Munich High End 2024 Show Highlights
Marten Coltrane Quintet with Halcro Equinox + Eclipse Mono
The new Marten Coltrane Quintets were complemented by Jorma cables and electronics from esteemed partners such as Antipodes (Oladra), DS Audio, Halcro (Equinox preamp and Eclipse Monos), MSB, and TechDas.
For this year’s demo, the exhibitors created a room within a room to showcase the superlative electronics (among which the brand-new Halcro Equinox preamp) and, of course, the brand-new Marten Coltrane Quintet. The room looked visually attractive, but more importantly, the performance clearly benefitted from it: this was the best sound I have heard from a Marten room in Munich!
As can be seen in the images above and below, the polished carbon fiber is now visible, and I absolutely dig it. These must be the most beautiful speakers in existence.
One of the standout features of the new Coltrane Quintet is the new custom convex carbon fiber mid-bass driver. Combined with a custom pure diamond tweeter, a custom pure beryllium high-midrange, two aluminum sandwich bass units, and the signature first-order crossover, the new model promises new levels of clarity and realism, according to the manufacturer.
Since I first heard them, the Coltranes have been my favorite Marten speakers. Based on what I heard at this show, the new Coltrane Quintet improved on the Coltrane 3 in several areas. First, I fully agree with the marketing text: these new speakers do indeed provide heightened levels of clarity and realism.
Marten speakers have always excelled in fluidity and organic flow, and the new Coltrane Quintet is no different. But on top of this, there is a level of expression I’d not heard from Marten speakers before. Actually, this was foreshadowed by the introduction of the Mingus Septet last year in Munich. It’s probably no coincidence that the new Coltrane contains the same full beryllium upper midrange that is used on the new Coltrane Quintet. Still, the Coltrane manages to perform on another level altogether. Cleaner, faster, more coherent.
The Marten room also featured the new Artesania Absolute Rack Steel, shown on the left and right in pre-show photos above and below. It has to be said: Artesania builds some of the most gorgeous hifi-furniture!
The room may well be a contributing factor, and we sure cannot ignore the Halcro amplification and the other great electronics. Still, this year, I heard a level of precision, speed, resolution, and transparency that I had not experienced in a Marten room before. The upper midrange was maybe a bit prominent, but that may be a matter of the speakers requiring more running. But even so, I prefer a little extra bite and excitement over a midrange that is too reticent and lacking vitality.
Above: TechDAS turntable with DS Audio cartridge and Equalizer for analog and MSB Cascade DAC for digital. Below: the brand-new Halcro Equinox preamplifier. During the show, the Equinox and the MSB DAC took turns feeding the Halcro power amplifiers.
This concludes the Munich High End highlights.
Now, it’s time for the highlights from the HifiDeluxe show in the Marriott Hotel.
Great coverage, Christiaan. Are you certain that the new Halcro preamplifier was hooked up and in the signal path? Several show photos show XLR in (analog source) and out on the back of the new MSB Cascade DAC. The volume display on the DAC also suggests that it was acting as both DAC and (passive) volume control.
Good question! As it turns out, the Equinox was indeed not used all the time. Part of the demos have been done with the volume control of the DAC directly connected to the monos. Alas, I can no longer ascertain if what I heard had the Equinox in the signal path or it it was the MSB Cascade DAC connected directly.