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MBL 126 mini-review

I heard for several months that a friend of a friend had some awesome speakers, and finally got over to his house.
He had a pair (plus an amp) of MBL 126 speakers.
The story was that he had an old friend in San Francisco who wrote for Absolute Sound, and they sent him these to review,
then never asked for them back, so his friend loaned them indefinitely.

Mini-review - as you would expect, very omnidirectional - I moved way off axis, about 15 feet, and just lost a little treble.
Bass was really pretty outstanding - looked like a 6 inch woofer in a ported box.
Apparently the stands were integral, but I could not find any ports in the stands - perhaps they were just used for extra volume.
Midrange was very good, but I think my Fountek NeoCD 3.0 ribbons have more detail.
Trying to figure out how we can A/B both side by side.

We listened to Sgt Peppers remastered, Mozart's Requiem, U2 Joshua Tree and more. All sounded great!



But Chahly - Stahkist don't want speakers that look good, Stahkist wants speakers that sound good!
Tagged:
Steve_Leeugly_woofer6thplanetSilver1omoNicholas_23Turn2jhollander

Comments

  • Someone is going to have to explain these ^ drivers to me, please?

  • They are an interesting driver. They call the individual ribs staves or petals, IIRC, and they expand and contract with signal. They way this is done uses a conventional spider either on top or bottom, and the other end of the petals are anchored. Using a conventional voice coil that oscillates up and down, this drives the expansion. The core inside the petals is supposed to seal or prevent cavity resonance and cancellation. The biggest driver they make for the 101 uses a metal petal with copper springs.

    So, they are a dynamic driver, and they are omni, but the downside? Big time inefficient.

    rjj45Steve_Lee
  • And very low WAF.

    rjj45Steve_Lee
  • I suppose the smaller units may not even have a spider. I don't know for certain.

  • Nifty!

  • Sorta like a voice coil squishing a ball.

    Wolf
  • My wife could squish my balls with her voice before she died.

    DrewsBrews
  • I've heard those, and they are outstanding. I should have just bought a pair and been happy, would have been money ahead, but I'd miss my fellow diy geeks.

    Steve_LeeEggguyPWRRYDrjj45Tom_S6thplanetAnalogkid455
  • @ugly_woofer said:
    I've heard those, and they are outstanding. I should have just bought a pair and been happy, would have been money ahead, but I'd miss my fellow diy geeks.

    Me too! I've spent more than that on drivers and crossovers for the last 20 years.

    But Chahly - Stahkist don't want speakers that look good, Stahkist wants speakers that sound good!
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