Marten has announced the new ‘Coltrane 2’ loudspeaker which will be debuted at CES 2011 this next January in Las Vegas. We’ve only known about this a few days… and are we ever anxious to hear them!
The most visible change is the two 11 inch woofers replacing the two 9 inch woofers on the previous Coltrane (which we have enjoyed very much and displayed in the Audio Federation room at RMAF 2010)
A closeup of the announcement. The price is expected to be around $85K a pair (the previous Coltrane was $70K).
[The demo pair of cherrywood Coltrane speakers we played in our room at RMAF 2010 to such wonderful effect are still available at a decent discount *hint* *hint* :-)]
The Coltrane 1 is one of the best loudspeakers, if not THE best, at its size in the fricking world [and we are ALWAYS looking for other speakers that can do what these speakers do – i.e. get completely out of the way of the music].
These changes will obviously give the Coltrane 2 more bass and a somewhat larger scale with respect to their overall presentation.
Marten has also announced a hefty 600 watt amplifier. It will be about $45K a pair.
We’ve been talking a lot here about the dearth of high-quality solid-state amplifiers – i..e those able to reproduce micro-dynamics at scale. It will be interesting to see what these sound like 🙂
The player is upwards of 50 lbs and very, very solid.
Closeup of the rear panel
Closeup of the remote control. The remote is not one of those massive metal remotes – which here in a cold climate, I am grateful for, personally.
The player does retain some of the classic Audio Aero styling.
Closeup of the front panel
The bottom of the player. Note that there is a small amount of ventilation there, but otherwise the thick metal of the chassis itself acts as a heat sink.
We wondered in the review whether these might be Stillpoints. Obviously they are not.
We recommend using different feet if you want to hear what this player actually sounds like [yes, extreme words but the shootout revealed there to be an extreme difference when we used 3 HRS Nimbus positioned underneath the chassis, and will send along a free set with every player we sell]
