Of all the brand lines I’ve reviewed, none’s sound has changed as much over time as Esoteric’s top-tier Grandioso series. When I first encountered Grandioso setups at shows, they consistently sounded dark. That in itself is not necessarily bad; the darker presentations of some concert venues and hi-fi systems often enhance detail. But I prefer my music more illumined, with all the color and brilliance that instruments and voices can offer. And over the last three years or so, Esoteric’s sound has become better lit, as though a 40W bulb was replaced by a 75W bulb.
At AXPONA 2022, I eagerly headed to the company’s exhibit, where I spoke with Keith Haas, national sales manager of 11 Trading Company, Esoteric’s US distributor. When I learned of the forthcoming Grandioso M1X monoblock ($35,500 each), the culmination of a complete revision of the company’s top-selling M1 monoblock (now discontinued), I worked with Haas and Editor Jim Austin and set up a review.
As excited as I was, though, I grew concerned when I noticed that the M1X’s specified compatible loudspeaker impedance is 4–16 ohms, and that specified maximum output power is rated only down to 4 ohms. Could the M1X handle my Alexia V’s impedance dip, to approximately 2.5 ohms at 85Hz?1 In a Zoom session with Haas; Esoteric’s marketing and international-sales managers, Hiroyuki Machida and Tsuyoshi Sugiura; and the company’s digital marketing, website design, and social media guru, Shota Terai, Terai told me that it could. “Our manual has to conform to Japanese safety standards,” Terai explained. “This is why we limit our recommendation to 4–8 ohms. But the amplifier’s performance [extends farther] than what’s on the spec sheet; its linearity extends to 2.4kW into 1 ohm.”2
Sizable simplicity
Machida explained that the
