Last year, indeed, there were so many unusually awful rooms that Mutine's oasis of quiet was especially appreciated.
Well, Mutine's two rooms were still popular, even though one had to line up (visitors were limited to the number of available chairs.
The main room featured the omnidirectional Duevel Bella Luna Diamante from Germany.
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The Diamantes were a hit, in part no doubt because they were well accompanied: a CEC TL0X transport, an Audiomat Maestro converter and an Audiomat Récital tube amplifier. ...
The second Mutine room featured a much less expensive omnidirectional speaker, the Duevel Planets. Operating with a Mimetism 27.2 player and 17.2 integrated amplifier, it lacked the precise focus of the Diamantes, but the sound was decidedly musical, and their $1500 price tag brought the dreams of visitors much closer.
Mutine's Pascal Ravach was demonstrating the small, but striking, Duevel Planets omnidirectional speakers, ...
The Planets sounded remarkably robust for a 5" two-way, so I asked Canadian distributor Ravach about them. "You know," he said, "I don't really believe in people reading about loudspeakers. No offense, but people should listen to loudspeakers and decide for themselves whether or not they love them. People read too much. They need to listen."
Mutine had two lovely sounding rooms, one featuring Duevel's Bella Luna Diamante, Audiomat Recital integrated, Audiomat Maestro Reference DAC, CEC TL0X transport and Actinote cabling.
Next door Mutine showed off a sweet little rig featuring Duevel Planets, Mimetism 27.2 CD Player, and Mimetism 17.2 integrated. These were two rooms that I wanted to return and spend more time in but was unable due to time constraints. I'm currently wrapping up review of the Planets, quite favorably I might add. Yes, they look odd but I can assure you these are terrific, relatively inexpensive speakers that get the basics of music reproduction right.
...I now know why everyone has been asking about them - they are pretty amazing. The soundstage, of course, was huge and the low end was solid. ...
Listening to the Planets, even under show conditions, you didn't really care much about the technology or even the appearance. You just had the overwhelming sense of the performers and their music. They just drew me in and captivated me.
