by Michael

Marten Coltrane Supremes

Well, its like this.

Marten has just come out with their new Momento speakers. We want to try them here. We want to try them here for a, shall we say, extended period of time.

We *could* put them downstairs I guess, in front of the stairwell.

But…

What we really want to do is put them upstairs. But the Coltrane Supremes are there, right?

So what we want to do… is to sell the Supremes to a [soon to be deliriously happy] audiophile and put the Momentos up in the main room.

We think we can get Momentos here by Christmas – so we are motivated to do this quickly.

So all you who have been poking around looking at these, which are the – and I can still say it because it is unfortunately still true: the only competent speaker (and the most capable) made today – this is your chance.

If you look at linearity of response (across frequency, micro-, midi- and macro-dynamics, harmonic, and SPL ranges), drivaeability, ease of in-room placement and adjustment – everything. Nothing even comes close.


The Marten Coltrane Supremes

And, for you fans, we WILL be getting a new pair of Supremes again. Access to unlimited, audiophile-quality bass is addictive [a key point, most other big speaker bass is not audiophile quality, its just loud]. And the 2.5 inch diamond midrange… well… hmmmm… this seemed like a good and logical idea for the store when we talked about it a few weeks ago…. and we really *are* a store, we can’t just keep these here forever… can we?

Well, Neli is going smack me upside the head [several times no doubt] but I think we do need to play with the Momentos some here and learn exactly what they can do. We are Audio Federation. We are the experts. This is what we do, right? Right??

So our precious Supremes are now available at a reasonable price [well, not completely reasonable. But more reasonable]. For those of you who desire the best, the best just might finally be within your reach.

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Marten Design 0 comments
 by Michael

Kara (deHavilland) is right

…the prices of high-end audio gear are indeed getting ridiculous.

Somewhere in all the RMAF stuff I talked about how Kara and I had a talk about the high-price of the high-end. I was somewhat a doubter [and wondered if she was talking to me as an audiophile, as the press, as Audio Federation, or as the Audio Note importer.. Yes, we do sell a lot of high-priced gear here :-)].

Personally [and this is MY rant] I find no fault with the $200K Clearaudio Statement turntable, the $180K Focal Grande Utopia EM speakers, or of the prices of the gear we carry, as long as the company has a range of products and has been around for awhile and the company has a quality reputation [hard to quantify this, but…].

As I go through the show report, and look at some of the prices of equipment from brand new companies and equipment from companies that heretofore produced reasonably priced gear that have been struggling in the marketplace – and see price tags that exceed those of comparable equipment from companies that have been around for years, decades, many decades….

… it just makes me wonder. One of these company’s very first email was a 55% off sale direct from the manufacturer.

Is is just open season on audiophiles now?

First you have the ‘the cheaper it is, the better it sounds’ crowd. Fine. This *is* Bizarro World after all, where everything is its opposite.

But are we really going to see people, and ezines of course to suck their life blood, who believe ‘the newer it is, the better it sounds’. Well, maybe we have had this all along…

Maybe that should be ‘the more unknown it is, the better it sounds’. Yep.

Perhaps we should all just tie-dye some Belden power cords, pick a cool name like, oh, PartyWire, and have unscrupulous dealers sell them for $4K. Everybody who is registered here will be a share holder. We’ll no doubt see lots of faux reviewers posting rave reviews of the stuff. Shills [and the golden-ear-challenged] will post how it improved their system on the forums.

Ugh.

Who buys this stuff? That’s what I want to know.

And exactly when did the entire population of this planet go mad?

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / RMAF 2009 / Show Reports 0 comments
 by Michael

1500 photos and counting….

[Yes, I know I posted this also on FaceBook. But I just thought that this status / update needed to be in both places]

The RMAF 2009 Show Report is about 60% – about 2/3 – done with over 1500 photos so far. Trying to keep the show report lively and informative. This is a little difficult.

I can talk about how so-and-so was friendly and knowledgeable, which some reports do, but that starts playing the ‘praise our friends rooms’ game that many zines play, and frankly, just about everyone is friendly and knowledgeable, but I just don’t quite remember all of their names… all 400+ of them.

We tried talking about the sound – but the vast majority of audiophiles have been lied to so long that they wither don’t believe anything they read, or they believe sound quality is all in the ‘ear of the beholder’ and nothing is any better than anything else. Ugh.

So we post facts and try to be helpful, trying to provide an overview of this very large number of products that we are going to be showing several thousand photos of.

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / RMAF 2009 / Show Reports 0 comments