I had not listened to any expensive mini-monitors, so I wasn't sure what to expect.(My speakers are the giant Dunlavy SCIV's).
Wow!! These little speakers are definitely competitive with the Dunlavy's!! Very detailed and dynamic. Open soundstage. Very transparent.
Of course by the time you add the matching stands, you are up to about $8000.

Tranparency,tight bass lush mids

None

Although not cheap if you buy the stands as well the overall effect is smooth with perfect timing and starlight dynamics.

do not match it with second grade electronics because you will hear them . The speaker is extremely transparent and unforgiving.Highly recomended for all music lovers

Similar Products Used:

Aeolos, Cub , Revel Gem

well round sound in all frequencys especially in the low portion

between or on the border of the mid and hight freq. things start to jam up ever so slightly (and i'm peaky)

overall, there where the best i have leasten to, for all kind of musics, they bringh the best for all instrument especially for notes under the C central of the piano.

Similar Products Used:

A&E (Britain)

looks

If you like extensive bass do not touch it

I agree with all the reviewers here except one. The one who believes that there is no better speaker under $10.000. Believe me there is. You just dont know it. Its name is
Aeolos is made by a Greek company AUDIO SPECTRUM. The particular speaker uses the best units made by "Seas"
a Norwegiant manufacturer. Those units are fit in a real
wood cabinets of about 7cm thick and the overall result
is better than that of mini utobia. Believe it or not
The price is no more than $5.000. Indeed there are companies that gives more for less. I am not Greek and I
baught this speakers a few seconds after I heard them.
Believe me Ihad the money for the utobia but Aeolos was better. It worths a private order from anyone.

Similar Products Used:

Aeolos by Audio Spectrum

Tranparent Musical and Coherent

None for a Mini monitor

Very musical and transparent for the real music lover.
Compared to competition more musical than most with a rare involvement.Good job JMLab

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio,Wilson CubII Sonus Faber AmatorII

Very fast. Very dynamic. Punchy. Good with rock as well as jazz

Very revealing. I touch bright but not enough to be unpleasant

I spent several weeks listening to various speakers at various shops and could not find the speaker I wanted to spend my hard earned money on.

First was the the JmLab electra 906. I actually, liked this speaker a lot. At this point I had no idea of the money I was willing to spend. I had been thinking $1000.00 at the far upper limit. That was after my original idea of a few hundred. The electra was good but I was not ready to spend the $2000.00.

Anyway, next I listed to Moniter Audio silvers. Both 8i and 9. These were very nice sounding on the audio refinement integrated and cd player. They however, in that room, had a little midrange bump that gave me the feeling of a box sound. They were not boxy per say since the soundstage was good but...

Next was the Paradigm studios. Good but in my opinion they were to flat during my listening. The NHT speakers (sorry I forgot the model but about $2000.00 price) were extremely transparant but I am sensitive to overdone bass and these seemed to have it. At this same location I listed to B&W nautalis 805. This is a nice if not a little boring. I thought of buying these. My guess is they are good speakers that do not offend over time.

Yet at another location I listened to the the Revel M20 along side the Nautalis 805. Patricia Barber was great on both but what was that? My god these M20's go really deep. The bass actually startled me after just having listed to the 805's. Wrap um up sir.

I had these speakers for two weeks during Christmas/New years. They are wonderful speakers period. But, in the end the bass extension proved their downfall. To get this extension from such a little package you lose the punch/slam. I put in a little AC/DC to confirm this. Yep, no real slam. Depending on your music tastes this may not be a concern. I might have kept these but my wife felt that the upper midrange was a little to whiney sounding. We took them back and listened to the F30. My wife and I liked them a lot. They have are much different than the M20s in both midrange and low midbass character. They heighted the you are there feel. Dave Mathews could have been with us that day. But, not again, during some rock the lowest bass can get a little thumpy. At least with Bryston electronics. A proceed HPA 2 is a better match since it is a little leaner on the bottom and did overdue the F30 bass. However, I had a bad taste in my mouth.

Contour 1.3 SE. Long and short. I fell for the vocals and almost pulled out my wallet. But it does not boogie like the revels. Even so it is very sweet and it can give you that there sound with great staging and transparency. On my second listen in a different room with different electronics it sounded very midrange boosted and thus boxy. Crap this is getting old. The first listen was in the perfect room, with about 25,000.00 worth of electronics. The last in a good room with realistic components. A last note on these speakers. Feed them and they produce sound like a speaker much much larger than they are. I listen to the Audio Physic Virgo 111's and while the biggest and most complete so far they did not inspire me. On a whim I listened to the Martin Logan Ascents. They were incredible. They are fantastic at vocal reproduction. Better than the others by a good margin. However, they are thin throught the lower midrange which sets instruments to far back. They are uninvolving with rock due to this as well.

Finally, I listed to the JmLab Micro Utopia. A little bright I said to myself. But man they have something. A few tunes latter I decided that these were the ones. They were so fast vivid and revealing.

The next day my wife went to another shop so we good listen to the electra 926 to be sure. After about a half hour we both decided these were very thin. Another guy, who had listed with us thought they were nice but he had not listened to others yet. For a comparison we listened to the Mini Utopias. My wife had not heard the Micro and I was selling her on the sound. I was going to buy those Micros.

After one song she said I love these. I asked the other guy if he liked them better than the electras. He looked at me as if I were crazy and said YEAH in a comical way.

That is the story. I bought that demo pair for $5000.00 with some nice Atlantic stands thrown in. This is the retail for the Micro so I went with them.

I have not finished my system but I have been listening a lot and they have such dynamics and great tight bass.
They are rated to only 50Hz but most of us do not know what fifty HZ is until you here it reproduced like these can. I do not desire a sub with these in my current room. I cannot comment on stage, nor transparacny since I need to spend time setting things up but they are not at all flat with no set up. I am very pleased with these speakers. Boy I thought I could buy 500.00 speakers and be pleased.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio Contour 1.3SE, Revel M20, F30, Monitor Audio silver 8i, Audio Physic virgo 111, Martin Logan Ascent, B&W Nautalis 805 JmLab electra 906, 926, Paradigm studio 20, NHT (?)

very neutral, easy to drive, imaging, soundstaging, very holographic and draws you in for listennung, goes straight to the heart, very musical and has a very strong point specially in it's lovely magical midrange.

none so ever, rather than the bass doesn't go real deep for those cynics who are hungry for it.

What can I say about a company which manufactures, designs and produces their own drivers. JMlab uses the best drivers in the world known as Focal and their premium series is the Utopia series. The speaker I use is the Mini Utopia, a very lovely hand made speakers with an exqusite black piano lacquer finishing and real wood venear used on the sides of the speakers and on the tweeter baffle. The unique " W " cone sandwich technology drivers used for their premium Utopia series was strickly and specially designed for the Utopia series only and is not available in any other high end brands using Focal drivers.

Buying the speakers for the decoration only is enough and listenning to it is another story. The designer Jacques Mahul managed to combine both neutrality and efficiency in this speaker, something very difficult and rear to find in other brands. That is when the speakers are easy to drive they are very coloured sounding and when the sensitivity is very low it sounds very neutral, but how did the designer combine both of the equation together, that goes to his intelegance and smart designs.

The sound of the speakers is very calm and musical with an exceptional 3D hologram and the soundstage is huge from left to right and the imaging produces every single pin point and nuance extracted from the CD you are listenning to. Matching components is very important, positioning is a pain in the neck, requires their own Utopia stands which was specially designed for the mini and the over all effect is smooth which gave the speakers an extra boost forward to make the sound even more better and gives the bass even more control and firmer grip which makes it deep, tight and articulate. The speakers are very revealing of the source component and the electronics, so becareful never ever use second grade mediocre system with it, because you'll hear them. One final thing about these speakers is that they require a very extensive long period of break in, so please be patient and you will be rewarded with the results, believe me.

Well, there I have said it all, don't waste your time on other brands. If you haven't heard them then you realy don't know what you are missing, audition them and you'll fall in love at first site. These are the best speakers under $10,000 and they are very good value for money too.

Similar Products Used:

Sonus Faber extrema, Audio Physic Virgo, Avalon Acoustics Arcus and Revel Ultima Gem.

Huge Three dimational Soundstage, Extremly Detailed, Using one of the best drivers in the world and Utopia range

None

I've just purchased this speakers after 3 month research, and straight from the box they are sounded exelent and I wounder how they going to sound in a week time.
The great thing about this speakers that they can play any tipe of music from classical to metal, I use to have a pair of Sonus Faber Guarneri which are a bit more expensive and also a great speaker for Jazz, Classical and extremely good on violins but as soon as you'll put something like Deep Purple they are getting confused and you'll expect for that kind of money your speakers to play everything that you want to listen not just something so I had to sell them and after a while I gave Mini's a try and as soon as I unpacked them and connected them to my amps they sounded wounderfull straight out of the box and have a great bass responce for a monitor, and what amazed me the most that this speakers can play basicly any type of music since I got them I've tryed everything from acustic guitars to classical and to metal and they sounded exelent on all of them so if you are looking for a smoller speaker you must give mini's a try.
They are coming from Utopia range you know using one of the best drivers in the world and mini's big brothers Grand Utopia and Utopia are in the circle of the best 10 loudspeaker systems in the world(by Stereophile) so you can picture how good mini's would be, what else do you expect from the compony which makes there own drivers.
One of the best monitor in the world.

Similar Products Used:

JM Lab 920.1, Sonus Faber Guarneri, Dali Grand Coupe and Wilsons

Extremely uncoloured and detailed. Good dynamics, very transparent.

Lacks a bit of charm and can sound somewhat sterile. A bit to forward in the treble.

In my opinion the Mini Utopias are excellent hifi-speakers. Neutral, transparent,very detailed and with good dynamics. And they are great to look at.

But they also sound a bit to straight-forward to my liking. It's kind of hard to explain, but they lack some of the musicality and the emotional communication with the listener that I think Sonus Faber excels in.

I recognise the Mini Utopias for the fine piece of engineering they are, but i did not keep them, because they didn't stir the emotions in me like some other speakers have.

Assosiated equipement:

Micromega Duo 3.1 / Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 mk.II CD-combo
Conrad Johnson / Heart Double Beat 300B amp. combo
Tara-Labs Air-1 & Renaissance Audio Silver Blue interc.
Van Den Hul The Revelation speaker cables.

Similar Products Used:

Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage
Sonus Faber Extrema

Unbelievable! Superb imaging, sound so real you'll think the musicians are right there! And the finishes... absolutely gorgeous! Are these speakers worth the money? No. They're worth a hell of a lot more! I'd rate 10 stars if such a rating were available!