Mingus Septet review in HiFi & Musik
We have been blessed with a review from home-grown institution HiFi & Musik which makes us even more proud to be Swedish than we are.
Established in 1984, HiFi & Musik magazine has earned a loyal readership, contributing to the growth of the high-fidelity audio community in Sweden and around the world. It remains a beacon for audiophiles and music lovers, helping them make informed decisions about their audio equipment and fostering a deeper appreciation for sound reproduction.
Here’s an excerpt from the print magazine:
In the last issue, I wrote about what sounded good at High End in Munich. I wrote that there were three brands that in my opinion sounded the best, but I only named two: Wolf von Langa’s Chicago and Venture. The third was, as a Swede I am proud to say, Marten’s Mingus Septet. A newcomer to Marten’s fairly large range that premiered in Munich.
I’ve always found Marten’s room on the High-End show to be an oasis, a place to rest your ears and meditate a bit.
“...it's the sound that counts and it's the most relaxed and effortless thing you can imagine”
The Mingus series Septet is a solid piece but looks really sleek. It has two 2-inch woofers and two 10-inch slave woofers, for the lower registers, a 7-inch lower midrange, a 3-inch beryllium dome for the midrange, and finally a 1-inch tweeter with a diamond dome.
A 4-weight, then, with a first-order filter (6 dB/octave) in all divisions.
All internal cables come from Jorma.
But all that technical stuff is completely unnecessary because it’s the sound that counts and it’s the most relaxed and effortless thing you can imagine.
I really fell in love with this speaker, and that really doesn’t happen often! (If Messrs. Olofsson are reading this, I have a slide in my listening room that would be just right to be filled with a couple of Mingus Septets..). And it’s not even the biggest in the program!
If I’m going to rank the three that I thought sounded the best, Mingus Septet easily wins that race.
Venture is far too unknown to be a real contender, it requires a lot more listening and evaluation. Wolf von Langa’s Chicago has a midrange to die for. That Altec (Western Electric, actually) 755 cone is one of the very best mid-range elements available, even in its original form. Wolf’s field coil magnet just makes it even better.
The treble and bass unfortunately do not reach the level I heard with the Mingus Septet, even if they beat most on the market.
So Marten Mingus Septet was my big winner at this year’s High End.
What was yours?
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Many thanks to Anders Edenholm. Translated by Google.