TweekGeek.com is proud to announce the new line of loudspeakers from Mark and Daniel.What I like about the Mark & Daniel loudspeakers Well, for one the sound. Simply put, you will not believe the tansparency, speed, coherance, and sheer amount of sound that eminates from the Ruby and (especially the) Maximus monitors. Unique and very advanced driver technology, like high excursion woofers with Neodymium magnets that keep the voice coil in the magnetic gap throughout the entire range of it's excursion. Giving you high output, low distortion bass at full volume. You simply won't believe a speaker this small can hit hard at 40 Hz and not even break a sweat. But they do. Wide dispersion Heil Air Motion HF drivers that are crossed as low as 800 Hz presenting a huge, dynamic cohesive and deep soundstage like nothing you have heard in this price range. I have always been a fan of a single wide bandwidth driver crossed well out of the 2kHz band (an area where our ears are particularly sensitive to distortion and phase), the SP Technology speakers do this very well, but for those of us who do not have the space for their loudspeakers the M&D loudspeakers are a perfect fit. There are other differences between them, but they are mainly a matter of preference. Sonically both are knockouts.
So what makes these speakers different from any other?1) The High Frequency Drivers are extremely wide bandwidth covering 5 octaves ( 800Hz-22kHz), and having a radiating surface area 60 times greater than a 1" dome tweeter, yet only 20% of its weight. The DM-1 utilizes a 10 micron (0.0004") ultra-thin aluminium ribbon which is symmetrically folded into 52 micro elements, constituting a diaphragm area more than 60 times that of a 1" dome while its attendant mass is less than 20%. The diaphragm is then submerged into a magnetic loop comprised of 21 Neodymium-Iron-Baron (NeFeB) magnets. The module is housed in a 5mm thick cast iron/stainless steel casing for rigidity.
2) The Low Frequency drivers have extremely high, extremely linear excursion. The Super Xmax Drivers are small drivers with big bass output.
The end result is that Mark & Daniel SX woofers can move more than 3 times the amount of air compared to an ordinary bass driver of the same size. Although other long-throw bass speaker designs can be found, the SX driver is one of the very few whose excursion in both directions is always entirely under complete magnetic control throughout this range of motion. Constant magnetic control, even at the extremes of the speaker cone's travel , produces a "tight" disciplined bass, with no unnatural overtones, and no muddiness. The sound is clean, coherent, and accurate to the original source recording, not a vague approximation.
M&D's patented SX technology also employs the expensive NdFeB magnet to ensure a very powerful and even magnetic field. A high-efficient ribbon copper voice coil is wound around a TIL fiberglass former that can withstand 250ºC. The ultra-large rubber surround is out of proportion for a driver of its size. The cone is tough compound paper and the frame is die-cast aluminium. As a final touch, the signal-carrying lead-out wires that run behind the cone are secured by being threading through rings of DuPont Matamax dampers, protecting them from vibration caused by the enormous firepower.
What we have here is a super driver that delivers deeper undistorted bass at much higher levels with more than double the linear excursion and at least 7dB higher SLPs than conventional drivers of the same size.3) The enclosures are cast out of a single piece of Material. To complete the speaker package, M&D opted for a conventional boxy enclosure made of a not so conventional material: compound artificial marble (CAM). It's polished to a glossy shine. This material is similar to DuPont's Corian, more than twice as dense as MDF and less easy to break than natural marble. The entire enclosure is one molded piece of art - no seams, no joints, no veneer. The compound marble skin is 12mm thick and backed by a 5mm MDF liner that's spray-painted white to give an overall strength equivalent of 30mm MDF. Do not underestimate this 5mm of MDF. It plays a vital part in conjuring the warmth and musicality that most exclusively stoned cabinets lack. The tweeter and bass compartments are completely independent and separate chambers, the former being very shallow and just deep enough to contain the DREAMS HF module. Both chambers are generously lined with 20mm thick polyfoam to further damp cabinet vibrations.
Unique drivers with leading edge technology and the special Compound Marble hand-crafted enclosures produce clarity of sound that simply must be heard to be believed. All major components are developed and crafted "in-house" for unparalleled performance.
From Mini Monitors to FloorstandersA full-range product line of M&D® speakers is available for your selection at TweekGeek.com. The Muse series is a great choice for hi-end AV speaker applications. For hi-fi reproduction, many start with the the 5" Maximus- Ruby, or the 6.5" Maximus-Monitor (My personal favorite). The 8" versatile Aragorn sound system is a superb choice for demanding audiophiles, and the huge 10" Apollo sound systems can re-produce enough low-end bass to shake any listening room while providing stunning clarity and transparency to the upper end of the audio spectrum.
A Word About AmplificationThe Mark & Daniel Monitors require high current amplification of at least 100 watts. Single ended triodes need not apply. No offense to them, its just that the M&D speakers are relatively inefficient. The Ruby is 82.5 dB at 1 watt, and the Maximus is 85 dB.
