Bryston Mini T-10 Speakers, $6000 Per Pair

{22.5h, 10.5w, 10d, 42 lbs, 4 ohms, 86 dB SPL}

Bryston has just updated its venerable stand mount Mini T loudspeaker. Mini T has been a classic KICK FANNY work horse monitor for over a decade.

While there are a myriad of upgrades, the most noticeable is the custom tapered midrange/tweeter diffraction plate. The plate bolsters rigidity, defines imaging and enhances the 3D soundstage.

We have sold many a Mini T where the customer wanted a stand mount aesthetic, but a tower of power sound. The keys to this level of muscularity are the prodigious 8” woofer and bank vault cabinetry. The new improvements refine it even more. And yup, it still has a 20 year warranty.

For openers, the name “mini” is misleading. Mini T10 is a full sized stand mount speaker that can absolutely rock your world! Mini T10 isn’t made to be cute and disappear on your bookshelf. Mini T10s are serious monitors in a flexible size that can move the floor boards in your living room. You have to buy Bryston Middle T towers ($8600pr) to eclipse them.

Freq response measures 45-20kHz +/- 3dB. SPL with a great amp like Bryston 4B Cubed can reach 112 dB. The impedance swing is tame. The speaker barely touches 4 ohms in the bass and graphs ever higher as it goes north.

Mini T10 rewards you for having a gutsy amplifier. Think Bryston or Atoll integrateds or separates. Both designs are dual mono, heavy AB, with large DUAL transformers and hefty banks of filter caps. With the engine of a Mac truck the Mini T10s have much to deliver!

Drivers

*Bryston’s 1” Titanium dome, dual chamber tweeter.

*Bryston’s cast frame, 6.5” Pure Aluminum midrange.

*Bryston’s cast frame, 8” Pure Aluminum woofer.

While all of the drivers are substantial, the cast basket woofer is over the top! It weighs 15 pounds and is 5.5 inches deep. You won’t find a woof like this from the other guys.

Cabinets

*Made of dense Canadian Rangerwood

*One inch front/rear walls, three quarters for sides

*Side walls angled to avoid standing waves

*Internal matrix of support bars and struts

*Vortex rear port

*Comes with adjustable rubber puck feet, of course, they’re Canadians!

*Mini T10 cabinet features new aluminum diffraction panels to help improve definition, imaging and sound staging.

*Available in Black Ash, Walnut or Boston Cherry (red).

Crossover/Binding Posts

*Flexible crossover array and binding post arrangement allows great flexibility.

*Mini T10 can be run by a single amp, bi-amped, or even tri-amped!

Sound

Mini T10 sounds similar to its predecessor, the Mini T. Both Minis can produce deep, heavy bass along with a Steinway Smooth top end. Where Mini T10 surpasses its forefather is in superior definition, bass tautness and image specificity. I would deem this a welcome EVOLUTIONARY improvement if you’d like HUGE & powerful sound from a stand mount.

Best Selling Albums By Year Since Audio Emporium Opened

1977: Rumours, Fleetwood Mac

1978: Sat Night Fever, Bee Gees

1979: 52^nd St, Billy Joel

1980: The Wall: Pink Floyd

1981: Hi InFidelity, REO Speedwagon

1982: Asia, Asia

1983: Thriller, Michael Jackson

1984: Thriller, yep, two years in a row

1985: Born In The USA, Bruce Springsteen

1986: Whitney Houston, Same

1987: Slippery When Wet, Bon Jovi

1988: Faith, George Michael

1989: Don’t Be Cruel, Bobby Brown

1990: Rhythm Nation, Janet Jackson

1991: Mariah Carey, Mariah Carey

1992: Some Gave All, Billy Ray Cyrus

1993: The Bodyguard, Whitney Houston

1994: The Lion King, Elton John

1995: Cracked Rear View, Hootie & the Blowfish

1996: Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morisette

1997: Spice, Spice Girls

1998: Titanic, James Horner

1999: Millennium, Back Street Boys

2000: No Strings Attached, NSYNC

2001: Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park

2002: The Eminem Show, Eminem

2003: Get Rich Or Die Tryin, 50 Cent

2004: Confessions, Usher

2005: The Emancipation of Mimi, Mariah Carey

2006: High School Musical, Various artists

2007: Noel, Josh Groban

2008: The Carter III, Lil Wayne

2009: Fearless, Taylor Swift

2010: Recovery, Eminem

2011: 21, Adele

2012: 21, yep, two years in a row

2013: The 20/20 Experience, Justin Timberlake

2014: 1989, Taylor Swift

2015: 25, Adele

2016: Views, Drake

2017: Divided By, Ed Sheeran

2018: Scorpion, Drake

2019: Hollywood’s Bleeding, Post Malone

2020: My Turn, Lil Baby

2021: Dangerous The Double Album, Morgan Wallen

2022: Un Verano Sin Ti, Bad Bunny

2023: One Thing At A Time, Morgan Wallen

2024: The Tortured Poets Dept, Taylor Swift

MoFi MasterDeck Turntable, $6000

If you’re looking for a great turntable, with a great tonearm, MoFi has unbeatable values.

The UltraDeck at $1500 is an easy choice as the best bang for your buck. There are a hundred reasons why. You can read about them at Dave’s Faves.

If you’re willing to go north of UltraDeck, please consider MoFi’s new MasterDeck. It’s a much heavier bigger brother with significant refinements. MasterDeck competes with the priciest tables in our biz for many times less money.

MoFi tables are designed by Allen Perkins who owns Spiral Groove. Spiral Groove tables start at $36k sans tonearms. Allen has boiled down all of his parts choices to points of diminishing returns. That’s plenty good enough for any of us who work for a living.

MasterDeck is heavy with tapered platter (15 lbs alone) design. The platter has an aluminum core and is covered with Delrin. The combination of weight and non resonant material create the balance Allen thinks is best. No, don’t be tempted to put a rubber or cork mat on a MoFi table.

MasterDeck uses Spiral Groove’s Encapsulated Inverted Bearing design. This minimizes friction and wear. It comes with HRS isolating feet which are valuable for leveling as well.

The tonearm is a 10” Perkins original. It has a carbon fiber tube that is internally tapered for rigidity and damping. The arm uses gimbal and unipivot principles. The bearings are synthetic sapphire and ruby construction. There’s a unipivot point supporting it vertically and two ruby balls that support it as it rotates around its axis. Those 3 points offer the fast energy transfer and stability of the gimbal, but still give the performance advantages of a unipivot. The arm has a removable shell but the wires are traditionally fixed, eliminating an obvious source of signal degradation.

MasterDeck’s arm has a high degree of adjustability: Azimuth, VTA, Overhang, VTF and Anti-skate are all finely tunable. Cardas cable is hardwired for the arm. The counterweight is designed to travel across the pivot point to optimize the moment of inertia.

The lower portion of the plinth is made of MDF. The next two layers are aluminum. They house the electronics and switches. The arm board is aluminum and removable.

MasterDeck plays 33s/45s & 78s. It has a four digit digital readout which allows precise speed control adjustments. Please note, many expensive tables on the market have been proven to NOT run accurate on speed. Most of us don’t have a good enough ear to catch it. With MasterDeck, you can be sure of your speed/pitch.

Stereophile’s reviewer writes about MasterDeck’s sound. “MasterDeck is a forensic tool, a musical CSI, dissecting a record’s every nuance from the hidden depths of its grooves. It laid bare the mix, soundstage, tone, dynamics, frequency range, and life force of the music. If there’s a better turntable for nearly $6k, I haven’t heard it. An exceptional music playing machine.”

R&R HOF 2025 Nominees:

Who’s Going In Next? We’ll find out in late April. Artists or bands aren’t eligible until 25 years after their first commercial recording. I’m betting one is a slam dunk.

Top Candidates:

Bad Company

The Black Crowes

Mariah Carey

Chubby Checker

Joe Cocker

Billy Idol

Cyndi Lauper

New Order

Oasis

Outkast

Phish

Soundgarden

The White Stripes