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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
fulltriode
3 posts
 
Blueacara,

Thanks you for your post. I have been seriously considering Rethm speakers after reading the positive reviews for the speakers in other journals; and like you, disappointment with well know brands such as Zu (fatigue factor###!!). And I concur that Gideon is a wonderful person with high principles having met him at a regional audio show last year. A few questions for you though.

When at Audio Arts did you compare the musicality of the Marragas with the Ampeggio Voxativ speakers that I assume Gideon had in his showroom. If so, could you comment.

Secondly, based upon what I have read on the Rethm site, your square footage would be better suited for the Saadhana rather than the Marragas which the literature says is for rooms up to 400 sq feet. Why did you not go with the larger speakers. Do you feel you are lacking in any areas of musicality ( sound stage, bass, midrange, etc) with your choice--which may have very well been driven by economics as the Saadhanas are considerably more expensive.

I think it is time for me to also book a ticket and fly to New York to audition the speakers in Gideon's show room. By did way, did he have the Gaanam integrated in the showroom at the time. Or any informtion on pricing? I can''t find much on the net except for a post that says that Jacob has changed the driver tube for the Gaanam.

Thanks for you feedback for another prospective Rethm owner.
blueacara OP
15 posts
 
Sorry for the delay in reply. For some reason I was unable to login for the past couple of days.

1. Maargas vs Saadhanas- I am a VERY cheap guy. I did not compare the Saadhanas (which I think are still not out yet). The square footage might be slightly over cautious there. I sometimes listen to the speakers from my bed room and still they sound stupendous. Truly big sound. Anything bigger in my room would have been overwhelming sonically and visually.

2. I listened with the Jadis monoblocks and did not see the Gaanam when I purchased. It has been more than 3 months since I first listened to them. Gaanam were priced closer to 6-7k.

3. Voxativ were off to RMAF when I got there. I did want to do a side by side. Also they are quite expensive.

4. Dayens ampino- I did not see that coming. I was thinking of gainclones integrated but I think they need a very good tube pre to work with. Problem is trying or sampling it in your home before buying it. Selling it is a hassle. This is where a local dealer comes into picture, like Gary from Summit sound, Bangor - great guy to work with.

I am not sure I can do much better with other amps. There is great synergy here that I had previously not experienced with T amps. The DAC I am using is Bryston which is at least 2-3 steps higher than Rega. Every small difference gets amplified in this sensitive system. That said I could not make out much difference between apple lossless and HD tracks download.

Gideon gives about an hour to listen to his gear and works 1 on 1 in that hour. Take some LPs or good CDs. He was much less than impressed when I took my iPhone and plugged it in.
This is very different from other dealers in Boston who generally do not have experience with low powered amps and cannot for the life of them figure out why you would want 10 watts when you can get 100?!!
gemini05
26 posts
 
Maybe I can revive this thread as I am also interested in the Maarga or even the new Saadhana.

So any new input/impressions is very welcome. In particular, after reading the reviews of these speakers, I wonder whether they are suitable in the longer term for a broad range of music including rock, big orchestra pieces, maybe even some opera, so not only small acoustic/vocal music, as my musical taste is fairly broad.

I would also be interested in hearing about your experiences/thoughts regarding suitable amps. To compensate for the maybe somewhat lean character maybe an amp with a bit more grunt such has an 845 or even push pull would work nicely?

Thank you!
arj
68 posts
 
I have heard the older Saadhanas several times. they are truly exceptional in their speed and agility as well as the way they are able to resolve all the harmonic content. the powered bass module helps in the low end grunt as well. I believe the Maargas are all that in a smaller package for smaller rooms.

I have heard them with 2A3 based SETs and would suggest you try them with those. Fi/Yamamoto et al should all be great options.

you do owe them good cables. I believe solid core goes well with them . the person i know who has taken it to a very high level uses ASI Livelines
jhardy
63 posts
 
I’ve owned Rethm Maargas for a year and a half and I now find it hard to be overly impressed with a speaker that does not perform as well or close in transparency and coherency. I powered them with a Shindo Haut Brion amp which is a push pull amp. The Audio Notes AN-E SPe to me comes close in presentation. Of course they charge the room differently because of the corner placement needed. The AN-E’s sound bigger and bassier but the Rethms are more transparent and coherent. You just don't seem to notice a little lack of coherency in most well designed speakers but in the Rethms and I guess some others you do notice a very coherent sound in a speaker that does it well. They also do the 3d imaging well, have depth and width and are very non-fatiguing but are still alive and dynamic. For different recordings, equipment, CD, radio, they will all sound different and not homogenized. The speakers I had before annoyed the shit out me with their implementation of a beryllium tweeter and I’ve heard it better in other speakers. I've also read and agreed with the Maarga’s likeness to the electrostatic Maggie's but with bass and air pressure. Although if you are techno listener, this is not the speaker for you. Tuneful bass, yes, even for most rock and reggae. Dance reggae and techno probably not. And yes they can rock loud and best of all they can rock at low levels too! I can’t count how many times they have brought a smile to my face after coming home from a stressful day and I am listening to my favorite jazz radio station at a low volume because I want to and I still hear the full spectrum of what high audio listening is all about with nothing diminished. But I also concur with Srajan Ebaen of Six Moons that heavy grunge rock doesn’t do as well. They are just too clean and not lower midrangey enough for that effect to come off as well as intentioned. I'll also add that I first heard them with Jadis 845 amp. Even though the Maarga pair I heard had only about 2 hours on them, I could hear they had a delightful sense of touch. I bought them on this basis. I’ve since heard them with their partnering Rethm hybrid amp. I did not care much for those but with the Shindo gear they shine even better than the Jadis I first heard them with to my ear.
My musical taste is broad as well with a lot of jazz, blues, rock, reggae, indie, and a little classical. The Maargas with their 6 inch driver will be a little lite in the lower midrange / upper bass but once your tubes reach peak operating temperature you’ll find it really hard to notice. I’ve never lived with an SET amp and have not heard a lot of them to be any type of authority even in the smallest way but from what little I’ve heard it seems to me that a push pull might be the way to go for this widebander if only to get the frequency extremes through them that I think I hear I miss in SET amps. But like I said I’ve only ever heard a couple. Maybe some other tube experienced folks could chime in on this.
Having said all that, I liked the presentation of the Maargas so much I just traded up to the Saadhanas. They just got here and I haven’t got them up and running yet. I have to finish some paint work in my music room and its going slow due to work lately so I’ll have more to come soon.
I'll also add that Gideon at Audio Arts is great to work with.
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