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On staging, the Whisky aces location focus, image stability and venue size but that alone doesn’t capture it. The same is true for the quality of plasticity or embodiment of individual instruments and sounds. That hits what I’m after quite well because here too the Whisky is extraordinary. The real deal however is a very rarely encountered coherence. It is very pleasant. It both de-stresses the listener and makes the experience more realistic. Voices particularly profit from the resultant hear-through-ness and the Whisky’s vocal reproduction is unusually realistic and free of artifacts. The easiest and most concrete proof of this coherence is how it operates on transients, i.e. extremely short-lived ‘spiky’ signals. Percussion and bluntly struck guitars are rendered so free of smear, so casually on the money, so sharply outlined, unblemished and thus unusually tactile that background listening during work on the PC routinely caused interruptions (and the subject of dynamics too fails to capture this effect entirely).
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To attach it to an actual example, this lack of smear meant that the interplay of voice, drums and boisterous guitar plucks on Robert Wyatt’s well recorded "Be Serious" [Comic Opera, 2007] was unusually high in contrast. The individual protagonists were unusually differentiated, easy to follow and because of it, realistically rendered without having the assertion of resolving power obscure the overall context into dice and slice. I repeat, involvement increased and so did ‘digestivity’.
By now I imagine mutters of "well, the price range which the Myro occupies is more usually the domain of floorstanders and bass is important to me". No question, for €8.000 there’s more plumbing of the depths to be had elsewhere. That doesn’t mean bass drums and runs are swallowed. At high levels—and trust me, this speaker is very steadfast on SPLs—-Unkle’s "Song Chemistry" [War Stories, 2007] vibrated my couch. Yet it’s also true that this was neither saturated nor massive. While extension was respectable—Weidlich claims well below 50Hz—the Myro doesn’t really surprise with bass weight. There it behaves exactly as you’d expect given her dimensions and cone surface.
While my 30 square meter brownstone den with high ceilings did not limit the fun quotient not least because the lower bands were brilliantly rhythmic and defined, I’m admittedly not a pig for extended bass fullness as a must-have. Now a short adjunct. Don’t go into shock over what the Whisky does after periods of non-use (perhaps post vacation). In the wake of that first audition when they arrived fully broken in, the speakers had to make room and were stowed away until getting reactivated a few weeks later for the serious part. Irritation. The treble sounded strangely strangulated. Fortunately I remembered vaguely Michael Weidlich’s comment about Mundorf’s AMT wanting a multi-hour workout after extended periods of inactivity before the upper registers recover. I hadn’t paid real attention at the time but it’s worth remembering. Keep your cool when it happens. It’s only temporary.
Conclusion: 8,000 smackers for a pair of compact monitors even of the taller sort isn’t casual. Low-end mass exempted however, the Myros reward with sonic heights which speakers more than twice as dear won’t top. I’m sure of it. To put it more succinctly perhaps, the Myro Whisky counts amongst those few hifi machines which have personally most impressed me over my audio career. Avoid bright or edgy electronics and (regular boiler plate stuff for speakers in this class) provide proper stands. Small rooms and short chair distances are no problem and spaces up to ca. 30m² can get properly energized.
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The compact Myro Whisky monitor is characterized by:
• A neutral and highly detailed presentation with exceptional differentiation abilities.
• Absolutely exemplary rhythmic fidelity and particular microdynamic finesse.
• Similarly exceptional soundstaging of high plasticity and particular precision on transients.
• A special coherence that serves long-term satisfaction, easy digestion and extra involvement.
• Very open, transparent, resolved and immaculately color-rich mid and upper bands which lead to first-class vocal renderings.
• Brilliantly defined bass whose opulence or pressure potential is in line with other speakers of equivalent size and radiating area.
• A classily finished form-follows-function design.
Facts:
- Concept: 2-way bass reflex monitor
- Sensitivity: 90dB/2,83V/1m
- Nominal impedance: 4 Ohm
- Dimensions: 21(max.) x 58.4 x 37.9cm (WxHxD)
- Weight: 17kg/ea.
- Finish: Custom lacquer (NCS, RAL)
- Other: 5-year warranty
- Website
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redaktion @ fairaudio.de
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