Ahem.......! I do some work with Markbass, I just don't shout about it!
I was lucky enough to be invited out to the MB58R launch in July. The Richard Bona show afterwards was absolutely bleddy amazing! The new cabinets, heads and combos are incredibly light, picking up the new head is more like picking up a paperback book, rather than a 500w bass head! I personally currently use a pair of STD121hr cabs (which are slightly lighter than the NY121) with my Casa head... the replacement for these cabs will save me a total weight of 6kg, and I have placed an order, without hesitation, having heard them!
All the MB58R products are to be manufactured in Italy. This is partly because the company is proudly Italian, but also because it considerably shortens the supply chain, optimise shipping costs and yes, saves the energy cost of shipping large quantities of wooden boxes halfway around the planet. No greenwashing here, just sound business reasons and less heavy diesel oil being burned for the sake of us low enders
The new cabinets are constructed using a revolutionary injection moulded, dense and recyclable foam, which is incredibly strong, very light and with high performance acoustically. There are three flavours to choose from - the "Energy" cabs have a tone signature similar to the current Standard and Traveler cabs, the "Pure" have a more hifi treble response (which can still be attenuated), akin to the Marcus Miller and Richard Bona cabs, and the "P" models are similar to "Energy", but have ceramic magnet speakers, which, because of the weight saving in the cabinet are still as light and in some cases even lighter than the current range wooden cabinets.
I understand that, ultimately the MB58 range will no doubt be the new Markbass standard, Marco's work has always been about innovation, but in the meantime there are understandably some very popular current models, which will continue to be made for the foreseeable future. The new models should start to become available from late October, starting with the cabinets and heads, with the new combos following later in the year. As a result, while the CMD121H has been marked on the MB website as officially discontinued, I am aware the UK distributor has secured some stock for the UK, so it'll be around for a good while yet!
Thats about all I know for now, but if I hear more I will happily share!
I have been asked to help with an Expo day at Absolute Music on 1st October, and I believe they are hoping this will be the UK debut of the new cabs and heads...