When set up right in a big room, these are THE most lifelike transducers you can get....heard these about 20+ years ago and the experience is etched in my memory.
These speakers look like they came right off the film set of German TV series "Raumpatrouille" (Space Patrol) of the early 1960s. Much more modern than Star Trek back in the day.
The television show How its Made did an episode on these some time ago but they showed how the drivers were assembled and then the entire speaker. Its worth looking up and watching. Great video
The look of these speakers in a full blown MBL system in the black and gold finish is mind blowing. So is the price tag. I heard the system at a New York show many years ago in a fairly small room, and soundstage was excellent, even from a seat a few feet away from one of the speakers.
I have a pair of MBL 101a and I love them. I love them as much for how they look as how they sound. I suspect they need a partial rebuild at this point. I can’t imagine they are working perfectly, but they do still sound great to my poor ears.
you are a lucky man.... i suffer from working with great speakers and recordings but will never afford such things ..shame about your hearing though,, i hope it doesnt get too worse,
The best speakers I've heard to date. Like David B mentioned below, I also heard them in early 2000's in Singapore driven by the flagship Jeff Rowland A/B Class monoblocks at the time. I was so impressed by them whereby it is deeply entrenched in my memory too.
The NJ seller of my now Thorens demoed these with Merrill monos and played vinyl. The sound staging was crazy to an extreme. I never believed there could be too much soundstaging but on miles so what John Coltrane sounded like he was playing down the hall. Love to watch your impressions when you post.
I can’t wait to see how this turns out. I have a pair of 101A that I LOVE, but I bet they need a tune up too…I bet I can’t afford that tune up either! LOL! Such cool looking speakers! I love them even when they are not playing anything!
id be scared to walk between them expecting a large plasma discharge to fly across the tops lol... its my ambition to listen to these incredible speakers one day
Hi Fernando, excellent demonstration/review/maintenance on the speakers. One Humble suggestion is that you save the camera steady on a tripod to shoot the videos. The camera on hand in close space caused a bit a headache. Tks for the good videos.
Very intersteting piece of gear. I love this look of alien shallots stacked on a cubist Dalek robot. BTW, when I heard or ear something about "molecular microstructure" on an hi-fi equipment I have the slight tendency to think about voodoo un-earable magic audiophilic things. You know, things like native cristaline cobalt from Venus for AC wires, rare rainforest wood for the resonating of hyper-metafrequencies, etc... Sure, I'm wrong and I'm a bad guy. But the main problem with these pieces or art is to find a source which goes to 40.000 Hz. 😉
@@SkyFiAudio You can find that, it's called an "audiophile", a kind of bat in a human shape. They claim they can hear this and beyond, and beside, and they don't believe in null test as well.
I’m really hoping you do a video showing the crossover network on these speakers. Also these are really expensive speakers to have all those carbon fiber strips in the upper mid and tweeter to be hand glued. You can see some pretty significant irregularities with the width of the strips and the placement of them. It just seems odd that they haven’t perfected a manufacturing process to keep that from happening as I assume this effects the sound in some way. When I saw them being built. That was the first thing I noticed and I noticed it on this pair as well. It’s the same for their $300k big brothers also. Uneven hand glued drivers. But I’m sure the sound great. It t just bugs me for that kind of money. My ocd kicks in big time
If you watch the "how its made" video there is a nice lady shown that hand glues the carbon strips. She does a pretty nice job but its definitely not "robotic precision". The proof is in the pudding, we'll see how they sound. The crossover is massive, Ill be sure to show it when I re-assemble.
Its does seem like you got a knack of pulling gems outta the woodwork Fernando, Ill give you that! Never seen a place thats got a full wall of straight McIntosh like that, ntm a bunch of stuff I stumbled on Ebay you got there! Like them Holy F&*king grail Altecs your selling.
Not sure yet, depends on the repair cost. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter on our website, this way you'll get notification when these go to market.
CS-V975 strong and Lasting my Pioneer sound like they were a way better deal than what the original owner paid for his they're already falling apart need to be rebuilt and a bunch of other stuff just goes to show you money doesn't buy you the best
Cant see the logic to these speakers. I would think you get a lot of distortion especially on the big mid range drivers.Surely as aluminium orange shaped segments get pushed up and down by the voice coil you would get a ripple effect along each segment. Almost like if you have a rope laid out on the floor in a line and you give one end a flip and watch the ripple travel along the rope. in other words " Distortion " Unlike say Apogee duetta signatures or Magnapan speakers where the whole panel is pushed back and forth over its whole surface area. = less " Distortion "
Sorry, but I am so disappointed in "experts" TELLING you what and why you are having to pay so much for a musical, yes, musical reproduction product...through smoke and mirrors; Even though he/she doesn't even understand the controls and hook-up that should be absolutely a foundation for anyone selling/telling you anything, before he/she demonstrates them to you...as an expert. For some understanding of whom you are reading; I am 69 years old, have been an audiophile since I was 15, worked as a bench tech for Crown International and National Product Manager for Electro-Voice, Inc before I was 30 years old and a musician. Please do not believe the Hype statements of these folks that do not really understand the Physics (science) and true understanding of the products available out there today. They are as hooked on the "cool-aid" that the industry has shoved down your throats, as you are, or they are just trying to con you out of your money, in this MP3, compressed world that you live in today. Money spent does NOT equal experience out! For one, on this presentation, virtuously no real instrument radiates in a 360 degree manner...Forget 360 degree claims, because it is NOT needed. second, these speakers are not very well designed as you can see the unprotected voice coils in both the mid AND tweeter, facing upward....able to catch all of the dust and other particles that come down from above to short the voice coils and cause physical damage and distortions from that/this design. I could pick apart this design for days.... Don't be Gullible to the ages old BOSE myth of the virtues of their "Direct Reflecting Design", one of the original wolves and purveyors of CRAP in our industry....way back in the early 70's. In todays world, please do not believe that this is all "Rocket Science" or some new Physics, which music and it's reproduction, IS. Go out there and purchase what sounds GOOD to you and don't get caught up with these charlatans "SELLING" you the benefits of a $3,500.00 power chord; are you also rewiring your house or at least the circuit to your system for 10Ga wiring and configured so that it has no capacitance, robing you of the important high frequencies...forgetting that inside the amplifier system is a separate power supply that offerors power conditioning and plenty of OMPH to let the THEN series of amplification stages deal with the music, once the MUSIC is entered into the system progression?? That's how it works, in layman's terms. Save your money for other things that matter. There are folks out there who can honestly help you novices out in your quest for the BEST sssssssound that you can afford....but sadly, there are way to many SHARKS out there wanting to take your well earned money; both sales people and many, many manufactures are guilty of this. From my exposure to the folks at SkyFi, I believe that they have some amazing products in their inventory, but not all are worth what will be charged...they too have drank the cool-aid, but just have not lived and learned enough in life to be labeled "Experts." Have a great day, but don't think that Dorothy's Ruby Slippers exist, or are even necessary. Trust your EARS, not the HYPE. Pay more attention as to the acoustics of your room and the placement of your speakers...costs very little, if anything; but believe me the results will astound you.
"I am so disappointed in "experts" TELLING you what and why you are having to pay so much for a musical, yes, musical reproduction product...through smoke and mirrors;" - you seem really intent on a sermon that strikes me as out of place for this video. "Please do not believe the Hype statements of these folks" - who are "these folks"? This video is one guy with some repair expertise, describing a set of transducers. "They are as hooked on the "cool-aid" that the industry has shoved down your throats" - no one is forcing anything down anyone's throat. " virtuously [sic] no real instrument radiates in a 360 degree manner...Forget 360 degree claims, because it is NOT needed." - you're acting like MBL is _forcing_ people to buy these. MBL, like all speaker manufacturers, are simply offering market options. As for the the 360 degree thing: you're just wrong. First off, all physical instruments work in 3-space. Some indeed do radiate in a fairly uniform 360-degree pattern (e.g., tubular bells). Secondly, transducers need not be like the instruments whose sound are being reproduced. If you are in love with cone drivers in boxes then fine, but that would be ironic as I know of no musical instrument shaped like paper (or plastic) cones. The most accurate transducers are the push-pull electrostatics and they certainly are not like any musical instrument yet many musicians love such speakers because of how accurately they can reproduce the human voice and most instruments. " I could pick apart this design for days.... Don't be Gullible to the ages old BOSE myth of the virtues of their "Direct Reflecting Design", one of the original wolves and purveyors of CRAP in our industry.." - this MBL is not a Bose design. Do you not know the difference between the Bose (say 901) design and the MBL design? Some people like omnidirectional speakers (such as the MBL in his video). Others may like the Bose reflected many-driver design , though audiophiles tend to discount the Bose design. You're acting like people who buy MBL speakers don't go and listen to them. Have you listened (in person) to an MBL speaker such as the one in this video? That you're equating these MBL to Bose suggests to me that you have not.
Very cool, very exotic. I’m sure they sound amazing. But Ive gotta keep it real…that’s the ugliest speaker I’ve ever seen. The grills might help a touch, but there’s no getting around it.
Maybe work your magic and add a custom veneer or something. They remind me of the life sustaining device captain pike was placed in during the pilot episode of star trek TOS.
When set up right in a big room, these are THE most lifelike transducers you can get....heard these about 20+ years ago and the experience is etched in my memory.
You can say speaker since that the type of transducer it's meant to be.
Agreed, definitely the most life like we've heard.
I have heard MBL when they are working perfectly ..... trust me when I tell you they sound stunning and jaw dropping .
This is my ultimate favorite speaker system by far.
These speakers look like they came right off the film set of German TV series "Raumpatrouille" (Space Patrol) of the early 1960s. Much more modern than Star Trek back in the day.
The television show How its Made did an episode on these some time ago but they showed how the drivers were assembled and then the entire speaker. Its worth looking up and watching. Great video
I’ll have to look that up!!! I love my 101a!
Saw that vide a while back, was super interesting and highly recommended.
The look of these speakers in a full blown MBL system in the black and gold finish is mind blowing. So is the price tag. I heard the system at a New York show many years ago in a fairly small room, and soundstage was excellent, even from a seat a few feet away from one of the speakers.
Fantastic looking speaker, and Fernando knows what he is doing. A nice change from most of the audiophile media on youtube.
Thank you kindly Gerry!
thanks Gerry. Im just getting started.
Wild and strangely beautiful. I can’t even guess how a designer would go from standard speaker design to something as odd as these. Wow.
I have a pair of MBL 101a and I love them. I love them as much for how they look as how they sound. I suspect they need a partial rebuild at this point. I can’t imagine they are working perfectly, but they do still sound great to my poor ears.
you are a lucky man....
i suffer from working with great speakers and recordings but will never afford such things ..shame about your hearing though,, i hope it doesnt get too worse,
The best speakers I've heard to date. Like David B mentioned below, I also heard them in early 2000's in Singapore driven by the flagship Jeff Rowland A/B Class monoblocks at the time. I was so impressed by them whereby it is deeply entrenched in my memory too.
many fold would agree with that.
The NJ seller of my now Thorens demoed these with Merrill monos and played vinyl. The sound staging was crazy to an extreme.
I never believed there could be too much soundstaging but on miles so what John Coltrane sounded like he was playing down the hall.
Love to watch your impressions when you post.
Looks like an amazing speaker. You get some of the coolest equipment 👍🍺
wow, these are unique
I can’t wait to see how this turns out. I have a pair of 101A that I LOVE, but I bet they need a tune up too…I bet I can’t afford that tune up either! LOL! Such cool looking speakers! I love them even when they are not playing anything!
id be scared to walk between them expecting a large plasma discharge to fly across the tops lol...
its my ambition to listen to these incredible speakers one day
Hi Fernando, excellent demonstration/review/maintenance on the speakers. One Humble suggestion is that you save the camera steady on a tripod to shoot the videos. The camera on hand in close space caused a bit a headache. Tks for the good videos.
incredibly cool. Loving these videos
And 11 months later part 2 lol , awesome
Very intersteting piece of gear.
I love this look of alien shallots stacked on a cubist Dalek robot.
BTW, when I heard or ear something about "molecular microstructure" on an hi-fi equipment I have the slight tendency to think about voodoo un-earable magic audiophilic things.
You know, things like native cristaline cobalt from Venus for AC wires, rare rainforest wood for the resonating of hyper-metafrequencies, etc...
Sure, I'm wrong and I'm a bad guy.
But the main problem with these pieces or art is to find a source which goes to 40.000 Hz. 😉
And a human that can hear above 20k, lol.
@@SkyFiAudio You can find that, it's called an "audiophile", a kind of bat in a human shape. They claim they can hear this and beyond, and beside, and they don't believe in null test as well.
I saw those speakers on the set of one of the original Star Trek series.
Haha
Fascinating
can you power these with the naim 500 series ?
I’m really hoping you do a video showing the crossover network on these speakers. Also these are really expensive speakers to have all those carbon fiber strips in the upper mid and tweeter to be hand glued. You can see some pretty significant irregularities with the width of the strips and the placement of them. It just seems odd that they haven’t perfected a manufacturing process to keep that from happening as I assume this effects the sound in some way. When I saw them being built. That was the first thing I noticed and I noticed it on this pair as well. It’s the same for their $300k big brothers also. Uneven hand glued drivers. But I’m sure the sound great. It t just bugs me for that kind of money. My ocd kicks in big time
If you watch the "how its made" video there is a nice lady shown that hand glues the carbon strips. She does a pretty nice job but its definitely not "robotic precision". The proof is in the pudding, we'll see how they sound. The crossover is massive, Ill be sure to show it when I re-assemble.
Good budget speakers for new people interested in the low-mid range category
See you tomorrow at 2pm Fernado!
Fernando i could'nt find part 2
Its does seem like you got a knack of pulling gems outta the woodwork Fernando, Ill give you that! Never seen a place thats got a full wall of straight McIntosh like that, ntm a bunch of stuff I stumbled on Ebay you got there! Like them Holy F&*king grail Altecs your selling.
We're so lucky that most of the cool stuff finds us.
@@SkyFiAudio Extremely! You got a damn set of Dunlavy SC-VI's over there for petes sake!
Estos son los parlantes/altavoces del Dr. Who.
Who?
Sin duda Jose. Son de pelicula!
How much will they be?
I’ll need $5k for me to put those in my living room
Thank you!
Not sure yet, depends on the repair cost. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter on our website, this way you'll get notification when these go to market.
@@edd2771 $5k probably wouldn’t even cover the tune up on these bad boys. I think they were $65,000 a pair when new.
@@pcar928fan ‘twas a joke. They would have to pay ME $5k before I’d put those hideous things in my living room.
How much $$?
Not sure yet, lets see what I have to replace first.
CS-V975 strong and Lasting my Pioneer sound like they were a way better deal than what the original owner paid for his they're already falling apart need to be rebuilt and a bunch of other stuff just goes to show you money doesn't buy you the best
Cant see the logic to these speakers. I would think you get a lot of distortion especially on the big mid range drivers.Surely as aluminium orange shaped segments get pushed up and down by the voice coil you would get a ripple effect along each segment. Almost like if you have a rope laid out on the floor in a line and you give one end a flip and watch the ripple travel along the rope. in other words " Distortion " Unlike say Apogee duetta signatures or Magnapan speakers where the whole panel is pushed back and forth over its whole surface area. = less " Distortion "
The only specs audiophile care about-its weird,its insanely overpriced.
Complicated audio! ✌
I am not a “Bond Villain,” and those things only belong in a secret underground lair. Sorry to be the baddy but it must be said. 😁
HAHA
Sorry, but I am so disappointed in "experts" TELLING you what and why you are having to pay so much for a musical, yes, musical reproduction product...through smoke and mirrors; Even though he/she doesn't even understand the controls and hook-up that should be absolutely a foundation for anyone selling/telling you anything, before he/she demonstrates them to you...as an expert. For some understanding of whom you are reading; I am 69 years old, have been an audiophile since I was 15, worked as a bench tech for Crown International and National Product Manager for Electro-Voice, Inc before I was 30 years old and a musician. Please do not believe the Hype statements of these folks that do not really understand the Physics (science) and true understanding of the products available out there today. They are as hooked on the "cool-aid" that the industry has shoved down your throats, as you are, or they are just trying to con you out of your money, in this MP3, compressed world that you live in today. Money spent does NOT equal experience out!
For one, on this presentation, virtuously no real instrument radiates in a 360 degree manner...Forget 360 degree claims, because it is NOT needed. second, these speakers are not very well designed as you can see the unprotected voice coils in both the mid AND tweeter, facing upward....able to catch all of the dust and other particles that come down from above to short the voice coils and cause physical damage and distortions from that/this design. I could pick apart this design for days.... Don't be Gullible to the ages old BOSE myth of the virtues of their "Direct Reflecting Design", one of the original wolves and purveyors of CRAP in our industry....way back in the early 70's.
In todays world, please do not believe that this is all "Rocket Science" or some new Physics, which music and it's reproduction, IS. Go out there and purchase what sounds GOOD to you and don't get caught up with these charlatans "SELLING" you the benefits of a $3,500.00 power chord; are you also rewiring your house or at least the circuit to your system for 10Ga wiring and configured so that it has no capacitance, robing you of the important high frequencies...forgetting that inside the amplifier system is a separate power supply that offerors power conditioning and plenty of OMPH to let the THEN series of amplification stages deal with the music, once the MUSIC is entered into the system progression?? That's how it works, in layman's terms. Save your money for other things that matter. There are folks out there who can honestly help you novices out in your quest for the BEST sssssssound that you can afford....but sadly, there are way to many SHARKS out there wanting to take your well earned money; both sales people and many, many manufactures are guilty of this. From my exposure to the folks at SkyFi, I believe that they have some amazing products in their inventory, but not all are worth what will be charged...they too have drank the cool-aid, but just have not lived and learned enough in life to be labeled "Experts." Have a great day, but don't think that Dorothy's Ruby Slippers exist, or are even necessary. Trust your EARS, not the HYPE.
Pay more attention as to the acoustics of your room and the placement of your speakers...costs very little, if anything; but believe me the results will astound you.
"I am so disappointed in "experts" TELLING you what and why you are having to pay so much for a musical, yes, musical reproduction product...through smoke and mirrors;" - you seem really intent on a sermon that strikes me as out of place for this video.
"Please do not believe the Hype statements of these folks" - who are "these folks"? This video is one guy with some repair expertise, describing a set of transducers.
"They are as hooked on the "cool-aid" that the industry has shoved down your throats" - no one is forcing anything down anyone's throat.
" virtuously [sic] no real instrument radiates in a 360 degree manner...Forget 360 degree claims, because it is NOT needed." - you're acting like MBL is _forcing_ people to buy these. MBL, like all speaker manufacturers, are simply offering market options.
As for the the 360 degree thing: you're just wrong. First off, all physical instruments work in 3-space. Some indeed do radiate in a fairly uniform 360-degree pattern (e.g., tubular bells). Secondly, transducers need not be like the instruments whose sound are being reproduced. If you are in love with cone drivers in boxes then fine, but that would be ironic as I know of no musical instrument shaped like paper (or plastic) cones. The most accurate transducers are the push-pull electrostatics and they certainly are not like any musical instrument yet many musicians love such speakers because of how accurately they can reproduce the human voice and most instruments.
" I could pick apart this design for days.... Don't be Gullible to the ages old BOSE myth of the virtues of their "Direct Reflecting Design", one of the original wolves and purveyors of CRAP in our industry.." - this MBL is not a Bose design. Do you not know the difference between the Bose (say 901) design and the MBL design? Some people like omnidirectional speakers (such as the MBL in his video). Others may like the Bose reflected many-driver design , though audiophiles tend to discount the Bose design.
You're acting like people who buy MBL speakers don't go and listen to them. Have you listened (in person) to an MBL speaker such as the one in this video? That you're equating these MBL to Bose suggests to me that you have not.
Very cool, very exotic. I’m sure they sound amazing. But Ive gotta keep it real…that’s the ugliest speaker I’ve ever seen. The grills might help a touch, but there’s no getting around it.
Abominations, at some point it no longer matters how they may sound. 👍🏻😆
haha, I think the grill make them uglier.
@@SkyFiAudio that’s not good!
Maybe work your magic and add a custom veneer or something. They remind me of the life sustaining device captain pike was placed in during the pilot episode of star trek TOS.
Terrible pronunciation of radialstrahler
hahahaha. I cant even spell it, never mind pronouncing it.
@@SkyFiAudio I have a pair of MBL so you could say I cheated knowing how to pronounce it.