Easy listening

Nick Tate is beguiled by this interesting new mini monitor that sports a little long-lost BBC DNA magic

- Nick Tate

Our story starts with the BBC-designed LS3/5a loudspeaker. Launched in 1975, it set the blueprint for an extremely small but very high quality 'mini-monitor'. The idea was that it couldn't reproduce low bass in a way that large speakers could, but its midband and treble would be as good, if not better, than some of the best designs in the world at the time.

The LS3/5a was duly licensed by a number of British manufacturers, and gained a big following - it's now almost the dictionary definition of a compact monitor speaker. But more than this, it kicked open the door to a world where small speakers could be taken seriously as high-end transducers, rather than just being the poor relations of bigger boxes.

Arguably, without it, products such as the M10 before you could not exist. But that's not the only connection to the BBC that this company has, because for a long time it has offered its own remanufactured LS3/5a drive units, following the original guidelines as to how to make them, to the letter. In fact, the company was actually founded by the original designer of the speaker's drivers, Malcolm Jones. He was responsible for the legendary KEF B110 midrange unit and T27 tweeter that go into the LS3/5a.

The M10 sets out to do similar things, but has a number of key differences. The main one being the M10 is slightly more affordable. Also, it's tuned for slightly more 'real-world' conditions; rather than sitting in BBC outside broadcast vans, it is more centred on giving a great sound in normal domestic listening rooms.