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The Mark 3's
By Anthony Temple
While recently visiting Southern California I was privileged to listen to
the unusual looking Mark 3 speakers developed by Kris Metaverso and his team at
Ultimate Speaker. I had just arrived from Northern California on a round world
ticket and had there been listening to Kef 101s with a Miller amp; Keisal sub
woofer. Also I had a pair of the Gallo nucleus ball speakers with me which spoke
volumes for diffraction free speakers. Minimizing diffraction is to me an
important feature of good design.
This brings me to the Mark 3's. Kris has made many spherical enclosures over the
years but decided to develop a wing shaped speaker using a 8" bass driver,
a 3" midrange, and a bipolar tweeter. As we set up the speakers for test I
was impressed by the lightness of the cabinets as I had expected them to weigh
much more. Much of this lightness can be traced to the use of high tech
composites in the construction of these speakers. The Mark 3's are a ported
design using an excellent bass driver from Eminence.
Editor's note: The newer versions use an 8-inch Peerless
When we fired up the speakers, I was immediately impressed by the clean bass
response of the system. Listening to track 6 of the Backlash Compilation
"recycle or die" I heard things that I had not heard before.
The Mark
3's use a forward firing ports so placement should not be too critical.
On the
classic Dusty Springfield, "The Look of Love" track on the Café Del
Mar 6 album Dusty’s voice seemed very real with good attach and excellent
decay, this speaks volumes for the modest Linaeum tweeters on top of the Mark3
doing the high frequency work and that they are well integrated into the system.
The finish on the Mark 3s was a bit unusual prompting me to nickname them the
"Halloween Speakers". However, sound is what is important and Kris
assures me that there are a multitude of colors and finishes available.
An innovative product that deserves an audition!
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Anthony Temple is a multimedia producer based in Western Australia.
He also designs and modifies loudspeakers and audio circuits.
He has owned various hifi products- Eico HF30s- LS3/5a speakers Kef Concertos
and Dyna and Cambridge amps.
He works as a consultant and also does coaching of life skills. © Temple
Interactive Media 2000
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