub looped in, there was actual 1st-octave coverage which expanded/deepened the sense of artificial space. It's just that bypassing the sub again, this music lost precious little and nothing essential at all.

I hope this very brief track selection illustrated the line where a subwoofer adds things to give you a good idea on just how much music the MB1B proves perfectly equal to as is. This was true even for the below 'free-space' setup chosen for maximal soundstage depth and minimized room involvement from the front wall. It's not how most civilians set up their small boxes.

Over-egging the custard with 250-watt mono blocks.