Evolution Acoustics MMMicroOne

I do not doubt that these speakers are excellent for 2K and maybe are flat excellent. That said, to really know in a real world setting, you would need to mate these 2K speakers with electronics at a level that most people buying a 2K pair of speakers would use. That is, how do these sound with a 2K CD player driven by a 4K integrated amp (or 4-5K separates). Probably 95% of the people who spend 2K on a speaker have a system that costs no more than 8-9K tops. So... hearing these speakers driven by 50K worth of amplification and 30K of a source is not a realistic setting for analysis.

For reference, I heard the Silverline $600 mini speakers driven by 20K of electronics at a show and they sounded absolutely stunning --- when mated with 3K of electronics the same speakers were very, very good for the price... but not stunning by any stretch.

What do the Microones really sound like when driven by realistic electronics?

JTINN:

I in no way intimated that the speakers were mediocre. I said that I do not doubt that they are fine speakers. That said...

while it is true that a fine speaker will show forth the quality of the electronics feeding the speakers and that it is impressive that the system with 2K speakers and 80K of electronics sounds great... people need to realize that they are hearing an 82K system. Aoliviero states that speakers are far more important than the quality of electronics. Well... yes. But when ludicrous extremes are used, like 80k of signal to feed 2k speakers to endeavor to sell the 2k speakers... that is almost unethical.

JTinn... If you really thought your speakers were so great (and again, they may be) and that they sound great when driven by lesser electronics (as you state in your post) then by all means audition your speakers at shows with 8K of electronics, not 80K. Give a realistic audition to potential buyers. Certainly you should not fear such an audition.

Last salvo. I have not heard your speakers... but give me an 82K system... say with 50K speakers and 30K of electronics... I guarantee that the system will smoke the system with 2K speakers. That is, after all a very fair comparison --- same priced systems.

The point? It is crazy to push your speakers driven as they were at the show.

JTinn:

You ask about magico and do they need to have to have real world mating of equipment too... well, of course.

The Magicos cost 25K --- anyone purchasing such speakers, based on that price, will likely have 35K to maybe 45K in electronics for a 60-70K system. So... they should audition their systems in that manner.

A basic rule of thumb for most buyers is that their speakers constitute ca. 33 to 40% or so of the system price. Some may drop to 25% of system price --- so to audition a 25K speaker it would be reasonable to have, I suppose, as much as 75K in electronics feeding it. For a 2.5K speaker, then having say up to 7.5K in total electronics feeding it is reasonable. Now, in your case where you are making the case that your product performs well above its price (which may be the case) you might set up twice, two rooms or two systems in one room --- once w/7.5K (the realistic system) and do the other one with maybe 40K or so of electronics, representing the "radical" side of system whereby the system could be compared w/ca. 10K speakers (as most 10K speakers would have ca. 40K electronics associated with them (or less).

All I ask, as a consumer, is that auditions be set up in a realistic fashion that is useful for the consumer.

JTinn:

Thanks for the responses. I did not know that you are as well connected to Playback Designs, Wave Kinetics and were the importer of darTZeel. When you say "I have responsibilities to keep those products seen at trade shows" that makes perfect sense to me and certainly legitimizes your auditioning your speakers as you did. What I objected to is such expensive front end on your speakers --- it was perceived by me initially as yet another example of what I have seen too often -- a vendor forwarding their product under unrealistic conditions that can come at the detriment of the potential consumer. Now that you explain why you did what you did (your being connected to and part of much of the associated equipment as well) you have convinced me that what you did is far, far, more reasonable a thing than I at first thought.

So... I would simply suggest that you consider --- in addition to what you have been doing --- also demoing your speakers with lesser electronics at some point so as to enable consumers to project what your speakers might sound like in a system consistent with what most 2.5K speakers have as a total system

I do apologize to you for causing stress. As you say, it is easy for us consumers to post... we have no livelihood associated with the product --- you do. Again, apologies.

Please recognize that all along I have never doubted the quality of your product, just the context of the demo. I actually would love to hear your speakers at some point... with about 10K of front end!

Best of luck with your products... clearly those who have heard your speakers are eminently impressed. I simply ask all who have posted on this thread, no matter what your position might be on the demo context, acknowledge that JTinn has clearly made a product that must be pretty darn impressive. Again, I hope to hear it soon.