MOFI SOURCE POINT 10 MASTER EDITION LOUDSPEAKER REVIEW
The original Mofi Source Point 10 has undergone a significant revision at the hands (and ears) of Mofi’s speaker designer Andrew Jones. The 10” dual-concentric design gets a significantly reworked crossover and has also seen the addition of a tweeter adjustment control.
Jon Lumb takes a look at this loudspeaker costing £3,600 (optional stands £300).
Mofi Electronics is just over a decade old now, but as an offshoot of the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, it sits atop a level of knowledge and experience that goes way deeper than its age on paper would suggest. The original Source Point 10, released in 2022, was their first foray into loudspeaker design. To that end, they brought in Andrew Jones, who should know a thing or two about loudspeaker design, as he has brands like KEF, TAD, Pioneer, and Elac on his CV.
BUILD AND FEATURES OF THE MOFI SOURCE POINT 10 MASTER EDITION
Dual-concentric drivers (particularly as 2-way loudspeakers) are a relatively rare approach in loudspeaker design. Off the top of my head, I can only think of 4-5 companies using it in their product lines. The selling points of the dual-concentric designs focus on giving a much wider sweet spot (particularly vertically) and time alignment, which helps with the coherence of the sound overall.
If you’ve not come across a dual-concentric before, it’s an approach to driver layout whereby the tweeter is mounted in the centre of a woofer covering lower frequencies. In this case, the main woofer covers everything else in a 2-way design, but a lot of dual-concentrics are 3-way so that the bass is handled by a separate driver. The key advantages of a dual-concentric that you get closer to a point-source origin for the sound, and it also helps considerably with time alignment issues vs more conventional designs with all the drivers separated.
Andrew has said in interviews that the original Source Point 10s were the first 2-way dual concentric design he’s worked on; while KEF does use dual-concentric options, they all appear to use 3-way crossovers. This is a common approach to dual-concentric designs, as it means the woofer that surrounds the tweeter doesn’t have to move as much, as all the bass is being taken care of by a completely separate drive unit. But 3-way crossovers are not without their challenges, both from a design perspective and a financial one.
Andrew’s solution to these tensions is to go back to a 2-way design and simply make the woofer much, much larger. This means that the SP10 can produce a lot more bass with a considerably shorter excursion for the main driver. In turn, this helps reduce the interaction issues between the tweeter and the woofer.
As to the build itself, these are some solid, weighty speakers. 21Kg a side is a lot for a standmount, but then so’s a 10” driver! These are a lot wider than pretty much any standmount, too, more than double the width of the prophecy1 I last had in for review. Whilst very few HiFi folks are likely to stick any pair of speakers on a bookshelf if at all avoidable, the “bookshelf” descriptor does still stick around – I think Mofi are perhaps stretching it beyond its limit, applying it to these behemoths!
SET UP
The review sample came with the “low slung” speaker stand option, which does require assembly. There’s a clear diagram to instruct on how it all goes together, and it took me a whole 10 minutes or so. Positioning-wise, Mofi steers clear of anything too prescriptive in their guidance. They do recommend keeping them at least 2 feet from rear and side walls, but also include some foam bungs for the rear ports if logistics mean they have to go closer to the wall. This is a nice little touch, not least because the ports are slightly larger than that ultimate DIY port filler, the pool noodle!
Height-wise, the manual suggests having the tweeter 33” off the floor, which corresponds to a 20” stand height. This does mean the speakers can dominate the room a bit, because they extend that much higher than the tweeter than most speaker designs do. Because this is a dual-concentric design, it is, of course, possible to position the speakers on their side without really having any acoustic effects (although the shaping of the sides means they will have a relatively modest footprint, which could present a stability issue). This reduces the overall height, and in turn, the sense of how much they dominate the room.
One of the key things with the Master Edition revision is the addition of a treble control. This is a 3-way switch that allows you to tailor the prominence of the treble to balance any issues related to the room sounding either very lively or overly damped. I’m a big fan of this as a concept, not least because there are quite a few speakers I’ve heard that I’d have loved if I could just take a tiny smidge out of the top end to make them less fatiguing. This also allows me a glorious on-point segue into the next section – sound quality!
SOUND QUALITY
I’ve tested the SP10s on both the low-slung stands they provided and also my 24” Custom Designs stands. The most obvious thing to me is that when sitting on the low-slung stands, the sense of soundstage really shifts right down to the floor, and a lot of the stereo image doesn’t come across well. Even though that pinpoint stereo image is relatively low down my list of priorities, having it change in that fashion was quite striking. Whilst they look rather ridiculous on the Custom Design stands, as they’re rather tall, and comparatively narrow for the massive SP10s, it really made a big difference to the soundstage to get them up near ear height, and also then sat flat on the stands, rather than tilted upwards.
The treble adjustment option is pretty subtle, as it probably should be. It was quite a bizarre experience playing around with it – a lot of the time, I didn’t feel like I was consciously hearing a difference; it was more a sort of background feeling about things feeling either a smidge muted, or a touch strident whenever I deviated from the neutral position. Whilst those terms are probably a bit loaded in HiFi parlance, given I have a pretty neutral room in terms of damping/reflective surfaces, it’s not unreasonable that it would feel like making those changes would lead to undesirable results in my context. I ended up spending almost all my listening time with the control set to the middle position, and that was definitely the right balance.
An album I’ve been enjoying a huge amount of late is Steven Wilson’s recent remixing of Deep Purple’s Made in Japan. Ever since my uncle first loaned me a copy on vinyl when I was about 14, it’s been a permanent resident on my top-ten albums list. Musically, it’s just an absolute riot, with the band sounding like they’re playing flat out at 100mph from start to finish, but without missing a beat. However, the various releases over the years have always been a bit lacking sonically. Wilson has done a phenomenal job of both cleaning up the sound quality, whilst also giving the whole album a far more dynamic sound – something that’s imperative in heavy rock. Unsurprisingly, the 10” driver in the SP10s really kicks for the bass drum, something that a lot of HiFi often struggles to do. What’s really impressive to me here is that even on an extended listen of this album, the SP10s really convey the right levels of excitement and dynamics, without ever feeling overwhelming. I’ve come across a fair few speakers over the years that, for the first 10 minutes or so, are wonderfully exciting and punchy, and after about half an hour, I just have to turn them off because it feels like they’ve turned my brain to mush. The ability to listen to a speaker for an extended period is something I put a lot of store by, and these Mofis pass that test with flying colours.
These speakers aren’t just a case of all brawn and no brain, though. I spent a while with Bill Fay’s album Life is People. Even quite gentle pieces like Healing Day come through beautifully, and you get all the qualities you want from such a track. Bill’s vocals sound rich, and all the glorious timbre in his voice is there in spades. There’s a sense of delicacy and perhaps even fragility to this recording – it’s very much at odds with Made in Japan – but the SP10 does both of them really well. There are a lot of strings in the instrumentation for Healing Day, which can often end up as either background mush or get overly bright, but the balance here is spot on. They sound light, delicate, and fit right into the balance of the mix. Moving on to the quirkily titled “Jesus, etc.”, a phenomenally simple track, involving just Bill and his piano, you really get the spartan feel of the piece. The way the notes decay, with what I suspect is the natural sound of the room, is a real treat that really encourages one to just pause and take a moment with the track.
Returning to one of my regular testing tracks in Solid Air by John Martyn, the overall balance is excellent. John’s vocals come through as clearly as John’s vocals ever can, and the snap of the acoustic guitar strings really punctuates the sound nicely. An area where this track is revealing is in the degree of separation in the instruments – there’s perhaps a slight blurring going on here. Absolutely not to the degree that I’d say it’s problematic, but if it’s a priority, there are speakers that definitely do this better.
QUIBBLES
The form factor of these units does make them quite an odd proposition. Yes, they’re a standmount, but they’re massive, far wider than even the vast majority of floorstanders. This is less of a “this is something wrong” as a case that I suspect it will limit their appeal to a wider audience. They’re imposing on the room, but without having the sort of presence that someone who actually wants an imposing-looking speaker would likely be seeking.
I do feel the sound could be improved slightly by a bit more sense of presence to the very top end, but not in a way that just bumping that treble adjuster achieves. I think the best way I can describe it is I’d like a smidge more of the qualities of a ribbon or AMT tweeter present. And yes, I’m fully aware that it would probably be impossible to incorporate a ribbon into a dual-concentric design!
CONCLUSION
The phrase in my head to sum these Mofis up is “liveable with”; not as in simply tolerated or anything, but that they’re a speaker that you can actually live with day in, day out, without anything that might grate or cause one any sense of buyer’s remorse. There’s a sense of balance and cohesion to the presentation that really shines through.
The value proposition here is an interesting one because they sit in a pretty unusual space due to the form factor and the sound characteristics compared to other standmounts. There have been very few standmounts with 10” drivers made, and things that get close are things like LS 5/8s, or the ATC SCM50s, but their additional height, and in turn positioning, still make them quite different. My feeling is that if you can ignore physical considerations, there are options out there that will sound better at the same price point. But at the same time, these fit into a very distinct space, and almost none of us get to completely disregard physical characteristics when choosing a loudspeaker.
My only other thought is that if you do give these speakers a demo, make sure it’s a good, long one. They’re not a “sonic fireworks” kind of speaker, so it takes a bit more time to really dig into them and see what they do well.
AT A GLANCE
Build Quality and Features:
Build quality seems excellent, the construction is solid, and there’s no skimping on any visible areas of the construction
It’s rare to talk about features with a speaker, but the treble adjustment is definitely a good one, and I really like the inclusion of the port bungs, should they be required
Sound Quality:
The sound is very even and balanced, but without sounding flat or sterile at all. There’s actually a real richness of tone going on here, which I heartily approve of
Value For Money:
This is a tricky one, because there’s so little to really benchmark them against. If the value proposition is out, I think it’s only slight, and as always, will come back to points of personal preference
They also come with a 5-year warranty, which is considerably above average for loudspeakers, and should be commended
We Loved:
The tone and balance, and the ability to listen for hours on end without fatigue
We Didn’t Love So Much:
The form factor is going to be a challenge for some
Elevator Pitch Review:
A well-implemented dual-concentric design, in an unusual stand mount form factor, the Mofi Source Point 10 Master Edition is a bold approach that sits in a space that no one else really operates in. They have a lovely tone, good quality detail, and excellent base extension. They’re going to be a bit marmite on the form factor, but if that’s not an issue, these are definitely worth consideration.
Price:
£3,600 €5,000 $3,495
Jon Lumb
SUPPLIED SPECIFICATION
Frequency Response: 42Hz-30kHz
Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohms, 6.2 Ohms minimum
Sensitivity: 91dB/2.83V/1m
Crossover Frequency: 1.6kHz
Minimum Recommended Power: 30W
Max Power Input: 200W
Dimensions (WxHxD):
14.5″ x 22.5″ x 16.6″ with grille (368 x 572 x 422)
14.5″ x 22.5″ x 16″ without grille (368 x 572 x 406)
Weight: 46.2 lb / 21kg each
Warranty: Five years parts & labour
