Martin Audio

Martin Audio is a Loudspeaker company

About Martin Audio

Martin Audio was founded by Australian audio engineer David Martin in 1971 to manufacture and supply touring sound reinforcement systems for the supergroups of the day that included Pink Floyd and Supertramp.

Martin's early folded horn bass cabinet design (known as Martin Bins) are typical of the industry standard in the 1970s. Today, Martin Audio supplies systems across the spectrum of sound reinforcement applications from the high power levels demanded by large touring acts to classical ballet or small theme bars, for example.

Design Approach

Martin audio designs aim for flat frequency response in the acoustic design in preference to electronic equalisation. Martin use horn loading in large cabinets, preferring hyperbolic profiles in bass horns and exponential horns driven by cone drivers for mid-range.

Smaller systems use a more conventional approach using reflex-loaded cone drivers and bandpass subwoofer designs.

Wavefront Series

Martin released the Wavefront series of loudspeaker systems in 1995.

The large format W8 cabinets use two horn-loaded 12-inch and one 6.5-inch cone driver for low-mid and high-mid respectively and a 1-inch compression driver/horn assembly for high frequencies. The more popular W8C reduces cabinet size and weight by omitting one of the 12-inch drivers.

The original Wavefront subwoofer (W8S) used an unconventional design based on a horn-loaded 15-inch driver and a reflex loaded 18-inch driver in separate acoustic chambers within a single cabinet with identical dimensions to the W8. These devices operate over the same frequency range, yet for best results one driver needs to be delayed relative to the other. The W8S has largely been superseded by the larger WSX subwoofer, which is a folded horn S-bin design based on a single 18-inch driver.

The Wavefront series includes a number of smaller cabinets, some of which borrow technology from the larger units, and are otherwise based on conventional reflex-loading techniques. The series also includes a single bandpass subwoofer which uses a 6th order parallel-tuned topology based on two 10-inch drivers.

MLA Series

Martin Audio released the MLA (Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array) series in 2010.

The MLA series represents significant advances in line array technology, specifically in array resolution and numerical optimisation.^[1] Each MLA component has six individually configurable acoustic cells with discrete amplification, in addition to FIR and IIR processing. A networked array of MLA components may contain over 100 acoustic cells. This quantity of individually configurable cells gives the MLA a resolution that is an order of magnitude greater than previous line array systems. The array is optimised by advanced computer modelling.^[2]

History

Martin Audio was acquired in 1990 by TGI, a holding company that also owns the Tannoy and Goodman loudspeaker companies. However, though David Martin stayed on under the new management, he went missing in late 1992 after a confrontation with his partner in a non-audio business venture. David Martin's body was never found, but his former partner was arrested and convicted for his murder.^[3]

In 2007, Martin Audio was acquired by Loud Technologies, owner of the EAW and Mackie brands.

References

1. ^ Feistel, Stefan; Thompson, Ambrose; Ahnert, Wolfgang (2009). "Methods and Limitations of Line Source Simulation". AES Journal (Audio Engineering Society) 57 (6): 379–402. http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=14823&name=martinaudio. Retrieved 2011-4-25. 
2. ^ Thompson, Ambrose (2009). "Improved Methods for Controlling Touring Loudspeaker Arrays". AES Convention Paper (Audio Engineering Society). http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=15024&name=martinaudio. Retrieved 2011-4-25. 
3. ^ ""OUTSIDE THE BOX" - PRO AUDIO ASIA" (Press release). Martin Audio Ltd.. 14-OCTOBER-2004. http://www.martin-audio.com/pressdetail.asp?pressID=95. Retrieved 2010-12-17.