These don't come up very often for a reason! The German Physiks Borderland MK IVs easily outclass the MBL 101Es in terms of coherence (using a true wideband omnipole crossing over down at 190hz) and omnidirectional sealed bass loading with a built-in Heimholtz resonator. These speakers are the current model, and are priced at $39,000 USD.
Asking $14000 (65% off MSRP). Will revert back quickly and courteously to answer any questions.
Once heard, there's nothing out there like them – holographic sound staging hardly covers what they really do, and they sure know how to pressurize a room – this is as close as I've ever heard to live music, whether acoustic or electronic: full scale opera, experimental electronic music, and small trio jazz all sound like the real thing.
Speakers, in a beautiful reflective gloss piano black, are in stunning cosmetic condition; conservatively rating 8/10 as they were the demo pair used at Axpona and thus have microscopic cosmetic signs of handling. I am the original owner and have kept them in great shape. I have longstanding 100% feedback on USaudiomart and on Audiogon (username: transience) and want a positive experience for all.
Local pickup in downtown NYC only as they are rather large and extremely heavy (internally lined with steel shot that damps all resonance from their massive 12" drivers). Includes all original packaging, manuals, jumpers etc. If using PayPal, please add 3%. Will throw in the excellent Isoacoustics Gaia I footers at the asking price.
Writing on the variant for smaller rooms (the less authoritative HRS-130), Dick Olsher for "The Absolute Sound" writes, "What you get here is a world-class wide-range driver that is exceptionally well engineered and superbly integrated into a speaker that is almost perfect for a small-to-medium-sized room. In my estimation, the carbon-fiber DDD is one of the top five driver innovations of the past 40 years, delivering the coherent phase and uniform power response first envisioned by Lincoln Walsh. Given the right amplifier and room setup, the HRS-130 ticks all the important sonic boxes and clearly edges out the competition when it comes to palpable imaging. No wonder the German Physiks HRS-130 is currently my favorite speaker under $25k." This version scales up that performance to really pressurize rooms up to much larger sizes.
Product Specifications
Impedance
4 ohms
Frequency Response
28 – 24,000Hz
Power Handling
Nominal 300W
Short term 600W
Amplification required
Minimum 160W/4 ohms
Crossover frequency
190Hz
Crossover slopes
DDD section 12dB/octave electronic & 18dB/octave acoustic
Woofer section 12dB/octave electronic & 18dB/octave acoustic
High frequency adjustment
-2dB, flat, +2dB and +4dB centred at 8,000Hz
Sensitivity
86.1dB for 1W at 1
Operating principle
2-way loudspeaker with 360° surround radiation
using the German Physiks DDD driver
Input connectors
2 sets of WBT nextgen™ binding posts
Drivers
1 x carbon fibre DDD driver
1 x 12-inch woofer
Recommended room size
15 - 90 square metres
160 – 950 square feet
Dimensions
404mm W x 1,229mm H x 404mm D
15.9" W x 48.4" H x 15.9" D
Weight
54kg / 119lbs
