Following the footstep of the MB-450 Series III, the MB-185 Series III Signature monoblock has gone through the same technological improvements as its bigger brother. The upgrade to the Series III platform is extensive with a complete rework of the signal path and new features added while retaining all the user friendliness of the previous model such as automatic tube biasing and comprehensive fault sensing.

Upgrades include a fully balanced differential input stage driving a differential phase splitter and a lower impedance push-pull output stage. Also new is a shorter, faster and fully balanced negative feedback loop, with zero global negative feedback. The negative feedback loop completely eliminates ringing and requires no capacitor compensation to maintain critical phase integrity and information. The result is an amplifier that remains stable even under the most demanding loads.

Another significant change to the MB-185 is the switch to EL-34 tubes. Long admired for their rich, natural and open sound, the EL-34s bring a distinctive new sonic signature to the amplifier that emphasizes the integration and inner details of music. The output transformer has been completely redesigned and carefully matched to complement the midrange purity and quick, taut bass of EL34s.

There is also a new user adjustable Damping Factor Feedback control that allows the user to adjust the amplifier’s output impedance by varying the amount of negative feedback. Impedance can now be precisely set to suit the listener’s taste, and to improve control of the loudspeaker loads to deliver best performance.

The 4 possible settings are:

1. LOW – Lowest damping factor, good loudspeaker control, most natural sound.
2. MED – Better loudspeaker control, with some impact on sound quality
3. HI – Best loudspeaker control, with a little more impact on sound quality, but on speakers that need the control the sonic improvement is clear
4. MAX – Maximum damping factor, but sonic impact is noticeable