I've had the Minis 2 months now and its time for some long term observations.
Break in. While sounding great right out of the shipping cartons, the Minis didn't settle into "they're not changing anymore" until a full month after I received them. This was with playing them 24/7 for the first 3 weeks and pretty continuous daily use there after. They didn't change as much as other speakers I've had, so the settling in was somewhat more subtle. At first there was a slight prominence, now the midrange has a liquidity that is addicting. The bass, to 70hz is precise and solid. No overhang, doubling or any other faults. I was told that Jason, Bob's son, thought that the Ipe cabinets extra density and weight made them sound slightly faster than the other woods used. There is absolutely no sign of the crossover. The transition from woofer to tweeter is seamless. No phase issues, no dispersion differences, no frequency anomalies, no image wandering, nothing. But then that was true right from the beginning. This is a rare thing in any 2 way speaker, IMHO.
The System. I'm of the opinion that one should only use components in their optimum band pass. To that end, I cross with a passive line level high pass filter 70hz @24db per octave, to a sealed 12" powered sub that has a 5 band parametric eq. Crossing at 70hz allows the amps to see a less demanding load, avoiding the impedance rise at resonance, and allow more power for transients, than a full range set up would. On the high end, I use a VMPS ambiance tweeter facing backwards, in phase. Brian Cheney was kind enough to raise the high pass to 7khz in these tweeters. The standard high pass was 5khz. This adds just the right amount of 'air' to please my old ears.
The rest.
Speakers: Timepiece Minis- Ipe (Brazilian walnut),VMPS Ambiance Tweeters
Front End: Red Wine modded SqueezeBox 3, Toshiba SD 6980, Luxman T-02, Vizio VX32L
Price: Creek OBH-12 passive attenuator
Amps: Kenwood KM-X1000 monoblocks, soon to be trying AV123, X-Amps
High Pass: Marchand XM46, 24db per octave@70hz
Sub: AV123, UFW-12 w/RDES Parametric EQ (UFW-12 soon to be upgraded to Hot Rod status)
The music. I listen to a wide variety of music. I'm of the opinion that speakers should reproduce whatever the recording contains. Speakers that only sound good with jazz, rock, small ensembles, acoustic, or what have you, need not apply. All music should be able to be represented accurately. The Minis do this. Previously, I had only witnessed this in multi-thousand dollar systems and recording and mastering studios I had occasion to visit. Vintage recordings from the '30s, '40s, '50s, etc, sound great even though the weaknesses of the technology of the time are readily apparent. This is because the music comes through. The Minis allow the technique and virtuosity of the musicians to be heard in spite of the limitations of the recording equipment of the day. I attribute this to the linearity and low distortion of the Minis. So when modern, well produced recordings are played, the presentation is a real treat to the ears. Detail and emotion previously obscured in other speakers, are laid bare. There is a 3 dimensional quality to each instrument and voice. Its akin to looking through the viewfinder of a Hasselblad camera with a Zeiss lens compared to any other camera. There is a holographic quality that the Minis, and the rest of the SP tech line I suspect, capture. To be sure, there are other speakers that do this but they cost many 1000s of $ more and take up a lot more room. The Minis are efficient in both footprint and bang for buck, and relatively efficient drive wise. Its been my experience that speakers that are more efficient than the Minis are typically less linear, and speakers less efficient require a substantial outlay for amplification. The Minis hit the sweet spot! I never thought I'd be able to afford speakers of this quality. Thanks, Bob, for making one my audio fantasies come true.
