New Look MartinLogan Motion Series for Home Audio and Home Cinema

MartinLogan announced seven new Motion Series loudspeakers for music or home cinemas. Praised for performance and value since its introduction, when it came time to introduce a new generation of the Motion Series, MartinLogan decided not to mess with a good thing. The new line of modern, multi-application speakers utilizes the same benchmark-performance technology as previous generations of the Motion Series, updated with a modern and stylish new design. Available October 2019, the Motion Series features seven new models, including two floorstanding, two bookshelf, and two center channel speakers.

This month I characterized the 10” L26ROY subwoofer from SEAS’ new Extreme line. The SEAS L26 series from SEAS was popularized by several of Siegfried Linkwitz designs (sold by Madisound as kits), including his "pièce de résistance," the LX521.4, which utilized four L26RO4Y subwoofers (the four-layer version). These 10” woofers were built in Taiwan for SEAS, but that production has now been brought home to Norway and reintroduced as the Extreme subwoofer line. The new L26ROY has a well-appointed feature set. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2019.

SEAS announced the launch of its new Titan product line in the Prestige Series, implementing FEA-optimized magnet systems with copper caps and rings, and titanium voice coil formers, in combination with matte black aluminum cones and domes, among many other improved features. SEAS' Prestige series offers a large array of sizes and diaphragm materials to perfectly fit the exacting requirements of both the OEM and distribution markets. The new Prestige Titan series is a long-awaited refreshment of this product line.

Compact 1” to 2.5” diameter full-range drivers (micro speakers) are unquestionably one of the most used transducers in consumer electronics, finding broad applications in smart speakers, soundbars, and portable Bluetooth speakers. For this Test Bench we characterized the Punktkilde FSA621520-2300 2” diameter 3 Ω full-range driver. This article was published originally in Voice Coil, November 2018.

This month’s Test Bench samples came from US OEM, Dayton Audio. I received a home audio 6.5” woofer, the DSA175, from the brand’s popular Designer Series of aluminum cone woofers. Each product in this line incorporates proprietary stamped steel frame with a thin mounting lip that enables front mounting without insetting the driver (surface mounted), high relative XMAX, with paper cones for the DS series and aluminum cones for the DSA series. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, December 2016.

Bass amplification specialist, Hartke (part of Samson Technologies) released the HyDrive HD Series Bass Cabinets, with four models featuring an enhanced version of Hartke’s patented HyDrive Speaker Technology of paper/aluminum hybrid cone drivers. The drivers feature outside curved, Kevlar-loaded paper cones with an inner straight, anodized aluminum section, now featuring a new double-roll, curvilinear surround that limits the drivers from over excursion, an updated ferrite magnet assembly and steel chassis design.

In this Test Bench, Vance Dickason measures the SW223BD02 8.75” subwoofer from Wavecor, part of the brand’s rather extensive line of subwoofers. Wavecor’s SW223BD02, which is the 4-Ω version (SW223BD03 is 8 ohm), was designed specifically for high performance compact subwoofer applications and has a generous feature set. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2015.