MBL omnidirectional speakers. How do they sound ?

Heard them several times at the Newport Beach Audio Show.

The smaller 116s in a small room were nothing remarkable.

The 101s, however, are perhaps the best-sounding speaker I have ever heard by a long shot.  They were set up in a double hotel room, driven by big mbl amps and the presence and soundstaging were nothing short of astonishing.  As I changed places in the room the soundstage perspective of the performers simply changed and the soundstage did not collapse as it does virtually every other speaker I have heard.  Detail and transparency was terrific.

I also heard the big Master References in a big room also driven by big mbl amps and using a digital front end.  MBL was only allowing people to stay for one session, so I was sorely disappointed to hear MBL play some joker's Michael Jackson CD, but even then the sound had the most lifelike dynamics, transparency, and speed I have ever witnessed, even if the soundstage was a little diffuse.  I am not a big fan of pinpoint imaging that one rarely hears live and IMO is a studio artifact anyway.  Luckily some other music was played and I heard several that I then bought.

Summary:  If the sound of the two big mbl systems was an A, every other system I have ever heard started at B-.

I heard the MBL "system" during one of my travels in Dubai in a store that looked more like a luxury HiFi supermarket, a few stores down from the Ferrari dealership. The demo room was acoustically optimized and the presentation was simply unreal. That was the only time in my life that I wished I had picked a different line of work, legal or illegal, and could just hand my credit over to the salesman with a shipping address... It completely ruined my ears for music. Madeleine Peyroux's voice has never sounded the same..

Yep it can be an acquired taste in that its not what most are used to hearing at home but once one gets a proper taste of good omni/radial speaker sound, its hard to ever go back and be 100% satisfied. Beware!

.....its hard to ever go back and be 100% satisfied.

Not true. Been there, done that and never ever going back to MBL. 
Moving from MBL to Vienna Acoustics' coincident midrange/treble transducer/module was indeed most revelatory and satisfying at the same time. :)

jon,

That’s my personal experience only of course. It is an acquired taste, not for everyone obviously. YMMV

But good radials/omnis like mbl or OHM are worth a try for those just not finding the complete answer with more conventional designs and willing to try something truly different and unique. Like conventional speakers, no two designs will sound or work exactly the same. OHM and mbl for example share a radial design but sound very different.

I mention OHM mainly becasue I am most familiar with those and they are a much more affordable and practical option for those interested in trying such things than mbl. The largest most expensive OHMs will likely still cost less than the smallest mbls so that’s a big difference.  Both will respond similarly to quality amplification and source material upstream.