in this issue

CES2006 REPORT
As I hear them every day and know their incredible virtues,
I didn’t audition my own reference speakers—the 101 Es—
which MBL had set up in an adjoining room. (I’m told that
they weren’t quite as mind-boggling this year as they have
been for the last two in a row, but I’m sure they were still
plenty boggling.) Instead, I listened long and hard to MBL’s
second line of gear and all I can say, again, is “Wow!” Even
upon coming from room after room of very fine gear generating
very fine sonics, as soon as I heard the 116s start to play
I felt as if I’d stepped from a hi-fi store into a concert hall. To
my ears, even at this slightly reduced quality level, MBL is
still high among the fullest-range, most alive-sounding
music-reproducing equipment that money can buy. The
116s’ bass was through the floor, its midrange was just plain
realistic, and its treble was, as all Radialstrahler treble is,
nonpareil. So, my final Best Sound at CES award goes to the
MBL 116 room and my final Best Electronics at CES award
also goes to MBL, not only for the gear I heard playing in its
own display but for the phenomenal 6010 D that I heard in
Bill Parish’s GTT Audio room.
&
Photographs by Leonard Norwitz (www.lensphoto.com), with supplementary
shots in their sections by RH, JH, CM, DS, and AT.