Waveform MC/MC.1.(satellite speaker package)(Evaluation)

In a way, this report is a pre-funeral encomium. Not too long after this substantial array of gear arrived at my place, its builder, John Otvos, indicated that he was going out of business. His company had been steaming ahead for 15 years, and he felt that it was time to hang up his tools and move on to something else.

The MC satellites sold factory-direct for $1,085 each ($2,170 for a stereo pair), the stands for them were normally $495 each ($990 a pair), and the subwoofers were normally $1,235 each. (You need a sub with each satellite for full-bandwidth coverage of that channel, so this had the original price for the subs pegged at $2,470 for a stereo pair.) So, what do we get with this package of gear?

Well, first off we get the two satellites. These are like no other satellite speakers I can recall seeing, because they are actually egg-shaped; shaped like a real chicken egg, except that they are a bit more than 15 inches tall and 11 inches in diameter, and rather than being white, they are covered with a high-grade, textured, powder-coated black finish that makes them look like some kind of large piece of exotic artwork or a Brachiosaurus egg.

Each enclosure contains a 1-inch tweeter and a 6.5 inch woofer/midrange (with the typical, 5-inch-diameter cone area that drivers of this size have), and there is a 2-inch diameter, tubular port in the back of the enclosure to augment the bass at the bottom end. The internal crossover is a fourth-order, Linkwitz-Riley design that has low-and high-pass slopes at 24 dB per octave, with the transition point at 2,200 Hz. The sensitivity is a rather low 84.5 dB with a 2.83-volt input, and the nominal input impedance is a solidly safe 8 ohms.

There are also a couple of connectors on the back of the "egg" that will accept bare wires, spade lugs, and pins, as well as single or double banana jacks. Each system weighs in at 27 pounds, and each also comes with a shallow, dish-shaped, black-finished aluminum base that will keep the enclosure from rolling over if you set it on a stand, table, or subwoofer. Small foam pads can be attached to the surface of the dish area, which will prevent metal-to-metal contact with the rounded bottom of the egg.

The egg is actually a full-range speaker, albeit one with only modest bass extension. It is similar to the midrange modules you will find on the larger, one-piece Waveform systems, except that in this case the midrange driver typically used has been replaced by a Vifa-made woofer/mid that has a bit more low-end extension, and the above-noted port tube has been added to further augment the bottom range. The tweeter for all the Waveforms, from the biggest to the smallest, is also made by Vifa, and it is a very high-quality item, indeed.

Now, I am not sure how the average enthusiast will feel about a pair of these eggs from a visual-aesthetics standpoint. I do know that my wife was not thrilled with their appearance at all. However, visual and wifely opinions notwithstanding, the enclosure is in a class by itself when it comes to acoustic inertness. I gave it the usual knuckle rap and it was like thumping a block of cement about the same size. If John had said they were solid aluminum all the way through, I would not have been all that skeptical.