Loudspeakers

Speaking to designer Andrew Jones at High End Munich in May '23, he kidded that his latest loudspeaker could be considered the 'European' version of his larger SourcePoint 10 [HFN Apr '23]. 'People were often surprised by its size – it does host a 10in driver after all – so something smaller was needed', he explained. Cue the 'modest' SourcePoint 8, with its 8in version of the launch speaker's inaugural 10in coaxial driver.

The SourcePoint 10 is not unlike those big pickup trucks that sell so well in the US. Interesting to look at and mighty fine if you are a Texan rancher, but when confronted in real life it turns out to be quite large for smaller European roads, uhm, living rooms. That makes the SourcePoint 8 the sensible choice for those of us 'over here', though beware of stereotyping as there are probably just as many people living in small NYC apartments that might appreciate a more practical SourcePoint 8 too.

Whatever the setting, one of the three available colour options will surely fit your decor. If you're looking for an understated presence, the satin white finish pictured here will do nicely, while the high-quality veneer of the walnut and black ash cabinets really hit the vintage spot.

Baby Brother
Enthusiasts already familiar with the SourcePoint 10 won't be surprised by the newcomer's looks. They're identical – except for, again, the size. It is as if the SourcePoint 8 was shrunk in the wash, broadly retaining its original proportions. The coaxial driver itself is practically the same. That fact is cunningly disguised though, as the total diameter is only 8in/200mm compared to the 10in/254mm of the SourcePoint 10 – no guessing how the naming convention works. Jones did this by preserving the 32mm soft dome tweeter in the middle while shaving one inch off the edge of the cone, reducing the overall diameter by two inches. The basket is necessarily more compact but the 'Twin-Drive' rare-earth magnet, said to reduce distortion in the motor system, is retained.

This 'downscaling' impacts low-frequency reproduction less than you might expect because, as PM explains in his boxout, the SourcePoint 8 has far lower sensitivity than its larger brethren. Output, for a given input, is traded for bass extension, so technoheads living in a tiny house will still love these speakers if they have a sufficiently powerful amplifier.

Power Point
Importantly, the SourcePoint 8's loading does not stray into 'impossible to drive' territory, but my own listening experience still suggests that having some genuine power on tap will be rewarding. In my case, the SourcePoint 8s undoubtedly performed more convincingly with Hegel's 300W H590 integrated amplifier [HFN Oct '18] and the 200W NAD C 298 [HFN Oct '21] than with the more run-of-the-mill Yamaha R-N1000A also currently at my disposal.

Regardless of all this talk about 'small', the SourcePoint 8 is still fairly robust for a standmount model, with a very respectable volume and footprint. There's no need to exaggerate the weight, as its 12.7kg is quite acceptable when compared with – say – the 18kg of KEF's Reference 1 Meta. MoFi offers a dedicated three-legged stand that's terminated in solid plates top and bottom, but any good-quality 22in stand will do the trick. For example, the SourcePoint 8s perched perfectly on my Focal Kanta stands.

Following hot on the heels of the rear-leaning, retro-inspired Epos ES14N [HFN Jul '23] in my listening room, the seemingly more rectangular SourcePoint 8 could have been a dull visual experience – were it not for the baffle. Wondrous to behold, this faceted affair sees the driver mounted centrally within a diamond-shaped octagon. From my vantage point (the sofa) this gives both the SourcePoint 10 and 8 a very distinct appearance, without being outrageous... which is ideal, as quirky designs can get old very fast.

There's acoustical method in the aesthetic design too, as the baffle lifts the front of the driver out past the edges of the cabinet. If the baffle had been recessed, there could have been an issue with diffraction. As it is, Andrew Jones states that, although the protruding edges were proposed by the industrial designer, not him, it turned out the measured impact on the speaker's performance was limited [though less so with the grille in place].