Anyone Had Extended Listening Experience With MBL?

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.

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?

Ralph, they want to create a classical German sound, and it appears that they succeed. What may be bright to most of us is not bright for those who prefer that. I am not saying that there is no other kind of German sound, there is.