MBL Insolvent

The late John Strohbeen of Ohm Acoustics once wrote an article on the site where he indicated his admiration for mbl speakers indicating they were one of few that sounded right to him (other than his own Walsh CLS design) and took great pride in providing more affordable products cut from a similar mold.   His goal it seemed was always to deliver the best sound possible for an affordable price to as many music lovers as possible. 
 

Also interesting to note that Ohm Walsh speaker prices both used and new seem to have soared in recent years.  

Sad news indeed.  We don’t know what went wrong and it is not fair to second guess their business decisions that got them to this point.  Even though I did not like all aspects of their sound (a touch too hard and metallic sounding), they certainly did other things well (imaging and having a wide sweet spot.  From a purely sonic perspective, they deserved a place in the market.  I bet someone will buy the design and this design will remain in the market in some form.

@kerrybh well said and good riposte to JasonBourne's ultimatum 

Ultimately value is in the eye of the beholder.  I have no problem with people buying high end stuff.  I know people with systems that cost more than 10x their car.  Priorities and income can be vastly different... some people aren't 1%ers but they just put their income into audio.  People spend a million dollars on a car.  I'd rather have the sound system...

They should have raised their prices to attract the clientele that they are after. 

I don't know how many moving parts there are in a MBL speakers, but I'd guess that service would be frequent and expensive.