There are many things that people look for in loudspeakers.
Currently the holy grail is image – close your eyes and pick where the various artist are positioned around the speakers. Is there depth of field? Other people look for dynamics, or tone, or bass response etc. At times we spend so much time fussing over the physical or mechanical aspects of the speaker that we forget to listen to the music. And that is what every speaker (or system) should be all about – enjoying the music.
I am not sure what it is about the Serhan Swift mu2 speakers that draws me to them. It helps that I have always been a fan of quality bookshelf speakers, and the mu2’s are a compact bookshelf. Despite their size they produce a surprising amount of (quality) bass. Tonally they are spot on – each and every instrument – including voice – sounds like the real thing. They are very dynamic, and they will play loud. There are few speakers on the market that image as well as these. Connect them to a good set of electronics, close your eyes, and the speakers will simply disappear.
Yet there is much more to the mu2’s. The term ‘emotional involvement’ has been coined by many when talking about their systems. While this may sound a little airy-fairy to some there is a lot of truth in the term. You should be able to do much more than simply listen to your music – you should also be able to feel it! It should have an impact on your heart as well as your ears. This is the greatest failure of the proliferation of wireless networked speakers currently flooding the market. On the surface most of them sound great, and they are convenient to use, but they will never allow you to form any emotional attachment to the music you are listening to. As a result far too often music is simply relegated to background noise.
This where the mu2’s come into their own. Yes they tick all the boxes necessary when evaluating a loudspeaker. But, assuming the rest of the system is up to standard, you find you are not listening for imagery, tone etc – but you are listening to the music. You are involved in the music. Surely that is our end goal.
The mu’s are not the only speaker to do this, but they do it well, and it is not as common as you may believe. If you are looking to put a system together in the $15 to $20K range that will give you many years of listening joy you should at least have the mu2’s on your audition list.
