Morel Nova MKII SoundSpot 5.1 Speaker System (Black)

Morel Nova MKII SoundSpot 5.1 Speaker System (Black)
Manufacturer: Morel Loudspeakers
Product Type: CE

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Product Description
For the past 30 years, Israel-based Morel has been one of the best-kept secrets in the audio industry. Instead of marketing their speakers directly to the consumers, they've been quietly and convincingly providing ultra-high-quality drivers for other loudspeaker manufacturers. Morel's technology can be found in speakers manufactured all over the world, including many top brands in the United States. Thankfully, all that's changing. Morel is now setting its sights on the consumer market with its own branded speaker components and systems. The Morel Nova MKII SoundSpot 5.1 Speaker System is the company's cost-effective system, designed to satisfy anyone who is looking for an unparalleled home theater experience at an affordable price.

Morel's five small and stylish satellites plus a powerful subwoofer add up to big home theater sound. View larger.

The Nova MKII provides a number of setup options, including wall mounting (white version shown). View larger.

The SoundSub 9 boasts a full range of connections and controls for optimizing bass performance. View larger.

Peerless construction and quality control combine to make you a part of surround sound performances. View larger.

A Compact and Smart Design
The days of filling your living space with 50-pound speaker boxes that look like they belong on an Aerosmith concert stage are thankfully long gone. Morel knows that if you're going to invest in serious audio for your home, you'll want your system to reflect your tastes in every respect. At the heart of the Nova MKII are five LI-1 Satellite Speakers that each weigh all of 2.3 pounds with a 4.5-inch diameter black steel housing. Small enough to discreetly blend into almost any modern decor, the LI-1s offer outstanding performance without compromising on style. (If you want to turn your 5.1 system into a 7.1, simply add another pair of LI-1s.) The speakers are set on circular mounting plates, which can either be screwed onto a wall, placed on a suitable flat surface, or mounted on one of Morel's ST-95 Speaker Stands. The stands neatly conceal the speaker wires and complement the system design nicely.

Complementing the speakers is the system's SoundSub 9 100-watt powered subwoofer, featuring a 20-inch-diameter, curved black MDF enclosure. The subwoofer comes with its own stand but can also be attached to a wall with the included brackets. And at just five inches in depth, the SoundSub 9 can slide beneath a couch or other piece of furniture.

Quality Assurance: The Morel Difference
Morel's peerless quality control is a key selling point. Every speaker and component with the Morel name on it is built, tested, and inspected in Morel's factory in Israel. Except for the production of the speaker housing, which is outsourced, Morel is directly responsible for everything.

Morel drivers are based on what the company describes as Hexatech technology, which employs a hexagonal aluminum wire voice-coil. Meanwhile, the speaker construction is based on its own External Voice Coil, or EVC, technology, which uses a magnet with a shaped pole that fits inside the aluminum voice coil rather than around it. The EVC design offers higher efficiency and greater power handling accuracy. Plus, the design provides as much power response as conventional systems five times larger. In other words, what the speakers may lack in size, they more than make up for in power.

The SoundSpot LI-1s are built with neodymium magnets, which are up to 20 times more powerful than conventional magnet systems. They each house a 3.5-inch coaxial driver with a 0.75-inch high-temperature voice coil for the midrange, along with a semi-soft polymer tweeter with a 0.25-inch liquid-cooled voice coil. Despite the small size, the speakers still offer plenty of power for most home theater applications, with a range of 15 to 100 watts and a 100 Hz to 22 kHz frequency response.

If you want an even richer home theater experience, you can upgrade your system by adding a SoundCenter C-5 center channel speaker, or a SoundSub IS-9A 120-watt subwoofer.

Note: New Morel speakers and components require 40 hours of "break-in" time before you'll achieve optimal performance. The response of any speaker will depend on how free the woofer cones are to move, and since new speaker components are bound to have stiff suspensions, a "loosening up" period should be allowed before you pass final judgment on the system's performance.

What's in the Box
Five LI-1 satellite speakers, SoundSub 9 subwoofer, two speaker stands, subwoofer speaker stand, subwoofer wall/ceiling connection bracket, and user's manual.