Categories: Cymbals

Meinl 19″ MB8 Medium Crash Cymbal

The Meinl MB8 series employs a high copper content, and has a bright, modern sound. The crashes come in medium and heavy. Their sound delivers the corresponding SPLs. Although they are less expensive than some of the other models, they do not give up anything in sound quality, but in fact, have a distinct tonality all their own, which will cut through the rest of the band in any setting. This particular cymbal not only has an excellent crash sound, but it rides well too.

Specifications

Manufacturer Line: MB8
Type: Crash
Style: Medium
Alloy: B8 – CuSn8 – 92% Copper, 8% Tin
Diameter: 19″
Metal Work: Machine Hammered, Deep Hand Lathed, Buffed Finish
Weight: 3.5 Pounds
MSRP: $364 USA; Street Price $215
Meinl

You can see from the close-up that the lathing is deep, and since it is irregular, I would assume it is done by hand. The bell is not lathed. The cymbal appears to be machine hammered. This does not imply low quality, just a slightly different sound, since when hammered by hand, the cymbalsmith can listen to the sound after every few strokes to see what is needed to make it sound to his satisfaction.

The spectrum is relatively smooth between 300 Hz and 10 kHz, then declines to 60 kHz. Even after 2 seconds (the yellow line), the sound level has only attenuated by 20 dB, so this is a crash that stays crashed for a long time (see the Level vs. Time spectrum below).

The peak of the crash occurs at 0.02 seconds, with a long sustain. So, it is a very fast crash.

Click HERE to listen to an audio sample, which will include crash (when appropriate), ride, and bell sounds (these are 24 bit, 176.4 kHz wav files, so be sure your sound card is capable of handling these high resolution sound files).

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John E. Johnson, Jr.

Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. John E. Johnson, Jr. founded Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity in 1994, shortly after publishing a hardcopy book of the same title. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity until 2022. John has been involved in audio and video for more than 50 years, having built radio transmitters, amplifiers, turntables, and speakers from scratch. He was also one of the founders of the Northern California Audio Video Association, now The Bay Area Audio Society. John holds four university degrees, including a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and has published numerous scientific books, along with dozens of scientific articles on biomedical research topics as well as imaging technology. He was the founder and Editor-in-Chief of two medical/scientific journals for 20 years. John holds several patents, including one on high resolution image analysis and one on a surgical instrument. He has been affiliated with NASA, The National Institutes of Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford Research Institute, and The University of California at Berkeley. He is President of the consulting firm Scientific Design and Information, Inc., which is based in Redwood City, California. John resides in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and multiple kitties! His daughter, Cynthia, who was an integral part of SECRETS for many years, resides in San Francisco.