With our smaller room hosting the king of 300B amps, the Audio Note Kegon Balanced amplifiers – our larger room will be host to the king of GM70 amps – the Lamm ML3 Signature amplifiers [and for those of you who were looking forward to the KB’s on the Supremes – please visit us here in Boulder – anytime, day or night].
With help from Lamm Industries, we will spoil the visitors to our room [and ourselves!] once more this year with the ML3’s on the Marten Coltrane Supremes loudspeakers.
We are not all that familiar with the Lamm ML3 – though for the couple of hours that we heard them on the Wilson MAXX II at CES we were very, very impressed – and this will give us all here in Denver a chance to get a good dose of what they can do. As a reference point, we have had the ML3’s baby brother, the Lamm ML2.1, on the Supremes for most of this year – and most people really love THAT sound. This will be much, much better.
The Supremes present a very high-resolution, very easy, 94-95dB efficient load for the amps because the bass towers, handling everything below 100Hz, are driven by some beefy 2000 watt/channel solid-state amps. This should let us hear exactly what the amps can do in a optimal situation [without having to worry about a speaker’s bass impedance curve shenanigans and listening around bass integration issues] – and likewise hear what the speakers can do driven by amps with a very sophisticated sound [the complexity of each note’s harmonics and micro dynamics being nothing short of remarkable] a sound with what we think of as an innate sense of Russianesque drama and romance.
So… we are psyched! Neli is jumping up and down [and keeps counting HRS isolation bases to see whether we really do have enough to handle the FIVE boxes up front [when one includes the Marten cross-over box], and Mike is [along with talking in the 3rd person for some reason] trying to figure out the cable compliment to use, what TT to bring, etc. We STILL need to try the ODIN speaker cable on the Supremes – but I think we might as well wait for the ML3 to get here at our shop first – because I think the amp->ODIN->Jorma Design PRIME-inside-the-speakers might make the sound very dependent on the amp. What powercords go where …. yadayadayada.
It should be GREAT fun! We hope all of you can make it.
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Marten has announced a limited edition ‘Coltrane’ loudspeaker called the ‘Black Pearl’.
What distinguishes this speaker, visually, is that the front panel is gloss black. Internally, though, is where the fun is: it is wired with Jorma Design’s PRIME cables. Enough said?
No? Then you haven’t heard the PRIME cables…:-) BUT there is also upgraded crossover parts, cabinet structure and slightly more tube-friendly bass drivers [which I think are now available on all new Coltranes]. Looks like the speaker is also about 14 lbs heavier than it used to be, now weighing in at 118lbs.
Price: $90K USD [‘Standard’ Coltranes are $60K] … of COURSE we want a pair. But we already have a pair of the walnut Coltranes in on consignment – their current owner is remodeling needs a little extra funds [figures, huh? All of you who have remodeled know exactly what I am talking about, don’t you] – so we aren’t desperate for the Black Pearl… yet.
Here is the essence of the brochure:
