Thoughts/Opinions on Martin Logans

corysmith01

corysmith01

Senior Audioholic
I stopped by an audio store today just to poke around and it was the first time I'd come across Martin Logan speakers. So, as usual, I carry a demo disc with me of music I listen to that varies in style and brought it in to check 'em out. Seeing as I don't have tons of cash, I only listened to the Mosaic and the Montage as those 2 would only be the ones remotely in my price range. I've had the upgrade bug in my system for a while, but I usually don't just jump into anything...i've been somewhat looking around for about 2 months now. Anyway, I heard them and I've got to say I was really impressed, especially considering these were 2 of their lower offerings. I'm currently using B&W dm601 s3's with a SVS PB10-ISD to fill out the low end. I'm running them through a Marantz SR8400. To keep things at least pretty similar, I had the store run the Logans through a Denon 3805. All in all, I really liked them. Now, I know everyone advises to listen to speakers and go with what your ears tell you, but when looking around here, I got a little skeptical. How come I don't see M/L's mentioned that much. When I check the poll for what speakers are being used by folks, out of 283, only 3 have M/L's. When I scour the forums, I may see them mentioned here and there, but not nearly as much as others. Is it simply that they're a bit more esoteric? Or is there more to it than that? Are they all show and no go, meaning great looking and interesting technology, but not really a great speaker? I'm only asking b/c again I was very impressed, but just want others to weigh in on them. Not really seeing them mentioned all that often has got me wondering...and I certainly don't profess to be an expert in the world of audio having bought my first "real gear" only months ago. Can anyone give me the scoop on these?

Thanks in advance for any responses.
 
Buckeyefan 1

Buckeyefan 1

Audioholic Ninja
I'm impressed the 3805 drove those speakers. ML's are higher end, and usually require a larger room, with high-current, high voltage amplification. I looked at a pair of ML 6' tall electrostats for $1700 here in Columbus. Guy was moving, and needed to get rid of them. Wife took one look and said "no way, they are the ugliest things I've ever seen." I coul have sold them on ebay for $2500. They were extremely pure and smooth. He was driving them with two Krell monobloc amps. One of the best speakers I've ever heard at very low to mid volume levels. I think they make outstanding subs, but are very pricey. You can call them esoteric, but they really don't jump into the 5 figure price range that some consider "ultra high end." The speakers you looked at are much more reasonable.

Ebay has a set of the speakers you auditioned for around $700. Not a bad deal for ML's.
 
corysmith01

corysmith01

Senior Audioholic
Wow, that's interesting that you said that about the receiver and puzzled it pushed them. I made sure I told him to hook up the 3805 as I thought it was probably closest to mine. They're rated at 90db senstivity, but what I didn't know, and just found out from the website, is that they are 5 ohm speakers. When considering getting these, should I take that into consideration? Isn't that going to make my receiver have to work extra hard? Also, I've seen a lot of 8 and 4 ohm...never 5. Is that odd?

And yeah, these are much more in an attainable price range and I thought they sounded really nice...very smooth. I still like the mid range of my B&W's overall, but the presense of the M/L's was incredible.
 
Buckeyefan 1

Buckeyefan 1

Audioholic Ninja
If I were to get the ML's, I would most definitely purchase a dedicated amp. It's not that the Marantz or Denon can't keep up, but some would say you'd be missing all the nuances the speakers could reproduce (in esoteric terms - afterall, you are buying a semi esoteric line) with a dedicated amp. The ML's are always advertised in Stereophile mag (a lot of guys here rip on that mag b/c of the high prices and always positive reviews). ML's are more touted as stereo speakers, but they have ventured in the surround arena also. You'll almost never see a receiver reviewed in Stereophile mag. It's always separates. They say the headroom of the separates is much better, thus the ML's will open up. Our receivers have some of the best headroom of all receivers, but probably can't compete with 150lb monoblocs costing 5 figures. Nice stuff, but a little out of my pricerange.
 
zipper

zipper

Full Audioholic
I'd love to get some ML's. They have 3 or 4 diff models of them @ the Magnolia in my area & I've always thought they were fabulous.

Some issues with them are:

They are picky with placement. You need to have room (2-3 feet) between them & the back wall. They have a very small sweet spot (but man is it sweet!). I heard they have addressed that with the newer models.

The 5-6 ohm impedence..........I understand under some conditions they actually drop as low as 1-2 ohms so top gear is highly suggested. Not to mention they are so revealing that cheap gear would be exposed anyhow.

Some have said that they are not for parties, that they weren't designed for loud play. I don't know about that.........just what I've heard.

They have a HT setup featuring ML's that borders on spectacular. ML has some surround speakers that are odd looking but............wow.........what detail.
 
P

Privateer

Full Audioholic
I only listened to the Mosaic and the Montage as those 2 would only be the ones remotely in my price range.
I would not go any lower than Aeon i's.
 
JoeE SP9

JoeE SP9

Senior Audioholic
If you can place them properly and drive them with sufficient power you might fall in love with electrostatic(ES) sound. I own and use electrostatic speakers. I would never go back to cones and voice coils. Yes the sweet spot is small. So what. They sound good everywhere. In the sweet spot they are heavenly. When you are doing only casual listening your seating position is really not that important. You may find that the average receiver may not be able to drive them properly as the impedence curve drops down to 2 ohms. A separate power amp that delivers lots of power into low impedences is almost a requirement. While some do not like their appearance I however think they are very attractive. As far as partying goes my ES panels play more than loud enough. If you like the sound of the ML's you might also want to check out Magnepan speakers. They are panels similar to ES's but are not electrostatic. The magnepans sound quite similar and also are quite attractive to me. My hardware is listed under member systems how much is it worth or something like that. One last thing: the impedence curve of a speaker is just that, a curve. The impedence rating of a given speaker is the nominal rating. No speaker has a constant impedance rating. The power amp stages of most receivers simply don't have enough robustness to drive low impedence loads. A receiver that has a 4 ohm power rating may be sufficient. :cool:
 
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P

Privateer

Full Audioholic
Any particular reason, or just a personal preference?
Well both because I own a pair of Aeon i and Ascent i. There are better performing speakers out there when you venture into the ML product line below the Aeon i.
 
P

Privateer

Full Audioholic
drive them with sufficient power
You do not need that much power, on my Mcintosh MC207 when I am hitting 20watts a channel it is already at a point of being loud.

If you like the sound of the ML's you might also want to check out Magnepan speakers.
There is only 1 ESL speakers manufacturer that does it right and that is Martin Logan.
 
JoeE SP9

JoeE SP9

Senior Audioholic
Privateer said:
There is only 1 ESL speakers manufacturer that does it right and that is Martin Logan.
I did not suggest that Magnepan's were ES speakers. If you think only ML gets it right you should check out Sound Lab ESL's, Inner Sound ESL's, Quad ESL's or Audiostatic ESL's. I won't suggest the Acoustat's I own because they are no longer in production. I mentioned Magnepan's because while not ESL's the dipolar radiation pattern is very similar and the overall sound is close. If anything the ribbon tweeters in Magnepan's rivals that of ESL's and some say is better. :cool:
 
S

sjdgpt

Senior Audioholic
ML's are considered very nice speakers that need some very serious space to fully showcase what the speaker is capable of performing.

Those of us that suffer from small room disease would be wasting our $ even considering ML (ML in a small room would, in simple terms, sound very poorly).

As far as the ML needing "special equipment", don't worry. ML's are quite friendly. My first experiance with ML was with the CLS being powered by a lower powered Amber amp and preamp. The Amber (75wpc?) was more than enough to keep up with the CLS's. Sure, the PS Audio 200wpc (at 3x the price of the Amber) had more "guts" and hardly got warm, but 3x the price for just a couple db peak sound volume didnt make much sense.

Unless you were to power up the ML's in a really big room, any flagship or near flagship receiver on the market is going to be enough power for the ML's, and the S/N ratio of the modern receiver is far better than the separates of old.
 
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