Evolution Acoustics MMMicroOne


Hey guys,

Has anyone heard the new Evolution Acoustics MMMicroOne? Just saw this pic from CES 2011.

http://cybwiz.blogspot.com/2011/01/evolution-acoustics-mmmicroone.html

Any thoughts on this one?
rhohense
Anyone who has heard these, what is the house sound slimilar to? Dynaudio, the more romantic sound of Sonus Faber, etc. I've heard how excellent they sound, but I've not really heard much in terms of the sound signature.

Are they lively or laid-back? Are vocals more up-front or recessed? Fairly thick sound or is it light and airy?
I have only heard them during a day at the recent Newport Beach Show. They are in my opinion an enigma. They have a full, immediate sound in the midrange and do a terrific job of disappearing, i.e. if you closed your eyes you would have no clue as to the speaker location. Voices and instruments have a robust presence. Highs are well-defined but sweet and not promiment, calling no attention to any part of the treble or specific instruments. The enigma part comes with the fact that they are extremely fast like a good panel speaker, especially in the bass. On one particular orchestra recording the bass had a transient crack that was unreal, making bass from virtually any other speaker I have heard sound slow and discontinuous, while still doing a good job with extension. It was hard to believe that these little speakers could have this type of speed and impact throughout the frequency spectrum. I heard a lot of speakers at the show and the only ones I thought measured up to the MMMicroOnes were the mbl 101e's as part of a very expensive setup--everything else was somewhat disappointing. While some have opined that a lot of the sonics were due to an expensive front end, it just indicates to me that these speakers are merely limited to the quality of the associated electronics. Maybe not everyone likes this type of sound but obviously I was impressed and ordered a pair.
Thanks for the impressions. Sounds like what I'm looking for... a speaker that avoids having a 'laid-back' sound with the recessed treble, but also avoids aggressive treble, which can be just as bad. These look to be next on my list. I wonder if the stands can be purchased at a later time, although I know they were 'custom made' for the speakers.
Kevm2,
You may want to confirm, but I think the stands are included in purchase price.
Robdker, that was my first thought when I first heard the prototypes, but it certainly was true that they sounded great.

I have a recent experience of using expensive electronic on inexpensive speakers. I sold my Tidals in late Spring and had only the LSA1 Statement speakers to listen to. These are just under $2200 per pair. Originally, I bought them although I had no idea where I was going to use them. Later we bought a summer home with a very small bedroom that became by summer listening room. The LSA1 Statements were perfect.

I merely removed the Tidals and put the LSAs and their stands in those places. My BMC amps, dac/pre, and phono stage along with my other H-Cat and Exemplar XP-2 preamp are worth at least ten times as much as the speakers. Of course, I wished I could get my new BMC speakers or had held off selling the Tidals longer, but nevertheless, I really enjoyed what I was hearing.

Perhaps we put too much money into our speakers to gain so little at the top and bottom ends.

At any rate, I look forward to hearing the Evolutions at the RMAF or CES. Their birth has been long and painful.
Jtinn, why did you decide to outsource production? Hearing that was a tad disappointing.

Are the drivers truly custom or are they modded stock drivers? If they are modded drivers, what exactly was modded?
First let me say only the MICRO SERIES is and will be made overseas. All of our other models are manufactured in San Diego and always will be.

Sorry to say, but answering your first question is not something I care to share.

The drivers are manufactured by us and the only parts that are not are the diaphragm for our tweeter which is made by Mundorf, and our cone, which is made for us.

I hope you get a chance to hear it, I would love to hear what you think of it.
Thanks everyone for your patience. I understand the frustration this may have caused for those of you who have ordered.

The good news is the MMMicroOnes are starting to ship this week.
Mine will also be here next week. Can't decide which recording to listen to first. Decisions, decisions.
Rlawry....... Starting to get my music arsenal ready. This should be good!

Let us know how it sounds!
I would like to get some feedback on how these speakers sound with cheap gear.....???
I think we will wait a while to hear from owners and perhaps for a review or two. There sure is a lot of pre-release buzz on these.
As an owner of an MM2 and having heard these speakers at Newport show, it seemed rather obvious to me that these speakers are
a steal at any price below 5K
Yes, waiting for reviews/feedback from owners with "regular electronics" rather than $$$$$ electronics.
I've heard through the grape vine that the next shipment of these will cost $4k instead of $2,500.
That kind of levels the playing field a little.
It take them out of my reach anyway.
I picked my pair up yesterday and I can truly say that these speakers are spectacular!
I will post more impressions after they break in, but so far? Wow!
My Maggie 1.7s will be going up for sale today.
Mine are set to arrive later this week. While my gear isn't inexpensive, it's not mega-buck either (iMac serving WAV files through Audirvana+; Neko Audio D100MKII DAC; Aaron No.1.a Integrated Amp). I'd be happy to post feedback after hooking them up and giving them a chance to settle/burn in.

FWIW, these will be replacing Harbeth Compact 7ES-3's.
If that's true, then that's fairly ridiculous... A $1,500 price raise? These would go from a must buy at $2,500 to being heavily scrutinized and compared with other options, including a used Dynaudio C1 among others.
Fear not! A few days ago I was fortunate enought to have JT invite me over to his house to listen to the speakers on the full blown Dart system.
We sat for quite some time listening to glorious music flowing through these amazing little spWeakers and I purchased them on the spot!

Now, a couple of days later, I am sitting in my own house listening to the glorious music flow! My system is comprised of much more modest gear, Modwright , Marantz SAC player, Rega table, etc. and these little speakers just shine!

Thanks again, JT! And the Diana Krall show was fantastic - my wife thanks you.
Din
That elegentaudiovideo site isn't an authorized dealer for many of the goods sold on their site, so one has to keep that in mind when choosing to purchase from them.

In regards to the rumored price-jump, I would hope it is just that-- a rumor. The speakers have been out, what, a week, and there is speculation of a 60% increase in price in the near future? If true, that would hint to me that there was a long-time plan to sell these speakers at such a price. Raising the price by such a significant sum is no arbitrary choice.

I will give Evolution Acoustics the benefit of the doubt since nothing has been officially stated. However, if true, I would find such a selling tactic dishonest, simply because it involved getting potential buyers excited about getting exceptional audio performance relative to the price tier it was in, garnering hype and attention based upon said performance beyond its peers and then immediately shooting the price up to where it is competing in a whole different league altogether. If the plan was to sell them at $4,000 with the first few buyers getting them at $2,500, then the solution would have been to state that they were $4,000 speakers with early buyers able to enjoy significant savings.

With that out of the way, I'm glad to hear that they sound great and I look forward to further impressions.
Another "hot" new speaker to add to the list is the Vapor Audio Cirrus. Uses the Raal tweeter. Would be interesting to compare the two. Runs under 4K and hand built in the USA by one dude....
Rebbi, build quality and fit and finish are all excellent. Both the speakers and the stands come packaged in heavy duty wood crates.
Dinder1,

Do you know what size room these speakers are optimized for? And what are they replacing in your system?

Thanks!
Doc77: What is your agenda here? Earlier in this thread you made allegations about our drivers and such and are now taking pot shots at me. I am confused? What do you have to gain?

I tried to be civil when you made stupid allegations but it did not seem to make a difference. Why don't you just stay on the Vapor thread instead of "trolling" here where you obviously have no good intentions. It seems to be more "home" for you on the other thread.

Now to address your silly statement:

Din who is local to me had been waiting for over a year as well.

We started shipping two weeks ago and all who have ordered will receive their MMMicroOnes within the next few weeks.

If you would like to drive here, you can pick a pair as well.
Doc77, who are you besides not being a registered user here? You tell me to buzz off on the Vapor Audio thread and then come over here with your dirty laundry!

It's pretty obvious that you are more than just a Vapor Audio fanboy. Now why don't you buzz off and let these nice gents have a friendly discussion.
What? Just relax!
This is a great product! Yes it has taken a few years to reach the consumer, but I feel that this is for your benefit as the consumer.
Everyone seems to want the best, Now!
I feel that I do have one of the best speaker systems now, and I would urge you to reserve judgement until you can audition them in person.
Din
Hey guys, didn't mean to start problems ... my post was worded like a smart ass, may apologies. I'm actually a fan of Evolution Acoustics stuff, and have enjoyed them every time I've heard them. I know I've posted positive comments about the sound of the MicroOnes here before.

So again, sorry. And best of luck to Mr. Tinn in getting these to market quickly.
Just my 2 cents,

I received my speakers Tuesday.
They are gorgeous & let it be know I also own the Evolution MM3's.
I have the luxury of using mine with both high end equipment
(darTZeel) & some moderate mono blocks ( Odyssey ).
My opinions will be posted as some time passes on both systems. I want to allow for a bit of break-in.

Having said all of this, these do sound very very good right out of the box. I was pleasantly surprised!!! NO not really, I knew they would be of high caliper.
I'm really amazed at how low these baby's go for such small drivers. Are the the last word in the lower octave compared to the MM3's, well no but they will surprise you.

Highly recommended & more to come as I'm sure others will chime in as they set theirs up.

Congrats JT & Kevin.

Gary
My speakers just keep getting better and better the more I play them.
My wife thinks that I am losing it! "You are playing music ten to twelve hours a day" Yes? And.......
I was on vacation for a week (out of phone, cell, pager, computer, carrier pigeon, and smoke signal range) which was glorious, but now returned to find my MMMicroOnes and hooked them up yesterday. Yes, they were fantastically packaged and flawless, but the real treat is the sound. I agree that they sound great out of the box, a little constipated but there will certainly be no gritting of teeth waiting for break-in. All of the fullness of sound along with speed is there. BTW, these are replacing my Ridge Street Audio Sasons and I use Essence solid-state (amp) and tube (preamp) gear along with SME/Graham/Lyra/Manley Steelhead analog front end.

One word on pricing. I am a small business owner and I have had numerous instances where I, in the best of intentions, severely underestimated pricing prior to full production. I am going to give EA the benefit of the doubt that they had no intention of doing the bait-and-switch on pricing after they initially drummed up interest on their products.
Congratulations to all who have these and are already enjoying them. When they were first introduced at shows about a year ago, people said they sound better than the Magico Q1 for 1/20 the price. I own a pair of Magico Mini 2s so of course I am curious to know if those early reports are true.

Have any of the new owners had a chance to compare them to the Magico two-ways, either the Mini or the Q1? Thanks.
It may be difficult to find someone who`s heard these speakers in the same system for direct comparison. Most people likely heard them seperately under show conditions. I had a good listen to both of them in their respective rooms at RMAF 2011. How much each speaker contributed to the overall sound is hard to determine as you`re listening to an entire system.

The Evolution room did sound much better, the music reproduction was very natural,fluid,involving and quite realistic. The Magico room in contrast struck me as mechanical,artificial and less believable, It was`nt organic and lacked a musical flow,it came across as hifi rather than natural.

Could it be show enviroment? The Evolution was good under the same conditions.Could it be The Magico sound does`nt appeal to me? Really can`t say(it`s possible I could like other Magico models if I heard them). What I heard from the Micro one last year is similar to what new owners are begining to post now on this thread. For a small speaker it made an impression on me.a very good one.I wonder if show conditions are as limiting as some believe.At that same RMAF I listened to the Concert Fidelity-Kaiser Kawero system and it was an absolute realistic sonic joy, there was just beautiful music in that room.Just one humble opinion.
Regards,
My pair of Micros Ones arrived this week. In over 30 years of being in the high-end, these little jewels are with the possible exception of the Maggie's the best value in high end audio today. IMO, if they sold for double what they are today you would still have to spend more than $10k to approach their performance.

My wife came into my listening room yesterday and her first remark was "wow those little speakers look great"! Since my wife is an interior designer who hates "man speakers" that is high praise indeed. To finally have a small speaker that rivals my love of great dipoles ala Maggie's, Sanders Sound Systems, and Quads is a dream come true. As always go have a listen and trust your ears:-)

I am a dealer for Evolution speakers so please accept the above comments with the usual "grain of salt".


I have heard a lot speakers in my time and the Sander Sound model 11 electrostatic speaker system is one of the best speakers I have ever heard...at any price!

If these MM Micro Ones can get you even close in sound to the Sander's.. then they are going to sell a h@ll of a lot of these speakers !!...
Any other feedback on this speaker? About to send in payment for a pair. Have a fairly large room with 22' ceilings.
I'm also about to order a pair of these speakers, could we get some feedback with a lot cheaper gear?
I agree with Hifisoundguy. If you can even remotely approach the sound a good panel with a cheap box then you are cooking with gas. Panels have never been practical for me, and thus I have sought out boxes that approach their openness and speed. I think proper engineering of the box goes a long way towards that goal, and both Vapor and EEs are to be congratulated for their efforts for making it affordable....
Wow, the dealer in Texas told me that the first shipment stay at $2500 BUT...the next shipment will cost you AROUND $4000 so anyone thinking about getting these speakers BETTER send in your payment right now !!.....
Before anyone dismisses these speakers entirely based on possible rising prices, I would strongly encourage you to seek out a pair for listening. They are one of the best-sounding speakers that I have heard in almost 40 years in audio.