MoFi Sourcepoint V10 Master Edition

[wgb113]

My V10s are supposed to be delivered this week and I'm also not a fan of the gray grilles. I asked Mofi about dying them (knowing that was an odd question) and they said it's worth a try - and if things go south, I can always order black replacements.

The black ones do look better with the walnut in my opinion, I just can't bring myself to pay $200 for them given my situation (dedicated room, always off when listening). I can totally see why someone like @JohnSnow with 3 boys might want to keep curious fingers away in a shared space like that.

 

[JohnSnow]

My V10s are supposed to be delivered this week and I'm also not a fan of the gray grilles. I asked Mofi about dying them (knowing that was an odd question) and they said it's worth a try - and if things go south, I can always order black replacements.

I gave serious consideration to using shoe polish, but dye sounds like a much better idea for several reasons . Good luck!

 

[Defi]

I was lusting over these but then found a deal way too good to pass up on an f226Be pair. These absolutely knock it out of the park in the looks department though, so nice to see an example of such that sounds good too.

One thing that kind of surprised me is how low the crossover is for the woofers--130Hz. Now, I have no scientific reason to feel weird about it. But the though of getting subs and then having 4 10" woofers accompanied by the same amount of radiators playing ~80-130Hz felt weird to me. But I would welcome someone smarter than me telling me that I'm getting lost in the weeds.

 

[wgb113]

They're the first pair of speakers that truly has me questioning the need for subs. It will be interesting to see the Anthem ARC results pre/post correction and where it feels they should be crossed over to my subs. It was 50Hz for the KEF Reference 3.

Hoping to run through that exercise this upcoming weekend.

 

[MrPotatoHead]

They're the first pair of speakers that truly has me questioning the need for subs.

I have two small subs, this DIY sub and a Hsu VTF-1 Mk2, that I will likely retire when I get my V10s this week. I'm hoping I'm satisfied with the bass so I can forgo subs altogether and avoid the integration challenges.

 

[samwisethebrave]

@wgb113 How are you feeling about the switch from the KEF Reference 3s to V10s after you've had them a little bit?

 

[Oboreal]

Theorical SPL with (real) 200 watts if the speaker can take this power without too much compression or distorsion will be around 116 dB SPL. A lot of cheap PA speakers can't even reach this kind of sound pressure.

 

[wgb113]

@wgb113 How are you feeling about the switch from the KEF Reference 3s to V10s after you've had them a little bit?

I'm happy to report that it's been everything I'd hoped it would so far in the first couple of weeks of ownership. I spent a little over a week with them as-is - no ARC or subwoofers in the mix - in order to get a sense for their sound.

I started with some more challenging things to open them up - 90s Hip-Hop & Techno on CD. It's the first time I've heard a balance in my room of bass that hits you in the chest while there's no strain or congestion heard in the mids and highs. Here they outperformed the KEFs by quite a bit.

From there I turned to some audiophile vinyl Rock from the 60s-90s. These pressings shined as you'd expect them to and honestly, the KEFs probably would have sounded just as good.

Then it was back to CDs, this time a mix of genres and a couple of SACDs thrown in as well. The more modern, dynamically limited stuff sounded better than it ever had on the KEFs - some of my very favorite albums are casualties of the loudness wars of the 90s and were unenjoyable to listen to on the KEFs but now they sounded great.

Since then it's been back to working through my backlog of vinyl and CDs - mostly a mix of Rock and Jazz titles. Jazz reissues on vinyl sounded just as good as they did with the KEFs and older pressings sounded just as...old. CDs have been primarily new Rock releases and I'm confident they sound better than they would have on the KEFs.

This past weekend I spent some time fine-tuning placement before firing up ARC to measure them. I chose to run with the following profiles:

1. No correction, No subs.
2. Correction, No subs.
3. Correction + 2 subs.
4. No correction, No subs (same as 1)

I love the ability to cycle through the profiles as something's playing from the listening chair. The biggest difference between 1 and 2 is a smoothing out of the bass while Profile 3 really opens things up and extends things down to 20Hz and below. While the house was empty I pushed the volume a bit and I gave up before they did. In fact, I may go back in this weekend and add a 4th profile that mirrors the 3rd but dials down the bass a touch.

I think I could live happily 90% of the time without ARC and subs but it's nice to have a few other options to play with.

I'm sure some of this is related to them being new and that auditory memory is very precise but I know how other speakers/systems have made me feel about some of my favorite albums and how the MoFi's make me feel about them. In the cases where I was impressed with prior setups I'm still impressed, but for those where I was a bit disappointed I'm now feeling very happy about my choice. Are they the best looking speakers? Not in my opinion. Are they perfect? No speaker is. Will my perception change with more time? Perhaps. For now I'll just keep throwing different things at them in hopes that I like what I hear!

Bill

 

[samwisethebrave]

I'm happy to report that it's been everything I'd hoped it would so far in the first couple of weeks of ownership. I spent a little over a week with them as-is - no ARC or subwoofers in the mix - in order to get a sense for their sound.

I started with some more challenging things to open them up - 90s Hip-Hop & Techno on CD. It's the first time I've heard a balance in my room of bass that hits you in the chest while there's no strain or congestion heard in the mids and highs. Here they outperformed the KEFs by quite a bit.

From there I turned to some audiophile vinyl Rock from the 60s-90s. These pressings shined as you'd expect them to and honestly, the KEFs probably would have sounded just as good.

Then it was back to CDs, this time a mix of genres and a couple of SACDs thrown in as well. The more modern, dynamically limited stuff sounded better than it ever had on the KEFs - some of my very favorite albums are casualties of the loudness wars of the 90s and were unenjoyable to listen to on the KEFs but now they sounded great.

Since then it's been back to working through my backlog of vinyl and CDs - mostly a mix of Rock and Jazz titles. Jazz reissues on vinyl sounded just as good as they did with the KEFs and older pressings sounded just as...old. CDs have been primarily new Rock releases and I'm confident they sound better than they would have on the KEFs.

This past weekend I spent some time fine-tuning placement before firing up ARC to measure them. I chose to run with the following profiles:

1. No correction, No subs.
2. Correction, No subs.
3. Correction + 2 subs.
4. No correction, No subs (same as 1)

I love the ability to cycle through the profiles as something's playing from the listening chair. The biggest difference between 1 and 2 is a smoothing out of the bass while Profile 3 really opens things up and extends things down to 20Hz and below. While the house was empty I pushed the volume a bit and I gave up before they did. In fact, I may go back in this weekend and add a 4th profile that mirrors the 3rd but dials down the bass a touch.

I think I could live happily 90% of the time without ARC and subs but it's nice to have a few other options to play with.

I'm sure some of this is related to them being new and that auditory memory is very precise but I know how other speakers/systems have made me feel about some of my favorite albums and how the MoFi's make me feel about them. In the cases where I was impressed with prior setups I'm still impressed, but for those where I was a bit disappointed I'm now feeling very happy about my choice. Are they the best looking speakers? Not in my opinion. Are they perfect? No speaker is. Will my perception change with more time? Perhaps. For now I'll just keep throwing different things at them in hopes that I like what I hear!

Bill

Nice to hear! I'm currently trying to decide between these two sets of speakers. I'm demoing the references this weekend. Do you listen to classical at all? I was struck by the impact and dynamics of the V10s. Felt like the timpani and bass drum were right in the room.

 

[wgb113]

Nice to hear! I'm currently trying to decide between these two sets of speakers. I'm demoing the references this weekend. Do you listen to classical at all? I was struck by the impact and dynamics of the V10s. Felt like the timpani and bass drum were right in the room.

I have some classical stuff on CD but don’t reach for it often so now that you mentioned it, I should pull out a few of them!

My initial feeling is that with acoustical recordings the two speakers would be very close but I’d agree that the bigger drivers of the V10 are capable of better dynamics. It’s on amplified, heavily processed recordings where I feel the Mofi’s really have a leg up on the KEFs.

 

[wgb113]

Just gave a few Classical selections a spin and there’s just an effortlessness when the full orchestra builds to a crescendo - with peaks hitting close to 90dB they sometimes catch you off guard, and that sans subs! Selections I pulled from my limited collection included:

Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 K. 551 “Jupiter”, Molto allegro, Wiener Philharmoniker, Leonard Bernstein conducting.on Deutschmark Gramophone.
Liszt’s “Les Preludes” Symphonic Poem No. 3, Philadelphia Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting on Water Lily Acoustics.
Elgar’s Cello Concerto, London Symphony Orchestra featuring Sheri Kanneh-Mason, Sir Simon Rattle conducting on Decca.

 

[bbfat49]

I have the V10 on the same day as you. I mainly listen to classical music. I really like the performance of the V10. My previous speakers were the Piega Coax 511. I don't think the V10 needs a subwoofer, although I have a trinnov Altitude 16 and MK X12. Below are the V10 curves and RT60 measurements I took (red is the right channel).

 

[samwisethebrave]

@bbfat49 What kind of amplification are you using?

 

[bbfat49]

@bbfat49 What kind of amplification are you using?

The Gaia power amplifier from the Chinese brand Fumac. I use Auralic Aries G2.2 and Vega G2.2, and the Vega G2.2 for volume control.
I think the MoFi speakers have two advantages: one is their compatibility with various types of music—they all sound good. The other is their amplifier-friendly nature. My friend has used the 10 and 8 models, we've driven them with NC1200, Class A, and Class AB power amplifiers, and they all sound great. It seems that as long as the power isn't too low, it works fine.

 

[MarcT]

Just gave a few Classical selections a spin and there’s just an effortlessness when the full orchestra builds to a crescendo - with peaks hitting close to 90dB they sometimes catch you off guard, and that sans subs! Selections I pulled from my limited collection included:

Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 K. 551 “Jupiter”, Molto allegro, Wiener Philharmoniker, Leonard Bernstein conducting.on Deutschmark Gramophone.
Liszt’s “Les Preludes” Symphonic Poem No. 3, Philadelphia Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting on Water Lily Acoustics.
Elgar’s Cello Concerto, London Symphony Orchestra featuring Sheri Kanneh-Mason, Sir Simon Rattle conducting on Decca.

Get the CD or stream this one. Crank it up and wait for the first crescendo!

 

[bbfat49]

Get the CD or stream this one. Crank it up and wait for the first crescendo!

View attachment 509205

I could only find this cover on Apple Music. It’s really nice.

 

[MarcT]

I could only find this cover on Apple Music. It’s really nice.

The CSO/Abbado is available on Amazon Music HD in 24/192.

 

[bbfat49]

The CSO/Abbado is available on Amazon Music HD in 24/192.

Thanks.

 

[wgb113]

Shocked to hear that Andrew has left MoFi already to become co-founder of a new speaker company - Jones & Cerreta.

Will these be forgotten or prized as a sleeper in years to come?

Does make me think I need to decide on speaker grilles while that’s still possible…

 

[PristineSound]

Shocked to hear that Andrew has left MoFi already to become co-founder of a new speaker company - Jones & Cerreta.

Will these be forgotten or prized as a sleeper in years to come?

Does make me think I need to decide on speaker grilles while that’s still possible…

Sometimes it's for a greener path and sometimes it's the pursuit of passion unleashed.