Car Audio Buff

The Hertz Mille is the Italian company’s top product offering. If you want to spend $1000 dollars on a component set, going with the Hertz MLK 165 means you’re getting the company’s absolute top of the line—unlike with the Focal 165 KRX2, with which you realize you’ve been duped after finding out they have a better set only gods and goddesses could afford.

The MLK 165 is built like a tank, looks gorgeous along with its packaging, and installation is as standard as any 6.5″ component set. That’s about it for those aspects in this review, so let’s concentrate on the most important part—the sound.

Playing live recording on Hertz is like watching a video track of the recording itself. You can position each individual player—guitars, drums, other instruments to their exact location on the stage. You can hear the softest instruments in the mix, yet you can still single out the notes and lines they are playing.

The bass response is really low on the MLKs, going up to 35Hz. Playing it without a sub at first, my colleague thought I was merely lowering the volume of my JL. He was surprised (as was I) when I told him I turned off the sub entirely.

Instruments such as shakers and percussion sounded clear and natural, without the slightest bit of harshness. If I were to describe the highs of this set, I would probably use the words “smooth” and “lifelike.” It would be something you would consider as a set not having any listening fatigue.

Cymbals are very clear, metal-like without over emphasizing its harsh qualities. You won’t get fooled if there was a recording of a cymbal and you were made to distinguish a real one with the recorded track, but they make them sound like you would want to listen to them all night. Horns sound bright but not harsh with the appropriate timbre—just the way I like them to sound in recordings.

Conclusion

I realize this review sounds like a Hertz commercial but in reality we just can’t find anything wrong with this set. Bass response is excellent and goes way low, mids are full-bodied, fast and alive, and highs are bright but smooth. We’ve heard so much more detail on the cds we’ve played that no other component succeeded in reproducing—people in the audience (live recordings) talking, the sound of the pick touching the strings, brushes (drums) tapping the skin of the snare as opposed to the rim—we can go on and on but they just keep on exposing these “new sounds.” I am in awe of this set, and, what I like about it even more is that it is Hertz top product and they gave it all they have without sacrificing any aspect just to earn a couple of bucks with a so-called “higher” model; plus all that with a price that is so competitive—$999.

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