This past weekend, I compared Lansche 5.2 to Marten Bird 2 speakers. These speakers are roughly the same size, although the Lansches have 80 pounds on the Birds. Moving 180 pound speakers with only two people was doable, although back-breaking.
It was an interesting comparison. The room was pretty good size and the Martens with 2 x 9" bass drivers struggled to keep up with the Lansche single 10" driver. Martens sounded boomy and uncontrolled in the bass. Their boom and bloom overpowered the mids and obscured midrange detail. Comparatively, the Lansches sounded tighter and well controlled in the bass if not slightly lean. Both feature bass reflex cabinets but the port tuning is clearly different. I feel the Marten port should be tuned a bit higher in frequency. On the treble side, the Lansche plasma tweeter sounded pure with perhaps a tinge of brightness, but a bit laid back in comparison to the Marten. The Marten diamond tweeter at times sounded slightly more detailed and dynamic, a good thing. At other times it tended to sound a bit hard and edgy. But I could live with that. In terms of detail, the diamond tweeter beat the plasma for me. Treble timber differed as well, and I thought the Lansche was preferable in this area. Overall, the Lansche sounded quicker, cleaner and more precise while, to me, still retaining sufficient body. The Marten sounded slower, thicker, and warmer with its prominent bass overhang. In terms of integration, I felt the plasma tweeter, paper mid, and aluminum woofer in the Lansche sounded just fine together. The results were interesting and unexpected to me.
Pics or it didn't happen...