Andrew Jones MoFi Speakers

[Mnyb]

If the dispersion characteristics are good enough the speaker will be EQ friendly so the tonality can be adjusted to your liking and program material . Personally I think it’s moot to try to find a speaker with “perfect” tonality that happens to fit the track you tried with this time . I think close enough and then EQ or tone controls ?

If some harshness comes from distortion products your ofcourse out of luck , but if it’s only tonality then eq is your friend .

 

[Newman]

I first met Andrew Jones when he was showing his first speaker for TAD. These were the Wurlitzer looking Model 1s. I was blown away by his presentation, his knowledge, and by his speakers. (not so much their aesthetics) Over the years I have had the opportunity to spend some time with him and have heard many of his speakers. I have been continually impressed by both the designer and his designs.

Bear in mind that your above mentioned experience exactly follows the 'perfect sales pitch' process for audio gear:-

• Bring in someone with impressive credentials (often the person who designed the gear: audiences tend to automatically credit them with expert status), then
• Witness an impressive presentation and story that carefully construct a very favourable impression of both the presenter and the specialness of the gear, then
• Provide a sighted listening experience (which, as per the rules for sighted listening, will be dominated by the non-sonic contextual factors that have just been freshly, firmly embedded).

One function of ASR is to help us to wean ourselves out of a dependence on, and belief in, this scenario.

Cheers

 

[Newman]

If the dispersion characteristics are good enough the speaker will be EQ friendly so the tonality can be adjusted to your liking and program material . Personally I think it’s moot to try to find a speaker with “perfect” tonality that happens to fit the track you tried with this time . I think close enough and then EQ or tone controls ?

If some harshness comes from distortion products you're of course out of luck , but if it’s only tonality then eq is your friend .

How ironic, then, that this speaker is pitched at the vinyl market (check the company's history and current product line) and the simplicity-is-purity buyer, both of whom have a famously negative attitude to EQ.

 

[Mr. Widget]

Bear in mind that your above mentioned experience exactly follows the 'perfect sales pitch' process for audio gear:-

• Bring in someone with impressive credentials (often the person who designed the gear: audiences tend to automatically credit them with expert status), then
• Witness an impressive presentation and story that carefully construct a very favourable impression of both the presenter and the specialness of the gear, then
• Provide a sighted listening experience (which, as per the rules for sighted listening, will be dominated by the non-sonic contextual factors that have just been freshly, firmly embedded).

One function of ASR is to help us to wean ourselves out of a dependence on, and belief in, this scenario.

Cheers

I fully see and acknowledge your point and generally agree with it.

That said, I hope my mind is open enough to still appreciate what I hear and not get too swayed by the confirmation bias of excellent measurements.

 

[DSJR]

That video - As soon as I saw the valve amp there, I zoned out completely (yes, this old idiot can be tribal too). Obviously there to sell to the oldies who'll probably buy them?

 

[Mart68]

That video - As soon as I saw the valve amp there, I zoned out completely (yes, this old idiot can be tribal too). Obviously there to sell to the oldies who'll probably buy them?

I zoned out when the audiophile recording started. Let's hear them attempt 'Live & Dangerous' or 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'. Any half good speaker will make a decent fist of reproducing a recording of one bloke singing and one other brushing a snare.

 

[Sokel]

I zoned out when the audiophile recording started. Let's hear them attempt 'Live & Dangerous' or 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'. Any half good speaker will make a decent fist of reproducing a recording of one bloke singing and one other brushing a snare.

I agree to all BUT the audiophile recording.
A 1959 song,recorded and mixed with the gear they used back then is everything but audiophile (with the snakery meaning) and pretentious.
(yes,I love the recordings of that time no matter how they sound,monsters of classical music created masterpieces back then and I would love to know the gear they used to mix them,specially speakers).

 

[Mart68]

I agree to all BUT the audiophile recording.
A 1959 song,recorded and mixed with the gear they used back then is everything but audiophile (with the snakery meaning) and pretentious.
(yes,I love the recordings of that time no matter how they sound,monsters of classical music created masterpieces back then and I would love to know the gear they used to mix them,specially speakers).

Yes fair point it is not an audiophile recording - I meant that it is the sort of very sparse recording that will sound good through most speakers and so favoured for demos by audiophiles - and salesmen.

 

[Axo1989]

They look like 'chit' because the veneer on top is perpendicular to the veneer on the sides and contrasts like a nose bleed. The veneer on top should have been horizontal to match the vertical veneers. I suspect they 'cheaped out' in the end trying to utilize their leftover scraps of veneer.

Omg you aren't wrong. Given the retro aesthetic of the wooden box is presumably part of the appeal to the target market, that's a really odd thing to do. One would hope it's a pre-production glitch, but who knows.

 

[Mr. Widget]

I agree to all BUT the audiophile recording.
A 1959 song,recorded and mixed with the gear they used back then is everything but audiophile (with the snakery meaning) and pretentious.
(yes,I love the recordings of that time no matter how they sound,monsters of classical music created masterpieces back then and I would love to know the gear they used to mix them,specially speakers).

Er, um... the gear would have been 100% tube.

I zoned out when the audiophile recording started. Let's hear them attempt 'Live & Dangerous' or 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'. Any half good speaker will make a decent fist of reproducing a recording of one bloke singing and one other brushing a snare.

Regarding Black Sabbath etc... get some big old JBLs, they will take your head off. I have owned many... they don't do as well with one bloke singing and another brushing a snare.

 

[paudio]

I am sure they can sell these to someone. Just not me at 3700 a pair. Cool driver.

 

[Newman]

My money's on non-neutrality (sorry, character), and
...Andrew Jones' name will only be mentioned 1.7 times per paragraph in association with marketing and advertising.

...it's more of a music review than an equipment review, although that seems to be par for the course these days.
Oh and he says 'Andrew Jones' a lot.

So far so good!

 

[cavedriver]

I also listened to them at the show and am cautiously optimistic these are going to prove to be great speakers once they get further listening and testing. As has been pointed out the room layout was tolerable, and definitely better than some other rooms but still painfully small and usually too full of people. It was one of the more popular rooms at the show and the 6 or so chairs were constantly full. I asked Andrew a little about the concentric driver setup and he said something to the effect that they were very careful to design that shallow 1/2" or so of depth between the woofer cone and the face of the tweeter to get a clean and even dispersion. I really felt it was hard to reach definite conclusions about the speaker given the room, short time period, and limited control over the play list, but the dispersion did seem fairly smooth and the sound stage was fairly large with no shortage of width to the sweet spot. Vocals were appropriately forward and bass was plentiful and seemed controlled but I didn't get to challenge it enough (not saying it's a V-curve speaker! Just that nothing was obviously missing, yet...). The speakers could easily set up low frequency harmonics in what was basically a hotel room so you really couldn't judge how "clean" it was at higher volumes. With the efficiency apparently at around 91 dB these are easy to drive but these aren't dedicated SET tube amp speakers with 95+ dB efficiencies and huge 15" woofer cones and so it's foolish to suggest that everyone will only experience tubby bass and lousy tube amplification when listening to them. All that said, there were too many people listening to jazz and the aforementioned one instrument/one singer easy stuff. I was itching to crank my own speaker test playlist through them and tentatively plan to go hear them somewhere for a longer time window.

 

[Tom C]

Released Aug 1, 1958 (according to Wikipedia):

The lettering at the very top touts transistorized sound. So, while a randomly chosen recording from that time would likely be done on all tube gear, there’s some chance it wasn’t.
Harry Belafonte was signed to RCA, and some of his albums were released under the “Living Stereo“ banner, which I would consider pretty audiophile.
None of this amounts to anything, of course. I’m just sayin’.

 

[Tom C]

I was taken by surprise with respect to the design of the MoFi speakers, but I’ve decided I like the look and size. They should be appealing to the target audience. I’d expect to like how they sound, but being prematurely positive is as invalid as being prematurely negative. Hope we get to see some measurements some time. They are priced into a bracket with lots of competent competition, so around here they’d have to measure well to sell well, but I’m not sure the target audience can be expected to be aware of the high performing alternatives.

 

[Mnyb]

I was taken by surprise with respect to the design of the MoFi speakers, but I’ve decided I like the look and size. They should be appealing to the target audience. I’d expect to like how they sound, but being prematurely positive is as invalid as being prematurely negative. Hope we get to see some measurements some time. They are priced into a bracket with lots of competent competition, so around here they’d have to measure well to sell well, but I’m not sure the target audience can be expected to be aware of the high performing alternatives.

yes its nothing quite like it design-wise so I'm intrigued also waiting for some measurement by reputable party. Where I live, I won't be able to hear it in person any time soon.

It's actually a smart move of a small manufacturer choosing a design brief that's not quite like the competition. Building a KEF clone? would have outcompeted by kef themselves?
And they actually designed their own driver for their first speaker, so the whole products are really designed together. Many other audiophile brands are simply "box stuffers" .

 

[Sokel]

Released Aug 1, 1958 (according to Wikipedia):

View attachment 243235
The lettering at the very top touts transistorized sound. So, while a randomly chosen recording from that time would likely be done on all tube gear, there’s some chance it wasn’t.
Harry Belafonte was signed to RCA, and some of his albums were released under the “Living Stereo“ banner, which I would consider pretty audiophile.
None of this amounts to anything, of course. I’m just sayin’.

I think the original Living Stereo's (a true keeper of classical music) intention was not the audiophile client (I don't know if such a thing existed back then) and the "bad" reputation came much later (20-30 or so years) with the reissues on gold CD,SACD,etc.
I treasure much of the original recordings (not the actual medium of course),some classical performances back then have no equal.

 

[Jim Shaw]

...There’s a demo video that someone posted down below with the room sort of visible. I heard them again yesterday and got a chance to listen to Andrew talk and play through some selected tracks. Honestly, the Friday night demo where the audience was picking tracks was a much better demonstration. The second track they played in the video with the trumpet was actually painful in the room. Part of it is because of the high volume level, but it was straight up unenjoyable. The same is kind of true with the clap sample in the Marian Hill song they chose. Granted, I’ve had the same problems on a few old Count Basie recordings and I had to roll the treble off on the Marian Hill track when I got home and compared...

I watched a video of the Capfest Mofi demo.

Wow! Are those room effects in that small Mofi room ever devastating. Especially on the video you mention. I would find it impossible to evaluate this speaker under those circumstances. The huge room modes around ~100 to 200 Hz might be attractive to some listeners who think this is "great bass."
It's not.

And it probably isn't the speaker's fault much if at all.
.....
I call this "the Wurlitzer effect." Near-entire generations thought this was how music playback should sound... and often still do.
"Womb-boomby, doomby-boom, baroom, thud."

Pretty good for making babies, though.

 

[mhardy6647]

I call this "the Wurlitzer effect." Near-entire generations thought this was how music playback should sound... and often still do.
"Womb-boomby, doomby-boom, baroom, thud."

Pretty good for making babies, though.

Well... I mean*... womb-boo[m]by bar [r]oom puts one squarely in the babymaking wheelhouse, no?

__________________-
* not mean to be crass, of course -- this is an anthopological disucssion.

 

[Mr. Widget]

I call this "the Wurlitzer effect." Near-entire generations thought this was how music playback should sound... and often still do.
"Womb-boomby, doomby-boom, baroom, thud."

I call this the Wurlitzer effect: