Mofi Electronics Sourcepoint 888 speakers
The danger for ‘hired gun’ design talent is runaway expectation: a strong reputation dictates a positive outcome. Multiple positive outcomes confer so much emphasis on the designer’s apparent infallibility, even the smallest misstep is seen as a fail. The thing about Andrew Jones hasn’t been just his ability to surf the wave of expectation without falling off but do so on constantly evolving boards, ever the better to express his obvious talents. Despite previously succeeding at both ends of the budget/high-end spectrum (with designs for Elac and TAD), his latest gig with American brand Mofi might just be the one that garners the most acclaim.
It started back in 2023 with the Sourcepoint 10, a strapping, distinctive-looking standmount that combined Jones’ favoured two-way coaxial point source driver tech – a whopping 10-incher with a 32mm soft dome tweeter at its centre in this case – and a mildly protuberant, faceted front baffle to nullify diffraction and provide some additional waveguide function to that of the concentric siting of the drivers. The beauty of this arrangement was two-fold: coaxial point source meant broader, more benign dispersion characteristics, the natural waveguide reducing the tweeter’s dispersion and improving its efficiency.
Another notable point of difference was the neat, pleated driver surround rather than today’s almost ubiquitous half-roll rubber which, if used, would have disrupted the tweeter’s radiated wavefront. The 10 was swiftly followed by the Sourcepoint 8, a smaller version of the 10 with, as the name informs, an 8-inch coaxial driver (203mm to the 10’s 250mm this side of the pond). Both standmounts enjoyed a similar and entirely predictable critical reception: Jones knocks it out of the park again.
The Sourcepoint 888 before you is the inevitable floorstander that tops out the range and although far from a sunlight blocking monolith at a middling 1070mm tall it’s nevertheless something of a chunky beast, quite broad and deep, weighing a stocky 43kg. Once again, the triple eight moniker tells of the driver complement – the coaxial two-way essentially from the 8 plus two newly developed, reflex-loaded paper pulp cone woofers, again with pleated surrounds deployed in a three-way configuration. Employing dual opposing neodymium magnets in an assembly featuring a short coil in a long magnetic gap ensures a magnetic field that’s uniform throughout the gap, resulting in a linear and precisely controlled force for driving the cone, cites Jones.
Echoes of his short-coil/long-gap designs for TAD’s much pricier high-end speakers, here. A potential drawback of this approach is flooding the long gap with sufficient flux using just one magnet. Using two gets round the problem. Not that any of this makes the 888 an awkward load to drive. Nominal impedance is 6 Ohms with a sensitivity rating of 87 dB which shouldn’t present any challenges save for the most sheepish of amps.
Jones says his goal was straightforward enough: ‘to enhance the technology and sound quality of the Sourcepoint 8 and elevate it to an even higher performance level’. In other words, widen the bandwidth and, with some subtle tweaking of the concentric driver, optimise it to perform purely in the midband and treble. Thus tuned, the 888 crosses over at 1.6 kHz but checks out at 130Hz, leaving the dual woofers to plumb an impressive 32 Hz low. Exploiting this 3-way advantage, the crossover design is claimed to minimise the audibility of out-of-band anomalies, further smoothing on and off axis responses.
One of the reasons the 888 weighs so much is an internal structure that provides individual, isolated chambers for each of the driver assemblies. A natural consequence is extra bracing in both the horizontal and vertical planes, increasing the stiffness of the dual ported enclosure while reducing its potential to resonate. Working to the same end is the build of the enclosure itself which combines 19mm thick outer panels with a 31mm thick front baffle. These are dressed in a choice of satin walnut or black ash real wood veneers but, for a more contemporary look, there’s also the option of a satin white paint job. None of them really de-emphasise the bulky appearance of the speaker, but the standard of finish is easily as good as it needs to be for the money.
Sound quality
I’ve had some sizeable floorstanders in my smaller listening room from the likes of Audiovector, KEF, ATC and Amphion and, contrary to the conventional wisdom that warns against a little and large combo, they’ve been fine. Admittedly, placing them on Townshend Audio Podiums to an extent cleans up the bass and unshackles them from the confines of the space, but a tower that doesn’t have to work so hard to make itself heard can sometimes show surprising grace and finesse that would otherwise be missed.
But, even with the help of the Townshend Podiums, the Mofi Sourcepoint 888 isn’t one of them. It’s simply capable of delivering too much genuinely deep low frequency energy and that, frankly, is that. Room boundaries aren’t the problem; a couple of feet clear of front and side walls is ample. But the forward output needs some space for those low notes properly to propagate so I reckon medium-sized rooms are an absolute minimum and large ones best to appreciate the 888’s true mettle. So it’s the 30 x 15ft of lounge for the Mofis sitting on Podiums, a Primare Np5 mk 2 streamer, Chord Hugo TT2 DAC and ATC CA2 pre and P1 power amp providing the front-end minerals.
Some might quibble over the last few hertz, but the 888, for all practical purposes, is a full-range design with scant need of a subwoofer or, indeed, an engineered upper-bass ‘hump’ to add bass presence and warmth in the instrument zone. Genuine extension, visceral slam and thrills are all within its compass but never hyped for effect. Or guilty of sitting on the essentials of pace and rhythm come to that. Whether it’s tracking a fully lit Paco de Lucia/John McLaughlan/Al Di Meola acoustic tear up or the desire to compare and contrast the technique and tonal niceties of Stanley Clarke violently fret bending the strings on his Alembic bass against Marcus Miller’s light and sinuous Fender Jazz bass soloing, (all right, even Level 42’s Mark King slapping the will to live out of his Status Graphite KingBass), the Triple Eight delivers it all, body and soul, sounding as fast and precise with glinting, quicksilver leading edge virtuosity as it is faithful to the rich, deep textures of serious twang. Let’s just say bass is aced.
So, the 888’s bottom end has satisfying weight, power and reach. It’s a stunningly solid foundation. Maybe even more captivating, though, is what happens above. Activity in the midband and treble, if not conspicuously airy, sounds wholesomely natural and full and set in a soundstage of prodigious breadth and depth. Moreover, imaging therein isn’t just good, it’s plain, downright spooky. In larger rooms with a substantial multi-driver floorstander capable of high sound pressure levels, the ‘second venue’ effect, while an aid to knitting everything into a cohesive musical whole, is rarely a friend of tight focus and pin-point specificity. Subverting this in spectacular fashion, the Sourcepoint 888 does layering and location with the easy facility of a KEF LS50 standmount but on a grand, wide open and vastly more expansive scale.
Conclusion
Van Morrison’s The Prophet Speaks album is all shades of bluesy bliss, exceptionally well recorded with the man in great voice and a joyous presence in the room, creating a sense of believability that, once experienced, doesn’t let go. Perhaps most crucially, the 888 has a supple, loose-limbed presentation that takes everything effortlessly in its stride. The music ebbs and flows with a lucidity that treats relaxation and excitement with equal, comfortably cushioning support. The sense of space and deft textural shading, along with the finely graded palette of tonal colours and the sumptuous, deep supple bass contribute to a zero fatigue yet utterly addictive listening experience. Another triumph for Andrew Jones to live up to.