COMPANY SOUND:
These speakers are very, very musical with a huge open sound, a very dynamic, responsive midrange, smoothly integrated bass, and the best highs of any speaker today. These speakers are musical instruments in themselves and bring out the best in the upstream electronics. The hybrid design is very well integrated, top-to-bottom and removes any possibility of box coloration throughout much of the frequency range. They are the very slightest bit warmer than neutral but otherwise do not add much sound of their own - sounding very natural and clean. They are easy to drive, though to get the last ounce of slam out of the bass drivers requires large solidstate amplification.

These larger Acapella speakers optimize the use of three different technologies: the tweeter generates the high frequencies using a modulated plasma (i.e. spark) that, because it is nearly massless, does not have the inherent distortions associated with all the other tweeter technologies that have to vibrate, albeit very thin, membranes in order to make sound. Because these speakers use this, the de-facto best tweeter in the world - they are naturally cleaner and smoother sounding than other speakers.

The midrange uses a horn assembly, driven by a conventional cone driver, is like most horns very efficient and greatly enhances the dynamics of the middle frequencies. One of the major problems with all speakers designs is that they cannot reproduce the dynamics, the 'jump factor' of real musical instruments. Horns, through their increased responsiveness, get a lot closer to the dynamics in the real world, and these particular horns, constructed of a very thick and solid composite, non-resonant material - are smoothly integrated with the other parts of the speaker and are totally absent any horn 'honkiness' that other, less well-engineered horns are often saddled with.

The bass uses a number of conventional 10 inch or larger woofers. It is to the credit of the Acapella designers that they have made these woofers be as responsive as the other two technologies of these speakers, which are very responsive and dynamic indeed. In order to achieve this near miracle the overall slam factor of the woofers is slightly less than what one might expect - instead there is a seamlessness and naturalness to the bass that instead goes to help makes these speakers have a very natural and organic sound.

The sound of each speaker in the Acapella line is very consistent - gaining size, openness and dynamics are one moves up the line starting with the standard Violon all the way up to the SPHÄRON Excaliburs.

COMPANY SOUND:
Kharmas are neutral sounding, transparent, dynamic and with a large soundstage. The mids and highs are fairly detailed but the bass, although present, is less so. In general the Kharmas are easy to drive speakers (especially their rmidrange) and so they are often paired with state-of-the-art tube, and sometimes OTL, amplifiers. These pairings result in significant synergy that supplies an enjoyable, relatively big sound in a small package.

The Kharma speakers use one of the best crossovers in the business - refined over many years, their crossovers help integrate the sonics of two or three more or less conventional state-of-the-art drivers into an organic whole that produces one of the most transparent and enjoyable sounds in the business. Combined with some innovative enclosure technologies that reduce internal cabinet wave propagation by using largely non-symmetrical computer-generated cavities -

The tweeter used in these speakers is either a conventional design or a diamond (encrusted) tweeter that is capable of generating very high frequencies - frequencies that are just now being accepted as being critical to the correct formation of the delicate harmonics of real music. The midrange driver is one of the Acuton Ceramic drivers, one of the best conventional driver technologies in the world, which due to is razor thin, very light membrane can reproduce the subtle microdyanmics of real music as well or better than anything else out there.

The bass of the Kharma 3-way designs is generated by a conventional woofer - and here, a little detail and slam have been sacrificed in order to make a seamless whole - more so on the mid-sized designs than the the larger, bass is satisfying and rousing - but not possessing the wonderful detail and microdynamics of the rest of the frequency range.

The sound of each speaker in the Kharma line is consistently very transparent - but somewhat uneven as regards efficiency, drivability, and innate musicality. Note that the numerical rating below is for the Ceramique Reference monitor 3.2, which is somewhat more musical (especially when driven by Lamm or Tenor amplifiers), easier to drive, and with a tendency with a larger soundstrage than the rest of the lineup.

COMPANY SOUND:
These speakers are very, very accurate. They compel a person to dare to compare the sound they produce to the actual recorded event. They do not have any severe shortcomings - top-to-bottom they are not bright, etched, cold, warm, or dull-sounding - and their features are many: top-to-bottom they have loads of detail, with a flatter frequency response than most (with perhaps the slightest dip in the upper mids) and are very, very transparent. They are small and easy to position and forgiving of imperfect room acoustics. They are just the tiniest bit hard to drive in the bass (but not as hard as the Kharma Grand Ceramiques, for example) and have a tendency towards small soundstage width and a somewhat lean/tight sound. Our suggestion would be to pair them with an amplifier/source that is somewhat more bloomy than what one desires, and one that has good control over the bass. Also, positioning them near the front wall and pointed straight ahead removes any trace of leanness and opens up the soundstage nicely. These speakers are so revealing and so accurate - they are like the Valhalla of speakers - feed them the right stuff and they are magnificent.

What makes these speakers design so special is the optimization of three aspects of the speaker's construction.

The use of state-of-the-art Acuton ceramic drivers for the bass as well as the midrange and highs (tweeter optionally a diamond tweeter) generates a consistent, almost extreme level of detail from the bottom octave to the extreme highs - making the sound accurate and very lifelike at all frequencies.

Then their is a the enclosure, whose shape and construction minimize resonance and generates a waveform like that of very small speakers - and creates a 360 degree sound field that makes this speakers disappear and creates a tangible 'solidity' to the instruments in the soundstage that is almost spooky.

Finally, the crossover somehow is able to take the nasty edge off of the ceramic drivers - which can be almost too responsive and sound a little 'crispy' in some speakers, while removing little if any of their detail.

The Coltrane is the only Marten Design speaker with a carbon-based fiber enclosure - their others being smaller speakers, which also use ceramic drivers. The Coltranes are fairly lightweight and easy to move and (re)position.
 

COMPANY SOUND:
The SoundLab speakers have a very big, open, detailed sound with an amazing amount of inner detail and a total absence of box colorations. The large size of these speakers makes optimal placement to achieve the soundstaging and imaging they are capable of a challenge, though they will sound pleasant in almost any configuration. They have one of the largest sweet spots in existence do to their curvilinear front design. A somewhat low efficiency, high impedance requires that either large, high-current, high-voltage soldistate or tube amplifiers be used if large SPLs are desired (though a 220 watt Edge NL-10 achieves over 95 dB handily).

The SoundLab speakers are unique in that they are one of the few full-range, single-driver electrostatic speakers. The fact that they are full-range means that the bass, midrange and highs are all equally detailed and of the same characteristic. The fact that they are essentially a single driver means that all the notes, and all the parts of a single note, start and stop in-phase and at the right time (assuming the technology is implemented correctly - and it is with the SoundLabs).

Finally, as an electrostatic speaker, each note is created by the speaker causing vibrations in the thinnest of membranes,  the mass of which is vanishingly small. This means that the subtleties of the note are not lost due to the inertia and weight of an traditional cone driver. The Souindlabs are also a dipole speaker, which further helps reduce distortion caused by the reflection of the sound waves within traditional box enclosures (though enclosures like those used by Kharma and Marten Design reduce this problem to virtually nil and horn designs like the Acapella midrange deal with such issues differently).

So there you have, a technological tour-de-force that addresses many of the problems of traditional speaker designs. The trade-off is speaker efficiency and drivability. These speakers require large amps if they are going to play loud. Because of the impedance curve for these speakers (about a 40 ohm impedance in the low bass, decreasing to approximately 6 ohms at 500 Hz or so - the older SoundLab designs went down to 3 ohms - then going right back up to around 15 ohms before slowly decreasing to 2 ohms or so in the high treble range), they really like the amp driving them to have high-voltage capabilities for the lows (for example tube amps and some high-quality solid-state designs) and high current for the highs (class A tube amps and most good solid-state designs).

COMPANY SOUND:
These speakers have a warm, musical midrange and a nice transparency and soundstage that is very pleasant to the ear. The bass is somewhat compressed. Very large amps that have a lot of bass control are required to get the most of the lower registers, but the entire frequency range still suffers from a slight reticence. These speakers have a little difficulty resolving large complex musical passages, especially at volume.

The Avalon speakers have a rich midrange achieved with the use of a ceramic midrange (and optionally a diamond tweeter) careful tuning of the speaker's crossover, and the shape and construction of one of the enclosure, with one of the most attractive enclosure finishes in the business. The shape of the enclosure (like that of the Marten Design speakers) helps the speakers generate an almost 360 degree soundfield (though both of which are bettered by the MBL speakers).

Avalon was one of the first manufacturers to build very transparent speakers at a (somewhat) reasonable price and in a reasonable size and weight. This interpretation is based mainly on the Avalon Eidolon and the speaker line's overall character, especially with respect to their microdynamic reticence and a laid back mature, have been somewhat minimized in both the Eidolon Diamond and, we suspect, the latest (1/2005) rev of the Eidolon.

COMPANY SOUND:
The Wilson speakers specialize in producing a somewhat forward sound with lots of midrange detail and large scale dynamics (especially their larger models). They are becoming more and more easy to drive over the years, and are relatively efficient (especially their larger models). One of the more difficult speakers with which to optimize placement, their ability to come apart into pieces makes them one of the easier to move speakers. Their slightly over-emphasized midrange makes them often sound bright and brittle, and makes their sound very sensitive to upstream electronics. All but the largest models are lacking the slightest bit of detail in the bass.

The Wilson speakers all use heavily braced enclosures utilizing custom materials to reduce harmful resonances from contaminating the speaker's sound. They also use custom drivers in order to tailor the sound to be exactly what Wilson wants it to be. And what they want it to be evolves along with the industry, going from a very forward midtrange and plentiful but un-detailed bass to a good deal more flat frequency response in their recent models.

In this way the Wilson speakers trail the leading edge of loudspeaker design, instead focusing on the audiophile who has little time and incentive to do the research to find the speaker that perfectly suits their preferences, instead preferring to get something that is reliable, high-quality, readily available and 'good enough'. In this way these audiophiles may be short-changing themselves - as not only may there be other speakers that may suit their ear better than the Wilson, but the Wilsons, being very sensitive to not only placement, but upstream components, could also, in and of themselves, come a lot closer to an audiophile's personal preferences with just a little more attention to their system's component selection.

For example, because the Wilson speakers now capable of generating some of the most powerful bass of any speaker made, they are often paired with large Krell solid-state amplifier or very large tube amp like the VTL. But for many people this will be ultimately unsatisfying, as most music relies on the midrange and these amps are not known for their finesse or ability to render delicate and intricate information in the midrange frequencies. The Wilson to this day has a slightly emphasized midrange that is capable of a good amount of detail - and so this deficit is even more apparent than it may be on other speakers. The Wilson speakers are also, traditionally, the tiniest bit on the cold side of neutral, so a slightly musical or warm amplifier helps make the overall presentation more natural and enjoyable.