Wow. WOW!! I cannot believe how small they are! This bodes very well for folks with small rooms wanting to setup a killer home theater system. I'm already eyeing the Gallo Dues in my bedroom system and thinking "Your days are numbered, little ones..." These are gonna KILL the Bose LifeStyle System - praise be Allah! I can hardly wait for the gushing reviews... -RW- |
I heard them at THE Show last weekend. They were running a very impressive demo there where they'd hidden the speakers behind a acoustically transparent curtain and played a few cuts of very well-recorded, simple, stark live music (I think this lent itself strongly to the presentation). The sound was very impressive, regardless of what was back there, but when you actually saw what was back there, well, even more so. But even the guy from Maggie doing the demos admitted it would not compare to their larger models. The only normally mixed piece of music I heard him play did not sound nearly as impressive as the live-recorded cuts, but still sounded very good. Those speakers were being played with low-standing bass driver cabinets of their design, which would be necessary to fill out the range (below 300hz as I recall). As far as comparative impressions; for me it was more a novelty than anything else and without hearing music I was familiar with it would be difficult for me to comment beyond that. They are certainly WAF friendly (they're tiny), though the bass cabinets are pretty large and I didn't find them very attractive. I think it will be another niche, as Mapman suggests. One of the demonstrators questions to the group was what pricepoint should they be asking for the rig - indicating that they had not yet decided. They also had an equally small computer panel speaker they showed, but did not play. |
Good "review" Jax2 - As Mapman has suggested, they should appeal to the consumers who cannot accommodate those big "barn doors". WAF should be high so there will definitely be a niche for them. Looks like the woofers will be a requirement for full sound - I thought they were well hidden as end tables. While I won't be getting rid of my 20.1s anytime soon, I would love to have a pair of the "mini's with woofers - even as surrounds. I was surprised to see that they were driven by such high-powered Brystons. I suddenly feel under-powered. |
Here are some pictures of those minis: Front view Back view Close view Anticipation for what is behind the curtain Cheers |
