MBL 101 X-treme MkII Omnidirectional Loudspeaker
$325,000
These truly remarkable omnidirectional loudspeakers have been awarded Golden Ears from me for the past three years (and an Overall Product of the Year Award from TAS in 2019), but since they remain the most realistic-sounding loudspeakers I’ve ever heard, I’m awarding them another GE in 2022. Comprising two Radialstrahler columns and two outboard, powered subwoofer stacks, the 101 X-tremes are giants. Expensive giants. But until you find a speaker system that sounds more like the real thing (on every kind of music) for less money…well, you’re gonna have to settle for second best. As good as drivers-in-a-box speakers have gotten to be (see the Stenheim Alumine 5 SE above), nothing else, dynamic or planar, sounds like these gargantuan Radialstrahlers, because very little else projects its energy, from top to bottom, throughout a true 360 degrees, like instruments themselves do. As a result, the 101 X-tremes simply own the third dimension. And now in this year’s MkII version, the X-tremes have been substantially updated (at a substantial rise in price), with new DSP’d subwoofers and other extensive tweaks and improvements. (I will be reviewing the latest versions as soon as they are available.) As I said in my original review of the X-tremes a decade ago, listening to every other transducer is like going to a movie of a concert; listening to the 101 X-tremes is like going to the live event. If you’ve got the dough (and the space) and are looking for the closest approximation of the real thing, these are the transducers to own.
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