Anyone Had Extended Listening Experience With MBL?

The MBL preamp was used every time I heard them.. All cables are Wireworld Platinum Series 7. The 101E’s are very detailed, open, great imaging and tonality. They can sound too detailed, almost bright at times.

I would not blame the speakers for brightness. I got to spend some time with the mbl line stage and that seemed to be bright; when we changed it out for a tube preamp (our MP-1) the mbl101s took on a much more natural sound and lost the brightness. They seem to be pretty neutral.

Every time I've heard then at shows though they've sounded bright; but that was with the mbl electronics as well. IMO the speaker is not a good match with their electronics as it gets too bright and sterile, although their amps IMO are better than their preamps in that regard. 

Sure.

The speaker is easier to drive than most people think (my exposure is the mbl101). 200 watts is plenty in most rooms. The speaker measures a crazy low efficiency because it is omnidirectional. Once you are back from it a little ways you find its really about 89-90 db. Not that hard to drive.

It can also be driven by tubes. Its not a hard load, but it is 4 ohms. I recommend an amplifier that employs feedback to tame the 8 ohm peak in the upper midrange, otherwise a zero feedback amp can be employed if the proper ZOBEL network is used.

I found the speaker to be musical and IMO much more musical than their amps or preamps! Proper room treatment is a good idea. The imaging is very precise and the speaker is full range. Its also quite fast so it can be really convincing.