Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

I spent some time at the MBL room in Munich (2019 High End), nice speakers. Omnidirectionals are not "that" rare, though. eg Ondacustica www.ondacustica.com and others, mostly Europeans I guess, in additions to the ones you mentioned.

I've enjoyed the MBLs, mainly at shows, although I had one friend that had them. Seems like the design really hasn't changed much. It's interesting that the bending wave people didn't emerge more through the years (or that the term "bending wave" is avoided wrt MBL). I've heard numerous times that so-and-so was going to come back with some idea from the 80's based on....

Love the playlist. This Must Be the Place is my top 5 cheer up song. Always makes me happy too.

bending wave transducers has never ceased to amaze me. Nothing else in driver technology even comes close. Imagine what it would be like developing these things from scratch. The trial and error phase must have taken forever! And the tooling! Sheesh!

"I love how the sound seems to float in the air rather than be fired at you."

I've found this with many good speakers, usually with esl, planer, or ribbon tweeters.

Cheers George

short, but fun to watch..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyT416pIccY

Fun review. I can kinda see how these omnis provide a meatier pushing of air, but can they keep up with planars or even domes for speed? What's the mass on these things?
And they look so delicate, can they last or do they break apart after a while?

The MBL tweeters made me think of the can tweeters on top of Anthony Gallo Nucleus Solo speakers. Those radiated 360 degrees.

I have heard all iterations of the MBL speakers over the years, one day will own a pair. Some of the finest transducers I have ever heard.

I'd always lusted after the MBL 101D (or E) speakers, having heard them many times in some good conditions. I've never heard more realistic sound. But way out of my budget.

I managed at one point to get a pair of the MBL 121 stand mounted monitors - the slightly smaller precursor to the 120s in this review.

They sure had that MBL midrange and high end magic in spades! I favor speakers that do a "disappearing" act and image really well, and have owned many speakers that do that beautifully (e.g. various audio physic, Thiel, Waveform, many others). But nothing did the 3D thing quite like the MBLS. Also, I found the MBLS to have among the finest and most subtly realistic detail I've ever heard. I think Jonathan Valin in TAS was on to something, calling the MBL tweeter among the best in the world. For instance, when listening to a classical guitar piece it wasn't "detail" thrown in my face but more like I could simply listen down to the micro level of the finger padding on the strings, as I could with a real guitarist in front of me. And they did drum cymbals more believably than anything I've heard. Most speakers sound to me like drum cymbals are being "squeezed" through tiny tweeters, so the drum cymbals sound like smaller spots of brightness in the soundstage, where real drum cymbals sound BIG, like big vibrating discs of metal. The MBLs just sounded more real and more complete with drum cymbals.

Plus the 121s had some real solidity and kick in the upper bass.

Vocals could just be eerily real in they way they transported a performer like the Star Trek holodeck in to the room.

Further: At least in my room (very good acoustically and well treated) the MBLs did NOT do what many accuse them of doing: unrealistically stretched or diffuse imaging. The could be just about as focused as any of my box speakers, but without any sense of a speaker producing the sound.

The weird thing is that, as much as the MBLs mesmerized me, and I owned them for many years, I also owned other regular dynamic speakers and I found myself gravitating to "regular" speakers for lots of the music I like. It's hard to put my finger on why, because it's not like the MBLs were hopelessly ethereal sounding as they where quite dynamic, like electrostatics with balls. But there was just something richer, more comfortable, probably more familiar with the regular speakers that seemed more right and overall satisfying when throwing on, say, Rush or some Funk or Prog or many other genres. Ultimately I sold the MBLs, yet remain incredibly happy about having owned the MBL magic for many years.

I still have never heard subtle detail and instrumental timbre reproduced so naturally. And I still can't fully get the idea of the 101s out of my system.

That was the best five minutes I've spent on YouTube for a while. Thanks!

"I kept listening when I should have been going to bed—or finishing this review."

That has always been the sign for me that the sound was just right. When I'm listening despite having other things to do rather than because I don't have anything else to do.