Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

MBL Radialstrahler 101E Mk.II loudspeaker Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Four-way floorstanding loudspeaker. Three omnidirectional bending-mode drive-units: 24-segment carbon-fiber tweeter, 12-segment carbon-fiber upper-midrange unit, 12-segment aluminum lower-midrange unit; plus, in separate enclosure, bandpass-loaded 12", aluminum-cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: 105Hz, 600Hz, 3.5kHz (Linkwitz-Riley, fourth-order). Acoustic center: 45" (1140mm) from floor. Frequency range: 24Hz–40kHz. Sensitivity: 81dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Power handling: 320–500W continuous, 2.2kW peak.
Dimensions: 67" (1720mm) H by 16" (410mm) W by 18" (460mm) D. Weight: 176 lbs (80kg).
Finishes: Piano Black, Piano Silver, Piano White, with chrome or gold-plated accents.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 233831 & '2.
Price: $84,500/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 10.
Manufacturer: MBL Akustukgerate GmbH & Co., KG, Kurfurstendamm 182, Berlin 10707, Germany. Tel: (49) 030-2300584-0. Fax: (49) 030-230058410. Web: www.mbl-germany.de. US distributor: MBL North America, Inc., 263 West End Avenue, Suite 2F, New York, NY 10023. Tel: (212) 724-4870. Web: www.mbl-northamerica.com.

COMPANY INFO
MBL Akustukgerate GmbH & Co.
US distributor: MBL North America, Inc.
263 West End Avenue, Suite 2F
New York, NY 10023
(212) 724-4870
www.mbl-northamerica.com
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
soulful.terrain's picture
Submitted by soulful.terrain on April 6, 2012 - 3:16pm

 

In my humble opinion, I have never heard a more 'perfect' loudspeaker than the MBL 101's. The 111's are no slouch either.

Great review Michael.

Jeff0000's picture
Submitted by Jeff0000 on April 8, 2012 - 6:46pm

Michael:

It would have been helpful to me if you had included your listening room size as a referent given the importance placed on listening room size in the review.

Jeff

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on April 9, 2012 - 4:01pm

Quote:
It would have been helpful to me if you had included your listening room size as a referent given the importance placed on listening room size in the review.

IIRC, Mikey's room is approximately 25' by 18' by 8'.

John Atkinson

Editor, Stereophile

K.Reid's picture
Submitted by K.Reid on April 9, 2012 - 3:35pm

The MBL 101E MK II and it's big brother the X-Treme comes closer than any other speakers I can think of to bringing the live performance to the listener. The power, scale, and effortless, room-filling sound really transport the listener to the artist. It cannot be emphasized enough how these speakers can convey the emotion of music. 

I heard them at AXPONA last year and at CES this year. Each time it is really an experience. I can't wait to hear the them again at the New York AV show.

370lbgorilla's picture
Submitted by 370lbgorilla on May 5, 2012 - 1:12pm

Hello Michael.

Can you give your thoughts on whether or not a higher measured efficiency rating for the 101E Mk IIs would improve the sound/performance?  Is it even possible to appreciably increase efficiency with this type of design?  I am in the "High Efficiency" camp for speakers, for the most part, and find the very low 81 dB(B) measured spec of the MBLs to be somewhat of a turn-off for me.  I'm trying to imagine how this speaker would perform if it had a sensitivity rating of 90 dB or higher.

Thanks, and take care.

Allen

 

 

 

drblank's picture
Submitted by drblank on December 11, 2014 - 11:02am

they can change the efficiency rating of those speakers. They are what they are, just like planer speakers typically have low efficiency ratings as well. it's the nature of the way the drivers are designed with their stave design. It's more of a matter of what type of power you need to drive them more than sound quality. That's why MBL has relatively high wattage power amps to drive them and the amps have to be of decent quality, which unfortunately are typically more expensive.

MBL would have to use traditional cone drivers to get something in the 90dB efficiency level, but as you can see, they only use traditional cone drivers for their subwoofers and not their other drivers.

JRT's picture
Submitted by JRT on April 22, 2023 - 11:55pm

drblank commented, "...as you can see, they only use traditional cone drivers for their subwoofers and not their other drivers."

Each of these loudspeakers includes a single twelve inch woofer in bandpass alignment in the lower enclosure. There are no separate subwoofers in the system under review.

The larger and much more expensive MBL 101 X-Treme MKII Radialstrahler System (half of it shown below) includes a pair of separate subwoofers, each is six feet tall with six twelve inch woofers, for a full dozen twelve inch woofers in total. And it does not use bandpass alignment on the woofers, as you can see.

remlab's picture
Submitted by remlab on May 19, 2012 - 11:14am

Snatch them up while you can!

mrplankton2u's picture
Submitted by mrplankton2u on November 27, 2012 - 7:25am

Despite Fremer's foray into cable silliness, this was a well written, hard hitting review. The speaker's unique design and the few aspects that were measured beckon for more detailed measurements. I suspect that distortion measurements conducted at different drive levels would be more revealing of the significant challenges posed by the design of the drivers in this speaker.

Stereophile should also be putting more of its limited financial resources into supplying ancillary equipment to support reviews like this. Instead of flying more "journalists" to the next social gathering trade show, why not invest in a few hundred square feet of room treatment panels to outfit the listening room of a reviewer who intends to audition a pair of omnidirectional speakers? This exercise was a little like test driving a Bugatti Veyron in a Piggly Wiggly parking lot full of aging Floridians pushing their Ensure and Depends laden shopping carts...

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