High End 2015 • Hot Product

The new Coltrane 3 is not huge by Marten standards, but the $100,000/pair price is pretty stiff. It turns out that the cabinet is made out of two elements; everything except the front baffle is 3/4" (25mm) carbon-fiber laminate that’s heavily braced and damped. The baffle is a 2 1/2"-thick (68mm) laminate of MDF and aluminum that provides a solid anchor for two 10" aluminum-sandwich bass drivers, a 7" ceramic midrange and a tweeter that combines Marten’s CELL technology with a pure diamond dome. Despite the low mass of carbon fiber, the whole speaker weighs in at 209 pounds.

When driven by the new MSB Select 2 DAC/preamp and four of the same company’s Platinum Mono 203 power amplifiers (200 watts, $27,500 each), this system delivered the cleanest fully extended bass of the show and was uncannily revealing to boot. That much was apparent with totally unfamiliar material. Good thing they didn’t have any Frank Zappa or we would have lost a day.