Audacious Audio

As I prepared this review of the Marten Mingus Septet Statement Edition loudspeaker ($199,000/pair), I asked the Marten people to tell me something about the company and its values.

Silver platters and I began divorce proceedings over a decade ago. The separation began when the husband and I contemplated liberating ourselves from crime-ridden East Oakland and moving to placid Port Townsend. There was no way I was going to haul 55 big boxes of CDs 846 miles and have no place to put them.

Full-range speakers are usually at least three-way rather than two-way, for good reasons. Although a three-way crossover network is harder to do right, and there can be phase-coherence issues if the drivers aren't well-matched and well-integrated, a two-way speaker with a woofer big enough to generate room-filling lows is even more difficult.

No grand pronouncements on the state of the industry or the even grander universe. No ruminations about the mysteries of the high end or the ultimate interconnect to immortality. Rather, a single, simple, indisputable fact: I needed a preamp.

When auditioning a new audio component, I invariably start with some ideas about what I should listen for, based on my preconceptions about the pitfalls and propensities of products in its category. For example, with digital, I'm listening for sound that's awake and unprocessed. With every component, I start by hoping I can spot their colorations and assess their level of importance.

A first for German manufacturer Octave is the Jubilee Class A mono ($85,000/pair), a push-pull class-A monoblock with a self-regulating autobias pentode circuit that can also run in "high power" class-AB mode. The Jubilee Class A monoblock uses KT120, KT150, or KT170 output tubes.

Founded in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1972, Linn Products Limited is in an elite club whose members have been around for 50 years or more. You're doing some things right if you can prosper in the quirky audiophile marketplace for more than 50 years.