No sooner could you say it's 2015 there was a knock at the dungeons door and there before us was our box of Minimo loudspeakers. On unpacking the box we was greeted by the tinny Mimimo's I don't think we was expecting something so small, think KEF eggs kind of size and you get the picture. The speakers themselves are very understated, very British, very reserved and plain, nothing flash or fancy here, just elegant, simple and restrained, but at the same managing to be quite cool at the same time with their hey look at me I'm the new David of the speaker world. We opened the black pair which come in a very well executed Black paint finish, real wood finishes are also available.
You may even misjudge these speakers by wondering how something this small costs this much? They may look poor value compared to some of the more modern floorstanding speakers with their high tech drivers, these are not going to be the first speakers you walk over to in a dealers showroom, but hold your horses, you'd be a fool, let me explain why!
Ophidian Audio obviously know a little secret or two on how to make cracking sounding speakers, these are the David's that are prepared to take on quite a few Goliath's in the world of Hi-Fi loudspeakers. We was expecting this tiny little sound, a boxy thin sound with very limited bass, but.....how wrong one can be and teach us not to be so presumptuous over something so small.
The speakers we set up using a Musica Int60 stereo amp with onboard DAC, a windows 8.1PC using Jriver was used s a source. USB cable was by Oyaide and speaker cables were JohnBlue's SC88. Lately we've been listening to a lot of chill out & ambiance types of music. We sat down on a listening sofa prepared to listen when David launched his first stone at us.
Wooooo man, what's going on here, you cant defy the laws of physics Jim, but you're going to do a double take, these speakers are fresh out of the box and yet something very special has just slapped us around the ears, these little David's sound absolutely huge, just where does all that sound come from? Are you trying to tell us that sound is coming from those tinny little boxes? Sonically the minimos just disappear and if front of your is music pure and simple, they manage to produce great depth, the sound really does back with great depth, these are not speakers that force the sound in your face with a sound set out to impress from the word go, to the contrary their imaging is first range, voices hang beautifully between the speakers with other musicians behind the vocalist, for example will also listened to some soul and funk from the 70's and it sounded quite captivating, we was not expecting at all to be hearing what we hearing from the very unassuming boxes.
The speakers themselves are quite easy to drive with their 4ohm impedance, Ophidian Audio recommend amps between 30-60 watts our Musica int60 is 50watts so it was very happy driving these little beauties. They do sound so realistic it lifelike it's quite amazing really, we're speechless and still can't quite believe what we are hearing, what we see with our eyes isn't matching up to what we are hearing. Has someone slipped in a subwoofer also while we was not looking? These little speakers really do produce tremendous quality of bass, it's deep, rich and tuneful, how so? it will make you laugh! I mean it's only 3.5"!
The 3.5" midbass unit utilises a lightweight and stiff aluminium diaphragm, a balanced neodymium magnet motor system and a long throw, low loss rubber surround. WAVEFLEX technology enables this tiny speaker to produce sound much bigger than its size would suggest by allowing the midbass driver to fully utilise its extended displacement capabilities, minimising port velocity and distortion. It's incredibly deep and powerful for such a tiny unit and the integration with the tweeter is seamless, these really are a look at me you won't believe me type of speakers sonically, against all the odds they'll turn in a sonic performance that belies their miniature size.
You can see from our initial impressions we are impressed, Ophidian Audio have done a great job here where your ears and eyes become fooled by what you see and hear, stereo imagery is just incredible, they look like a tiny David visually but sound like real giants like Goliath, impressive to say the least, excellent little speakers!
Ophidian Audio in Eden Audio
