 Mark&Daniel is something completely new for me. Although I heard something before, I read the test of the model Ruby and Maximus in the “6Moons” magazine, but the brand is completely unknown for me. And this is not very surprising – the company founded in 2004 concentrates on unconventional, quite costly solutions, with self-constructed, uncommon drivers, what will not allow for quick grow. But before we start talking about the construction of the drivers let’s define the ‘self-constructed’. Nobody hides it, that the M&D loudspeakers are manufactured in China and designed in USA by the owners of the company: Mark Wong and Daniel Lee. When we look at them, and read some materials we will see, that this is actually the truth, and not a humbug, that a Chinese company builds something and somebody from the West (also Poland) puts a logo on it. The M&D loudspeakers have an incredible enclosure, made from composite materials, very rigid and heavy and self-designed drivers, with the unconventional tweeter drawing attention first. After getting to know it, time comes to get acquainted with the mid-woofer, which unusual diaphragm is only the tip of an iceberg of what the driver really is.
For the constructors the main issue was to resolve two problems, they recognized in constructions available on the market: SOUND The Mark and Daniel loudspeakers sound differently than other loudspeakers tested this month, also different than my Harpia. Their sound was visibly modeled and subordinate to the preset requirements. This is not a sound, that is tonally equal on the absolute scale. A slight withdrawal of the sound in the 800Hz-1kHz range can be heard. This is exactly at the cross-over point of the speakers (800Hz). This give a deeper than usual, a bit “braked” sound (‘braked’ is an approximation, but this is the best description I came up with at the beginning). A similar effect, but of course at a much bigger scale, we get putting a damper to a trumpet. Everything is a bit softer, but also slightly damped, it cannot be described differently. So why do I deal with those loudspeakers? Because they are popular and have their fans? Because the effect of using such speakers is the presence of other assets. Assets, that we have to fight for, most of the time paying for them much more. )
From the Maximus we get an incredibly coherent and smooth sound. Their treble is so incredibly delicate, that it resembles silk, liquid silk. The treble does not exist for the listener in first moment. Only in the first moment, because just after that, it turns out, that the frequency range is broad and everything is in its place. But this first contact sets the later perception of the music. The sound is very smooth. There is no trace of aggression, harshness, sharp edges, etc. When in a big-band, like on the disc Paradise Laurie Allyn (Mode/Muzak, MZCS-1124, CD) we hear the wind section, then it has bite and strong drawing. But visibly it is about the upper midrange and not the high harmonics. Because there, where we have tape noise, like on the mentioned disc, or on the Intermodulations Bill Evans and Jim Hall (Verve/Universal Music Japan, UCCV-9342, CD), there it is reproduced in a completely different way than usual. My Harpia show it in a rather uncompromised way, maybe thinning it a little. The tested a month ago Enigma Mini Sound&Line warmed it a little, but showed quite a lot of its upper part. The Maximus do not show it at all at first. At least it seems so. But when we listen to the recording just like that, without stretching ourselves to hear everything, then it will turn out, that everything I talk about is there, somewhere below everything and not exposed. Still every fault of the tape, every movement, is clear, as if the loudspeakers would have an above average phase integrity, as if the distortion in that are would be negligible. Of course no one buys discs for the noise, but it shows nicely, how those speakers treat the treble in general. Because that is the way we will “see” the cymbals. Not imposing on us, compared to other speakers even slightly withdrawn, but in a specific way more natural, less hi-fi and more hi-end. Like I mentioned, the instruments are shown in an incredibly coherent way. And this when dealing with older jazz recordings as well as newer rock. And with the latter the ‘rolling’ of the treble is not heard, because the energy of the cymbals remains there and there is no talking about warming of the sound. This is why the double album The Best Of Radiohead (Parlphone/EMI Records, 227588 2, Special Edition, 2 x CD) sounded really aggressive (in musical sense) with strong cymbals and guitars. Also in this case the withdrawal of the mentioned part of the sound spectrum was audible, what gave deeper, darker vocals. But the more important thing was that despite this characteristic, at least that is my opinion, the different, and not always good, quality of those recordings was discernible better than with the Enigmas and was close to what I heard from the Dobermann. I mentioned during the S&L loudspeaker test, that I did not review this disc, because it is very badly recorded. At least with the Harpia, being quite merciless speakers. With the Enigma it was different. And probably the first ones emphasized the shortcomings, and the latter sweetened and softened everything a bit. I am not sure for 100%, in audio everything depends on the reference point, and I was not there, when the pieces were recorded, so such points are for me the listening sessions, still this is what I know for today. Anyway the Maximus are seated somewhere between the Dobermann and the Enigma, and surprisingly became the ‘golden middle’ – because the problems with the disc recording were obvious, still I could listen to it; on one hand I had quite clear treble, but at the same time sweet and silky, and on the other its slight quieting and depriving from aggression. )
At this disc I could also notice something, that makes the Maximus an exception among small bookshelf speakers. In the promotional materials we find the information, that one of the characteristics of this speaker is the possibility of the woofer to have big diaphragm stroke. Such declarations are not always true, but not in this case. There is no very low bass, but the upper and mid-bass are accented strongly (you have to be careful with the placement of the loudspeakers – they should not be placed near walls and especially corners), but all event that ARE shown by the speakers have splendid dynamics and ‘kick’. I noticed that at first with the mentioned disc from Laurie Allyn (nota bene, discs issued by the Japanese company Muzak from Mode Records are phenomenal. Not very known performers, but the music is superb. This is jazz from the 50. and 60., top notch. The covers are drawings – those depict portraits of the performers a bit like USA court drawings, or caricatures – brilliant. Most of the stock is issued in the form of mini-LPs, but not all of it. My copy of the Paradise is in a classic jewel box). Together with the vocalist we have a big-band, that can hit it when needed, and the M&D reproduced this dynamics very well. It was the same case with Radiohead. If I would search for small speakers intended to rock music, I would give those a listen due to their dynamics. And this is audible not only in places with many sounds, but also in other fragments, for example in the end of the piece Creep, with a dense and strong descent, that sounded truly dense and full, even when played at high volume levels. Even the active ADAM Classic Compact tested in this issue, were not able to sound so unconstrained. I mentioned also, that the bass does not reach very far down. Its upper part is rather disciplined than romantic, but it can show strength when needed. That was the case with The Man Machine from Minimum-Maximum Kraftwerk (EMI, 334 996 2, 2 x SACD/CD), where I got extraordinary big bass for a bookshelf. Partially responsible for its strong lead is its slight hardening. This is not such a quick bass like from the Dobermann, or so saturated like from the Enigma. Sometimes it might seem one dimensional, but it will depend on the recording itself and the placing of the speakers. The closer to the wall the worse. The double bass from jazz records and the bass from rock ones went much lower, than with the, splendid in that aspect, GS10 Monitor Audio and were much clearer. They were less differentiated tonally, but also without the slight warming audible with the British monitors. The Kraftwerk disc repeated what I heard before – I had a dense, full midrange and almost invisible, but always present treble. )
During the listening sessions I was intrigued by the resolution of the Maximus. This is not easy to explain. On one hand, with some discs it would seem that the loudspeakers treat the upper midrange in a quite rough way, without looking into the matter. But in other cases… During the listening session I listened also to the discs of the September ‘tour’ of the section Music. Those were mostly newest re-editions of First Impression Music, and there was Now the Green Blade Riseth (Prioprius/Lasting Impression Music, LIM K2HD 027, K2 HD CD). I compared this edition with the previous one, on XRCD2 (Prioprius, XRCD 9093, XRCD2). The difference was huge! Not only in the recording itself, although this was also the case, but about that what the speakers showed. The Maximus with the XRCD were precise, with the sound on the first place, but at the same time a bit one dimensional and ‘flat’ tone wise. With the K2 HD it was completely the opposite – vivid, warm, without any nervousness in the midrange, with a deep sound stage. The differences were bigger, than those I heard during the Krakow Sonic Society meeting devoted to the K2 HD technology (review HERE). It was as it this music was created to fit those speakers. And a half an hour earlier I listened to Kraftwerk and I thought that those speakers ‘live’ for that kind of music. A similar, very clear, vision of the change I had on the exchange of the interconnect cable. For some time I listened to the Maximus with the Lektor Prime Ancient Audio player hooked to the Leben RS-28CX preamplifier by means of the PA-02 TR Oyaide cables. Then I exchanged them for the Gold Eclipse 52 Wireworld. The change was colossal! And frankly speaking, earlier, even with very expensive speakers, the changes between the cables were not very dramatic. With the Wireworld everything got nobler and blushed. The bass ceased to be one dimensional and was better controlled. Incredible! So it is very difficult to clearly judge those speakers. There are clearly places where something is weaker (part of the midrange) or stronger (upper bass). So those are not ‘even’ speakers. On the other hand, the ease they handle dynamics jumps with, beautiful treble and the phenomenal ability to show changes in the sound path and recordings is something that sets them apart even in hi-end. They do not sharpen anything; they do not warm anything, but have a dense midrange and a clear first plane. The sound stage is not very broad but deep. Similar to the bass. They are picky in terms of placing, and very picky with regard to the accompanying equipment. Picky like the Princess and the Pea. But this is how it is with the aristocracy. You cannot buy them blindly; you have to listen to them at home. And then who knows… Let’s just add, that those speakers need a strong power amp – no weak tube gizmo’s, weak class A’s (in this case the power like from my Luxman M-800A or Accuphase A-60 is a minimum) will not be enough. The effectiveness of those speakers in not very high and the impedance curve quite freaky – it is a nominal 4Ω, but goes down to 2.8Ω with not very easy phase shifts. DESCRIPTION )
The loudspeakers Maximus-Monitor from the company Mark&Daniel are not big, but still very heavy. This is due to the enclosure made from artificial marble (Compound Artificial Marble). In the front, the sides of the baffle are very cut-in, what is to help in the propagation of the treble. The mounted tweeter is the Dreams (Directly Responding Emitter by Air Motions Structure) transducer, working on the same principle as the AMT from dr. Oskar Heil, a compressed and retracted folded sheet with vertical Neodymium magnets. In the used here model DM-1 the diaphragm is placed in a half circle. Below the tweeter we see the grey membrane of the mid-woofer, which covers the lower spectrum of the frequency range until only 800Hz, where the tweeter kicks in. The transducer has an excellent dispersion pattern in the horizontal plane, up to 30º (up to 8kHz) and almost 0 in the vertical plane, what helps in nullifying the ceiling and floor reflections. The diaphragm of the DM-1X woofer is made from a pressed composite of cellulose and fibers (probably carbon fibers). The DM-1X works in a bass-reflex setting with two small ports venting to the back. The bass-reflex pipes are long – they reach almost the front baffle. On the back we see also a nice looking plate with double wire terminals connected by real jumpers with copper (!) spades (looking as if they would be made by Cardas) and not by shunts made from gold plated junk. Unscrewing the drivers allows adding some more details to the description. The tweeter is packed in a rigid chassis from cast metal. The AMT drivers radiate to the front and to the back in equal strength, so in the Maximus there is a vertical septum and dampening foam just behind the driver. The woofer, model SX6.5a-08 with 6.5” diameter has a solid, cast spider and an unusual, but very good magnet from rare earth metals (NdFeB), that is characterized by small dimensions and big can around it, that works as a heat sink. The enclosure is made from artificial marble, a material similar to the DuPont Corian, that has double the density of MDF. In the Maximus it has the thickness of 12mm (without any connection points!). The inside is damped with foam and stiffened by a horizontal MDF grommet. The vertical plate behind the AMT is also wooden. This is to eliminate the “dead” sound of composite materials cabinets and give it some warmth and “body”. The cross-over is mounted on the grommet – there is a big air coil, a few capacitors, including a polypropylene one from Bennic and wire resistors. Mark points to the fact, that the required capacitance was constructed from parallel connection of many capacitors rather than one, what improved the parameters of that set. So we have an electrolyte, polyester and a very good, and expensive, XPP capacitor of very low leakage. The company materials state, that all filters are of low order.
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