I had the chance to listen to both the M3 as well as to the M1 speaker by GGNTKT today in my home town in Hamburg. Roland Schäfer
@roland{at}GGNTKT was presenting the speakers of his company, GGNTKT, at the Norddeutsche HiFi-Tage. Situated in a Steigenberger hotel some 24 km up north from my neighborhood, I decided to go there by car and grabbed the camera to leave some visuals cue for the internet:
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Both speakers were presented in a proper automotive paint finish that is optional, which helped the 1.2 meter tall M3 to appear more easy to the eye. The wide-angle lens is somewhat exaggerating, so here is another mobile pic with Schäfer:
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I stayed for about one and a half hours to first listen to the M3 and afterwards to the M1. Here is a short write up of my listening impressions.
M3: We listened to a number of demo tracks that I did not recognize or remember, ranging from audiophile female solo singers to drum tracks and classical. The source was a MiniDSP studio that served as a transport for Tidal streams into the speaker's DSP enabled amplifier section. According to an uncalibrated app on my phone, we listened at around 70 dB average (z rated), which surprised me, because subjectively it did not sound as 'loud'. Eventually, I asked the company owner/presenter to play a to me well known track,
Jack of Speed by Steely Dan, that, among others, I had used excessively to tune my ongoing, probably never to be completed attempt at getting
high end performance on a dime (alas, today I had to learn that my attempts, if successfully transformed into a proper, finished speaker, will belong in a lower class than the GGNTKT; which was to be expected anyway).
I liked to use the mentioned track because it features powerful, yet variable low bass lines as well as distinguished and contrasty percussions, together with voice and more arrangement. This is handy when tuning/doing room correction, because when a speaker is room-corrected in the modal region, oftentimes the general presentation shifts and a new balance with higher frequency elements must be reestablished.
Not so with the M3: As with the previous tracks, what stood out was that no matter how much the cardioid subwoofer section was strained by the program material, they were always in control. The presentation of the song that contains some pronounced bass sounded absolutely effortless and clean, and the bass did not take away a bit of the resolution and clarity that the other drivers provided us with (I think I heard the mid woofer takes over at 200 Hz). I have not heard a speaker as crystal clear, clean, defined and powerful as the GGNTKT, but must admit that I have not heard its direct competitors to date. However, Roland Schäfer was seemingly not convinced we were getting the optimum and he quickly changed the preset from the touch screen at back of the M3 to full cardioid. Maybe the initial preset was something similar as the low cardioid mode of the M1, I don't know. This made for a drastic difference, but the tonal balance was still very good. The sound of the speaker became exceptionally open, for a lack of a better word, when the Sound Power in the low mids / high bass was reduced. I could not make out the 2 dB bass shelf of the room corrected M3 that was in place. In short, I must say this speaker sounded outstanding.
M1: First, I did not like it, but I learned this was related to the preset. The M1 was set to low cardioid and was not room corrected. Later, Roland Schäfer changed the preset to sub cardioid and this changed the whole presentation. I once again requested to listen to the Steely Dan song for comparison and even without room modes taken care off, besides some small resonances that I could make out, it sounded so much better. In fact, in combination with a subwoofer, the properly setup M1 should suffice the needs of most listeners, it was very clean, open, detailed. It was exceptional, again. With the M1, I also had the chance to take a seat in the stereo center and I could measure its soundstage width in my mind: the small speaker provides a very wide and extended soundstage that engulfs the listener, but it does not extend much beyond the speakers. Both speakers were toed in by 30 degrees or so, because of the small room, which should not be necessary in a modestly sized living room. I would also love to listen to the speakers when they are set up with a wider stereo base. Curiously, it still delivers very nice imaging. Maybe a narrower pattern speaker has the edge here, but it was very much an acceptable trade-off for me, and I would rather like to be engulfed and presented with a huge stage than a composed yet smallish image. As both speakers feature a similar horizontal pattern, I guess the same goes for the M3. I heard a subwoofer module for the M1 is in the making. For those that can afford it, I can strongly recommend both speakers. Thanks.