A visit to Marten speakers (Sweden)

[Perfect sense Audio]

We’ve recently been visiting our friends and partners at Marten speakers to explore the reopened fascilities in Gothenburg, Sweden and to enjoy three different systems.

Full report here: https://perfect-sense.se/artiklar/pa-besok-hos-marten-och-klarsund

Enjoy (Google translate is your friend )

/ Marcus, www.perfect-sense.se

 

[P-pan]

Thanks so much.
Nice read and really nice pictures.

 

[Perfect sense Audio]

Thanks so much.
Nice read and really nice pictures.

I'm glad you enjoyed it .

 

[Audiohertz2]

Wow , Serious looking stuff ...!

 

[Sharok]

I just returned from Gothenburg, Sweden. I visited Marten Headquarter where Mr. Leif Olofsson (Marten Chief Designer) let us audition Coltrane 3. It was a mind blowing experience. All electronics were from MSB and he played a few tracks using a beautiful TechDAS turntable. I cannot get it out of my head.

 

[Synaxis]

Very nice!

 

[Notdead]

Impressive facility! Thanks for sharing.
As owner of the Parker Duo (not Diamond) I've found very useful and also a bit surprising the sonic differences among the Diamond and the regular edition.
I've heard the Diamond in the MIngus but never in the Parker. Food for my thoughts.

 

[Perfect sense Audio]

Impressive facility! Thanks for sharing.
As owner of the Parker Duo (not Diamond) I've found very useful and also a bit surprising the sonic differences among the Diamond and the regular edition.
I've heard the Diamond in the MIngus but never in the Parker. Food for my thoughts.

I have to admit that I was rather surprised as well by the obvious differences when comparing the two versions side by side. The Diamond version involves and adds so much more than a tweeter replacement.

/ Marcus, www.perfect-sense.se

 

[caesar]

That looks incredible. What is unique or different about Marten?

 

[JackD201]

Impressive facility! Thanks for sharing.
As owner of the Parker Duo (not Diamond) I've found very useful and also a bit surprising the sonic differences among the Diamond and the regular edition.
I've heard the Diamond in the MIngus but never in the Parker. Food for my thoughts.

I've been burning in Parker Trio Diamond Editions for 3 weeks now. Excellent. Next up, pre-delivery burn-in for the Septet Signature Edition.

 

[JackD201]

That looks incredible. What is unique or different about Marten?

How do you mean? All speakers are different.

 

[caesar]

Hey Jack,
Sure, they all sound different based on the design decisions. But I mean this from a generic sense: what specifically makes them unique and sound distinct, so that potential customers view as them as superior in quality or features compared to competitors?

For example, Wilson is known as the authentic audiophile speaker, magico markets itself as the force using the latest materials and technologies to eliminate all distortions, etc.

So my question is: what is Marten doing differently that makes them special? I hope above helps

 

[JackD201]

When we had a zoom meet with the brothers O, they asked us why we carried many lines of electronics and (at the time) only one speaker line. In other words I guess, why we approached them in the first place. I said that it is our philosophy as a primarily turn key company to start with neutral loudspeakers and allow our customers to choose electronics that interact with the speakers in the way that they prefer, the way they prefer to listen.

Marten fits that bill as does VSA. Funny enough both have published +/- 2dB standards, perform well at single digit wattage and below remaining coherent at very low levels without becoming shouty when the fun starts that belie their sensitivity figures.( It's very easy to come to this conclusion with realtime meters on your amplifiers and a reason senstitivity figures IMO are highly over rated vs performance.) They follow the same low distortion philosophy, both have premium models offering improved internal wiring and have chief designers both named Leif. The similarities end there however. Marten's radiation pattern is one most box speaker people are used to. VSA has got their own XO thing going and the rear firing ambient array. That makes unassisted set up easier for the Martens. Being used to VSA, I had to take a step back and redo my set up procedure using more toe in than usual and using speaker to speaker distance more to solidify the summing area.

Basically we had been hearing them at the HK and Tokyo shows for years and had always heard them to be very promising which at a show is generally all you can hope for. When we heard the Septets we were convinced that they had made a jump and that we could very well match these with Lamm, Constellation, KR and CH or any other make we might add in the future while being different enough in presentation, models and pricing to VSA for them to coexist in a product matrix.

I'm just really starting the deep dive and I will need more time and access with more models but as of now, what I have found unique is that no other loudspeaker manufacturer I have heard has made passive radiators work so damn well. The continuity of timing and timbre makes me scratch my head. They sound more like aperiodic or sealed rather than ported but is actually its own thing and I believe part of their signature sound. This is as true of the Parker Trio as the MIngus Quintets and Septets that we have heard. When I can see that a manufacturer has spent a lot of effort on their lower lines, it gives me a lot of confidence with what they will do when cost constraints are lessened.

The only warning I would give to potential owners is to really allow the drivers and dielectrics settle in before passing judgement. We can't possibly fully burn in every speaker we import and that makes our show speakers very sought after. The change from out of the box to settled in is far more drastic than speakers that use soft diaphragm materials and little teflon in their parts. Not to mention going from casters to the iso feet.

Their ultimate performance depends on what is feeding them making them quite friendly for distributor and customer alike.

 

[JeromeFrancis]

Dear all,

I can wholeheartedly attest that Marten does something special.

I recently purchased a pair of Parker Duo (Ceramic Edition) standmounted speakers and the sound is precisely what I was looking for since I started buying highend equipment. They are super fast and coherent, and very smooth. Bass goes deep (didn't measure but I am not missing any), which I didn't think would be possible from a standmount solution. They sound very crisp , never harsh in the top end even though there is the Diamond version, which supposedly is another leap in performance in regards to the treble, I am perfectly satisfied with their performance as is. Even placing them in the room was not a problem at all as they sounded coherent from the get go so I didn't even bother yet to dial them in further. The stands are very heavy and come with these Iso Acoustics pugs with vacuum seal to the floor so one would need to put a table cloth or something underneath to move them.

I reached out to Marten before the purchase to check that these speakers would pair well with my Nagra Classic setup. Luckily, they ran a show with Marten Parker line speakers with Nagra Classic electronics and were able to reassure me that it is a very good pairing, and it certainly is. Unless I move to a 150m^2 room, I will most certainly not be inclined to change this set up.

I cannot fault the T&F speakers that I had before, they were very good but not the perfect match for the gear and room I have to say retrospectively.

Cheers,
J.

 

[sujay]

The Parker trios are amazing for what they can do for their size, especially in my room which measures over 500 sq ft. They are very coherent, even more than my erstwhile rockport Aviors, which is saying a lot, much easier to drive, have better articulated bass, which, i agree with Jack, represents one of the best implementations of the passive radiator. In fact, the bass response both in terms of articulation and extension belies the size ( one’s got to hear it to believe what I’m saying). Having said this, their performance mid range and up is in another league imo. That diamond tweeter is something else entirely, leagues ahead of my Rockport Aviors and the overall frequency response is more balanced top to bottom.
My trio diamonds have now run in for over 300 hours and they sound really, really nice! I had the Parker duo ceramic as an interim arrangement before my trio diamonds and in my view they are one of the best standmounts available today, though a bit pricey. They sang without any restraints in my large listening space, enough to charge up a raucous party!
The step up to the Mingus and Coltrane is just way too pricey and I’m not really sure they can comprehensively beat the trio diamonds. I think the Parker trio are amazing value, especially the ceramic version.