[Jon L]

Ooh, NY Rave guys were not impressed with Strata Mini's at all..
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=41254.msg374334;topicseen#new

I'm now a little more worried about RSL II.  I've auditioned Strata Mini's several times, and yes I agree it's more and more difficult to integrate many different numbers and types of drivers in one coherent greatness.  RSL II is as complex a speaker to pull off as I've seen.  Hopefully, MLS has done some Magic with RSL II 

[zybar]

Ooh, NY Rave guys were not impressed with Strata Mini's at all..
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=41254.msg374334;topicseen#new

I'm now a little more worried about RSL II.  I've auditioned Strata Mini's several times, and yes I agree it's more and more difficult to integrate many different numbers and types of drivers in one coherent greatness.  RSL II is as complex a speaker to pull off as I've seen.  Hopefully, MLS has done some Magic with RSL II 

Jon,

Didn't you hear the Mini's at the recent Southern California GTG?

What did you think?

George

[Charles Calkins]

George:
  I heard the mini's at last years RMAF. I was impressed with what I heard. At $1995 a pair I think they are a steal.
                                      Cheers
                                      Charlie

[Jon L]

Ooh, NY Rave guys were not impressed with Strata Mini's at all..
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=41254.msg374334;topicseen#new

I'm now a little more worried about RSL II.  I've auditioned Strata Mini's several times, and yes I agree it's more and more difficult to integrate many different numbers and types of drivers in one coherent greatness.  RSL II is as complex a speaker to pull off as I've seen.  Hopefully, MLS has done some Magic with RSL II 

Jon,

Didn't you hear the Mini's at the recent Southern California GTG?

What did you think?

George

Yes, but since the GTG, I've auditioned them again elsewhere also.  It seems to me there are several common "mistakes" Mini owners make with their setups:

1.  Putting them in rooms too small for them.  They have to be in a surprisingly larger room than Mini's size would indicate, WELL away from the walls.  Otherwise, the powered 8" bass produces bass quantity way above normal, passive 8", overpowering and muddying the sound.

2.  Setting the powered woofer way too high compared to the treble/mid.  I know the temptation to turn up the bass is strong, but I would advise NOT using a "bass test track" to tune the bass.  I would pick a nice male vocal, such as Leonard Cohen, and start at lowest bass setting until the lower-midrange/upper bass sounds correct. 

3.  Using tube amps of slight to moderate "romantic" signature.  I'm a tube lover through and through, but on Mini's, I would choose a very neutral SS or digital amp with lots of current.  Don't bother with your nice-enough 30 watt EL34 amp, for example...

4.  Using "warm" cabling.  I would tend to avoid heavy-gauge stranded copper type of cabling with lots of dielectric.  High-quality (non-silvery sounding) thin-awg or ribbon silver is what you need here IMO...

I think a Mini owner has a lot of work cut out for him to set up and dial-in these speakers in their system.  You simply won't be able to pluck them into your existing speakers' location with same gear/cables and expect them to sound great.  I do believe, however, they CAN be made to sound very good with above precautions in mind in line with the great Reviews they've been getting, offering tremendous value at their $2000 pricepoint.

[miklorsmith]

Nice post!   

[TomS]

I agree - especially good post. 

I think the tendency with mini-Raves is to expect miracles with little or no setup time, but that's the very nature of it - fun.  At this level, most of this gear takes some patience and trial, though occasionally there is a true set and forget it type of thing.  I had the same experience with the Ronins, which after a few hours/days of tuning, blossomed in ways I didn't think would be possible in the first couple of hours.  They went from simply good to terrific.  That's very hard to do quickly in a mini-rave setting but the rewards are worth it. 

As usual, use your own ears AND your own gear/room to decide, if that's possible.

[John Casler]

Ooh, NY Rave guys were not impressed with Strata Mini's at all..
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=41254.msg374334;topicseen#new

I'm now a little more worried about RSL II.  I've auditioned Strata Mini's several times, and yes I agree it's more and more difficult to integrate many different numbers and types of drivers in one coherent greatness.  RSL II is as complex a speaker to pull off as I've seen.  Hopefully, MLS has done some Magic with RSL II 

Hey Jon,

Doubt if anyone has to worry too much, the "designs" and the designers for the two speaker projects are different.

While MLS is the builder, the chief Designer is AN (if I'm not mistaken) so one product should not affect the other.  AN has designed some of the most highly acclaimed speakers in history.

I know I'm looking forward to hearing George's reaction.

[zybar]

Hey Jon,

Doubt if anyone has to worry too much, the "designs" and the designers for the two speaker projects are different.

While MLS is the builder, the chief Designer is AN (if I'm not mistaken) so one product should not affect the other.  AN has designed some of the most highly acclaimed speakers in history.

Yup.

I for one am not worried.

I am just anxiously waiting for the speakers to arrive.

George

[ctviggen]

Plus, the designs of the two speakers are so dramatically different, it'd be hard to draw any conclusions.

[warnerwh]

Excellent point John about AN designing some of the best speakers in the History of high end audio. I might also add he's very experienced designing with the type of drivers being used. Any integration issues between driver types I suspect will be a non issue. With AN's track record it's pretty difficult to have to worry about the design, that is of course he doesn't have Alzheimers or something by now. 

[Sean Parque]

Hahaha... I am going to send him a link to this comment!

Sean

that is of course he doesn't have Alzheimers or something by now. 

[mattburk]

If you could pick the rsl II's or the LS 9"s, what would you pick and why?

[jn316]

9's...much cheaper! Seriously, can't afford the RSL II's.

[TomS]

Kind of hard to say because the RSL II's don't exist yet, at least publicly, and the LS-9's just barely exist in prototype form.  The RSL II is quite a bit more expensive, in the $10-15k+ league of players.  It's 4-way, uses powered subs and mids with open baffle top end, so is quite a bit different approach.