Having waxed ecstatic over the big Märten full-range loudspeaker on display at last October's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, I was delighted to discover the somewhat smaller $30,000/pair The Bird on display in two virtually square, air-walled conference rooms at the Sands/Venetian Convention Center. The three-way speaker, with a 6 ohm impedance, boasts a frequency range of 28Hz–45kHz, and is 89dB sensitive at 2.83V.

Heard without benefit of room treatment, first with a complement of EAR electronics ($6895 865 preamp, $7295 890 Acute power amp, and $5495 CD player in aluminum finish), then with all-Swedish electronics from several different companies (Bladelius $13,995 Gondul Mk.II M multi-format player and Bladelius $15,000 Ymer stereo amplifier, Jorma Design cables, and Solid Tech rack), the Märten speaker's custom-made, 26mm, diamond tweeter and ceramic drivers contributed to a wonderful, vibrant presentation of great width and depth. Lows were muddled, but that was the case with many speakers encountered in the Sands' near-impossible-to-control conference room acoustics. I look forward to further opportunities to hear the speaker, which is distributed in the US by EAR's Dan Meinwald.