mbl 101d speakers suck

Bill Gates (yes, that Bill Gates) has these speakers in his living room; he didn't choose them (he has a tin ear), his interior designer choose them for their appearance. they are certainly one of the most visually striking speakers out there.

i have heard them at CES; i agree with Unsound that they are not the last word in coherence. i do remember about a year ago a set of mbl 101d's were offered for $8k on Audiogon by a frustrated owner.....i don't remember the outcome of that.

I think the MBL's amongst the best speakers I have ever heard. How ever, I am bothered by the lack of coherence between the bass and the rest of the sound every time I hear them.

My experience with the 101d driven by lots of MBL power is similar to Rcprice's experience. However, I think they've solved the brightness problem, and not with a tone of room tuning either. The deepest base just wasn't there, but what was, was delicious. Beautiful to look at especially without the grills.

The above posts praising the mbl's are consistent with my experience with them, which admittedly goes back a few years to an earlier iteration of the speaker. I've heard them with Jadis JA 500s and the Gryphon amp, and they really are a lot of fun to hear when driven by those powerful amps. They clearly need a lot of power to sing, but when driven properly they can present an amazing recreation of a soundstage. My only complaints about them were that they seemed a little bright to me, and lacked that last octave of bass (and it was virtually impossible to find a subwoofer that was a proper match for them tonally). I'm curious, have the new versions addressed those areas?

I also heard them driven by MLB power and thought they sounded great. Really interesting visually, too. Being the obviously articulate fellow you are, why do you even care if they "suck" so much? I look forward to your next thread with bated breath -- I trust it will be equally well thought out and interesting.

I agree,I heard the mbl 101d being driven by mbl amp,Amazing lifelike sound.
steve

I own these speakers. best speakers I have ever heard. Just think about it- If you produce a bad product and at an expensive price, you will be killed in the market! Your thread starts by assuming that these ARE bad speakers... you should really ask why YOU failed in finding the beauty in these speakers. It is like asking why Ferrari/ Lotus/ Lamborghini suck when they make such bad gas mileage/ uncomfortable commuter cars!

I own these speakers. best speakers I have ever heard.

I'm with Andyshum on this. If you can afford the speaker, then buy the appropriate amplifier to drive it. I've heard those speakers sound excellent driven by the big MBL amps.

Just because all American is not capable to drive and control this extreme low efficient monster. The speaker atually sound beautiful and liveness using the MBL masterpiece, Gryphon, FM Acoustics, Forsell..

Why is Cerwin Vega and Bose still churning out their product? There's a market for everything, including overhyped/overpriced crap.