The Return of Moos Audio to CES

Last year I blogged about the MOOS Mini from MOOS Audio, a fantastic little speaker that is designed in Australia and built in the Scanspeak factory in Denmark. Using the finest Revelator drivers, these brightly-colored little speakers offered a big sound in a big room, a task at which small monitors usually fail. I heard a passive version last year, but I was told that these speakers would ultimately be active and feature a unique combination of features.

Well, a year has passed and the little MOOS has really matured into an exciting product that does so much for a relatively affordable price. While it looks pretty much the same as it did in January 2012, a lot of technology has been been packed inside such as multiple DACs, DSP anbd wireless capabilities. Since the Mini is now an active design, all you really need to add is a laptop and iTunes to achieve a truly high-end sound for the 21st century.

The sound quality of the MOOS has also improved considerably over the last year. In its passive version it was a competent and likable monitor speaker which projected a fairly deep and believable soundstage. In its full-tech guise, it offers sound quality that far surpasses anything I have heard from a wireless speaker. While it was possible to create static and break-up in one channel while walking directly in front of the speakers, it was brief and not too distracting. (Most of this was due to the huge amount of wi-fi saturation at CES, and would never happen in a home environment.) While sitting in the sweet spot, I heard nothing but clarity, detail with the right balance of warmth--something I consider rare for a product so jam-packed with technology.

The MOOS will be available soon in the US for $2500, which includes the wireless transmitter, a pair of speakers and all the goodies inside (which you can see in the photo to the left). I've been looking for a simple, elegant way to listen to downloads on my computer, and this is the best-sounding solution I've heard so far. You can find out more information on Moos Audio at http://www.moosaudio.com/.

A Moos By Any Other Name...

It's amusing to me that I heard a prototype for the upcoming Moos Mini loudspeakers just a few short hours after watching one of my favorite film scenes of all time back at the hotel. The scene is from Arthur, and Dudley Moore is having a brief discussion with the father of his fiancee in the latter's library--and Dudley is utterly obsessed with the moose head trophy over the fireplace. That scene is responsible for some of my favorite funny movie lines such as "Where's the rest of this moose?" and, more importantly, "This is a tough room...(looking up at the moose)...I don't have to tell you that."

Despite its cute name, the Moos Mini is a serious product. At first glance it looks like a typical small two-way mini-monitor, nicely finished in a variety of bright colors such as red, black and white. The particular model I auditioned in a remote suite at the Venetian, far away from the bustling action at CES, was finished in a sunny "Lamborghini" yellow--or that's at least what the Moos designers called it. When I suggested that the red version might be evocative of another famous Italian automobile marque, they politely declined. These Australians are Lambo men through and through.

When you explore what makes this tiny speaker tick, you'll start to understand what makes it so special. Designed by Australian acoustic design guru Brad Serhan, the Mini uses very high-quality Revelator drivers from Scan-speak (the 5.5" 15W-8530 for the bass and midrange and the ring radiator R2904 for the treble), an enclosure built from the highest quality birch ply and acoustic damping that was designed by NASA for the Space Shuttle so that the astronauts could be protected from the extreme amount of noise during missions. While the prototype I heard at the Venetian was the passive version, Brad wants to introduce the Mini in an active version. The projected price for all of this...just $999 per pair.

For this price, you might think that the Mini is assembled in China. Nope...it's actually assembled by Scan-Speak in Denmark. You might wonder how Moos Audio is going to make a profit at this price; Brad told me that his margins are relatively slim and he's betting the farm that the Mini will be a huge hit. Volume, volume, volume, in other words. After listening to the Mini, I'm convinced it will be a great solution for computer-savvy audiophiles who like their Sound Engine loudspeakers but want something a little more revealing and musical.

An extended listened revealed a mini-monitor that throws up a monster soundstage full of detail. Bass is full and taut, and the imaging is as precise as it gets. Powered by modest amplification and an Oppo BDP-95 digital player, the passive version of the Mini was extremely competitive with other $1000 monitors--so having them powered for the same price ups the ante considerably. Brad told me that there's still a bit of work to do in terms of refining the overall sound and ensuring that the amplification fits into the Mini without affecting the existing enclosure, but he's already been working on this design for a couple of years and it shows. This is a great little speaker.

It's going to be a few more months before the Mini hits the market, but I hope to get an active pair to try out in a few weeks. I really want to test the Moos out as a nearfield/desktop monitor for my software-based music server. I suspect many future Moos customers will be using the Mini in such an arrangement. But even as a stand-alone, this is an exceptional little speaker with a big sound, a sound that will prevent you from asking "Where's the rest of this Moos?"

You can find out more about Moos and the Moos Mini at their website.