Rethm Maarga Impressions.


I have been going about trying to find the right system for about 5 years and this is the culmination of my journey.

The speakers that I had last were a pair of Klipschorns. Irrespective of what I did they did not become small. They were also slightly fatiguing and seemed to lack details at low volume. Now, they were stock and needed the crossovers replaced. But they were not easy on the eyes and were very large.

I went through listening to
B&W 800 or 801 D - sounded reasonable, needed a lot of power to get them to sound that way.
Devore 9s- sounded better than B&W, still lack finesse
Harbeth 40.1- Not really easy on the eyes, bass could get boomy with wrong room
A smaller Harbeth- mid range was to die for, relatively easy to drive, no bottom end.
Wilson Audio Sasha- quite bright with a good CJ pre amp and monoblock amp. Perhaps needed more power from solid state.

I proceeded to fly down to New York and listened to Rethm Maargas after making an appointment with Gideon.
They left me completely stunned. This was my second exposure to Full range speakers. The Zu house sound had left me quite turned off.
The music was making every molecule in my body to experience the passion in it. I was bobbing my head, could not stop although I tried. I was impossible to not get involved in the music. I could not stop listening to 1 song after another. Finished the entire hour without ever realizing it had passed by. The music from my compressed 128 kpbs Iphone was quite good but the music from vinyl was ravishing. The best speaker to speaker soundstage, all the low level detail one can dream of without getting overwhelmed with the detail, liquid sound, very immersive. Not at all fatiguing.

I have since purchased the speaker and have had it for about a month. I got the dealer demo which appears to have been completely broken in. After going through some amps, I found the incredibly cheap T amp to match well with the speakers. The sound almost as good as they did with the Jadis monoblocks that was used to run them in Audio arts. I am sure if I had them side by side I would end up preferring the Jadis SET monoblocks but for now this is a great solution.
Gainclone amps with a good tube preamp also works well but getting a good inexpensive pre is difficult.

Now the part which I have deliberately left out- the way it looks. Gorgeous. Art . Sculpture. The attention to detail is stupendous. It is not something we like initially and then grow tired of (say like an outrageously colored car which becomes tiresome after some time). This is truly a work of art. Does a great job of sitting there and entertaining me and then when music starts playing it become better.

My rest of system is just as modest as the T amp. It includes Apple TV and Mac Mini for source, home depot cables. Large open room which includes dining and kitchen, about 600-800 sq feet. Hardwood floors.

Now a shout out to the guys who have worked with me to get to sound this way- George Jacob from Rethm. He has been answering my emails for the past year while I was considering the speakers. Gideon from Audio arts, who has no patience with anything but the best sound and great synergy. Gary, my local audio dealer for his infinite patience, allowing me to audition as many components as I wanted without every losing his temper. Due to his patience, I have tried at least 7 pairs of speakers in my house, along with different components.

Wanted to get the word out on a particularly good speaker.
blueacara
I have a George Wright 2A3 mono amps for sale right now for $1500 and without spending $4000 or I doubt you will fine a better sounding amp.
Thank you for your input which sounds as if I am on the rigth track. No techno, hip hop or trance music for me but I think all speakers should be able to play Rolling Stones, Allman Bros. and the like well, not only Diane Krall "audiophile-approved" stuff, and it seems the Maarga does that nicely (possibly with a bit less in the bottom end than other speakers with front-firing woofers).
Jhardy, I would love to hear more as you run in your new Saadhana!
Regaring amplification, 2A3 is less power than I am thinking of in view of my fairly large open-architecture room.
Gemini,
I have both the Maarga and the Trishna, and they're both great speakers. Your caution is well founded, as most single driver implementations, while being superb for midrange heavy program material, have trouble playing a wide range of music well (because they're not truly full range).

Rethm designs all of their speakers for full range performance. Zu is another single driver designed for full range, but I prefer the sound of Rethm personally. In terms of full spectrum performance in a single driver design, it would be tough to do better than these.

As far as amplification, I get plenty of scale and authority from only 6 watts of SET. I had 15 watts of push pull power that didn't really compare, so wattage alone is not everything. If you're going with Rethm and need tube amplification, I would stick to SET; in terms of power output you won't find it lacking if you choose the right amp. Good luck.
Jhardy,

Congrats on your new Saadhana and please let us know your impressions as they settle in. I'm curious, did you compare them to Zu Definition IV, by chance? These would seem to be the two main options for high-efficiency full-range speakers with a smallish footprint and minimal crossover.
Nd4speed,
You have a very nice room and I liked your system pics. Hopefully you will re-post your system once the new speakers are up and running.