Kroma Audio Mimi

[VoicesInMyHead]

Kroma Audio Mimi

Specifications:

-Full Krion cabinet with crossover resin-sealed
-Tweeter: 1 x Hiquphone
-Mid-woofers: 1 x Scan Speak 6,5” Classic Series
-Passive crossover network with ultra high quality Mundorf and NOS components
-Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohm
-Sensitivity: 90 dB in anechoic chamber
-Recommended power amplifier: >15W
-Dimensions: 39,8cm high, 20,8cm wide, 25cm deep
-Weight without packaging: 16 kg
-Available in gold leaf finish with true 24k gold

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

Yesterday I listened to something as rare as speakers from Spain. I mean, there's many well known and established European speaker and high-end manufacturers in UK, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France etc, but Spain?! For me at least, completely unheard of. Until now!

Kroma Audio from Spain is a relatively new brand to watch out for. The model I listened to was their entry model called "Mimi", pictured above. Let me just make clear before going any further that I have no relation to this company what so ever, I'm just an audio enthusiast and I've only been to Spain twice in my life.

I've been on lookout for new speakers for quite some time though and lots of speakers have been considered. While there have been many great and potential candidates, few of them have actually caught and tickled my interest as much as these.

There was something special "life-like", sweet and natural with these that made them very exciting and joyful to listen to. Imaging was top notch as usual for monitors of this kind and they completely disappeared from the soundstage and you totally forgot about the speakers. I could feel the music in my chest and soon realised I was both smiling and tapping my foot at the same time. It was just a quick listen to a few tracks, but there was no doubt that this was something very special.

The room was quite large as well but there was no problem at all for them to fill it with magical music. Just like a few others like Boenicke and Stenheim that comes to mind, they manage to exceed and escape out of their physical boundaries and sound much larger than they actually are.

Technically the cabinets are built using the spanish equivalent of Corian called Krion which makes minimal to non-existing resonances resulting in no sound colorations. There's no metallic screws to hold them together, not in the chassi, filter or drivers. Pretty neat actually and you can tell they've thought carefully about this design.

Next week I will bring these home to try in my own environment with various challenges involved.

I can't wait...

 

[Elberoth]

http://6moons.com/audioreviews2/kroma2/1.html

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

http://6moons.com/audioreviews2/kroma2/1.html

Elberoth, it must be faith that you of all people replied to this thread as I keep thinking about LampizatOr when it comes to the naturalness and realism these speakers produced. With you I also think about LampizatOr...

For some reason the 6moons review in the url above was never completed, I found the full article here. It seems like Srajan Ebaen enjoyed them quite a lot also.

https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/kroma2/

I also found this review in Dutch (Google Translate actually does a pretty good job making it readable)

https://www.hifi.nl/artikel/27691/Review-Kroma-Audio-Mimi-luidsprekers.html

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

Inspirational video posted on YouTube yesterday by Mono & Stereo (www.monoandstereo.com).

In this video some of the other Kroma Audio models can be spotted, and they're also seen in some different finishes. I think they're beautiful...



Counting down the days...

 

[bart]

Hey, that's my dealer in the video!
(He also treated our room).

Yes, the Mimis are very good.
Serious competitor under 10K.

 

[Dizzie]

Specifications usually include frequency response. Not that the numbers can always be trusted. I do not see that in the first post.

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

Hey, that's my dealer in the video!
(He also treated our room).

Yes, the Mimis are very good.
Serious competitor under 10K.

Hehe, yes Kroma seem to be well represented and popular in the Netherlands with surroundings, probably very much because of your dealer. I also just realized they might not even be available in the US at this time, making them an even more "exotic" European brand...

Funny thing, I think I can even see myself walking in the stairs at the Munich show in that video, it's very short and it's from behind, but it looks like me and could definitely be me.

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

Specifications usually include frequency response. Not that the numbers can always be trusted. I do not see that in the first post.

You are right, very observant of you, I just copied the specs from their website and didn't think much about it. Seems like they don't state frequency response for any of their speakers. I wonder why?

I think I have also seen sensitivity mentioned both as 90dB and 92dB, but the above is from the website.

 

[bart]

Unless you crave very deep tones, I shouldn't worry too much.
They dig quite deep.

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

Unless you crave very deep tones, I shouldn't worry too much.
They dig quite deep.

I'm not worrying about that, and I don't worry so much abut specs or technical details in general, I care more about listening and if I like what I hear or not. I'm also searching for a lifelike and live sound, and these comes very close in my first impression. If I need them to dig even deeper the bigger models would probably do so, but it's getting expensive very quickly for each model. I think the Mimi model is very attractive partly because it's within reasonable reach financially. The new Thais floorstander model would also be very interesting to hear though.

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

Fast-forward a year....

After spending last summer completely falling in love with the above mentioned Kroma Audio Mimi and then most of the fall thinking about them after having returned them to the generous dealer, it was decided that I had to try to bigger brother Thais. The characteristics of Mimi is a super lifelike and vivid sounding speaker, it's pure joy to listen to, it's not at all the correct sounding and micro detail focused revealing monitor, not at all, it's all about emotions and the music.

Delivery time took forever, first due to a misunderstanding with the order and then due to Covid-19 and complete lockdown of Spain. Now I've spent most of this summer together with Thais, and they are definitely staying. My pair is a custom design all Krion white material also on the sides, where they normally come in different colors like Mimi above.

Kroma Audio Thais, the first bigger brother among its siblings is a floorstander. It's bigger, bolder, and has all the loveliness of Mimi, only more of what to love! Here pictured in my home...

 

[Perfect Sense]