The North Sound
Contents
We can be quite brief in this case: the MOON 891, 861 and the TAD Evolution Two love each other! What an incredibly fine match this is.
Camness and grip
What immediately stands out when playing our test list is the control, grip and calmness that this system manages to achieve. The music flows through the TADs with such naturalness that at first we are not at all overwhelmed. At least: not by spectacle. What we do feel immediately, however, is how good this system is.
And by good we mean: it doesn’t get in the way of the music in any way. Not with coloring; although, of course there is a “MOON signature”. However, this does not mean excessive dynamics, lavish detailing or a giant stage…. This combination simply gives the idea that this is how it should be. And that gives an awful lot of camness and persuasion in the reproduction.
We briefly mentioned the MOON signature. Every brand has a signature. The question is: how obvious is the signature? The one brand applies it subtly, the other brand really tries to add its own sauce. It depends on what you are looking for and to what extent it fits into your system.
MOON does it quite subtly with the 800 series. More subtle than with the 200 series, for example. And it should be: the higher you go; the less you need to hear a system. At least: that’s our opinion.
With these 861 and 891, we hear the powerful MOON sound without doubt. There is especially a lot of grip in the low end, which realizes a deep and powerful foundation. The foundation is firmer and tighter than with our own Pass X150.8. Is that only the result of the extra power? No… we don’t think so. It is the overall design of this 861: huge power supplies, lots of reserve, high speed as well as the tuning of MOON itself.
Fortunately, the low end is and remains very nicely layered and very insightful. And it gives room to the mid and high which is also very insightful and soft in this setup. Nicely done!
Layering and insight
Speaking of layering and insight: therein lies another strength of this duo. Now we’re already particular fans of our TADs, because they so easily manage to render various layers in music. And with this top series from MOON in front of it, we hear how far we can go in this area: what insight this system gives!
And whether we put on Steven Wilson, Portishead, Beth Gibbons, Hania Rani or Anathema: it doesn’t matter. We get a beautiful ‘sound-picture’ in front of us every time. A presentation with extreme insight, but not a single analytical edge. So it’s definately not sterile at all. Even better: the emotion regularly grabs us by the throat. Purely because it all feels so real. The projection in front of our noses feels particularly real. Close your eyes and you’ll swear the singer(s) are really standing there. And that goes a lot further than just a stable stereo image with a nice delineation…. it’s hard to explain in a review, but compare it to a very sharp photograph and a wax statue…. Both look lifelike, but with the statue you have the “3D information” making it feel a lot more real.
Flow and rhythm
In our opinion, MOON products bring a wonderfully powerful sound. The foundation is robust and the overall presentation is powerful and dynamic. These 891 and 861 North Collection are, of course, no different. Although a higher line often also brings a bit more refinement and flow.
The combination of rhythm and flow is highly addictive, we can guarantee you. Now a Pass Labs usually brings an insanely beautiful midrange – that again is the “Pass Signature,” but frankly this MOON 861 doesn’t really undercut it. It is and feels different … that is. The Pass continues to bring a kind of magical edge to the oh-so-important midrange. But this MOON set definitely manages a tighter and finer bass. A bass with more punch and rhythm than the Pass…. our opinion… and perhaps also depending on the speaker you pair it with.
Overall
In conclusion, what can we report? Simple: this is top notch. Period. The MOON 861 and 891 North Collection is just a very nice combination with our TADs. It looks sleek, is beautifully made, operates very nicely and just sounds very good. At least on our TADs, we hear a very fine, balanced and, above all, engaging presentation of the music we feed the MiND streamer.
