⌈ MOBILE FIDELITY ELECTRONICS is a brand owned by the record label Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab. They design and develop products for music playback, such as turntables and loudspeakers. The SOURCEPOINT 10 model is the first proposal of this type. ⌋

N NOVEMBER 2022 MoFi Electronics announced the premiere of its SourcePoint 10 loudspeakers. It took place during the Capital Audiofest show in Rockville, USA, which lasted November 11-13, and the loudspeakers have been officially available for sale since last December year.

According to the manufacturer's press release, these monitors are the result of 18 months of research and experimentation, led by chief designer ANDREW JONES. As the designer says in one of the interviews available on YouTube, he was given a free rein from the company and could do whatever he wanted (more → HERE).

SourcePoint 10 has been designed with the assumption that costs do not matter, they are perfectly suited to the taste of all those who want to ensure the highest possible quality of sound reproduction. As Jones said, "No matter how much an audio product costs, my passion is to deliver a level of sound quality and experience far beyond their price."

| ANDREW JONES

ANDREW JONES IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND most famous loudspeaker designers alive today. As we read in the press materials sent out on the occasion of the premiere of his loudspeakers under the ELAC brand, he is a "mirror twin" - Andrew is right-handed, and his brother Owen is left-handed, so "he was born in stereo".

⸜ Cross-section of the 12th generation KEF Uni-Q system • photo mat. KEF press releases

He became interested in electronics and hi-fi equipment when he was still a teenager. Ultimately he decided to specialize in speakers, but, as he himself admits, he did not know what he was doing. He wondered how would one really know what to do when it came to designing them. He felt that to design something really well, measurements were the way to go. He soon knew something else, that measurements alone don't give all the answers and leave him with even more questions. Years later, in an interview with Positive-Feedback magazine, he said:

My approach is to set a design goal for the measured performance, meet this as close as possible, then evaluate the result by listening, but ONLY once I believe I have met the initial design objective.

⸜ DAVE CLARK, An Interview with Andrew Jones of Pioneer, „Positive-Feedback” No 30, POSITIVE-FEEDBACK.com.

Andrew studied physics and acoustics at the University of Surrey, Guildfor, as well as quantum mechanics and other subjects. At the same time, his brother was studying in Essex under Dr Malcolm Hawksford, with whom Andrew worked after he graduated. As it says in the KEF. 50 Years Innovations In Sound by Ken Kessler, he focused on computer-aided crossover design. Yet, he always wanted to design loudspeakers. His wish came true when he was invited by KEF to work in the design department.

He joined the British manufacturer in 1983 and left it in 1994. Laurie Fincham, KEF's technical director at the time, became his mentor and friend. It was at that time that the iconic 104/2 model and other legendary designs were created. Andrew initially looked for a way to better measure speakers to find a correlation between measurements and sound. At the time, KEF had impressive knowledge and measurement equipment years ahead of other companies - Jones helped to develop it even further.

⸜ A coaxial driver in TAD speakers

His main development from that time was the UNI-Q coaxial system, with the tweeter in the axis of the mid-woofer. This experience came in handy when in 1997, after a three-year stay at Infinity, he joined Pioneer at the invitation of Floyd Toole. After some time, he was asked to join the research department of TAD, which had been forming since 2000.

The Japanese provided Andrew with access to new materials, and his work culminated in the development of the Reference One with a concentric mid/high frequency driver using beryllium. Unlike many designers, he preferred to build three-way loudspeakers, not two-way ones (from: TAS Illustrated History of High-End Audio Volume One. Loudspeakers, ed. ROBERT HARLEY, Austin 2013, p. 269).

In 2015, he was offered a job by ELAC America, with whom he debuted the following year at CES 2016. He designed some great small speakers for them. In some, the JET tweeter has been placed in the center of the midrange driver.

In 2020, Jones was hired as chief loudspeaker designer for MoFi Electronics. Its first product, presented in November 2022, are the PointSource 10 bookshelf loudspeakers. ●

» More about coaxial systems in Coaxial. A story in a few words → HERE

▌ SourcePoint 10

SOURCEPOINT 10 IS A LARGE, TWO-WAY bookshelf loudspeaker with a bass-reflex cabinet. Its name includes the diameter of the driver (10") and suggests the main idea behind this design: emitting sound from a single point. For the needs of this project, a custom single coaxial driver was designed and manufactured, placed exactly in the middle of the symmetrical cabinet.

For this to succeed, Jones had to give up his preferred three-way design - an additional driver would disturb the symmetry. Although the French company Cabasse constructed a three-way driver with all coaxial drivers, it is a unique design. Let's add that the name "Point Source" was once used by another French manufacturer - Focal in the Point Source Line PS5 model. However, it was about a symmetrical arrangement of two low-midrange drivers with a tweeter placed between them.

These are really big speakers. They measure 368 x 572 x 422 mm (W x H x D) and weigh 21 kg each. For a monitor, i.e. a stand-mounted speaker, it's really a lot. I use the word 'monitor' intentionally. It must be remembered that the parent company specializes in albums’ remastering, so it is associated with a recording studio. Therefore, the PointSource 10 can be positioned vertically, as in a home environment, or horizontally, as in a semi-near field, in front of a mixing console.

The crossover frequency for the speakers was set at 1.6 kHz, which is quite high for the size of this large speaker. This means that the most even frequency response will be achieved by aiming the dome directly at the ears, both vertically and horizontally. At the same time, these are extremely "friendly" designs for amplifiers. Their nominal impedance is 8 Ω, and the minimum is high, at 6.2 Ω. The efficiency, according to the manufacturer, is high 91 dB. So we can test with them virtually any amplifier - tube or transistor, with high and low output.

The coaxial system is larger than usual, reminiscent of large designs from Tannoy and Fyne Audio. A 250 mm woofer with a paper diaphragm and a large 30 mm tweeter with a silk dome and a thick fold of the suspension are used here. One of the disadvantages of drivers of this type is that the large driver acts as the waveguide for the smaller one. And it's still moving. To minimize this movement, Jones used a suspension similar to the one we know from drivers from 50 years ago and more - not one thick fold, but three small ones. The novelty is that they are not stiff, in the form of a soaked harmonica, but rubber.

MoFi says that after months of magnetic field simulation, Jones selected precision-coupled, high-flux neodymium magnets for both drivers. The effect was that they helped each other to direct the magnetic flux into the slots of the drivers. The Twin-Drive magnet design generates a fully symmetrical magnetic field that eliminates flux modulation, ensuring extremely low intermodulation distortion (IMD) and high precision operation.

It is not enough to simply optimize the frequency response of the woofer and tweeter,” says Jones. “It is also critically important to minimize distortion in the motor structure of the drive unit. If the motor has distortion, it will generate new frequencies outside of the original signal. We have been very deliberate with the design of the motor to reduce these distortions." As we read in the press materials:

This technical achievement is an important part of why the SourcePoint 10 sounds so pure and accurate. No, it won’t power your time-traveling DeLorean, but it will deliver the performance you’ve been searching for.

⸜ www.MOFIELECTRONICS.com, accessed: 27.01.2022

To minimize diaphragm movement and achieve deep bass, the 10-inch diameter was chosen because it was considered "the ideal size for a two-way coaxial system."

MoFi Electronics experimented with a paper pulp blend and developed a cone shape that is designed to both optimize the internal resonances of the diaphragm and meet the waveguide requirements for the tweeter signal. Jones chose the paper after evaluating various exotic materials. He believes that cellulose has, at this membrane size, all the properties he needs.

Although the movement of the cone is small, it is a large driver. In order to provide it with the best possible working conditions, the cabinet was reinforced inside with two vertical rims. The magnet of the mid-woofer rests on the first one, additionally stiffening the whole structure. MDF baffles are 10 mm thick and the front one is 20 mm thick. Two veneer colors are available: Satin Walnut and Satin Black Ash.

We deliver the signal through very nice, satin-coated, WBT-like sockets. Manufacturer provides magnetic grille for the drivers. However, it recommends that these should be removed for listening sessions. The loudspeakers are designed in the USA but are made in China. They look really great.

▌ SOUND

⸜ HOW WE LISTENED The American loudspeakers were placed 245 cm from the listening position and 250 cm from each other (counting from their axis). They were 78 cm from the back wall, counting from their rear baffle. They were toed-in, with axes directed at my ears. They were driven using the SOULUTION 710 amplifier via SILTECH TRIPLE CROWN cables.

The design of SourcePoint 10 means that they should be used with slightly lower than usual stands. The old Sonus faber stands I used, 650 mm high (with spikes), meant that the center of the coaxial system was above the ears. So I tried the loudspeakers on the stands I use for my Harbeth M40.1 loudspeakers, and these turned out to be too low.

So I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea and placed the speakers horizontally. Their symmetrical design even encourages such experiments. I know the Tannoy loudspeakers set up this way from recording studios, so it seemed natural to me. The genius of the idea faded a bit, or rather my genius faded when I reached for the test of these loudspeakers, published in the February issue of "Stereophile", its author John Atkinson, longtime editor-in-chief of the magazine, did exactly the same.

In this configuration, the center of the drivers was 870 mm from the floor, which is only 30 mm lower than the center of the midrange driver of my reference loudspeakers.

⸜ Recordings used for the test | a selection

⸜ VOICES8, Whitacre: The Sacred Veil,
⸜ GARY BURTON, CHICK COREA, Crystal Silence, ECM Records ECM 1024 ST/Tidal, MQA Studio 24/96 (1973/?).
⸜ PATRICIA BARBER, Clique, Impex Records/Tidal, FLAC MQA Studio 24/352,8 (2021).
⸜ KINGDM Your Love, Tidal, MQA 24/44,1, SP (2018).
⸜ DIDO, Still on My Mind, BMG 405053 8455847/Tidal, MQA Studio 24/44,1 (2019).
⸜ VANGELIS, Blade Runner, soundtrack, reż. Ridley Scott, Atlantic Records/Audio Fidelity AFZ 154, „Limited Numbered Edition ⸜ No. 2398”, SACD/CD (1982/2013)>.
⸜ DOMINIC MILLER & NEIL STACEY, New Dawn, Naim naimcd066, CD (2002).

THERE IS SOMETHING SPECIAL about large diameter drivers. Scale, freedom, "breath". This is how the reviewed SourcePoint 10 loudspeakers sounded like. On Friday morning, when I was supposed to return them after the test, I listened to the new song Whitacre: The Sacred Veil by the vocal group Voices8 available on Tidal. It was presented with incredible freedom. I got a very large space, with a clearly distinguishable "air" of the room, but above all with perfectly selective vocals.

The first voices were louder, and the second, especially male ones, softer. But not quieter because they were muted on the mixing console or because they were clearly further placed away, but just sung that way. In the first two cases, the volume of such a sound source is smaller, mainly due to (1) lower signal voltage and (2) cutting off the band extremes (this is how a microphone works).

The American loudspeakers brilliantly showed me that it's all about the differences in volume and that it's not a signal effect - that's how it can be heard. I think it's because they're very transparent to the signal, high resolution speakers. Their tonality is neither warm nor cool, but very neutral. So it would be a confirmation of what Andrew Jones says in the company materials.

In the same recording, great dynamic freedom caught my attention. The advantage of high-efficiency transducers with a suspension of this type, as here, in addition to the high efficiency, is low compression. The sound has a very fast attack and a perfectly balanced sustain. The sustain, i.e. saturation, may not be as high with the SourcePoint 10 as with the reference loudspeakers, or even in the FinkTeam Borg model, which uses a similar low-midrange driver (test → HERE).

This is not a downside, but a feature. I would say "coloring", if not for the fact that these are very "uncolored" designs. Listening to the Crystal Silence album by GARY BURTON and CHICK COREA showed it very well. The Burton vibraphone was presented in a very direct, fast way, in a large space. And at the same time its sound was not for a moment exaggerated or brightened. Precise, fast, sonorous - yes, but not bright.

What is interesting is that the noise of the tape - the ECM label recorded the material without Dolby noise reduction - was strong and clear. This is why not everyone likes this album, but for me it is part of the whole "package" and I don't really hear it anymore. But it's still there, and there's a lot of it. The Andrew Jones loudspeakers showed it perfectly, without emphasizing the upper range. It's a very rare skill. Such wide treble is shown only by the best tweeter domes. Even the AMT (Air Motion Transformer) drivers, so much liked and respected by me, do not show the highest part of the band in an equally open way, slightly romanticizing the range above - say - 10kHz.

Low notes are shown in a very accurate, you can say precise way. The double bass from the DXD-recording of PATRICIA BARBER’s Clique , played from Tidal in full resolution, had a quick attack and a nice decay of its body. It was not weighted down or "boosted". The snap when the musician hits the string and his finger breaks off it was very, very believable - this is how you can hear this element of the sound when listening to the double bass live.

The speakers create a powerful soundstage with instruments of believable size and volume. It sounds a bit like from large studio monitors. However, you need to know that the low range, below - conventionally - 80 Hz has less energy than both the mentioned Borg and reference speakers. Both popular music, with strong compression, and sophisticated recordings had less "weight" than from large floor-standers and reference speakers.

This is interesting because the volume and scale of the tested speakers are, as I say, wonderful. And the fact is that in 99% of cases, low bass is responsible for building a big sound and a big stage. There is not much of it here, so the sound should be smaller. But it is not. Recordings like KINGDM in Your Love or Dido from Still on My Mind sounded strong, really low, but above all with momentum. It was similar with albums recorded with exceptional attention to sound, such as VANGELIS' Blade Runner and New Dawn by DOMINIC MILLER & NEIL STACEY.

The solution to the puzzle may be what I have already written about, i.e. the incredible speed of signal growth and excellent dynamics. Perhaps, however, it is the case that together with the high resolution and very low signal compression, this allows for such precise movement of the diaphragm that the small signals responsible for drawing the space are not masked. They are usually the first to "fall" when any of the above elements are disturbed. I think that's a good lead.

But there's something else I didn't want to start this test with because it would be too obvious. I'm thinking about coherence between both drivers. It is absolutely wonderful, way above average in the tested speakers. Both in terms of space and precision in building the sound, everything is compact and refined here.

▌ Summary

THE AMAZING CAREER OF ANDREW JONES didn't come out of nowhere. This is a man who, as the saying goes, has forgotten more about designing loudspeakers than most other engineers have managed to learn. He is not alone in this, because there are other professionals of no lesser reputation. Listening to the MoFi Electronics SourcePoint 10 model, we know, however, that in this case a combination of huge theoretical knowledge and lots of practice met together.

These speakers play with big sound with a powerful soundstage. They are precise and reliable, without being overly analytical and without brightening the sound. Their lower midrange and lower bass do not have the same energy as with the reference loudspeakers, but - we get some we loose some. The treble here is carried out very evenly and cleanly up to the very top, without veiling anything. However, this is a treble with which you do not have to worry about the quality of the recordings.

I would listen to these speakers with a rather saturated, maybe even warm amplifier. But one that will not limit their dynamics and vitality. They will give us a lot of joy and allow us to listen to recordings in a more conscious way than many other designs. These are very, very good loudspeakers, hence the our ˻ RED FINGERPRINT ˺. ●

▌ Technical specifications (according to the manufacturer)

Minimum recommended power: 20-200 W
Nominal impedance: 8 Ω
Minimum impedance: 6.2 Ω
Crossover frequency: 1.6 kHz
Frequency range: 42 Hz - 30 kHz
Sensitivity: 91 dB (2.83 V/1 m)
Dimensions (W x H x D): 368 x 572 x 422 mm
Weight: 21 kg/pc.