I was amazed by the number of booths that had signs saying “We speak Dante” at the recent InfoComm16 show. Much like how the internet came to stay, I think it's pretty safe to say that Audinate hit it out of the park with Dante. It's become the Cranberry of the audio world; it's in everything. One of the pairings that caught my eye was from Martin Audio and their new CDD Live! series of loudspeakers. In all honestly, other than knowing the name, I hadn't been all that familiar with Martin Audio before last year's InfoComm 2015 in Orlando. There I was able to experience their line and their debut of the original CDD passive speaker. Since then, I have kept a close eye on what this British manufacturer is doing.
The new CDD Live! that debuted at InfoComm16 takes the best parts of the existing CDD line and adds some secret sauce to the mix. This version is self-powered with an onboard Class D amplifier that Martin Audio has selected for its horsepower. The line consists of five speaker models, three full-range boxes, and two subwoofers. The smallest full range speaker is an eight-inch woofer model that packs an impressive 1,000 watts to the low end and 300 watts to the high-frequency driver. The power just goes up from there as the speaker sizes increase.
Now, I know what you're thinking, “there are lots of powered speakers on the market”, and you're right. But that's not what separates Martin from the pack in my opinion. It's the fact that the CDD-Live! is utilizing a Dante Networking backbone. With so many audio consoles speaking Dante these days, this improvement to the speaker allows users to maintain a digital signal chain all the way to the loudspeaker. Routing is now a simple click of the mouse on a router, and you can send whichever signal from your console to whatever speakers you want. However, the back panel of the new CDD Live! still has a good old analog connector with auto failover if a problem is detected on the network.
Beyond Dante, the CDD-Live! also uses Martin Audio's own DSP software called VU-Net. Because the speakers are already on the network for Dante connectivity, the user also has access to all the DSP function of the speaker. Each speaker comes with several factory defaults presets for fast setup in a portable use system. Options like: Full Range Main, Stage Monitor, and Operation with Sub will get you in the ballpark if you're in a hurry. Beyond that users can save presets that they create. I didn't have the the opportunity to really dig into the DSP while at InfoComm16, but from my initial thoughts, it looks like they give you the ability to tweak the speaker with polarity, EQ, and delay.
I know everyone gets excited about an awesome looking line array, and so do I, but I have to question some of the rooms I see them installed in and wonder if that was the best option. While coaxial speakers are not new, Martin's Coaxial Differential Dispersion pattern improves on that design. The crazy things about these speakers is they act in a way like a line array should by giving even coverage from front to back but in a trap-style box. I was able to hear the new CDD Live! in a demo and was impressed by the sound quality from around the room. Their voodoo box creates a horizontal pattern that seems to creep into all corners of the room. I won't even pretend to know how they do it, but considering the combination of power, control features and coverage, the new Martin Audio CDD Live! loudspeakers have certainly earned a place on my short list the to consider the next time I'm in the market for smaller loudspeakers for installed or portable applications.
