Due to lots of interest I thought I get out this write up of the Martin Logan Neolith at CES 2016 in its own separate thread.
As you read this, please note that I am not a professional reviewer and in the past have posted critical view of a different model of Martin Logan. In other words, everything I say may very well be wrong
.
And please excuse the poor color balance and quality of these images. Just no time to post process them before running to the show this morning.
The presentation was a joint one of Constellation Audio and Martin Logan. This is a front of view of the small room it was in:
I was surprised as I expected it to be one the many larger suites on those upper floors.
When I got there, the front row was already taken with a gentleman that had come with his own bag of LPs and was getting extreme attention from the company people. I thought he was an important dealer until he stood up to change one of the LPs and I see that it is Michael Fremer! So no wonder they were ready to shine his shoes if he so desired.
And shine they did as they let him play long segments of 3-4 LPs and we had no choice but to sit there and listen. Not that this was bad mind you. I could see why he had selected that set of music as they were generally very good sounding.
The first LP that was playing when I got there was the West Side Story broadway play. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of it as I could not from where I was sitting in the second row. I looked on Amazon and the covers seem different but it could also be my failing memory:
The track that was being played I think was Dance at the Jim. The presentation at first was very nice in the way the instruments were separated and "clarity" of high frequencies. But after 30 seconds or so, its brightness started to get to me. But I could see some of the things ML does right. That loudspeaker was "light on its feet" subjectively presenting an airy representation of mid to high frequency notes.
After a while the organizer asked if we wanted to listen to other types of music. All of us in the second row screamed, "YES!" Only to find out we were not being addressed but Mr. Fremer. Thankfully Michael had other music to help us evaluate the loudspeaker.
While the LP was being changed, I hear this loud, rumbling fan behind us. I mean this is in obnoxious category. It also smelled like artificial pine scent throughout the room. Both were highly distracting. Later as I was leaving, I discovered the culprit for one or both:
Are you kidding me? We are here to listen to high-end loudspeaker yet the noise floor and smell could not be more distracting.
While waiting for the LP change still, Michael told a story of how he had given a bad review of an "optical cartridge" and how the one and only customer of this $50,000 cartridge in US had canceled his order so he was getting grief from distributor.
Back to the music, I am sure many of you the west side story LP. Would you please advise if it is a bright recording?
The next LP we were treated to had handwritten "EC Arms Forces EP" on the inner lining. I assume that meant Elvis Costello / Elvis Costello & the Attractions Armed Forces. Again another album I do not own. This one was more soothing.
Anyway, after about 20 to 30 minutes, Michael left and so I hoped I would get to talk to the crew and play something I knew. I reached out to the person that was doing the demo and asked him if we could play some other selections. He asked sheepishly if it was "OK" to play from their digital server. I said of course. Instead of doing that, he mumbled something I could not understand and proceeds to put on the LP's of Patricia Barber and played the classic/overplayed Black Magic Moment track. And walks away!!!
Man, was that a tragedy. The LP sounded like the needle was struggling to play through a bucket of sand. Background grittiness was so high it was unbearable. The highs distorted. If it were me, I would break that LP into pieces and put it in the trash bin.
Now as it turned out, this was not such a bad thing as I heard what I could swear was resonances of the panel in one loud note. So I walk up to the speaker and put my hand on the surroundings of the panel. The amount of vibration transmitted to it was insane. At first I thought it was bass induced. So I put my hand on the box at the bottom. There was still significant vibrations there but at lower level. So clearly it was not the source.
I slid my hand on the panel surrounds and by that I mean the red part of the frame starting at the bottom going all the way to the top. The vibrations kept increasing. At the top of the panel frame, it was incredible amount. I actually thought the panel was moving back and forth. I am exaggerating but you get the idea.
In my view, this means that panel does not have sufficient structural support. It is exerting forces on that thin frame which due to being cantilevered, gets worse and worse. Every one of those vibrations acts as a dirty loudspeaker generating its own sound.
I expect a lot of money in a statement loudspeaker to go towards deadening cabinet resonances. Sadly no trace of this was here. I mean maybe it is hard to do that with the frame of the panel but what is the excuse for the bass enclosure? Note that we were listening to mid levels. Nothing loud or dynamic. No matter what note was being played, the cabinet played as an extra member of the orchestra.
While I was there, I made some other observations. If you assume the sheet of paper parallel to the front of the loudspeaker being 0 degrees, at up to 45 degrees or so, the highs are very muted and the sound not so pleasant. But all of a sudden it comes into focus and not at 90 degrees. The muted sound from side reflections will interact with the room heavily and influence the tonal quality of the loudspeaker. Likewise, the back wave sounded very different. They had absorbers there in this room by the way.
Note also that like all panel speakers I have heard, the location of sound moves with your ears.
Sit in front of the loudspeaker and then gradually stand up and the sound source travels with the location of your ear. In one of the demo tracks I heard this effect as the soundstage being too close to the floor. On a taller chair likely it would move up. The dependency was quite high so if you slouch and then sit up in your seat, expect the sound to move up and down with you.
This is another observation that hit me and again it is something I have observed with other panel loudspeakers. They have a large tendency to make everything sound like their sound. In some ways this is quite good in that if you prefer this flavor of music reproduction, most everything you play will have those qualities. But if you don't, or like me get tired of hearing of it, then it can be a deal breaker. With box speakers, when you play different music productions and types, the sound tracks their origins. It goes from sounding bad to exceptional. But with these panel loudspeakers you get a much more smoothed over presentation that is the overlay of the sound of the loudspeaker.
Anyway, I am done and ready to be stoned. Before that, here are the rest of the pictures:
As you read this, please note that I am not a professional reviewer and in the past have posted critical view of a different model of Martin Logan. In other words, everything I say may very well be wrong
.And please excuse the poor color balance and quality of these images. Just no time to post process them before running to the show this morning.
The presentation was a joint one of Constellation Audio and Martin Logan. This is a front of view of the small room it was in:
I was surprised as I expected it to be one the many larger suites on those upper floors.
When I got there, the front row was already taken with a gentleman that had come with his own bag of LPs and was getting extreme attention from the company people. I thought he was an important dealer until he stood up to change one of the LPs and I see that it is Michael Fremer! So no wonder they were ready to shine his shoes if he so desired
.And shine they did as they let him play long segments of 3-4 LPs and we had no choice but to sit there and listen. Not that this was bad mind you. I could see why he had selected that set of music as they were generally very good sounding.
The first LP that was playing when I got there was the West Side Story broadway play. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of it as I could not from where I was sitting in the second row. I looked on Amazon and the covers seem different but it could also be my failing memory:
The track that was being played I think was Dance at the Jim. The presentation at first was very nice in the way the instruments were separated and "clarity" of high frequencies. But after 30 seconds or so, its brightness started to get to me. But I could see some of the things ML does right. That loudspeaker was "light on its feet" subjectively presenting an airy representation of mid to high frequency notes.
After a while the organizer asked if we wanted to listen to other types of music. All of us in the second row screamed, "YES!" Only to find out we were not being addressed but Mr. Fremer
. Thankfully Michael had other music to help us evaluate the loudspeaker.While the LP was being changed, I hear this loud, rumbling fan behind us. I mean this is in obnoxious category. It also smelled like artificial pine scent throughout the room. Both were highly distracting. Later as I was leaving, I discovered the culprit for one or both:
Are you kidding me? We are here to listen to high-end loudspeaker yet the noise floor and smell could not be more distracting.
While waiting for the LP change still, Michael told a story of how he had given a bad review of an "optical cartridge" and how the one and only customer of this $50,000 cartridge in US had canceled his order so he was getting grief from distributor.
Back to the music, I am sure many of you the west side story LP. Would you please advise if it is a bright recording?
The next LP we were treated to had handwritten "EC Arms Forces EP" on the inner lining. I assume that meant Elvis Costello / Elvis Costello & the Attractions Armed Forces. Again another album I do not own. This one was more soothing.
Anyway, after about 20 to 30 minutes, Michael left and so I hoped I would get to talk to the crew and play something I knew. I reached out to the person that was doing the demo and asked him if we could play some other selections. He asked sheepishly if it was "OK" to play from their digital server. I said of course. Instead of doing that, he mumbled something I could not understand and proceeds to put on the LP's of Patricia Barber and played the classic/overplayed Black Magic Moment track. And walks away!!!
Man, was that a tragedy. The LP sounded like the needle was struggling to play through a bucket of sand. Background grittiness was so high it was unbearable. The highs distorted. If it were me, I would break that LP into pieces and put it in the trash bin.
Now as it turned out, this was not such a bad thing as I heard what I could swear was resonances of the panel in one loud note. So I walk up to the speaker and put my hand on the surroundings of the panel. The amount of vibration transmitted to it was insane. At first I thought it was bass induced. So I put my hand on the box at the bottom. There was still significant vibrations there but at lower level. So clearly it was not the source.
I slid my hand on the panel surrounds and by that I mean the red part of the frame starting at the bottom going all the way to the top. The vibrations kept increasing. At the top of the panel frame, it was incredible amount. I actually thought the panel was moving back and forth. I am exaggerating but you get the idea.
In my view, this means that panel does not have sufficient structural support. It is exerting forces on that thin frame which due to being cantilevered, gets worse and worse. Every one of those vibrations acts as a dirty loudspeaker generating its own sound.
I expect a lot of money in a statement loudspeaker to go towards deadening cabinet resonances. Sadly no trace of this was here. I mean maybe it is hard to do that with the frame of the panel but what is the excuse for the bass enclosure? Note that we were listening to mid levels. Nothing loud or dynamic. No matter what note was being played, the cabinet played as an extra member of the orchestra.
While I was there, I made some other observations. If you assume the sheet of paper parallel to the front of the loudspeaker being 0 degrees, at up to 45 degrees or so, the highs are very muted and the sound not so pleasant. But all of a sudden it comes into focus and not at 90 degrees. The muted sound from side reflections will interact with the room heavily and influence the tonal quality of the loudspeaker. Likewise, the back wave sounded very different. They had absorbers there in this room by the way.
Note also that like all panel speakers I have heard, the location of sound moves with your ears.
Sit in front of the loudspeaker and then gradually stand up and the sound source travels with the location of your ear. In one of the demo tracks I heard this effect as the soundstage being too close to the floor. On a taller chair likely it would move up. The dependency was quite high so if you slouch and then sit up in your seat, expect the sound to move up and down with you.
This is another observation that hit me and again it is something I have observed with other panel loudspeakers. They have a large tendency to make everything sound like their sound. In some ways this is quite good in that if you prefer this flavor of music reproduction, most everything you play will have those qualities. But if you don't, or like me get tired of hearing of it, then it can be a deal breaker. With box speakers, when you play different music productions and types, the sound tracks their origins. It goes from sounding bad to exceptional. But with these panel loudspeakers you get a much more smoothed over presentation that is the overlay of the sound of the loudspeaker.
Anyway, I am done and ready to be stoned.
Before that, here are the rest of the pictures:
