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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
 
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.
phaelon
1,053 posts
 
Stanwal, the Minis are first generation Utopias. Beryllium tweeters came with the second. I've often wondered if would be feasible to swap out the older generation components (tweeters, drivers and crossover) for current Focal SOTA.
toetapfactor
77 posts
 
I owned the Minis for well over a year and never could get them to sound even close to good..Tried Pass labs 150.5/McIntosh 402 as well as numerous tube amps including AR/Cary/Wavac( paired up with a couple different subs) Loaned them to a buddy and he came up with the same results.Ive never heard the Merlins but they have to be better than those Focal minis,IMO..If you decide to open the thread up for speaker recommendations that blow those mini yucks out of the water let us know!!!!
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