Specs & Pricing

The Cutting Edge
Specs & Pricing
GTT AUDIO
356 Naughtright Road
Long Valley, New Jersey 07853
(908) 850-3092
gttgroup.com
kharma.com
Type: Two-way, floorstanding, bass-reflex loudspeaker
Driver complement: 1" concave diamond-dome tweeter; 7" ceramic
midrange/woofer
Frequency response: 30Hz–100kHz
Sensitivity: 89dB
Impedance: 8 ohms
Recommended amplifier power: 100Wpc
Dimensions: 16" x 36" x 16"
Weight: 95 lbs.
Price: $45,000
ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT
Avid Acutus Reference turntable, SME V arm, and Mobile Fidelity
cartridge; Redpoint Model D turntable, Graham Phantom arm, and
Transfiguration Temper V cartridge; MBL 1521 A CD transport, and
1511 E DAC; Artemis Labs LA-1 linestage and PL-1 phonostage; Kharma
MP-150 monoblock amplifiers; MBL 5011preamp and 9007 monoblock
amplifiers; Kubala-Sosna Emotion interconnects, speaker cables, power
cords, and Expression digital cable; TARA Labs Zero interconnects and
digital cable, Omega speaker cables, The One power cords, and AD-10B
Power Screen; Finite Elemente Spider equipment racks; Hannl record
cleaning machine, L’Art du Son LP and CD cleaning fluids
Perceptions of Value
The French Laundry in the Napa Valley is on most people’s lists of
the world’s finest restaurants. Not surprisingly, the menu is priced
accordingly—the 9-course tasting menu will set you back $210 perperson,
which includes service but no wine. Like most restaurants
here in the San Francisco area, The French Laundry thrives on
taking the absolute finest seasonal ingredients and allowing them
to express themselves with minimal interference. Unlike a lot of
high-end places I’ve tried, the food here is sublime. So sublime, that,
given the second-to-none nature of the ingredients, the glory of the
meals composition and flavors, the simple, unassuming service, and
the overall quality of the experience, the price, to me, was actually
a value. Not a bargain, but a value—there is a difference. That is
exactly how I feel about the Kharma Mini Exquisite. Like the chefs
at The French Laundry, the Mini Exquisite allows music to express
itself—with minimal interference.
By the way, the price of the Mini Exquisite is actually higher in
Europe, where it sells for €45,000, or roughly 30% more than it sells
for in the States. (In a mutual arrangement, Kharma and GTT have
both cut their margins to bring the Mini in at this price.) So, like that
French Laundry meal, while the Mini Exquisite cannot be called a
“bargain” it is arguably a value, especially when you consider all that
goes into the design, and most importantly, what it delivers with
each listening experience. WG
my reference until the Mini came along. As Bill Parish explained it, “All
drivers have a resonance frequency, and ceramic cones are no different.
They actually ring (you can here this in non-Kharma products that use
ceramic cones).” In the Ceramique series, Kharma addresses this ringing
by placing a notch filter in the crossover, outside the audible frequency
range. In the Exquisite series, Kharma uses a somewhat different
method, hit upon by pure chance. It seems that one day while eating
lunch at an outdoor café, van Oosterum happened to glance up as a car
was driving by. The vehicle’s driver had outfitted his buggy with a set
of fancy rims, and van Oosterum further noticed how the car’s wheels
were balanced by the use of weights. Eager to try a similar balancing act
on his ceramic drivers, van Oosterum returned to his facility and soon
discovered that the approach worked. Photos of the Mini’s cone reveal
two black dots. This is where, after measuring each driver’s response,
Kharma laser trims two holes in each cone before applying the weights
that eliminate ringing. This also helps simplify the crossover design and
reduces the number of component parts in the signal path.
Although Kharma is pretty secretive about the origin and values of its
crossover components, I did glean that the Exquisite series crossovers
use silver coils and Kharma’s own Enigma wiring, and are cryogenically
treated after assembly. When I asked van Oosterum the secret to his
speaker’s unusually coherent sound, he replied that “the seamlessness
is created by the synergy of the crossover, shape of the cabinet, and
all other parameters involved in the design” and that, “special attention
has been paid to off-axis phase response, as that influences greatly
the ‘source-ability’ of the speaker. Meaning that off-axis sound gets
reflected by the surroundings, and the more natural the reflections are
the more they will blend in with the directly perceived sound.”
Moving beyond the Gerhard piece described above, the thought,
care, expertise, and cost that go into every aspect of the Mini Exquisite
pays off with all types of music (though hip-hop, metal, and even
Mahler fans might prefer something harder-hitting and deeper-reaching,
like the similarly-priced MBL 101 E). A recent New York Times article
on Ornette Coleman prompted me to revisit Beauty is a Rare Thing:
The Complete Atlantic Recordings [Rhino], and oh how this music comes
alive on the Mini. From Billy Higgins’ opening snare rolls to the flurry
unleashed by Coleman’s alto sax and Don Cherry’s trumpet to Charlie
Haden’s brief acoustic bass solo, the hairs on my arms were electrified
by the excitement of their music making. The disc also highlighted the
Mini’s extraordinary speed and lack of coloration. As in the Gerhard,
each instrument sounded distinct and whole and yet connected to the
102 December 2006 The Absolute Sound