Mordaunt-Short MS10
This review appeared in Audiophile around November 1993, when the sub-£150, stand-mount two-way was king of the hill. The not-yet-Chinese-owned Mission’s 760i was top dog in the day but then along came the £10 more expensive – shrewdly marketed – Mordaunt-Short MS10.
MS 10 in the subsequent Pearl variant
It is the smallest speaker in Mordaunt Short’s new Music Series range, which boasts MCS – Moulded Cone and Surround – technology. This involves attaching the bass driver’s injection moulded cone and surround directly to the speaker’s mica-filled polypropylene front baffle with adhesives. The baffle itself is anchored to the rear cabinet panel with tensioned steel tie rods. This arrangement improves the speaker’s structural integrity and has appeared before in Epos loudspeakers. Their designer, Robin Marshall, was also involved in the early development of the Music Series speakers but has since left the TGI group to work with Monitor Audio. Another change at Mordaunt-Short headquarters, one whose significance was revealed when I listened to the MS10, is that rock music now plays a bigger part in the company’s evaluation process.
The speaker uses a 130mm bass unit and a 25mm aluminium dome tweeter, which, like all those in the Music Series range, are built in-house. The crossover design reflects Marshall’s conviction that it’s better to build drivers that do what’s desired from the outset rather than heavily modify their response later with a dynamism sapping, phase jiggering filter network. The MS10 crossover comprises one inductor and one capacitor. It isn’t, unlike the rest of the range, equipped for bi-wiring but it’s balanced, as they all are, for close-to-wall use.
For compact, low cost speakers, they produced an impressively large, self-assured sound. As I unpacked them I was enjoying Rage Against The Machine’s Bullet In The Head at fittingly murderous sound pressure levels through my regular Naim active SBL system. Rather than interrupt that magical musical moment by going off to hunt for suitable ancillaries, I simply planted the MS10s on a pair of sand-loaded Atacama SE24 stands and hooked them into one of my Naim NAP250 power amplifiers. I had muted the system while I took the SBL system’s active crossover out of circuit but hadn’t lowered the volume setting. Un-muting the pre-amplifier I unwittingly let loose a welter of belligerent Watts into the tiny boxes. Their reaction surprised and delighted me; rather than popping their drivers or diving into distortion’s deep end, they withstood the onslaught and delivered an unexpectedly accomplished account of the music. Although their bass units were nearing their excursion limit the only sign of distress was inaudible; one of the tweeters discarded its protective mesh. That was an act of self-improvement; they sounded better uncovered.
The MS10s were no less beguiling at respectable sound pressure levels and with other musical genres. They married the qualities I enjoy in speakers of any size but appreciate particularly in minis. Unlike Mordaunt Short’s previous 5 Series, they seemed free from obvious colorations and had vibrant dynamics. The 5s were polite to the point of being catatonic but the MS10s exuded a real zest for music.
Their bass was especially well judged – there was enough in quantity terms to satisfy the demands of most music but not so much that the speaker could run into trouble. At the top end, their treble appeared sufficiently fast and acute to catch leading edges and minor detail but it stopped short of being at all conspicuous. As a result, the MS10s’ timing was tight and the speakers’ portrayal of rhythms and musical interplay had a natural keenness.
Their midrange was lucid and cogent. The little speakers pumped their way through quite dense, busy tracks, such as the aforementioned Rage Against The Machine’s Take The Power Back, keeping a firm hold of each instrumental line to ensure that the mix stayed open and unambiguous. Similarly, the confidence with they swept through the polyrhythmic intricacy of The Victoria Kings’ Mighty Kings of Benga album suggested that Mordaunt Short’s listening panel also regularly samples Kenyan dance music as well as straightforward rock. The MS10s’ deft handling of this ten-piece band, with its intertwining high register guitar lines, falsetto vocals, busy percussion and fast, loping bass lines was not far short of splendid.
The MS10s, naturally, face some stiff competition, not least from the popular Mission 760i. I compared the two models and wouldn’t like to predict the outcome when potential buyers do the same. Both are musically rewarding with mainly cosmetic differences separating their presentations. I preferred – slightly – the bass of the 760s but I think the MS10s’ midrange, particularly on vocals, was more natural and clean. I’m confident that any retailer who stocks both speakers ought to be prepared for some lengthy comparative demonstrations.
