Bas samych Divin Marquis jest pięknie rozwinięty, wszechstronny, soczysty, nisko rozciągnięty. Z subwooferami jest jeszcze więcej "mięcha" i obfitości, lecz dokładnie to, co dostarczają same Divine Marquis, ma swój sens, wysoką jakość i odpowiednią ilość. Ten bas nie będzie atakował twardymi uderzeniami ani rozpływał się na samym skraju pasma, jest sam w sobie świetnie wyważony, nasycony, czysty, gęsty i uporządkowany.

Tutaj przechodzimy do głównego punktu programu, wspólnego mianownika wszystkich Goebeli. To idealna spójność, homogeniczność, symbioza, z lekkim przesunięciem środka ciężkości ku niskim rejestrom.

Średnie tony są traktowane w sposób o tyle naturalny, o ile szczególny. Wyzbyte suchości, mechaniczności, syntetyczności, przerysowań. W dolnym podzakresie zdrowo nasycone, a w górnym – czytelne, ale nienatarczywe.
Średnica jest wybitnie plastyczna, ocieplona, nawet ciężka, ale nie ociężała – to wzorcowe brzmienie dla wszystkich, którzy szukają takiej właśnie siły, bliskości, a zarazem subtelności.

Poczucie obecności muzyków, komunikatywność, łatwość odbioru wszystkich składników i całości pojawia się natychmiast, nie ma przerwy i końca. Przy każdym materiale muzyka nabierała ciała była tak piękna, jak tylko być mogła, niezależnie od technicznej jakości materiału.

Słabsze realizacje oczywiście ustępowały najlepszym, ale nie były dyskwalifikowane, żadne problemy nie zniechęcały do ich słuchania – wręcz przeciwnie, w porównaniu z tym, co robiły z nimi inne kolumny, lepsze czy gorsze, Goebel Audio Divine Marquis dawały im drugie, lepsze życie… W związku z tym nie rekomendowałbym tych kolumn do bezlitosnego monitorowania, mającego uwypuklać wszystkie problemy, bo są one na to zbyt łaskawe i uprzejme.

Link do recenzji: Goebel Divin Marquis – Audio

It is always easier to describe "how much" a speaker delivers than to put that into a musical context. The Göbel loudspeakers were chameleons. They sounded small when appropriate, as with Chris Thile's transcriptions for mandolin of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Violin, Vol.1 (16/44.1 AIFF, Nonesuch 5353602) but massively powerful when the recording called for it, as with Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way" (24/192 AIFF needle drop from a 12" 45rpm single, ABC ABE 12002).

My ears frazzled by giving in to the temptation to play Joe Walsh as loud as the Göbels would allow without strain, I gave them a rest by cueing up Leonard Shure's performance of Schubert's Piano Sonata in B-flat, D.960 (24/96 ALAC, released on LP as Audiofon 72010). Peter McGrath recorded this performance in analog in 1982, and it has been in constant rotation since he gave me the 24/96 digital transfer a few years back. The piano's left-hand register sounded suitably majestic, its upper frequencies delicate when called for. Peter had placed his microphones relatively close to the piano; there is therefore only a slight hint of hall sound with this recording, but the Divin Marquises were sufficiently transparent to make me aware of it.

I returned to Chris Thile with a recommendation from Jason Victor Serinus, another album of Bach transcriptions, this time played by Thile on mandolin with Yo-Yo Ma on cello and Edgar Meyer on double bass (Bach Trios, 24/96 AIFF files, Nonesuch/HDTracks). I played "Wachet Auf," a work I've known inside out since playing the obbligato on violin at a school orchestra concert in the early 1960s. Thile plays the obbligato with appropriate delicacy, and Edgar Meyer plays the walking bass line pizzicato; the lowest notes were nicely fleshed out by the Göbels but without any boom: There was no indication that these are big loudspeakers with big woofers.

Bach led naturally to Beethoven, specifically a new recording of the Sixth Symphony, the "Pastoral," from the Akademie für Alte Musike Berlin led by concertmaster Bernhard Forck—no conductor! (16/44.1 FLAC, Harmonia Mundi/Tidal). As I was expecting, the thunderstorm in the fourth movement was reproduced in full measure by the Divin Marquises. But it was the unexpectedly delicate way in which these speakers got right the country-dance character of the third movement, the bassoon punctuations in particular, that impressed. And the glorious restatement of that I-vi-IV-V chord sequence—so overused since Beethoven's time (footnote 1)—at the end of the finale rocked my world on the Göbel speakers.

Full range, low distortion, no coloration: The thoroughbred performance of the Divin Marquis confirms that Göbel High End presents serious competition to the Wilsons, Magicos, Rockports, Tidals, von Schweikerts, and YG Acousticses of the cost-no-object loudspeaker world. I am going to miss the Göbels when they go back to the distributor, and I am not looking forward to packing them into the flight cases and maneuvering them up the steps to my vestibule.

Link do recenzji: Goebel Divin Marquis – Stereophile

This is a speaker that never fears the slower movements, that never makes the music lag, or drags it back. Its low frequency clarity combined with a natural pace and dynamic response means that sudden shifts in level or density still shock or surprise, even from familiar recordings. It’s a capability that brings a new subtlety and life to drumming, from Clem Burke’s beautifully shaped, propulsive patterns and dynamic control on Blondie’s ‘Look Good In Blue’ to Ed Thigpen’s crisp brushwork and staccato punctuation on ‘Jet Song’ (Oscar Peterson Trio, West Side StoryDCC GZS-1068). While Peterson’s piano and Ray Brown’s bass take centre stage, Thigpen’s understated drum work provides the perfect underpinning and nicely judged rhythmic accents – a nudge here, a small push there, the odd exclamation mark thrown in almost for fun. There’s a sparky, innately communicative quality to the performance that keeps you listening. Revisiting this disc to refresh my memory while writing, I found myself letting it play through to the final medley – despite needing to move on to other musical examples.

Using the €89K Marquis with those €10-15K pocket battleship integrated amps might seem like a mismatch, at least in budget terms. But musically? Musically it was astonishingly successful. The 585 delivered a more stable, arguably more restrained, more refined and dimensional presentation. The Diablo (as always) majored on attitude and energy. You pays your money and takes your choice, but that’s exactly the point: the money required for Marquis ownership might not be as much as that €80K ticket suggests – simply because the matching amplification can be so much more affordable, without diluting the musical appeal. Naturally, stepping up to the M1.1 or S-400 transformed the performance, but just as the Marquis covers its tracks when compared to its bigger brothers, it covers it tracks when driven by capable but lesser electronics. Although all of the amps listed here deliver well over 100 Watts/Channel (and most of them at least twice that) and the Marquis displays a clear appetite for power, its easy load and high efficiency make the amplifier’s job easier. Although you might assume that opens the door o low powered amplification, what it actually does is enhance the control exerted by the driving amp, making the maximum use of the speaker’s clarity and articulation, timing and rhythmic integrity. Yes, you can use the Divin’s with flea-powered amps: you just won’t be getting the best out of them…

As previously noted, I also shifted the Marquis into The Studio, our smallest listening space. At 6m by 5m and firing across the room, this is a much smaller space than you’d think would comfortably accommodate a speaker the size of the Marquis, but it proved an eminently successful installation. The forward firing ports and vertical rear cabinet wall meant that the speaker could be pushed back close to the wall without damaging bass linearity. A (pretty severe) 1.2 degree forward rake was also required – but easily achieved – due to the low-ish seating position, high tweeter placement and short listening distance. But with those things attended to and the M1.1 or 585 doing the driving, results were spectacularly immediate and impactful, the smaller space compensating for any perceived lack of scale in the bigger listening room. Listeners looking for presence, power and a musically communicative speaker to work in a smallish space shouldn’t overlook the Divin Marquis. It might well surprise you.

Versatile and effective, potent and powerful yet subtle, delicate and intimate too, the Divin Marquis is an unlikely looking all-rounder. It’s bluff cabinet and large drivers are the antithesis of the multi driver columns so popular these days, remarkably reminiscent of ‘old-skool’ speakers. But that’s no bad thing. Many of us grew up with large boxes, with large bass drivers, sat on the floor. It’s more than just nostalgia that makes us hanker after those halcyon days. There IS no substitute for bandwidth and if I’ve spent a long time discussing how little bandwidth the Marquis possesses compared to its bigger and much more expensive brethren, it still has more (and far more potent) bass than the vast majority of the competition. The problem is that, such are its musical capabilities that it ends up getting bracketed with and compared to far more expensive designs. With speakers like the Wilson Alexx V, Stenheim Reference Ultime 2 and Magico M6 cluttering the 150K market sector, it’s easy to see or position the Divin Marquis as an alternative to those high-profile models. And it gives hem a run for their money. But the Göbel model that should stand toe-to-toe with those large floor-standers is the Noblesse! The Marquis is half their price and far more forgiving of amplification. For anybody seeking serious high-end performance combined with consummate musical quality, that makes the Divin Marquis a surprisingly compact, capable and affordable option. Along with Stenheim’s similarly surprising Alumine 5SE, this Göbel loudspeaker is re-writing the rulebook – and doing it in one of the most competitive market sectors in the whole of high-end audio.

If the acid test of any (speaker) system is its ability to sound like real people and real instruments, the Divin Marquis is a stunningly successful design, one that reaches beyond what is being played to the who and the why. Its lack of colouration or dominant character allows you to hear the driving system (and, hopefully, why you bought it). Differences between instruments and players become part of a larger whole, the purpose and motivation of the players laid bare. But more than that, the Marquis doesn’t just shine, its attributes and qualities, musical integrity and capabilities encourage the system as a whole to shine. Any truly great system should sound like people. Any truly great system will give each recording its own voice. Any truly great system should put musical quality ahead of recording quality. Any truly great system should be able to seduce – but needs the ability to offend. Gobel’s Divin Marquis ticks all of those boxes… emphatically! This is a speaker that punches well above its weight, both sonically and musically. Given its not inconsiderable size and mass, that’s impressive indeed.

Link do recenzji: Goebel Divin Marquis – Gy8

The powerful floor-standing speakers delivered on Göbel’s promise — and then some. He had stressed time and time again how important it was, in his eyes, to get an even better han­dle on resonances, to combine faster drivers, and to ideally not allow vibrations to occur in the housing in the first place. And that was exactly what came across when the loudspeak­ers were playing. After just a few tracks, we all agreed that we had rarely ever heard such clean, artifact-free yet organically vivid and lively playback before. The Marquis achieved exemplary nuance of sound right down into the deepest ranges, and the spatial placement of the individual sound events below the fundamental tone was absolutely amazing. Many can achieve that above the tone, but such a precisely pro­jected series of double basses was something we hadn’t ever heard before. Göbel, who is a huge fan of classical music, fed his CH Preci­sion electronics with Strauss’s Salome, Mozart’s Figaro, and Beethoven’s piano sonatas, and we wandered from one virtual concert hall to the next all the while feeling like the musicians, singers, and conductors were physically right in front of us. Later on, we opted for more hearty fare with the likes of Fiona Apple, Michael Jackson, John Coltrane, and Phil Collins to name but a few artists. Heard through the Marquis, the modern productions never once sounded too dense or overstated, not even for a split second. From the most delicate under­tone right through to the most brutal volume, the “smallest” loudspeaker in the Göbel range masterfully commanded all registers. Given all its many positive qualities, the Divin Marquis is, well, simply divine.

Link do recenzji: Goebel Divin Marquis – Fidelity Magazine

Link: Goebel Marquis – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2025

Link: Goebel Marquis – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2025

Link: Goebel Marquis – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2024

Link: Goebel Marquis – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2024

Link: Goebel Marquis – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2023

Link: Goebel Marquis – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2023

Link: Goebel Marquis – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2022

Link: Goebel Marquis – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2022

Link: Goebel Marquis – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2021

Link: Goebel Marquis – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2021

Link: Goebel Marquis – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2020