I have been purposefully delaying an update on my initial impressions of the Mini. I had intended to report the overall comments of the NJ Audio Society group session following our meeting on Feb 24. I had over 25 visitors who listened attentively and intensely to the Mini's, and the majority of the comments were very positive.
I received the speakers the Tuesday before the meeting, and worked hard to give the speakers as much playing time as possible before the Sunday meeting. In the final analysis with respect to that Sunday's listening session, the NJAS listeners concluded that any comments from the listening session would be premature. The overall sound, coherence, integration, and midrange presentation had evolved significantly between receipt on Tuesday and the Sunday session. Many listeners Sunday indicated they could hear additional evolution in the sound between the arrival of the first visitors at noon, and the final departures near 8 pm. So, I decided not to post any extensive comments based on Sunday's event, because most agreed the speakers had not nearly reached their potential yet. So, that is my explanation and disclaimer, and I am sticking by it!
As of this weekend, about 18 days after receipt, and after about 50-60 hours of playing time, I estimate that there are at least another 20-40 hours needed on this speaker for it to finally settle into its natural response profile.
But, I am happy to report on what I am hearing at present. Which is very exciting.
But I want to stress that my experience is that one should not evaluate these speakers "out of the box" -- to be fairly assessed they need at least 60-80 hours of playing time. My impressions at present:
1. Tremendous treble clarity. Startlingly clear. Highly revealing of source, both quality and shortcomings. Upon receipt: Somewhat edgy and out of balance with the midrange. Now: the high end is still remarkably clear but much less edgy and the midrange is opening up expansively. Much better balance between mid and treble at present. And, I strongly expect further evolution in this regard. But the accuracy and clarity of the treble is simply astonishing.
2. Midrange. Upon receipt: somewhat recessed and peaky. Slight nasality in vocals. Now: Incredible evolution is mid-range response. Very significantly more balanced, more integrated, and a more natural response at present. Slight nasality has nearly entirely vanished (and I expect this break-in artifact to disappear completely given current development of the speaker.). My expectation is that the speaker will have a well balanced and very accurate response in another week or two of playing. The break-in sound issues can be heard most clearly on some vocals; at present with break-in the vocals sound truer to each artists sound. Note: the very low crossover point of this speaker results in vocal reproduction that is different than most other speakers with more traditional crossover points (2-3KHz), because much of the vocal information is carried by the tweeter, affecting especially female vocal. As the tweeter is finding it "zone" the response on vocals has opened up to be natural and balanced.
3. Bass. I am driving the Mini's with ASL Hurricane monoblock amplifiers (100 watts triode 200 watts pentode), wonderfully modded by Response Audio. Bass is generally powerful and well reproduced, especially because the low crossover point allows the woofer to focus on low frequencies, and it does not have to cover most of the midrange too. Driven in pentode mode, at normal to room-filling volumes the bass is strongly present, clear, and well integrated. Recognizing the limitations, of course, of the woofer size, I am very impressed with the power of the bass reproduction. [I should probably acknowledge that, that driven very loudly, with lots of NJAS listeners in my room,
in triode mode, the woofer was using most of its "long excursion" range. There was not as much control as desired in triode at high volumes on day 5 of the speaker here. This is changing. I find that at normal/live performance (for jazz and classical, not rock) listening levels at present the bass is very balanced and powerful, and well controlled in both triode and pentode.]
4. Dynamics. These speakers really seem to like moderate to higher volumes. Often I play my system quietly in the evening when children are studying. Dynamics are good at low volumes. At moderate to high volumes the dynamics are STUNNING. ["Depends" diaper stunning. No BS.
] Macro AND microdynamics are just amazing. Music jumps out at you from the speaker. Sometimes you want to duck. This speaker is closer to live than almost any other that I have heard, and more so than any 2-way speaker I have heard. It is just AMAZING. I cannot emphasize this enough. It was a bit of a surprise to me, because I received the speakers on Tuesday, and played them quietly until Friday, and did not realize the dynamic magic. When I turned up the volume and sat down, the first big jump in sound energy on the jazz recording I was listening to almost resulted in an "accident".
At this juncture, I have to admit the NJAS members were right - the speaker needed more break-in, and needs more still. They were all entranced by the amazing clarity and strong bass, and listened intently for almost an hour before yielding their seats to others in the group. Most members almost never stay seated that long. So there definitely was something special going on sound-wise at the group meeting. But several listeners did detect some closed-up and recessive qualitities that all recognized to be the result of insufficient break-in. As break-in proceeds the sound of the speaker is very amazing, and very unusual for a 2-way, with respect to dynamics and handling louder volume levels.
I will report back again in about 2 or 3 weeks, when I think the speakers have reached full break-in. For the moment, I am having tremendous fun with these speakers, hearing many new sounds on old records and CDs. And, I think Bob has achieved something quite special with the Mini. It just took a few weeks of break-in to get to hear ALL the magic appear.
Bill C
