RCF Mytho 1 Bookshelf speakers

Radio Cine Fornitore SPA is coming to Britain! Pardon? It's an Italian company, more easily known as RCF, and is a new name in British hi-fi circles. In fact, RCF has been involved in audio in Europe for 42 years and will be launching its Mytho loudspeaker range at London's Penta Hi-Fi Show in September. The range comprises four models, two tall, floor-standing enclosures, and two of 'bookshelf' proportions.

The Mytho 1 is the smallest of the quartet and is truly designed as a bookshelf speaker. What will doubtless ease its entry into the country is its sheer elegance and design. With its grill cloth in place, the slim, veneered cabinet looks like a very smart piece of furniture. With cover discarded for serious listening the hi-tech looks of the drivers, rebated into a smoothly contoured matt black baffle, will quicken the enthusiast's pulse. Those turned on by technology will appreciate its titanium dome tweeter and the striking appearance of the carbon-fibre coned bass/mid unit. RCF has even included a thermal (self-resetting) protection device to safeguard the tweeter from abuse.

Mytho 1's designers have stated clearly what they deem important in a hi-fi speaker. Included in the list of desirable attributes is 'a perfect musical image' and 'natural bass notes easily powered by a wide variety of amps able to follow the dynamics of the original sound source without delays, distortion or colouration.'

So how close does the Mytho 1 actually come to realising those aspirations? Not close enough to satisfy me, I'm afraid.

Let's start with the bass. Little Feat's Long Distance Love generally sorts out the men from the boys in this respect. The bass line is deep and powerful, and Kenny Gradney doesn't pop strings off the frets to start notes with a bang, but rather strokes them with his fingertips, which results in very soft leading edges, particularly on lower notes. The Mytho 1 didn't seem to catch those starts. The track's rhythm is deliberately laidback, it teeters on the brink of grinding to a halt, but those leading edges keep things moving. It's a fine line and the Mytho 1 didn't quite manage to cross it.

I tried the Gregson/Collister disc next: knowing Christine's voice well I find it's particularly useful for spotting colourations. The track For A Dancer features, for the most part, just Christine's voice and a piano accompaniment, so any problems are quickly brought to light. I wasn't happy with the way the speaker handled her voice. While there was nothing overtly wrong with its presentation, it managed to make her sound rather masculine when she was singing at the bottom of her range.

The last stop was with the LCO playing Dave Heath's The Frontier, a piece of orchestral music rich in tonal colour and driven by a backbeat that owes more to Meatloaf than it does to Mozart. The Mytho 1 didn't summon the necessary bite to impart the sense of rhythmic urgency this music demands, and its presentation of bowing, in particular, seemed rather softly focused in comparison to that of the Neat Petite, my current favourite £500 speaker. As a piece of furniture, the Mytho 1 is hard to criticise, but in musical terms the ugly bug Neat Petite trounces it.