I went over to Sandeep’s home recently to hear the speakers. I had taken my Marantz PM 7001integrated(70w at 8ohms/100w at 4 ohms) and a set of cables for biwiring, which we did. The room is about 12 sq feet with carpeting and sofa. Normally furnished and ideal as a listening space. The speakers were placed at an equilateral distance of approx 7 feet or so and were raised on a solid mfd spiked platform about an inch of the floor. Woofers placed outward(some may consider it heresy, I hear the better sound). A Wiim streamer was used as source and various genre of music played. After warming up for some time, at about 9:30 on the volume dial my first thought was,” Hey, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with these speakers.”
In fact, within the envelope of a moderately powerful amplifier, they were sounding lush and smooth with the classic Marantz sound coming thru with a slightly rolled off treble, moderately rich midrange and reasonable bass.YMMV as my 70year + ears are not what they used to be, with significant loss of midrange ,possibly due to listening at v high volumes at a younger age. So to all you young folks: bring down the volume and thank me later.
It must be remembered that the speakers, although rated at 90db have three drivers with a 10inch woofer, are certainly not an easy drive for most amps. Moreover, as I recall now, although the speakers are rated at 8 ohms, I measured DC resistance at 5 ohms with a cheap multimeter. Maybe Amit can provide the impedance plot and detailed measurements and correct me if wrong. The Marantz which is 100w at 4 ohms possibly could get stressed at higher volumes, though die hard Marantz owners,(and I am incl), may vehemently disagree. So my final thoughts were that I could easily live with these speakers, however they do need a powerful high current amplifier which doubles down at 4 ohms, to drive at high volumes and also a large room to realise their full potential .Biwiring helped in this case as the 10 inch woofer got a dedicated cable run and is strongly recommended. While room size is a factor we must remember that we have to adjust to room size available(many of us,including me live in very small flats) and not speaker size, for continued domestic harmony. So I would like to say that these are fine speakers, heavy, solidly built and finished with high quality drivers. This is the Mk 1 version in which the speakers are not flush with the front baffle. As I have not heard the Mk 2, which has flush mounted speakers and other reported improvements, a comparative comment cannot be made. Standalone with a suitable amp and source this is a very fine speaker.
Thank you Sandeep for allowing me the pleasure of listening to your system and the excellent hospitality at your home along with your friend Anil and your young son who bore our hobby with patience.
