-2014 BEST SMALL SPEAKER-
This is the second Evolution Acoustics speaker we have reviewed. The first, the MMMiniTwo, set a pretty high bar. Of it we said, “The Evolution Acoustics MMMiniTwo time after time, without fail, through thousands of different musical selections across every musical style, decade and century, gave us the most musically enjoyable, exhilarating, rewarding and satisfying musical experience we had yet relished in our 30 plus year audio journey. While we are not sure what the “MM” designation really stands for, in our book it’s Maximum Mojo.”
So now, we are about to do the unspeakable – the unthinkable – and compare the $39,000 MMMiniTwo (scantily clad model not included) to the $4,000 little brother! True, it sounds unfair and possibly even unethical. But, if you know anything about StereoMojo, we are never unfair and never, ever unethical. The reason behind the madness is that the MMMicroOne has much more in common with its big brother than they are disparate. Also, I might mention that in audio blogs all over the net, the little MMMicroOne has been compared favorably to a very heavily advertised $185,000 speaker, the Magico Q7. Really. But we’re not getting in the middle of that. We deal in facts we know.
Fact one: both Evolution Acoustics models employ stacked, multilayer construction of their cabinets Which makes them structurally inert and sonically diffuse. Cabinet resonance is a major factor in speaker performance because cabinet vibrations cause sound waves that conflict, compete with and degrade the pure sound waves produced by the drivers. When a box vibrates, it puts out waves in every direction that can cause phase, timing and frequency distortion that confuses the ear/brain path with thousands of micro echoes that have to be filtered out and adjusted to make sense out of the projected sound. Images become blurred and smeared which is the opposite of what the drivers are trying to do. It also causes ear fatigue, which manifests itself in short attention spans. After listening for time, your mind starts to think of other things you could be doing and you otherwise just become uncomfortable with continued listening. Bad. Very bad.
Linda and I can attest to dozens and dozens of listening sessions lasting four hours or more with no fatigue; these speakers make you want to listen more.
Click here for the full review