Featuring MBL’s ‘True Peak’ and ‘Core Volume Control’ technologies along with an extensive array of features, the C41 network player is designed to deliver unparalleled digital sound and a seamless music streaming experience.

Additionally, the latest MBL C41 software update 3.35 brings important improvements and enhanced features that will further enrich your listening experience.

What’s new?

• Additional streaming services: Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz
• Internet radio functionality
• New web interface with a revised layout to enhance usability
• New inputs for MBL’s C11 preamplifier and C51 integrated amplifier.

MBL C41 owners can update their device free of charge – now and into the future – by following the guidelines at www.mbl.de/en/electronics/cadenza-line/firmware-update.

About the C41 network player

MBL’s beautifully crafted, masterfully performing electronics come in three series: the top-of-range Reference Line, the innovative Noble Line and the elegantly compact Cadenza Line.

In the Cadenza Line, the C41 network player is the perfect choice for audiophiles and music lovers seeking peerless digital sound quality. Equipped with a state-of-the-art digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) and MBL’s proprietary ‘True Peak’ and ‘Core Volume Control’ technologies, the C41 is crafted to ensure that digital music is reproduced with the utmost fidelity and naturalness. Its extensive array of inputs and outputs ensures easy integration into existing hi-fi systems, making it a versatile addition to your audio set-up. 

MBL True Peak Technology

The simple calculation 16 x 6 = 96 represents the dynamic range of a CD, meaning the ratio between the quietest sounds a disc can store and the loudest noise it is capable of producing as defined in decibels. The CD’s audio tracks are encoded with 16 bits and each bit delivers a dynamic range of 6 decibels, making a total of 96 decibels of dynamic range.

One might assume that this would be enough to flawlessly capture a piece of music on a digital file or CD recording with the lowest levels of the music sufficiently far away from noise, and with sufficient safe distance from distortion-prone overloads. This is indeed the assumption of the major manufacturers of DAC chips, such as AKM, ESS and Texas Instruments (formerly Burr-Brown).

However, in reality, audio paints a completely different picture, particularly in the case of pop music where overdriven recordings are the norm. Every music producer wants their songs to be loud and dynamic when they reach the audience’s ears and so in many recording studios, producers encode the music signal hard and fast to the maximum level. Unfortunately, this common practice is to the detriment of the highest-quality music playback. If several samples on a CD are fully distorted one after the other, the digital filters of the converters will generate waveforms that are overdriven by up to three decibels – which are then abruptly cut or ‘clipped.’ Unpleasant distortions are the audible and measurable outcome of this practice.

Fortunately, this is not the case with MBL’s converter design. With sophisticated stop-gaps built into the digital filters, MBL’s engineers have ingeniously created an additional modulation reserve of three decibels, thereby correcting and basically eliminating any sound-degrading overloads from CD or music files. MBL call it ‘True Peak Technology’. The result is natural, distortion-free sound from CDs and digital music files – even at peak volume levels.

MBL Core Volume Control technology

With its built-in volume control, the C41 can act as the control centre in hi-fi chains that use purely digital sources, eliminating the need for a separate preamplifier. Additionally, a further feature that sets the C41 apart is MBL’s innovative ‘Core Volume Control’ technology, a ground-breaking advancement developed by the company’s own engineers. This technology allows for volume adjustment at unprecedented levels of quality, ensuring that your listening experience is not only pristine but also dynamically responsive to your control.

www.mbl.de/en