Being close to the front (aka back) wall can be really helpful for Marten speakers. They were designed to be placed close to this wall and it helps reinforce the mids and low end. Even the rear ported Coltrane Supreme speaker bass units work well [ours are about a foot from the wall), all else being equal [i.e. there are no room nodes at the particular speaker position]. The side walls have not presented any problems either as long as we are aware of the 1st reflection point issues.

As far as the Momento speakers specifically, however, we do not have direct experience with them beyond what we saw at CES in the Marten exhibit room. Looks like they are about 2 feet from both the front and side walls.

Happy Holidays to you and Holland!
-Mike

The Birds are in a different cabinet than the Coltrane, and there is a another speaker between them, the Soprano [which is a smaller but similar cabinet to the Coltrane].

All the Marten speakers have a similar sound: evenness, really good capability for transparency and micro-dynamics. The Form and Getz [immediately below the Birds] are to the ’slightly musical’ side of neutrality, making them slightly more forgiving. By slightly I mean slightly, not like Sonus Faber, and not even like Kharma… just slightly.

The thing about Marten is that you get to hear your upstream components - which we really like because we really, really like our upstream components - spent good money for them and spent a lot of time picking them out from the legions of ’stuff’ in the marketplace. We mostly like them so much because they let us really hear the source material. AKA The music. [I said that somewhat casually, but this is the system design approach we have been using for the last few years].

The Coltrane is more bigger: more bandwidth, bigger sound, more bass, more detail, more resolution, more dynamic than the Birds. The only time the Birds would have the advantage would be in a very small room: say, less than 100 square feet maybe? 80? Oh, and they are less expensive.

Take care,
-Mike

Rgds,

Arshad

Really cool pictures, eh? I’d love to visit their showroom in Gotenburg, from everything I hear it’s fabulous.

That 6 month wait has very likely shortened significantly now that the Momentos are actually in production.

Kind regards,
-neli

thanks for sharing that………..I’ve always wanted to get even the smalles taste of what those look like on the inside…..Some great looking woodwork on those, and the carbon is waaaaaaay thicker than I expected.

6 month wait has got to be torture!

Mike