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Focal Mini Utopia vs Merlin MXe

Is this a fair comparision(sound quality wise ignoring price)? Looking for comments from people who owned both speakers for good length of time. I own mini utopia and Quad 989s and love them both. Trying to simplify and get full range speaker which will better both mini and quads (bass, imaging, stage depth & width, seamless in crossover transition) for 50% jazz and 50% Classical. This is new system building so open for amplifiers choice but leaning towards Transendent sound OTL. Please keep this discussion limited to these two speakers. Space limitation is making me sell my quads. Thanks.
celestial_audio
phaelon
1,053 posts
 
I own the Mini and would not suggest an OTL. The Mini's impedance gets pretty wild below 100 hz.
celestial_audio OP
73 posts
 
Phaelon, I liked OTL with Quad 989s. I definitely agree with your assesment about Mini and would not use it with mini. I use Krells with my mini. Curious though, anybody using mini/micro with tube gear with success? I loved original micro (best imaging with lots of air around instrumments..).
phaelon
1,053 posts
 
Sstalwar, I've always used tubes with the Minis. Currently, I'm using a 25W/ch integrated. It actually sounds more dynamic and performs better at the frequency extremes than a 70w/ch amp that I was using. I guess it should since it's significantly more expensive than any amp/preamp combo that I've used. Like you, I listen to mostly jazz and classical but I'm not trying to reproduce anything near concert level volumes.
arch2
308 posts
 
I've been using my Minis with a Mystere ia21 integrated amp with 50 watts and love the sound. Very robust and dynamic. I've used both the Mac MA2275 tubed integrated and the Mystere and have found tubes to be great with the minis, or at least the tubes I've tried.
stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
I am using SS with mine, either Musical Fidelity NuVista M3 [300 watts] or Meridian 605s [150 watts]. Both work well. Mine have the Titanium tweeters, did they make a Beryllium tweeter version? The ones I have do not lack anything in the highs for me.
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