The best mini monitors you have heard?

Shadorne, I don't think the Magico Mini has a ceramic driver.

Sorry, I meant to say rigid drivers.

Titanium is a very stiff light weight material, ceramic is another....they all suffer from ringing and need some form of damping to control severe break up modes. Perhaps the Kharma's do a better job of damping than the Magico design...

You mentioned Magico Mini fatigue from prolonged listening....you also mentioned you liked the Dynaudio C1.

I may hazard a guess that you might be finding the ceramic driver audible ringing to be fatiguing. There are a couple of ways that the inherent ringing of these lightweight rigid drivers are stiffled. The first is an aggressive notch filter so that the ringing is electrically damped. The second is to place rubber dampers on the cone (the typical dots you see on the side of the cone).

Stick to ordinary damped drivers like the C1 soft dome and polypropylene woofer (woven fabric or paper and composite designs are good too, provided they are well damped). You will have many more hours of fatigueless enjoyment without the ringing. Less rigid damped cones breakup also... but in a much less detrimental manner.

This is all quite intuitive...if you hit something rigid then it will make a noise and then ring like a bell at a characteristic frequency whereas something soft will just make a single thud (with no nasty extended breakup). If you don't believe me try this experiment; hit a pillow with a drum stick and then try hitting a cymbal.....one will give an impulse then nothing whilst the other will give you an impulse and then ringing. Now try hitting the cymbal with your hand but this time grab it exactly just after you hit it (dampen it) ....this is what notch filters and rubber dampers are doing on a rigid cone (trying to stop its natural internal tendency to ring like a bell)

IMHO, extremely rigid drivers are great in theory but fatiguing in practice unless very well controlled (exremely hard to do as you may have found with the cymbal exercise). My suggestion is to avoid them. There are very many great sounding monitors that use well damped drivers. Dynaudio C1 is already a good start.

“Ringing” is just as bad as “wobbling” which all these soft cones suffers from.

I agree it is a compromise...it is all about finding the right balance and then using the driver within its acceptable frequency operating range. The fatiguing designs step too far in one extreme or another. Too wobbly is indeed just as bad as too rigid. As is a driver used too far outside its good operating range.

Good Point.