Martin Logan

Skynut

I was in our local magnolia home theater section of circuit city and the sales guy was pushin these Martin logan speakers.
I was not interested enough to really pay attention to teh sales pitch or the model numbers (we demoed several).

I was really not impressed.
The sales guy was telling me that these are some of the best speakers available. (I assume he meant mass marketed speakers)

Is it just me or is martin logan just ok?

Just curious.

shack

Martin Logan are actually quite good. Definitely not "mass market". Once you get to the Clarity, Aeon and above they are VERY nice speakers that I would love to own. I was not as impressed in their entry level speakers (Montage and Mosiac). For the money you can do better IMO.

ninerbj

I too sat down and had the "Martin Logan is the best" speech at a local Hi Fi dealer last year. I too wasn't that impressed. One thing I noticed (it was hard not too) was the very limited sweet spot. one foot left/right, up or down, took you right out of the game.
I don't want to offend anyone here that has ML...just wasn't my cup of tea.

BobMcG

Martin Logans are some of the best speakers I've ever listened to.

Skynut

I also do not want to slam anyones equipment.
Perhaps I should have paid more attention to what they had but it was basically what was hooked up in the sound room.
They would be allright for casual listening I would think but not for cranking up to hear while working in the garden.

Maybe I like my music to loud.

shack

Skynut wrote:

Maybe I like my music to loud.

Matin Logans aren't crank-em-up party/rock speakers. They are very detailed, placement dependent, high end speakers needing good amplification.

Skynut wrote:

They would be allright for casual listening I would think but not for cranking up to hear while working in the garden.

If cranking them up while working in the garden isn't "casual listening"....I don't know what the hell is.

I don't think what you want is HiFi....

Skynut

shack wrote:

Matin Logans aren't crank-em-up party/rock speakers. They are very detailed, placement dependent, high end speakers needing good amplification.


If cranking them up while working in the garden isn't "casual listening"....I don't know what the hell is.

I don't think what you want is HiFi....

Perhaps I shoul have critical listening intead of casual.

My bad. :rolleyes:

hoosier21

The best speakers doesn't equal loudest speakers. If somebody says, I got 10K in my stereo, there is always somebody who says, damnnnn, how loud will it play?

Your ML experience is nothing new, trying to get a good demo in a Tweeter or CC or whatever is not going to happen.

ML speakers need located in a room very carefully, and yes they have a small sweet spot, will and usually do sound bad in a showroom.

BUT, man they sound good when set up correctly, in the right room, fed from some nice electronics and your in the sweet spot.

mantis

All incorrect so far.

Martin logans do not have a small sweet spot. I assume none of you guys have heard a pair properly setup. they have a huge sound stage. they go wall to wall. The last time I did a pair was in a room 25 feet wide by 40 feet deep. This room had Prodigys and 2 depth subs. Full 7.2 home theater system that was also setup for music. these speakers need high current. they also need someone who knows how to set them up.

I will agree with BobMcG here, they are one of the very best sounding speakers I ever heard.
You should here Martin Logans with tubes. Audio Research monos with Audio Research pre and Cd player wired with transparent. Not many systems can recreate sound like that one can..... Shame your experience with Martin Logan is what it was.

Shame

Dan

2+2

mantis wrote:

All incorrect so far.

Martin logans do not have a small sweet spot. I assume none of you guys have heard a pair properly setup. they have a huge sound stage. they go wall to wall. The last time I did a pair was in a room 25 feet wide by 40 feet deep. This room had Prodigys and 2 depth subs. Full 7.2 home theater system that was also setup for music. these speakers need high current. they also need someone who knows how to set them up.

I will agree with BobMcG here, they are one of the very best sounding speakers I ever heard.
You should here Martin Logans with tubes. Audio Research monos with Audio Research pre and Cd player wired with transparent. Not many systems can recreate sound like that one can..... Shame your experience with Martin Logan is what it was.

Shame

Dan

Not sure what the other guy is saying either....the sweet spot, if you can call it that, is HUGE on MLs....excellent speakers especially with acoustic music...hard to run tho...

Skynut

Maybe I will try them at a different store.
We were just in the store for something else so I wandered in to check it out.
If I see them again I will give them a second chance.

Emlyn

To me, Martin Logan is another company that has suffered a weakening of the audiophile qualities of their speakers in favor of making their speakers narrower and incorporating cone drivers and separate tweeters to attract the home theater crowd. Still, even their mid-level speakers can create music that has very few competitors for its airy, three dimensional quality. It is certainly possible to make their speakers sound bad though by over boosting the bass driver, turning on the separate tweeter, placing them poorly (they need plenty of room to breathe all around), and running them from anything other than high-end separate components (think Mark Levinson, Krell, etc). The panels themselves are ruthlessly revealing, and have always been best for classical, acoustic, and vocal music. Their design doesn't lend itself well to high and low frequency extension. Like Magnepan's sound though, once someone gets hooked on Martin Logan's seamless mid-range qualities when they're well set up they find it hard to go back to something else. But, they're not easy speakers to live with, and not easy speakers to demo well.

gregure

I agree that the idea of this "sweet spot" is pretty ridiculous. First of all, Martin Logan speakers are Dipolar, as the panel emits sound on both sides, front and back. Any type of speaker will have a relatively small "sweet spot" in terms of getting a real two-channel imaging experience, but that is inherently an effect that demands critical listening in a properly placed listening position anyway. For "background" music or for filling up a room, ML's are great, as they have a tremendous dispursion, and a very detailed and accurate sound. In fact, this idea of them being some of the best speakers is appropriate, given the fact that I've never heard speakers that, when properly amplified, are as detailed as these.
That said, electrostatic speakers are not for everyone. They have a different sound that not all ears can take, some forms of music just don't suit the larger speakers (I'm very interested to hear the new Summit and Vantage, though, as they are supposed to be a big improvement, yet take up a lot less space, plus they have their own amplified woofers), and that level of detail in and of itself can become a bit tiring. These speakers will expose any and every flaw in a recording, and are not very forgiving. The Aeon i speakers are probably the best all around Martin Logan speaker. A good deal of accuracy, small enough to be attractive, and yet not as unforgiving or hard to drive as the larger speakers. Not a good choice for too large a room though.
As I'm sure some of you know from my earlier posts, my tastes run toward high end traditional speakers such as Vienna Acoustics, however I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for Martin Logan. I just personally feel they are not the best speaker for my musical tastes (classical and rock).

nebborjk

I demo'd a pair of ML's at Tweeter and found the soundstage to be very wide, not limited at all. They were being powered by a Denon 3805. I was very impressed.

A few weeks later a friend of mine went to the same store and came to the opposite conclusion: Very small sweet spot.

What does all this mean? Beats me, but I was still impressed.

Good speakers.