MBL 101e mk 2 Speaker Owners?

Stereo 5, you're friend is awesome; I need some friends like that :)

I love MBL but have only heard them at RMAF two times, in two different rooms. The 101 and the 116... loved them both and till this day have not heard better than the 101, in my opinion. I like the dynamics and room filling sound provided by MBL, and the Man and Woman (shame on me for not remembering their names, I believe they are the us distributor and live in NY) in charge of the room were first class, and all about the music!

MBL made a lifelong lasting impact on me.

I'm surprised you gave them back but at the same time, you did well with the Golden Ear Triton 1, as that is a great sounding speaker as well!

Happy listening!

PS, I'm surprised Mapman didn't plug OHM's here as he loves them and their omnidirectional sound! One day I will definitely try some OHM's as I can't afford MBL.

Golden ear is an interesting option to Mbl. I very much like the aon3s. If the tritons sound similar but bigger those are big hitters for the money as well.

If I had the room and money for big Mbls I would strongly consider them. But I don't so I will settle with what I have. I would not count the ohms out without a fight though even in that Mbl sized room in that I would love to save the 💰💰💰 .

I used Merrill Audio Veritas amps (Hypex NC1200) for 2 years and am currently using Pass Labs XA-160.5 amps. Much more wallet-friendly and both setups sound superb, with the MBLs displaying the character of each.

I was obsessed with the MBL 101s for quite a while, and almost bought a pair (a great deal that slipped away from my fingers, years ago).

The best I ever heard them was actually in Michael Gindi's notoriously tiny room, driven by tube amps. He'd treated the room just right, but it certainly put to rest the notion for me that a large room was required to get great sound out of those speakers. (I've had similar success with full range speakers in a fairly small room at my place as well).

I ultimately ended up scoring a pair of the MBL 121 monitors
a few years ago, and it's so gratifying to have access to the MBL sound at home. (And as anomalous as it sounds, though the 121s have essentially the same brutal low sensitivity/impedance as the big 101s, they actually sound gorgeous driven by an old 14W/side Eico HF 81 tube amp).

I still envy those with the 101s!