US magazine The Absolute Sound’s annual Editors’ Choice Awards single out those audio components that the magazine’s editors and expert reviewers deem as “most worthy of your consideration.” So much so, in fact, that “these are components that we ourselves would buy.”
German brand MBL is invariably a key contender in the Awards, and 2024 is no exception, with a raft of superb loudspeakers and electronics featuring in the list.
Peerless: the Radialstrahler loudspeakers
MBL is justifiably renowned for its game-changing – and still unique – Radialstrahler loudspeakers, which again pick up four awards across the range, from the flagship, jaw-dropping – and recently further upgraded – 101 Xtreme MkII, to the entry-level standmount 126.
“This is unbelievable!” exclaimed reviewer Jonathan Valin on first hearing the newly upgraded 101 Xtreme MkII, with its “low-end extension, clarity, dimensionality and dynamic impact that [he had] never before experienced at home, at a show, or in anyone else’s listening room”. This is “far and away, the best low-end reproduction JV has heard from a loudspeaker of any kind” which, when added to “the already nonpareil upper bass, midrange and treble… you end up with a sound that will raid with goosebumps on just about every well-recorded track”.
One step down from the flagship is the 101 E Mk II, “always the thrill ride of the high-end audio amusement park, with sensational dynamic range, superb transients, high resolution of inner detail and the most surround-like soundstaging this side of a full bore home theater system.” In short, they’re “more plain fun to listen to than just about anything else out there, short of the MBL Xtremes.”
Moving from the top two models down to the company’s two entry level loudspeakers, the MBL 120, specially engineered for medium-sized rooms, “is the best small MBL yet… The soundstage it throws has never been more holographic or enveloping.”
The 126 standmount “contains much of the DNA of its bigger, upper-tier siblings but brings the cost of acquiring MBL magic way down” and is “rich in reach-out-and-touch resolution and utterly convincing.”
‘Reference’ by name and by nature
MBL’s Reference line is the company’s ‘no constraints, no limits and no apologies’ flagship range of electronics and once again it picks up a duo of awards, for the 6010 D solid state preamplifier and 9008 A power amp. The “superb” 6010 D, which is one of the review team’s references, “has a noise floor so incredibly low that it consistently resolves fine harmonic and dynamic details that simply aren’t audible through other preamps”. The 9008 A, another review team reference, is “a massive, high-current, high bandwidth, high power, very low distortion” monoblock, a “beast with a velvet voice” and a “bulletproof technical and sonic marvel.”
A cut above: the ‘Noble’ line
MBL’s technically, sonically and aesthetically sophisticated Noble line equally earns two awards, again for a pre / power duo.
The N11 preamplifier “is equipped to handle just about everything in your system” but what really “makes this single-stage preamp stand out” is its remarkable ‘unity gain’ volume control which lowers the amount of boost applied to incoming signals and thereby “audibly lowers noise, increases transparency and resolution, and expands dynamic range” – “a sonically remarkable bit of engineering”.
The N15 mono power amp is “unfailingly enjoyable, powerful and musical, fully capable of a realism that raises goosebumps and of a soundfield of head-slapping breadth, width and depth.”
‘Cadenza’: pin-sharp on the eye and the ear
Cadenza is MBL’s entry-level series of electronics, yet its pin-sharp aesthetics and remarkable performance could give some other range-topping products a run for their money – which is no doubt why the series has again picked up four Awards.
When it comes to the C51 integrated “with its soft, understated lines, svelte controls, versatile connectivity and jewelry-like finish” it might be “easy to misjudge the depth, complexity and sonic excellence” of this amplifier. To do so would of course be a mistake as the C51 is “a triumph in its category” and delivers “the finest inner details” while “its resolution of acoustic space is almost eerie in specificity”.
The C11 preamplifier delivers “civilized sonics, both airy and open, dynamics that are lively, and dimensionality and imaging that are exceptional” and is “a joy to use”. It is also equipped with “one of the most sonically transparent analog volume controls (via a motorized potentiometer) that we’ve come across”.
The C21 stereo power amplifier sounds “more like a fine linear amp than the hybrid-switching amp it is” and offers “much of the sweetness, air and texture of MBL’s own Reference line 9011 amps”. It is, in conclusion, “an amp that can proudly stand next to the best in class”.
At the source end, the Cadenza C31 CD player “can just as reasonably be considered a ‘DAC with transport’. Either way, its performance is uncompromising” and it’s “a jewel of a player”.
Find out more and locate your nearest dealer at www.mbl.de/en
Discover the complete list of Award winners in the March 2024 issue of The Absolute Sound.
David Denyer PR | The hi-fi specialist 