Andrew Jones MoFi Speakers

[cavedriver]

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.

I used to have an army version of a Chevy full-size blazer (an M1008 CUCV) and those had all interior surfaces stripped to bare metal. Sony 6x9 two-ways were mounted just behind the front seats firing towards each other. My favorite thing was to blast "Son of a Preacher Man" because all those induced treble harmonics from the bare metal were hilariously fun but totally inaccurate. Kind of a treble Wurlitzer.

 

[lateralous]

My money's on non-neutrality (sorry, character), and a disinterest in letting boys with Klippel toys get anywhere near.

We'll get a Stereophile review filled with poetry and backed by a measurement panel with a few dry comments papering over the discrepancies with the poetry, and overemphasising correlations.

Andrew Jones' name will only be mentioned 1.7 times per paragraph in association with marketing and advertising.

Where can I place my bet?

 

[Juhazi]

Interview of AJ about MoFi

Interview with Andrew Jones: MoFi SourcePoint 10 Loudspeakers

The MoFi SourcePoint 10 ($3,699/pair) is the latest speaker from the talented and prolific Andrew Jones, chief loudspeaker designer for MoFi Electronics. It's one of the most exciting product debuts from this year’s Capital Audiofest high-end audio show.

www.soundandvision.com

 

[WonderBoy]

Sensible comment, but nobody should get a free pass here, and Andrew Jones also has the ELAC Adantes in his recent past. Your point 4 applies.

The Adantes are fantastic though.

 

[Newman]

The Adantes are fantastic though.

"Shrug" panther. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/elac-adante-as-61-speaker-review.11507/

 

[Galliardist]

The Adantes are fantastic though.

Happy to accept that as your experience, especially if you're a long term owner.

But, they reviewed poorly or so-so at best, were taken off the market in a relatively short time, and in this part of the world they failed to sell even at substantial discounts. Failure to sell is what I'm actually basing my assessment on in this thread. I had a very negative experience of the standmount version, but that on its own doesn't make it a failure in a meaningful way - it comes down to the money.

 

[ROOSKIE]

There is the 'art&science of achieving technical accuracy', and that surely isn't the only goal or intention with this design.
I currently see mofi's approach with these an 'art of speaker making' design. Which is cool with me.
These are seeming cool speakers if not technical instruments.
Give a few variable and limits, in this case
1. Wide range 2way
2. High sensitivity
3. Co-centric
4. Must appeal to the 'analog' crowd
5. Unique looks are expected
Now see what can be done.

But, they reviewed poorly or so-so at best, were taken off the market in a relatively short time, and in this part of the world they failed to sell even at substantial discounts. Failure to sell is what I'm actually basing my assessment on in this thread.

Never heard the adantes but sales volume is no indicator of quality designs.
By that metric we all will have Beats, Bose and Sony SSCS5's.
I suspect the biggest issue with the Adante in the USA is ELAC positioned itself as a budget brand here 1st and once you do that in the USA, good luck climbing up.
Even the mightly JBL is having a hellva time recovering the brand from the Bluetooth and $25 Target headphone image that many folks have of them due being so successful in the budget/mass retailer realms.

 

[Galliardist]

Never heard the adantes but sales volume is no indicator of quality designs.
By that metric we all will have Beats, Bose and Sony SSCS5's.
I suspect the biggest issue with the Adante in the USA is ELAC positioned itself as a budget brand here 1st and once you do that in the USA, good luck climbing up.
Even the mightly JBL is having a hellva time recovering the brand from the Bluetooth and $25 Target headphone image that many folks have of them due being so successful in the budget/mass retailer realms.

I’m not in the US. Where I am, the Adantes also failed, while German designed ELAC models are still well regarded.

And if ELAC are regarded as a cheap brand, etc. in the US, why are the Navis models still selling well, and Andrew Jones still have the reputation he does?

The Adante may well have been a production engineering failure rather than a design one. One thing that affected both those and the Debut models reported in measurements was poor matching. I’ve not seen that reported in the German designed models. The Adante was a complex and innovative design as well, so there were things to go wrong.

Even so, it still sits on Jones’ record. And if you’re a prospective employer a design that didn’t sell weighs more than one that didn’t sound so good.

 

[ROOSKIE]

ELAC is a budget brand here (not 'cheap', cheap could work here but really it means something slightly different to me at least).
If the Navis line is selling well here I'd be a bit surprised, I wouldn't be surprised if it is selling steadily though.
Who knows, I imagine the KEF LS50w is outselling them 10-1 or something like that.
'Lifestyle' stuff does have a market here and is fairly separate from 'hifi', (marketwise) Often sales is deeply affected by certain retailers picking up the product and choosing to promote it. For now it seems retailers beleive that many current lifestyle purchasers want to pick from 3 sold options not 30. (thus the 'lifestyle' moniker of keeping it perceived as easy and all in one works)
Again a guess, I'd bet most buyers here of the old Pioneer line and recent ELAC entry budget designs 'know' who Andrew Jones is and yet have absolutely know idea about TAD or really any hifi gear beyong what is at Bestbuy and other high volume retailers. It was smart marketing for that market segment to turn the designer into a rock star even though most buyers have no real idea why AJ. I think his reputation here is now legitimately tied to budget value, 'making very nice speakers that cost less $ than they should based on how they sound'.

For those who spend more and know the hifi ropes then, there are many talented designers and teams.

We will see how the Mofi experiment goes. It does look like a good product for them based on Mofi's company which is brand recognition based and vinyl/analog & some CD master releases. For their take on gear, look at the 'Fender' turntable they sell for $3500. Snag that and a set of funky AJ's.

I bet this speaker sells well and is very heavily promoted to the correct consumer audience for the design.
For strong sales, this seems to me to be a smart way to rebrand AJ in the USA as a higher end(not just value&budget) designer in the larger public eye.

 

[MaxBuck]

Andrew Jones is a respected designer of affordable loudspeakers. His reputation in this realm falls below, probably, only Jack Oclee-Brown and our own Dennis Murphy.

I wish him well, but I don't think these speakers will perform any better than models from KEF or BMR at half the price. That price no doubt has to cover substantial startup costs of this new MoFi venture.

 

[mhardy6647]

Happy to accept that as your experience, especially if you're a long term owner.

But, they reviewed poorly or so-so at best, were taken off the market in a relatively short time, and in this part of the world they failed to sell even at substantial discounts. Failure to sell is what I'm actually basing my assessment on in this thread. I had a very negative experience of the standmount version, but that on its own doesn't make it a failure in a meaningful way - it comes down to the money.

I don't know -- i.e., this is utterly anecdotal -- but they may have had some QC issues with at least some models(?).
Here's the anecdote

Elac Adante AF-61 (took some diy to make perfect)

So let me preface this by saying that I am very happy with these speakers (now) and for the price I got them new I have nothing to complain about BUT:

forum.polkaudio.com

"... So I was listening to them last night and they sounded fabulous. I started reading more about an issue I had read before I purchased them and went ahead and tested for the problem:
Apparently either in production or in shipping, a small leak developed between chambers. Meaning that the supposed sealed driver/passive radiator boxes which should be sealed from each other were actually letting a little air between them. Only two of these bass drivers next to each other were leaking to the point when you pushed on one of the passive radiators, the one above it would move. Not ideal. To make things worse, I had read about a larger issue. In some cases the sir could leak between the top bass driver and the mid/tweet enclosure. This was harder to test for. I saw a video of one fella who had the issue test with a lighter in front of the mid and pushed on the passive radiator below to see if the flame moved. Which it did on both of my towers..."

Andrew Jones is a respected designer of affordable loudspeakers.

He established a reputation working with TAD, which is pretty much the polar opposite of affordable loudspeakers.

 

[ROOSKIE]

He established a reputation working with TAD, which is pretty much the polar opposite of affordable loudspeakers.

Sure a reputation in the industry and in some elite hifi circles.

He became the 'Andrew Jones', that we now have by his budget/value concious designs selling thounds and thousands of copies in the wider marketplace of audio.

There is near zero way he gets this well known and develops a broad reaching reputation putting out $50k speakers.

@MaxBuck has point that AJ is dealing with cost to performance issues if compared with $2-4k value leaders but compared with a number of boutique options $3700usd seems doable for MoFi.
I can see someone cross shopping some really stupid options out there and if they end up with these I'd say it is going to be a win for intelligent hifi. Stepping stones.

 

[JayGilb]

Andrew Jones is a respected designer of affordable loudspeakers. His reputation in this realm falls below, probably, only Jack Oclee-Brown and our own Dennis Murphy.

I wish him well, but I don't think these speakers will perform any better than models from KEF or BMR at half the price. That price no doubt has to cover substantial startup costs of this new MoFi venture.

And most importantly, he has a British accent.

 

[behappybevegan]

Zeos talking about the Mofi Sourcepoint 10.

 

[killdozzer]

Do we have measurements for these?

 

[paudio]

Hype is real for these. These are same price as a pair of KH310s?

 

[cavedriver]

Hype is real for these. These are same price as a pair of KH310s?

The Neumann's list for $5000 a pair in the US, the Mofi is $3700. But of course you have the luxury of using your favorite wonderfully inaccurate tube amp with the Mofi.

 

[paudio]

The Neumann's list for $5000 a pair in the US, the Mofi is $3700. But of course you have the luxury of using your favorite wonderfully inaccurate tube amp with the Mofi.

Maybe a bit closer in Canada but I guess at the same time they are active and three way. Could drop to a smaller pair of 2 way Neumanns and add a KH750

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Hype is real for these.

It is either hype or real.

 

[Galliardist]

I'm wondering... is this speaker designed this way, because all of the designer's previous work is the intellectual property of his employers, or he's contractually not allowed to replicate anything in the Debut/Navis speakers for several years after leaving ELAC?