“I’ve never heard anything like this before!” declares Jonathan Valin on first listen, despite having lived with the MkI version of MBL’s Radialstrahler loudspeaker system for four years. “The MkII isn’t just a little different sounding than the original. It is astonishingly different sounding – and astonishingly better.”

“But if all that has been changed are the subwoofers, how is this possible?” asks Valin. Indeed, the only difference between the MkI and MkII versions is the new and substantially enhanced subwoofer stacks in the latter.

An apparently modest change it may seem, but “anyone who has ever played around with subs” will have discovered the fact that subwoofers “don’t just supply missing low bass; they also change the sound of the speaker system they’re underpinning – it’s tonal balance, dynamic range, resolution, staging, imaging, timing and pace.”

You can read Jonathan Valin’s review – a highly detailed and quite fascinating one from the October 2023 issue of The Absolute Sound – in full on MBL’s website here.

As well as an interview with MBL designer Jürgen Reis, the article includes an insightful discussion about why MBL’s omni-directional Radialstrahler loudspeakers sound so realistic, due to the fact that they use the listening room in a way that other speakers do not and which live concert venues do, which in turn reflects how instruments make music: in a 3-D radiation pattern.

Gone is the need for the ‘perfectly tuned’ listening room and the obsession with reflective surfaces. “Instead, the entire listening room merges with the recorded space, producing a wall-to-wall-to-ceiling-to-floor soundfield of astonishing layered depth and uniform ambience.” Also gone is the fight for the ‘sweet spot’, since “Sitting, standing, shifting your head or your seat (or even moving behind the speakers), you experience the same stable imaging and soundstaging.”

And Valin’s conclusions? “Bottom line? I think you already know. The MkI X-Treme was the most realistic-sounding and musically enjoyable loudspeaker I’d heard in my listening room (or anyone else’s listening room, for that matter). The MkII version is better. As I said when I first auditioned it, I’ve never heard anything else like this before. I’ll bet that you haven’t either.”

“It will be my nominee for the annual Overall Product of the Year Award. Had we such an honour, it would be my nominee for Product of the Millennium.”

Find out more about MBL’s omni-directional loudspeaker range and locate your nearest specialist retailer at www.mbl.de/en