Martin-Logan Owners

MiTT

Well-Known Member
Jun 28, 2010
105
0
161
Thornton, Colorado
I've had a pretty long and happy relationship with Martin Logans. My first pair was a set of used Sequel's that I bought at a store up on the Pearl Street mall in Boulder. I spent a number of years with them, and as many here have commented, their revealing nature launched me down the path of a number of upgrades, because I could finally HEAR the differences in the equipment I was auditioning. When the ReQuest's came out I went to a dealers showroom for their introduction and ordered my pair on the spot. Loved the midrange and dynamics on those speakers and was very happy with them for many years as well.

I'd seen and heard the CLS at another dealer, but they were never set up well at all. I didn't get what they were about. Still, I was mesmerised by their look and intrigued by the notion of a full range stat. I was on a business trip to Italy a few years ago and went to spend the weekend in Lugano with a friend I'd made over on the Martin Logan forum. At his home I finally got to hear the CLS appropriately set up. It could have been the clean Swiss-Italia air, the beauty of Lake Lugano below my friends home, or the wonderful Nochino we were drinking, but I was intoxicated with their sound. When I got back to the states I began my quest to find a pair of the CLS's for myself. After about 6 months searching I located a cherry pair of CLS IIz's. A week later they were set up in my listening room.

I occasionally miss the slightly greater dynamics I had with the ReQuests, but overall I am as enamored with my CLS's as I was when I'd heard them in Lugano. There is a musical rightness about them that simply allows me to connect with my music. I occasionally think about getting some great dynamic speakes for listening to big orchestral pieces and heavy duty rock and alternative - although the CLS's do surizingly well mated to my REL Stadium II sub. I'm sure I'd really like the CLX as well (haven't heard them yet), but I'd be hard pressed to part with my CLS's regardless.
 

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mullard88

Well-Known Member
Jun 5, 2010
948
62
1,588
Hi Mitt,

May I ask a few questions:
1. What is the amp between the speakers?
2. What are your room dimensions?
3. What is the exact position of your speakers when you are listening?
Thanks.
 

MiTT

Well-Known Member
Jun 28, 2010
105
0
161
Thornton, Colorado
Hi Mitt,

May I ask a few questions:
1. What is the amp between the speakers?
2. What are your room dimensions?
3. What is the exact position of your speakers when you are listening?
Thanks.

Hi mullard88, certainly happy to answer a few questions. The amp is a BAT VK6200, and it's a beast. No issues what so ever driving the CLS's. The room is 14 feet wide by 12 feet deep with a 9 foot ceiling. Definitely near field listening, but not as bad as you might think. The picture I posted yesterday was pretty flat and dark, so I'm adding some more here. The listening position is asymetrical so the left speaker is closer to the side wall - with the edge of the panel only 1.5 feet away unfortunately. The right speaker is about 3 feet away from the side wall, resulting in the panel centers being approximately 6.5 feet center to center. The panels are a little over 3 feet from the rear wall and about 7.5 feet in front of the listening position. A bit cramped I'll admit, but this room serves me well until I can build a dedicated room in our basement (once the economy recovers I hope!!!).
 

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mullard88

Well-Known Member
Jun 5, 2010
948
62
1,588
Hi Mitt,

Thank you for your answers. I am sure your system sounds good. Room size and near field listening are just variables to juggle with. As for asymetrical speaker positioning, I have done this in the past with good results. I have even heard friends tell me of good sounding systems with speakers positioned diagonally in a room. Good, enjoyable music can be reproduced when care is taken in setting up the system. The smallest room that I have experienced was only 9 feet by 9 feet and it housed a pair of Tympani 3-panel speakers but the sonics were very impressively good sounding. Thanks again and hope you get to build your dedicated room in your basement asap.
 

MylesBAstor

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
11,236
81
1,725
New York City
Couldn't miss the Dodson DAC in the system. Sadly the company it seems that the company no more. Jeff Smith who bought the company is now in Afghanistan training our troops. My thoughts are with him!
 
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MiTT

Well-Known Member
Jun 28, 2010
105
0
161
Thornton, Colorado
Couldn't miss the Dodson DAC in the system. Sadlyt the company is reall it seems that the company no more. Jeff Smith who bought the company is now in Afghanistan training our troops. My thoughts are with him!

Good eye Myles. Yes, it's a Dodson DA 217 Mk II. I had it in last year for some service and they wanted to bring it to current spec, but I only use it for my Sonos and for decoding HDCD so I didn't want to loose that capability. I can't remember who picked up servicing them, but they did a great job and it continues to sound great to my ears.
 

MiTT

Well-Known Member
Jun 28, 2010
105
0
161
Thornton, Colorado
Thank you Mullard88. Agreed, room size is just the real world we all live in. The dedicated room will come soon enough. In the mean time I do enjoy what I have and tend to focus on software.

Best,
Tim Bingaman
 

Waboman

New Member
Sep 21, 2010
27
0
0
MN
Howdy, Jeff! I have a local friend who just set up his Prodigies after a long remodeling hiatus and, man, they sound terrific!

Hi Ken.

I'm a fan of the Prodigies. I still recall the thrill of buying them brand new when they first came out, and I've been a happy camper ever since. I did entertain the thought of upgrading to the Summit X's once. But for some reason never followed thru.
 

karma

New Member
Jun 17, 2011
320
1
0
82
White Rock, New Mexico
No arrows Sparky

It is always refreshing to see someone who loveds their system through all of the years

HI All,
I wish to apologise to Steve Williams for confusing his post directly above this one. Originally, his post refered to a post by me that was directly above his. I appreciated his words. Mine was titled "CLS IIA Revisited".

Later I decided I wanted my post to be a thread so I copied it and made a thread out of it with the same name as the original. I deleted the original post. This left Steves post hanging. When I realilzed what I had done, I decided to write this clarification.

I made a mistake. I'm sorry Steve. If you decide to delete your post I will come back and delete this one and things will be back to normal.

Thanks, Sparky
 

MylesBAstor

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
11,236
81
1,725
New York City
Had my Vistas since July. So in love just want to raise them a bit :)

Thing is with the ML is that they're ruthlessly reveal everything around them. So much can be gained simply by improving the components upstream ;)
 

JonFo

Well-Known Member
Jun 11, 2010
322
1
925
Big Canoe, GA
www.jonathanfoulkes.com
Doh, I've been hanging out here for a few years and have yet to post to this thread. So here goes.

I've been a MartinLogan fan since '93, when I bought my pair of Sequel IIs (now my rear speakers), and took a big step up with a set of Monolith IIIs in '98.

I even built my custom home around a listening room optimized for this set of speakers in a surround configuration. I then spent the next decade plus optimizing every aspect of the room acoustics and speakers to reach a very high level of audio performance.
There is nothing stock about the front three speakers, and the center is totally custom, as you can see below.

The room is also a home theater, so the front view is dominated by the acoustically transparent screen flanked by the Monoliths. I still kept my 4:3 AT screen since it's tall enough to hide the 4' center channel that is behind it (see below).

The bass is augmented by an Infinite Baffle sub of my design as well. This mates extremely well with the electrostats.

Here is panoramic of the front of the room. Those are custom acoustic treatments along the sidewalls with some MartinLogan panels integrated as part of the decor.

HTStich_sml.jpg

And this is my custom center channel, the SL3XC, attached to my quad-driver Infinite baffle sub:

Final3QtrView_sml.JPG

The wall behind the center is now totally covered in acoustic treatments as we discuss in this thread here at WBF.

The build thread is over at the MartinLogan club.

My entire system is described in great detail with plenty more pics at my site.
 

karma

New Member
Jun 17, 2011
320
1
0
82
White Rock, New Mexico
HI Jonathan,
It is certainly nice. If it sounds as good as it looks, I'll bet it is spectacular.

What are you using for amplification?

Some of the set ups in this forum blow me away and your is one of them.

Sparky
 

LL21

Well-Known Member
Dec 26, 2010
14,411
2,509
1,448
Doh, I've been hanging out here for a few years and have yet to post to this thread. So here goes.

I've been a MartinLogan fan since '93, when I bought my pair of Sequel IIs (now my rear speakers), and took a big step up with a set of Monolith IIIs in '98.

I even built my custom home around a listening room optimized for this set of speakers in a surround configuration. I then spent the next decade plus optimizing every aspect of the room acoustics and speakers to reach a very high level of audio performance.
There is nothing stock about the front three speakers, and the center is totally custom, as you can see below.

The room is also a home theater, so the front view is dominated by the acoustically transparent screen flanked by the Monoliths. I still kept my 4:3 AT screen since it's tall enough to hide the 4' center channel that is behind it (see below).

The bass is augmented by an Infinite Baffle sub of my design as well. This mates extremely well with the electrostats.

Here is panoramic of the front of the room. Those are custom acoustic treatments along the sidewalls with some MartinLogan panels integrated as part of the decor.

View attachment 6115

Outrageously cool.
 

JonFo

Well-Known Member
Jun 11, 2010
322
1
925
Big Canoe, GA
www.jonathanfoulkes.com
HI Jonathan,
It is certainly nice. If it sounds as good as it looks, I'll bet it is spectacular.

What are you using for amplification?

Some of the set ups in this forum blow me away and your is one of them.

Sparky

Hi Sparky, thanks.

I use all Sunfire amplification for now, 12 channels worth as each speaker is actively crossed-over and bi-amped.

The panels are in direct-drive mode, directly powered by the amps with no passive crossovers.

I plan to switch to all Sanders ESL amps in the near future. Three mono 1Ks plus three stereo ESLs.
 

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