Anyone Had Extended Listening Experience With MBL?

German electronics is in fact very diverse, just like Germans themselves. Not familiar with MBL but was surprised with Ralph's comments, I never read anything like that about MBL. It is obvious that their speakers should sound different with tube preamp and amp. So what?

@rackon Lector is in fact an Italian company but I'm not sure I'd like to draw any conclusion based only on country of origin. I used to love my old CDP7t, great for tube rolling

Of course not, but there are always cultural influences that might be more articulated at the highest performance level. I would not expect Gryphon to sound like Ypsilon or FM Acoustics or Jadis or Lamm, and not only because of different engineering approaches.

The 101 at high spl is the most convincing rock n roll loudspeaker I've ever heard.  The spatial presentation is just amazing.  The company demos them VERY LOUD at hi-fi shows, so that's one way to check them out for yourself.  Dealers - provided they have a large enough demo space (not all do) - are better.

Caveat: Both system match (enough output into load) and room match (large) are critical, IMO.

Nice gear, but show demos were excessively LOUD.