Are MBL omnidirectional speakers worth the $$$?

[ShadowFiend]

This is probably as close to a true omnidirectional design, commercial ones only omni in horizontal axis.
Keith

This kind of approach is a proven disaster due to com-filtering from 1kHz up both on horizontal and vertical axis.

Good implementation of omni like MBL 101 as measured by stereophile have an evenly smooth on and off-axis response up to 9kHz, which satisfy Toole's criteria and keep omni directional property up to 9kHz as well. On vertical axis, its omni directinal is kept in 20° range ( from -10° to 10°). If we assume that distance to each speaker to listener ear are 2.5m up then the vertical omni coverage will be 2.5 m * tan(10°) * 2 = 0.88 m = 88 cm. It is enough to cover both positions of normal people, sitting and standing. So while it is not a true omni in both vertical and horizontal axis, it is enough for normal usage. It is not enough when you use them for bedroom speakers but I doubt no one buy MBL 101 for beedroom use