Specs & Pricing

The Cutting Edge
While the Mini
Exquisite cannot
be called a
“bargain” it is
arguably a value
A two-way floorstander, the Mini Exquisite is the smallest model in
this Dutch manufacturer’s flagship Exquisite series. At $45,000 the pair,
it is also a very expensive purchase. I can already hear the yowls of
indignant protest that a “mere” two-way should cost so much money, as
if a speaker’s cost should hinge on the number of drivers stuffed into
its box or, like steak, be sold by the pound. I’ll get to price, perceptions
of value, and what goes into the Mini Exquisite shortly, but before I do
let me tell you that everything I treasure in a speaker can be found in
Kharma’s superb little package.
As someone who listens to a wide variety of music, including some
fairly demanding rock, I want a speaker with the kind of top-to-bottom
coherence, midrange beauty, and disappearing act of a Quad electrostatic,
but one that can also play loudly, with excellent dynamics, visceral impact,
and reasonable bottom-end extension. I do not and never have cared if
a speaker reaches below 30Hz—there’s very little music down there,
anyway—and have never cottoned to large, multi-tower arrays because
to me they frequently sound just like they look—like big speakers, not
live music. Now, while there are a few speakers out there that deliver
some of the Kharma Mini’s attributes—and maybe equal or better the
Kharma’s sound in some areas—none I know of combine the detail,
beauty, and single-driver-like coherence I’ve already mentioned, with the
Mini’s exceptional transparency, a wide bandwidth (rated from 30Hz–
100kHz) that starts with an impressive bottom end reach and impact
and finishes with glorious, diamond-tweeter-born highs, and the ability
to disappear as well as any speaker I’ve heard. (Another great Mini, from
MAGICO, offers much of what the Kharma does, but it is, at least to
the degree I’m familiar with it, not as breathtakingly beautiful as the
Kharma is. Both are highly detailed, the MAGICO may be even more
dynamic, but the bass of these two speakers couldn’t be more dissimilar.
Beyond driver differences, the MAGICO’s enclosure is sealed and the
Kharma’s is ported. As listeners who have heard both can attest, these
different ways of loading the bass contribute mightily to each sonic
signature.) Let me also add that to me the term “transparency” does not
simply mean that a speaker is especially clear, though that’s part of it,
and it’s not just about resolution, though that, surely, is part of it, too;
what it means to me is a component is a transparent window to the source.
In the case of a speaker—and this speaker to the max—this means
starting at the binding posts through to the speaker cables and on to the
power amp and so on, all the way back to the information encoded in a
CD or cut into the surface of a vinyl platter.
Consider Libra, from the great sounding Decca LP of English
composer Roberto Gerhard’s Astrological Series: Libra-Gemini-Leo. As
heard through the Kharma (along with the components listed below),
the players in the London Sinfonietta—flute, piccolo, clarinet, violin,
98 December 2006 The Absolute Sound