the 400 Million Dollar Extreme: Marten Mingus Orchestra Statement Edition

swedish high-end audio manufacturer Marten takes audio reproduction to the extreme with its flagship model, the Marten Mingus Orchestra StatementEdition. named after the jazz musician, the speaker is the product of a unique philosophy and uncompromising perfectionism, and costs a whopping $470 million. let’s take a deep dive into everything that makes this model more than just a speaker, but a work of art.

jazz, and perfectionism: marten’s philosophy

marten is a brother-run company, with the older brother running the business and the younger brother designing. they are jazz enthusiasts and are known for naming their speakers after legendary jazz musicians such as Charles Mingus and John Coltrane. their core philosophy lies in their first-order crossover design. they believe that complex networks distort the sound, and their approach is to maximize the performance of the driver unit with the simplest possible circuitry. what they lack in cabinet design, they make up for in top-quality internal wiring materials, and the name ‘Statement Edition’ means that they use top-quality ‘Statement’cables from world-renowned cable manufacturer Yormathroughout the internal wiring.

the ultimate unit combination: a feast of diamonds and ceramics

since its debut, Marten has insisted on driver units from Germany’ s Accuton. the Mingus Orchestra is lavishly equipped with some of their finest units.

• super tweeter: 0.75-inch pure diamonds
• tweeter: 2-inch Pure Diamond
• midrange: 7-inch Pure Ceramic
• woofer: four 8-inch aluminum sandwich cell bases
• passive radiator: four 10-inch aluminum sandwich at the rear

in particular, the combination of the 2-inch diamond tweeter and 0.75-inch diamond super tweeter produces extremely detailed and transparent highs, while the four woofers and four passive radiators deliver distortion-free reproduction down to a phenomenal ultra-low frequency of 22 Hz. The result is a staggeringly wide range of 22 Hz to 100 kHz.

extreme build: cabinet to toe

to fully support the unit’s performance, the cabinet is also built to the extreme. the fiberboard cabinet, up to 42mm thick, is finished with seven layers of lacquer, and the solid wood top and bottom are handcrafted by Swedish craftsmen. all corners are rounded to suppress the generation of standing waves, and the feet, which act as the speaker’s feet, are fitted with proprietary products developed in collaboration with vibration control specialists Isoacoustic.

sound review: Realism beyond the concert hall

at a town hall held at The Hi-Fi in Sinsa-dong, using the Solution 7 Series and dCS Rossini system, the Mingus Orchestra sounded overwhelming. the Beethoven Triple Concerto delivered more information and unity than a real concert hall, while the Schubert Piano Trio produced rich harmonics that captured even the slightest air vibrations. it filled the room perfectly, with a tremendous sense of density, as if you were watching a 16K class picture, not 8K. with the Rolling Stones’ music, it showed an excellent balance of each instrument without losing the power and ferocity of rock.

key specs and pricing

price	470 million
configuration	4-way 10 speakers (+ 4 passive radiators)
playback frequency range	22Hz – 100kHz (±2dB)
impedance	6 Ω (3.2 Ω minimum)
output Sound Pressure Level	89 dB / 2.83 V/m
dimensions (WHD)	29 x 171 x 42 cm
weight	130 kg