Specs & Pricing

others in my room’s acoustic space. Cherry’s
trumpet had the piercing bite of the real
thing yet was never shrill, brittle, or bright,
and Coleman’s alto sounded much like my
friend’s instrument does whenever he and I
play music together—with a sweet yet slightly
funky tonality that is entirely different from
the bigger, throatier, and richer sound of
a tenor sax. From bottom to top the Mini
simply seemed to step aside in order to let the
music speak for itself.
Those who perhaps raised an eyebrow
over my above remark about harder-driving
stuff should take a few moments to hear the
Mini Exquisite with their favorite challenging
music to see if the speaker has enough weight
and wallop for them. Even at this level, all
speakers involve some tradeoff. When you
do audition the Minis, also listen to the
rewards that powerful amplification bring
to their performance. A nominal 8-ohm
load, the Mini sounds perfectly lovely with
the Kharma MP150 Class D monoblocks
I reviewed as part of last issue’s Class D
feature. These amps are rated at 100Wpc
into the Mini’s load. But a recent spin with
MBL’s 440 watt-per-side 9007 monoblock
provided an entirely different experience
(not to mention a four-times-as-costly one:
$6800 the pair v. $26,600). The point is, if
you want to hear Nine Inch Nails with the
torso-slamming impact of the live event,
or the classic Klemperer performance of
Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 [EMI] in all its
heaven-shaking glory, then you’ll want to
drive the Mini with plenty of gas. Even in
my 11' x 13' x 9' room, the difference in the
speaker’s performance with each amplifier
was substantial. And though the Mini delivers
a thrilling experience—check out that Mahler,
with its beyond-wall-to-wall soundscape
of seemingly limitless depth, remarkably
easy and lifelike dynamic capability (talk
about “bloom!”), and meltingly gorgeous
delivery of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s ethereal
soprano—if you feast regularly on the big
stuff, the Mini’s lack of the deepest bass for
the organ that rides the symphony’s huge
climax or ever-so-slightly smaller than life
soundstage may leave you wanting a larger, if
less elegant, model.
For me, though, it’s pretty simple.
Kharma’s Mini Exquisite floats my boat
like no other. But I must emphasize that the
only reason to consider owning a pair of
Mini Exquisites—assuming you’re privileged
enough to have this kind of money to spend
on a stereo system (’cause the rest of the rig
is going to be just as expensive)—is not the
costly materials and techniques that go into
making each pair, or van Oosterum’s smart
and Zen-like approach to speaker design, but
if—and only if—the Mini floats your boat like
no other. And the only way to know is by
listening to a pair for yourself TAS
December 2006 The Absolute Sound 103