Reviewer: Srajan Ebaen
Financial interests: click here
Sources: 2TB iMac 27" quad-core w. 16GB RAM running OWS 10.8.2, PureMusic 2.02, Audirvana 1.5.10, COS Engineering D1, Metrum Hex, AURALiC Vega, Aqua Hifi LaScala MkII, SOtM dX-USB HD w. super-clock upgrade & mBPS-d2s, Apple iPod Classic 160GB (AIFF), Astell& Kern AK100 modified by Red Wine Audio, Cambridge Audio iD100, Pro-Ject Dock Box S Digital, Pure i20, Lindemann Audio music:book 15 [on review]
Preamplifier: COS Engineering D1, Nagra Jazz, Esoteric C-03, Bent Audio Tap-X, AbysSound ASP-1000 [on review]
Power & integrated amplifiers: Pass Labs XA30.8, FirstWatt S1, F6; Crayon Audio CFA-1.2; Goldmund Job 225; Gato Audio DIA-250; Aura Note Premier; Wyred4Sound mINT; AURALiC Merak [on loan], Lindemann Audio music:book 55 [on review]
Loudspeakers: Albedo Audio Aptica; soundkaos Wave 40; Boenicke Audio W5se; Zu Audio Submission; German Physiks HRS-120, Gallo Strada II w. TR-3D subwoofer
Cables: Complete loom of Zu Event MkI and MkII; KingRex uArt double-header USB; Tombo Trøn S/PDIF; van den Hul AES/EBU; AudioQuest Diamond glass-fibre Toslink; Arkana Research XLR/RCA and speaker cables [on loan]
Power delivery: Vibex Granada/Alhambra on all components, 5m cords to amp/s and subwoofer
Equipment rack: Artesania Audio Exoteryc double-wide 3-tier with optional glass shelves, Rajasthani hardwood rack for amps
Sundry accessories: Acoustic System resonators
Room: Irregularly shaped 9.5 x 10m open floor plan with additional 2nd-floor loft; wood-paneled sloping ceiling; parquet flooring; lots of non-parallel surfaces (pictorial tour here)
Review component retail:
$14'690/pr with stands, $13'690/pr without


In my curtain call to 2014, I'd singled out my four fave hifi discoveries of the year. I'd kicked off with "my favourite speaker encounter—and certainly my wife's absolute favourite in years—was the EnigmAcoustics Mythology M1. It's a classic compact 2-way monitor with rear port, matching stand and proprietary drivers augmented by the company's self-biased/electret monopole electrostatic super tweeter. What the combination of larger-than-usual soft dome tweeter and ESL does for airiness, soundstage precision and the recreation of recorded ambiance happened at the top of anything I've heard until now. With cash flow stymied by a move to bigger quarters just then, the M1 made onward tracks to a Swedish importer. But unlike for most anything else, Ivette gave us carte blanche for the Enigma. Should a white finish ever become available—the gloss black is simply too reflective a dust devil—I can raid the household account should anything be in it, and without ending up in the dog house. The most remarkable small speaker in recent memory!"


A week or so later, CES 2015 had come and gone. There the same company had shown early samples of their new $1'200 Dharma hybrid 2-way headphone which combines their self-biased ESL technology with a dynamic driver. A matching $1'500 Athena A1 triode headphone amplifier in a repurposed Sopranino glass casing had made appearances too as did Sopranino's new brother in tweeting arms, the Veleno. Clearly Enigma were no one-trick pony.

About the Veleno, main man Wei Chang said that it "employs the same self-polarizing electrostatic design/concept and 2nd-order external crossover control as our flagship Sopranino but in a lower profile with aluminium enclosure. The transducer itself is not curved and operates with a similar dispersion pattern but rather different look. Veleno was designed for easier integration into any left/centre/right environment (it may be purchased in sets of 3) whereas Sopranino is strictly for 2-channel applications. Nevertheless, even without Sopranino’s attenuation control, Veleno can still be effectively and effortlessly integrated into any stereo system. Its sensitivity (1M/2.83V) is 90dB but users should not fixate solely on sensitivity matching but more on the concept and importance of spectral energy whilst utilizing the 3-step high-pass adjuster accordingly. Traditional 1-inch dome tweeters suffer inherent limitations of narrow dispersion and rapid signal decay. Possessing close to 30 x the surface area of a 1" dome tweeter, Veleno acts as an effective ambience restoration device which allows ambience recovery for multiple listeners over a much larger/wider sweet spot." With the M1's 85dB efficiency, the Sopranino's adjustable sensitivity rating obviously remains the perfectly tailor-made choice.