I'm a huge fan of the Audionet Watt Integrated. It packs one hell of a punch lol. And owning a KRONOS it's safe to say I'm a huge fan there as well. I have never had the Mola Mola electronics in my possession to play with, but when I heard them on the YG speakers I got the feeling they were high performance vs price and now as written in this review appear to have good synergy with the VSA line.
Full Review Here
https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/the-new-apartment-lounge-when-my-boat-comes-in/
07-05-2019 | By Maurice Jeffries | Issue 104
UniField 2mkIII coverage from the reviewer
The Shape of Things to Come
I'd be more than a little remiss in my duties as an audio reviewer if I failed to acknowledge the contributions of another component (two, actually) that has made it possible for me to appreciate in starkly revealing terms just what the creative folks at Kubala-Sosna, Mola Mola, Kronos, and Jelco have accomplished with their latest inventions. The Von Schweikert Unifield 2 Mk III speakers, substantial compacts that have anchored my reference system for the last year and a half, have, in the words of the Sorcerer Supreme, elevated my reference system "to heretofore unimaginable heights," demonstrating resoundingly that great speakers have the capacity to scale up or down performance-wise depending on the quality of the electronics and sources used to drive them.
In my formal review of the Unifield 2 Mk. IIIs (HERE), I praised the speaker's exemplary low frequency extension, remarkable linearity, and class-leading pitch and textural precision. At the same time, although taken by the 2's laser-sharp image focus and near holographic sound staging, I came down a bit hard on what I felt were the speaker's tendency to present music with a slightly analytical tilt, and its (perceived) less than class-leading scaling and stage height recreation. As it turns out, in both instances I couldn't have been more mistaken.
Hearing the VSA speakers driven first by the remarkable Audionet WATT Integrated Amp, and now by the superbly transparent Mola Mola suite, I quickly realized that the mildly analytical presentation and soundstage-related colorations that I originally ascribed to the speakers were in fact colorations that I should have directed at my then reference electronics. Simply stated, all the things I loved (love) about the 2s were amplified by the WATT and Mola Mola front ends. At the same time, the soundstage height, scaling, and tonal balance anomalies that mildly irked me when I drove the 2s with lesser gear simply became non-issues when I inserted pricier, but more importantly, genuinely neutral (re: natural) sounding amps into the system.
The takeaway here is that the 2, perhaps more than other speaker in its price class, only gives its best when powered by very good associated gear. As much as any component I have used (the exception being the stellar VSA ULTRA 9s, speakers that may be even more demanding of really good upstream sources and amps), the 2 simply must be driven by quality associated electronics and sources if the user is to get what s/he paid for in musical terms. In practical terms, this means that the music lover who expects to get great sound from the 2 using an otherwise solid performing $3K integrated amp is likely to come away a bit disappointed with what s/he hears at the end of the day.
In this regard, the Unifield 2 is as neutrally balanced a small speaker as I have heard, meaning that its innate sound largely (but not entirely) depends on the inherent sound and tonal proclivities of the upstream components paired with it (along with the room where it is placed) instead of the speaker itself. Although my experience with VSA products does not run as deep as, say, Greg Weaver's, someone who has followed the progression of the VSA house sound for almost twenty years, I think that the basic sonic traits I described above more or less apply to the entire line. This was certainly the case when I got to hear the miraculous ULTRA 9s earlier this year at Greg's house. During my roughly 20-hour fling with the 9s, it became crystal clear that they sounded more lifelike, more dynamic, and more coherent when driven by the VAC Statement 450i iQ integrated amplifier as opposed to the very fine but not quite reference-level Constellation Inspiration amplifiers that Greg had on hand. Like the 2, the 9's performance scaled up or down depending on the overall quality of what we chose to drive the speaker with.
I'll have more to say about the remarkable synergy between the Mola Mola suite and the Unifield 2 in my upcoming reviews. For the nonce, I can't imagine listeners confined to tight quarters not being totally enamored with the 2's ability to draw out the Kubala-Sosna Sensation loom's eerie quietude, center of the earth bass reach, blinding transient precision, marmoreal dynamic clout, and class-leading tone and timbral precision; the Mola Mola amp's remarkable purity, transparency, and openness; or the Kronos Sparta 0.5 / Jelco / Zu Denon combo's uncanny sense of forward momentum and drive.
The speaker is just that good (and now officially my primary reference)! Then again, so too is just about everything else in the system just that damn good. These are absolute "when my boat comes in" / get off the high-end merry-go-round products, each designed with passion and zeal, and real contenders for space-starved music lovers who want the very best and are willing to pay to get it.
Cheers!
Full Review Here
https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/the-new-apartment-lounge-when-my-boat-comes-in/
07-05-2019 | By Maurice Jeffries | Issue 104
UniField 2mkIII coverage from the reviewer
The Shape of Things to Come
I'd be more than a little remiss in my duties as an audio reviewer if I failed to acknowledge the contributions of another component (two, actually) that has made it possible for me to appreciate in starkly revealing terms just what the creative folks at Kubala-Sosna, Mola Mola, Kronos, and Jelco have accomplished with their latest inventions. The Von Schweikert Unifield 2 Mk III speakers, substantial compacts that have anchored my reference system for the last year and a half, have, in the words of the Sorcerer Supreme, elevated my reference system "to heretofore unimaginable heights," demonstrating resoundingly that great speakers have the capacity to scale up or down performance-wise depending on the quality of the electronics and sources used to drive them.
In my formal review of the Unifield 2 Mk. IIIs (HERE), I praised the speaker's exemplary low frequency extension, remarkable linearity, and class-leading pitch and textural precision. At the same time, although taken by the 2's laser-sharp image focus and near holographic sound staging, I came down a bit hard on what I felt were the speaker's tendency to present music with a slightly analytical tilt, and its (perceived) less than class-leading scaling and stage height recreation. As it turns out, in both instances I couldn't have been more mistaken.
Hearing the VSA speakers driven first by the remarkable Audionet WATT Integrated Amp, and now by the superbly transparent Mola Mola suite, I quickly realized that the mildly analytical presentation and soundstage-related colorations that I originally ascribed to the speakers were in fact colorations that I should have directed at my then reference electronics. Simply stated, all the things I loved (love) about the 2s were amplified by the WATT and Mola Mola front ends. At the same time, the soundstage height, scaling, and tonal balance anomalies that mildly irked me when I drove the 2s with lesser gear simply became non-issues when I inserted pricier, but more importantly, genuinely neutral (re: natural) sounding amps into the system.
The takeaway here is that the 2, perhaps more than other speaker in its price class, only gives its best when powered by very good associated gear. As much as any component I have used (the exception being the stellar VSA ULTRA 9s, speakers that may be even more demanding of really good upstream sources and amps), the 2 simply must be driven by quality associated electronics and sources if the user is to get what s/he paid for in musical terms. In practical terms, this means that the music lover who expects to get great sound from the 2 using an otherwise solid performing $3K integrated amp is likely to come away a bit disappointed with what s/he hears at the end of the day.
In this regard, the Unifield 2 is as neutrally balanced a small speaker as I have heard, meaning that its innate sound largely (but not entirely) depends on the inherent sound and tonal proclivities of the upstream components paired with it (along with the room where it is placed) instead of the speaker itself. Although my experience with VSA products does not run as deep as, say, Greg Weaver's, someone who has followed the progression of the VSA house sound for almost twenty years, I think that the basic sonic traits I described above more or less apply to the entire line. This was certainly the case when I got to hear the miraculous ULTRA 9s earlier this year at Greg's house. During my roughly 20-hour fling with the 9s, it became crystal clear that they sounded more lifelike, more dynamic, and more coherent when driven by the VAC Statement 450i iQ integrated amplifier as opposed to the very fine but not quite reference-level Constellation Inspiration amplifiers that Greg had on hand. Like the 2, the 9's performance scaled up or down depending on the overall quality of what we chose to drive the speaker with.
I'll have more to say about the remarkable synergy between the Mola Mola suite and the Unifield 2 in my upcoming reviews. For the nonce, I can't imagine listeners confined to tight quarters not being totally enamored with the 2's ability to draw out the Kubala-Sosna Sensation loom's eerie quietude, center of the earth bass reach, blinding transient precision, marmoreal dynamic clout, and class-leading tone and timbral precision; the Mola Mola amp's remarkable purity, transparency, and openness; or the Kronos Sparta 0.5 / Jelco / Zu Denon combo's uncanny sense of forward momentum and drive.
The speaker is just that good (and now officially my primary reference)! Then again, so too is just about everything else in the system just that damn good. These are absolute "when my boat comes in" / get off the high-end merry-go-round products, each designed with passion and zeal, and real contenders for space-starved music lovers who want the very best and are willing to pay to get it.
Cheers!
