Anyone Had Extended Listening Experience With MBL?

dlcockrum,

Talking about "stupid money.."

I once had a chance to bid for a once-in-a-lifetime priced MBL 101Ds (I think on audiogon).  I was in a bidding war and put in my last bid, way leaping over the other guy, in the last 10 seconds or so.  A software or connection glitch meant the connection timed out and my last bid didn't go through, letting the other guy get it.  I was unbelievably pissed and it's haunted me since.

I actually managed to get in touch with the member who won that auction and it turned out he mostly "liked the way they looked" and put them in his gym to listen to background music while he worked out.

Life ain't fair...

A tragically sad story indeed, prof.

My personal story of material tragedy is the rich kid that bought my mint, numbers-matching 69 Z28 with the ultra-rare (500 produced) GM Penske/Donahue crossram racing intake, two Holly 585 no-choke double pumpers and professionally built, balanced-and-blueprinted 302 motor and then pulled and traded that motor for a POS big block, completely ruining the collectability of the car. $175k => $30k in the blink of an eye. Broke my heart.

Dave

LOL, I had absolutely no idea what you were talking about until I finally saw the word "car" at the end.  I'm not a car guy.  But whatever that meant, you have my sympathies :-)

Ha! A reminder of how the outside world must puzzle at what is written in the audio forums. lol 

Trust me, prof, collector car enthusiasts are every bit as fanatical as audiophiles.

Dave

The MBL preamp was used every time I heard them.. All cables are Wireworld Platinum Series 7. The 101E’s are very detailed, open, great imaging and tonality. They can sound too detailed, almost bright at times.

I would not blame the speakers for brightness. I got to spend some time with the mbl line stage and that seemed to be bright; when we changed it out for a tube preamp (our MP-1) the mbl101s took on a much more natural sound and lost the brightness. They seem to be pretty neutral.

Every time I've heard then at shows though they've sounded bright; but that was with the mbl electronics as well. IMO the speaker is not a good match with their electronics as it gets too bright and sterile, although their amps IMO are better than their preamps in that regard.