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You are reading the older HTML site Positive Feedback ISSUE march/april 2008
FormSeries loudspeakers from Marten Design - A Casual
Review
Recently, I spent two afternoons with the Marten Designs Importer, Dan Meinwald, at his home/studio in Long Beach, listening to Marten's latest loudspeaker creation. I have enjoyed their top designs, the Coltrane and the Coltrane Supreme, but I've been an admirer of their smaller efforts. Using electronics I know well, I heard a loudspeaker/subwoofer combination dubbed simply "The Form" that rang my bell. With unique triangular cabinet geometry, the almost full range floor standers with very cutting edge drivers are mated with a sizzling fast sub, and blended perfectly. To my ears, they did more than make excellent music. They quite often recreated the performance right in front of your ears! Plus, depth perspective was eerily authentic as well. When I hear this on mega-dollar systems, I am delighted. When I hear this on an $11,000 loudspeaker system, I am stunned. Speaker Details from their website: The FormSeries represents a new concept of loudspeaker design from Leif Marten Olofsson, chief designer and founder of Swedish manufacturer Marten. After creating award-winning loudspeakers that have reached out to audiophiles around the world, he wanted a new challenge—to create a beautiful and simple geometrical form that would fit into the interior of any contemporary home, yet provide the high-end sound quality and cabinetry for which Marten loudspeakers have become so well known. It goes without saying that the cabinets of the FormSeries loudspeakers are extremely well built, but why the unusual shape? The triangular configuration of the FormFloor and FormCentre models is acoustically optimized to allow the speakers to totally disappear within the soundstage. If you close your eyes, the only thing that's left is the music. The cabinet of a high-end loudspeaker is not only one of the most important contributions to its stellar performance, but one of the most obvious. There are other, less obvious things that are also very important. The FormFloor and FormCentre models employ custom, pure ceramic midrange/bass drivers that give dynamic and powerful bass (from 36 Hz) and a transparent and musical midrange. The ribbon tweeters, also custom-made, provide sweet, seductive sound all the way up to 40 kHz. The crossover components include air-core conductors, polypropylene capacitors, and metal film resistors. The cabinets are internally damped with washed and combed Swedish sheep wool. The feet are made of steel, and feature Resonance Damped Compound (RDC) cones. The FormSub contains a 10" extreme-long-throw driver that is powered by a verypowerful 400W class D amp. The FormSub is very musical, and works very well in both two-channel and multi-channel systems. All FormSeries loudspeakers are provided with magnetically-attached grilles that allow the user to decide if he wants to keep them on or off—the speakers look and sound great with or without them. The down-firing bass reflex ports make it easy to position the FormSeries loudspeakers in the listening environment. FormFloor Retail: $6500/pr
Frequency range: 36-40,000 Hz +/-3dB FormCentre Retail: $3000
Frequency range: 70-40,000 Hz +/-3dB FormSub Retail: $4500
Frequency range: 19-200 Hz +/-3dB Electronics were the top notch E.A.R. 868 preamplifier, the E.A.R. 509 Anniversary Tube monoblocks, the Modwright Sony 777 SACD/CD Player, and the Paravicini turntable with Dynavector's top cartridge. All was connected with Jorma #1 cables, another Swedish design, and also used internally within the speakers. The speakers are single wired. The sub is fed from the preamp. It is rolled in at 50HZ [variable settings are provided] and set at 180 degrees for perfect blend in the environment. The Form towers are run full range and are vented out the bottom. They would not clip the 100 watt tube amps no matter how loudly we played them. The electronics were plugged into PS Audio's new Power Generator. On both occasions, we listened to a variety of LPs, CDs, and SACDs that never failed to entrance. Nothing in the system looked earth shatteringly new except for the unique and fascinating three sided floor standing speakers. They are beautiful to look at and exquisitely finished. However, that's not the story here. They sound almost like my Avalon Eidolons with Rel Studio 3 Sub that cost $25,000 when new in 1999! I have never said that before in any speaker review. But it's true. Highs They are airy, open, and uncongested. You are not locked into any particular spot when listening as dispersion was very wide. I have no idea what the ribbon tweeter sounds like as I could detect no coloration. Maybe, just maybe, it was a tiny bit sweet as well as neutral. But for certain they were superbly and realistically detailed and had that almost diamond tweeter openness. Mids Sophisticated, alive, sweeping, organic, involving, huge dispersion, superb depth, highly detailed, neutral, realistic…were in my listening notes. Imaging was spot on and well textured. The speakers did a convincing disappearance act and left only the performance to admire. Lots of micro and macro dynamic swing was apparent. Almost as dynamic as the Coltranes, the combination of tower and sub was both delicate and dynamic with lots of swagger. Instruments floated in space. Musical colors and temperatures were literally right and often alive. Lows The sub blended beautifully without ever calling attention to itself just like my Rel. It extended the mids to the center of the earth and gave the overall speaker design a foundation most audiophiles would envy. I liked it better than added 8"or 9" woofers working very hard to do bass in other designs. The 10" driver in the Form Sub was unflappable and just did its job and got out of the way. It made the system sound subjectively flat to the mid twenties with definition even below that. Someone worked very hard to voice this combo by ear. How can $11,000 be a deal? It probably can never be considered cheap, but more and more audiophiles are auditioning loudspeakers in this price range and most are not getting a full range speaker. I spent $22,000 and had to add a sub. The Marten Form is full range, about 20Hz to 40kHz, and will work well in any room I can imagine. They are beautiful to look at, stunningly realistic sounding, and don't lock you into a single listening position. They sound very nearly like the vaunted and highly renowned Avalon Eidolons. They also sound alive on many fine LPs and silver disks. This phenomenon happens more often than you might expect. When it does, it's amazing to hear. The Marten Form and Form Sub, welcome to America. Highly recommended.
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