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

Showing 6 responses by blueacara

Why not start with cost no object solutions and see if there is an equivalent cheaper solution, or am I asking for too much?
Thank you for your responses.
Ahendler- I have been looking at the Transcendent SE OTL- the mini beast. Seems to have adequate power. Have the grounded grid pre amp from them which is quite good except it has too much gain for most amps.

Charles- what would be your list of good low power amp? Don Allen has a 300 B up for sale but it is slightly pricey and is not an integrated one box solution. I have thought of bottle head and am now looking at RWA signature 15.

The other option is to ditch all this and go straight to Gaanam amp from Rethm itself. I am told that this is a divine combination.

Looking forward to suggestions.
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?!!
I had not realized that the thread had continued and I have not come back to Audiogon much but it is quite nice that we have so many more responses.

Since the time I had posted my review, I have had to move twice (will hopefully stay here for a few years), and have changed my system quite a bit.
My hunt for an amp or a DAC has ended, but the journey has been extremely interesting.
1. Transcendent sound SE OTL with 4 watts per channel with grounded grid pre amp- I had built the grounded grid and tried building the SE OTL. Man, is it tough. I am no engineer and should have realized my limitations, had to send it back to have it built right. The owner is not easy to deal with and can use more PR skills.
But, the amp and the speaker combination is almost religious. Single amp was unable to provide enough oomph and did not have head room for home theater, but ,if anyone is able to hear this combination, you should. It will change the way we perceive speakers and sound reproduction.Kinda like SIT amp with Rethm Saadhana on 6moons. The combination is detailed, never harsh, physically moves you (perhaps I am easily movable or just move a lot!). You hear everything (never harsh) and you have so much space around each performer. 3 D imaging is locked down tight. Wow and more wow. I just don't have the patience to deal with the company to build a second amp. If i find a used one may be.

2. Red wine audio signature 15- there have some times when i had hoped for a much more saturated midrange without giving up the frequency extension or delicacy in treble. RWA gives enormous midrange saturation but delicate nature of sound is not present ( at least not in my set up). I think if this improves a bit, the combination would be the best- solid state, continuous on function etc.

3. Rethm Gaanam- Does everything right. Not as much detail as SE OTL but everything else is right. Good detail, great control over speakers, fantastic to look at. Only down side is that it has to be switched on and off to conserve tubes, otherwise ideal combination.

DAC-- Lector audio DAC- tube dac, which, when used with a good SET, increased the spaciousness and imaging. Great combination for the speaker. If you have a good preamp with a first watt F5 with this DAC you probably will have best of solid state and tubes. In some circumstances the DAC may be a little rose tinted to be accurate.

Room and set up- they really need about 3 feet or more from the front wall and corners otherwise some of the transparency is lost. Still will sound good but not fantastic.
They dip down to about 30Hz usable and by 20 HZ it is not a lot of input. I will get a radio shack measure and get a graph plotted soon.

About Maarga vs Saadhana- Saadhana looks like it has more usable bass but it is much deeper too, so positioning would be easier with Maarga. i would probably use a REL subwoofer with a Maarga and pull the speaker out more. I am planning on purchasing a REL myself for home theater where the explosions are not as explosive as I would want. My room is about 12 ft by 10 ft and Maargas may be a little too big, so bigger is not always better.

I have tried JL and B&W PVD1 but REL seems like the best choice to integrate with the speakers.
Will keep updating as things go along.
I used a free app to measure various frequencies by using stereophile test tone.
I think I owe the speakers an apology- they are quite flat from 300hz down to mid 20hz. The test tone does not go below 20. I did not hear hear the sound well below 30hz. I am not sure if it physiological or pathological.

There was a dip at about 300hz but it stayed stable after that (? Room interaction). Used the REL R528se but it overloaded the room very easily. Will tweak it a bit more after breaking in.
Just an update for anyone looking for long term opinion.

I got a Seaton Subwoofer to pair with the Maarga and I think the way to go would be to add a dedicated sub with either Maarga or Trishna. You would need to pull the speakers out into the room a bit for stable and 3d imaging, but it isn't bad even if placed close to back wall. 

If I had to do this all over again, I would probably just buy the speakers and amp without going through the journey of finding the "right amp". Just not worth the trouble and I spent more money than just buying it together. 

Something about the REL sub and tube amp gave a bad humming noise so I settled for Seaton. The sound is great but it isn't a great looking sub, especially next to the Rethm Maarga.

After 4 years, the speakers still sound great. No sense of fatigue, no feeling of need to change, no restlessness that maybe I could get something better, nothing.