60 day in-home audition, 1 year warranty

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Neutral sound from natural materials

A pair of Marlins plus subwoofers give a headphone like, ultra detailed presentation without the fatigue of wearing the headphones. They are relatively neutral (especially for a single driver) and are a practical, space saving addition to any home or professional recording studio.

Marlins or Orcas?

The Marlins are slightly more revealing than the Orcas and therefore a useful tool for professionals who think a little outside of the box. They should be given serious consideration as a pair of nearfield monitors when spatial accuracy is the main goal. If you want to know where all the little sounds are really at in your stereo mix, you’ll be able to find them with the Marlins. Well balanced, compact, high-fidelity single driver speakers that fit into any bookshelf yet can fill even large rooms with high-quality sound. Also ideal for compact home theater or commercial applications, they play loud or soft with ease and neutrality. SET amplifier aficionados will find their 91.5 db efficiency to be adequate.

Amplifier power recommended

Marlins work in the near, mid, or far-field listening distance and can be powered completely with as little as 4 watts, however their stout voice coil and dual layer paper/faceted aluminum dome cone construction mean powering up to as much as 100 watts per channel on tap, you can push the Marlins to their limits. These efficient speakers still only need to use the first (and typically cleanest) 4 watts of those up to 100 watts that are available from the amplifier - and the speakers will get quite loud on the additional wattage above 4 watts before soft clipping (over-excursion) occurs around 10 watts. If you have a tube amplifier with less than 4 watts per channel, the Marlin will still get plenty loud and has a beautiful, smooth, relaxed sound with low power SET amplifiers all the way down to 1 watt per channel.

Full range single driver

• Multi-layer paper cone with aluminum dust cap

  
  

• Extra large magnetic circuit

  
  

• Low wattage rated voice coil works perfectly with low power SET amps (thin wire, low weight)

  
  

• Voice coil is technically rated for 5-15 watts, perfect for typical home listening levels

  
  

• While Marlins work well at low volume, they can play extremely loud for their size

  
  

• Will sound great with any amplifier between 2 watts per channel up to 100 watts per channel available on tap

  
  

• Mechanical clipping (overdrive) is gentle and does not damage the speaker driver

  
  

• Uncanny midrange articulation

  
  

• Stamped steel frame modified for smoother resonance properties

  
  

• High excursion cone suspension for excellent bass response

  
  

Driver hardware

• Stamped steel washers

  
  

• Steel screws

  
  

• Neoprene washers sandwiched/tuned in conjunction with driver frame

  
  

• Mechanically independent driver gasket/air seal

  
  

• Driver screws are torque tuned by hand and gauge

  
  

• Driver frame floats on a combined dual durometer constrained layer of compound damping materials

  
  

• Generously proportioned air gasket is the high-frequency stage of constrained layered damping

  
  

Cabinet acoustics

• Bass reflex ported enclosure

  
  

• Polished/oiled solid wood port w/ 1/16" roundover

  
  

Cabinet construction

• Wood burn brand

  
  

• 150-year-old coachmaker's varnish recipe of linseed oil

  
  

• Void-free plywoods have interior layers that are the same thickness and wood quality as the exterior layers

  
  

• Extra strength, non-toxic and waterproof wood glue applied in all workshop joinery and internal glues inside of the plywoods

  
  

• Hand clamped 100% open construction joinery

  
  

• Swift glue ups and single stage curing for lower internal stresses in joinery

  
  

Internal bracing design

• Faceted solid wood internal braces similar to those found inside a guitar, piano soundboard, or inside other acoustic instruments

  
  

• Constrained layer acoustic damping materials bonded to cabinet walls with a low durometer adhesive that itself functions as a dual purpose high-frequency absorber

  
  

Internal wire

• Same as Waterline Cables

  
  

• Swiss manufactured 13 gauge ultra pure Oxygen Free Copper (OFC)

  
  

• Hand-crimped, hand soldered connections

  
  

• Non-resonant, low capacitance hammered in binding posts

  
  

Cabinet finish

• Polishing all external wood surfaces, smoothing interior surfaces

  
  

• Linseed oil application lowers surface noise coming from all combined solid wood surfaces

  
  

• Polished, oiled surfaces are naturally protected from various hazards of the typical household environment

  
  

• An optional semi-annual application of the non-toxic linseed oil (sold as the Refinishing Kit in the online store) will deepen the golden shine

  
  

Cabinet feet

• Low durometer clear urethane feet decouple the bottom of the speaker cabinet from the top of any surface

  
  

• Urethane feet provide grip as well as carefully tune the high-frequencies that should not travel into neighboring pieces of furniture via a constrained layer of damping

  
  

• Please handle cabinet feet with care - they are "audiophile" feet meant to grip, not slip! (For household safety as well as appropriate mechanical decoupling for acoustic purposes)