My how things change!
Folks,
Haha! You aren't going to believe this, but I guess I just got a really bad case of upgrade-itis. I haven't had my Titan's for quite a year yet, so this is really funny... I just bought some new speakers. Yeah, I know I already posted here not too long ago that I wasn't going to do this for a few years, but well, plans change. Drastically.
Here is how it went down. The 15th is my anniversary, and my Wife actually suggested the night before that since I have constantly been talking about these ML speakers and subwoofers that since we would getting a baby sitter for the kids that maybe she could take me to
Paradyme and I could show her all this stuff that I have been talking about for months now. She had promised that with the tax return money that I could buy a subwoofer, but only as long as she could hear it and see it in person and make the judgement on it. So I happily took her up on the deal, and brought her there the next evening before we went to the restaurant.
Well, I started out by listening to the Martin Logan Clarity since that was one that I had really been interested in listening to lately. They had stuck them off in a corner of the store, where the accoustics were really awful, but even with the awful accoustics, they sounded really nice. Very clear, and the imaging was nice too. Then I stood up, and the sound dropped off dramatically! I guess that is normal with an electrostatic speaker though, I have heard a lot about sweet spots etc. But that's when I realized that we don't always sit down in front of the speakers when we are listening, we are often up and around, especially with kids. So perhaps in the room that we have right now, those would not be the best choice. Owell, so I took her to hear the
Martin Logan Mosaics that I have been drooling over too.
I found that whenever I moved around, either up or down, I could still hear them very well, and it didn't muffle at all. The sound was very solid in comparison to the Clarity, which had a bit more of an ethereal sound to it. Not sure how to really descibe it other than that. So I told my wife, that they were the $1800 speakers... The salesman said, "actually, they are on markdown because there are only these floor models left plus two more pair in the back. ML is phasing these out and getting a new model out soon." So they had marked them down by $500! I did some quick figuring and realized that the bonus I had gotten at work would just about cover it exactly! So I said, "Uh honey, can we talk about this for a bit?" So we discussed it and figured I would have them put the speakers on hold overnight while we went over the budget at home. This was Friday evening. So we went to dinner, and had a good time, then when we got home we went over the budget and figured that we could get the speakers, and then after the tax return, I could probably come back and get a subwoofer, either the Dynamo or the Grotto. Whichever I prefer at that point.
I hardly slept at all that night. When I did, I dreamed about the Mosaics. I know, it's sad. Like a little boy on Christmas Eve... I woke up about 6:30 and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and stayed up. After running a couple of errands, my wife told me ok, you can go now... So I went straight to the store, and they were actually surprised to see me. They didn't think that my wife would actually let me do it. So I loaded them into the Tracker, (tight fit, but it worked) and went straight home and got them hooked up. Oh the Wonder and the Beauty of it all! What a wonderful room filling sound, and they are not even broken in yet! I also don't have a good amp on them yet, but I will probably do that soon too. I am thinking of maybe a Rotel RB-1070. I am pretty sure that it would work fine from the specs, and the price is nice too.
Anyway, Here are a few pics of the new setup:
Pic 1: Full Frontal shot of the entertainment center with the Mosaics off to the sides.
Pic 2: Right speaker with reflection of the Christmas Tree in the glass.
Another nice thing, and quite a surprise too, the kids have not really taken much interest in playing with them. Of course as soon as I set them up, I brought both of them over, and showed the speakers to them and said, "Don't Touch." My little son was cute. He stood up, looked at them, shook his finger at them and made a stern face, and said "no, no, no!" And walked away. My daughter looked me square in the eye and said, "Ok daddy." And so far, so good. So I guess I will try this out and see how it works. Maybe I'll just play 1812 overture a few times and blast the cannons at them a few times, and they won't dare come near them anyway.
Anyway, your comments and ideas are welcome. Merry Christmas!
-capT
