|
What's New?
A FEW OF THE MANY AWARDS WON BY OUR PRODUCTS
(see the Reviews page): Duevel & Audiomat
  
(Permanent message) - Read this before contacting us!
- A major flood forced us to leave our previous location in June 2010, to avoid further damages.
We build a new location, taking shape as a log house with an "old times" warm look and a "futuristic" conception, ecological and bio-energetic, and this takes much much longer than expected, as always with unusual ways of doing things.
I hope we will be able to open our offices and our new auditoriums around Fall 2013.
Until then, the supervision of the construction keeps us busy full-time, and Mutine is operating from a short-term location, with a minimal service, once per week, for the orders and after-sales follow-up.
Moreover, we receive way too many emails to be able to answer to everybody; we will only answer to emails from people well known by Mutine, and from new contacts only if they include their complete name, full address and a phone number, and a specific request regarding a product or a system.
Leave us a message by email or by phone... and thanks for your patience!
January 4, 2012 - Happy New Year to all!
- Update of the Testimonials page in the Information - Users Feedback menu, with an update picture of Paul Candy's CEC and Audiomat system. Paul, reviewer in Toronto, offered to say "plain vanilla" how different he perceived my philosophy compared to today's mainstream, and I feel he expressed my feelings better than I could do myself. Sadly, he his the last one of a couple of reviewers lost for Mutine... because they became customers! Long time ago - dare I say, "during the previous century" -, one of them even became... a US dealer.
I never find the time to add to that page all the comments I get from reviewers, friends and users of Mutine products, while my email box contains hundreds of them. Once our new location is built, I hope I'll be able to have more time and "give a voice" to all those who kindly wrote to express their gratitude.
December 15, 2011
Merry Christmas to all!
Mutine will be closed from December 22nd to January 3rd.
As last year, we wish you Happy Holidays with a - now becoming a ritual - small gag: the "cold" version of the Bella Luna created by Markus Duevel and his family...
December 21, 2011
Two reference Phono preamplifiers...
 The new construction keeps us busy beyond description...
Yet, when UHF Magazine decided in 2010 to buy the Audiomat Phono 1.6 for their reference systems, we should have found the time to add it to our website.
But then, our customers know us well... and just purchased it.
 Now, in 2011, UHF has made a move... to the bigger version, the Audiomat Phono 2, again for their reference systems!
I have no more excuses, so I worked hard, using pictures made in our photographic studio before the move, to release the very basic information about these two wonderful products... just before we close for the Holidays!
October 14, 2011
 - Duevel gives the exlusive distribution of its products to Mutine for the US.
This mean more work for my semi-retirement, but leaving music lovers in this country without access to these wonderful loudspeakers was really too bad.
August 10, 2011
The return of the small gifted...
 We have waited a couple years... but it is here! The legendary drive TL51X has a succesor, the TL3N. The new version received a dual belt mechanism, like the reference model TL0X. Another decade of musical pleasure !
July 25, 2011
Bye-bye M2Tech
 
M2Tech has moved their U.S. distribution to Teac America at the beginning of 2011; in a natural follow-up, this month they moved their Canadian distribution to Teac Canada.
As for all the products I have selected in thirty years, I didn't do it for financial reasons but because of the products' qualities; the hiFace has an exceptional value for money, and the Evo is a superb interface once surrounded by the proper components (power supply, Usb cable).
This being said, this decision doesn't give me much emotion, for two reasons:
- I was attached to these small babies, but I have observed that a significant proportion of their buyers took a considerable amount of my time, and, mostly, that too many of them showed the modern impatience often associated with those used to the "Buy Now" approach dear to our southern neighbors… in total contradiction with the peaceful pace I chose to live when I took my semi-retirement in June 2008.
- As I wrote in my Editorial (in French) at the very moment I launched the brand, "Music stored on computers… At last, we are nearly there (but it is not for now)". The word nearly is important, and the reason is simple: as always, I don't care about fashions… and all those (a lot of them came, sometimes with extremely "tweaked" computer systems…) having compared reading CDs ripped on computers against reading them directly on my musical CD players (CEC and Audiomat) left shocked by the superior musicality of the CD.
And the reactions follow the observation: as for me, CD players orders are way up again, including from those having explored computers as sources; like me, they have decided to use computers mostly for ambient music and to experiment sources for a hoped future.
Since I will not re-order, Mutine offers, starting today, the M2Tech products at a discounted price: the hiFace Rca for Cad 150,00 plus taxes, shipping and PayPal charges included; and the Evo for Cad 450,00 plus taxes, basic M2Tech power supply (with the European connector), shipping and PayPal charges included, and this until I have no more stock.
You can find the link to the hiFace review by Paul Candy of 6moons.com in the Reviews page.
About the evolution of sources, if you read French, you can read my Editorial, published on March 3, 2010, when I launched the brand, on the French version of this website here.
Musically yours…
Mutine
May 14, 2010
- After one year spent listening to the Duevel Sirius, I must admit that they exceed all my expectations... and this feeling is shared by my friends and customers.
They can be driven by a small mono-triode... or by a big push-pull. Each time, they magnify the system.
Real jewels that make you marvel at them each time you listen to them...
March 22, 2010
 - Addition of the Audiomat Aria integrated amplifier in the Products menu.
This new model in full class A replaces the former Opéra, incorporates all the latest discoveries by the brand, and has surprised me by its potential in driving difficult loudspeakers.
- Update of the break-in times on the Burn-In page in the Advice Menu, with the latest values for the new Audiomat Aria, Audiomat Récital MkIII, Audiomat Tempo 3, Audiomat Phono 2.
Since more than a decade, Mutine keeps being one of the few distributors publishing these figures. Since as long as I can remember, many of my fellow competitors warn me that "this is anti-commercial". For me, not pubslishing them would be "not respecting our customers and considering them as ignorants".
March 9, 2010
- Update of the Price List page in the Information menu:
* Addition of the prices for the new Audiomat models. I finished testing all these new models, I adopted them, and I'll add their Products pages within the two next weeks.
* Update of the Duevel prices.
June 5, 2009
 - Addition of the Audiomat Tempo 2.6 24/192 DAC in the Products menu.
This affordable model has easily surpassed all our expectations, and is the best future-proof key element of all systems, accepting today's and tomorrow sources.
December 10, 2008
 - Addition of the Vecteur Ai4 review by UHF Magazine in the Reviews page.
This amplifier has surprised the magazine, to say the least:
"Compared to a number of integrated amplifiers we have said good things about, costing from $1500 into five digits, it is a bargain."
"Verdict: It raises the bar for what you can do for minimum money."
December 8, 2008
 - Duevel has improved the look of the spheres holders on the Planets; this is a purely cosmetic change; the specs and the sound are the same.
July 10, 2008
Back to the Source
To be a purist philosopher in business is the kind of contradiction that mostly meant for me, working twelve to eighteen hours per day, three hundred and sixty days per year.
So, when I turned forty-seven I swore to those who love me that I would work less when I turned fifty.
I almost did not keep my promise because slowing down a company is easier said than done.
But here we are, I just reached my half-century this spring, and I will stick to my words.
I must acknowledge that the present world of High-Fidelity compared to what it was twenty or thirty years ago, has "helped" me in making my decision easier because I find myself less and less at ease watching this frenetic buying and selling and this superficial consumption of audio products.
This race for the latest "novelty" and piece of “show-off” equipment has nothing whatsoever to do with the pursuit of the reproduction of music.
So, I have reduced the size of Mutine, which has grown substantially in the past few years, and this has not been easy because I am so proud and fond of my staff.
Most importantly, our friendship has made this move elegant and enjoyable.
The free time that I gain will at last allow me to dedicate myself more to this craft that I cherish - Audio Consulting, a craft that has given me my deepest joys since the beginning -, and to resume my philosophical and social work, my documentary movies... and my piano.
Regarding Mutine, the Audio Zendo network goes on as this represents my approach.
As for myself, I will stay at the service of my customers and my friends, those who for more than fifteen years in Quebec, trust me and enjoy every day the marvelous vitality gained while spending beautiful moments listening to music.
Musically yours... for more than thirty years,
Pascal Ravach
May 30, 2008
New After-Sales Center for Canada
We have moved the after-sales operations for Canada to Acoustic Technologies Inc.
You will find all the details on the Support page under the menu Solutions menu.
May 2, 2008
 Montreal FSI 2008 Show
We were exhibiting at the Montreal FSI 2008... and it was another memorable show. The warm welcome we received from the press and the public was magnificient. The smiles on the visitors' faces were worth all our efforts. You will find pictures and press comments by clicking here.
March 31, 2008
You have probably noticed that we have not updated our web site for one month now. We have good reasons: we were - and still are - very busy preparing the Montreal FSI 2008 Show, we have a couple of very promising new products.
- Duevel has finished the development of the Jupiter's successor: the Sirius.
We will of course keep you informed when we will be able to manage an audition of this flagship model.
One thing is sure: Markus Duevel has created a really beautiful speaker!
After 9 years in development, Audiomat has released the much-awaited Opus 2 pre-amplifier and the Festival mono amplifier.
For those of you who remember them, the former Opus pre-amplifier and Duo stereo amplifier were already excellent performers, still much appreciated on the used market. We had discontinued them because the next generations of integrated amplifiers were globally superior, and Mutine doesn't sell classes of products, but musical results!
 Today, after the superb Opéra Référence and Récital MkII, the new Opus 2 and Festival are gorgeous candidates for the pinnacle of the best electronics.
February 28, 2008
 - Mutine will present at the FSI 2008 in Montreal (April 3-6) the omni-directional speakers made by Duevel in Germany. The selected models are the Planets, the Venus and the Bella Luna Diamante. For those who know the virtues of omni-directional speakers, we don't need to explain the advantages of this approach. For the others... welcome to the FSI 2008 for a mind-opening audition!
January 11, 2008
 - Addition of the CEC TL53Z review by Paul Candy of 6moons.com in the Reviews page.
Another reviewer having felt the very special analog reproduction of the CEC belt-driven players and transports!
December 7, 2007
 - Addition of the Audiomat Opéra Référence review by Paul Candy of 6moons.com in the Reviews page.
The Opéra Référence has received the Blue Moon Award for "Musical Insight & Emotional Involvement in the tube integrated category".
 Paul Candy has purchased this Audiomat during the summer 2008, like other respected reviewers before him (Bruce Kennett of former Listener Magazine has purchased the Opéra Référence after years of pleasure with his Prélude Référence, and Neil Walker of EnjoyTheMusic has purchased the Prélude Référence after years of pleasure with his Arpège).
What can we add?
That a total of eight reviewers have ended up buying one of the Audiomat models?
That even some competitors have purchased an Audiomat to use in their personal system?
Come and judge by yourselves!
December 1st, 2007
 - A new brand is a rare event at Mutine!
We are happy to welcome in Canada Duevel and their omni-directional loudspeakers, the Planets, Venus and Bella Luna Diamante. Omnis are not new to us, having played with four brands during twelve years... until twenty years ago. We know that this sonic presentation is a like-dislike affair... but Markus Duevel has managed to push the concept to its best potential!
The absence of a sweet spot is very relaxing, and the most appropriate description of the Duevel sound is: visceral and... addictive.
Read the appreciations from the press in the Reviews page.
> top of the page
|
|
