Home Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

The point of diminishing returns has moved




I'm visiting a friend who teaches voice at university and whose CD collection may exceed 20,000 now. He has acquired some new gear.

We listened to these last night: Martin Logan B100 Motion XT bookshelf speakers. I tried liking the Martin Logan hybrids years ago, but none of them worked for me. These DO work, and how.

Lovely presentation, Row A rather than the usual Row M for 'stats. Fast and very dynamic. Good bass weight to orchestral crescendos. Decent bottom end extension, at least to the upper 40's or so. Terrific imaging and that mid/high sense of "air" that only 'stats can provide. When pushed, they did get a touch hard sounding on crescendos, as with the Maazel/Vienna/Kathleen Battle Mahler 4th played too loud, but that disappeared when we reduced the volume to hover around the 85 dB mark. They give a great sense of the "wholeness" of music; never a hint of the drivers working at cross purposes.

Source gear was an Oppo BDP-105 and Hegel integrated amp.

After a couple hours listening, I assumed they retailed somewhere above the $2k mark. Not so; they go for $800 a pair, and deep discounts are available. I am officially blown away. Bravo, Martin Logan.

I am also reminded, as I am every time I visit, how good CD reproduction can be when everything is right.

WW

P.S.
In his main system, which used to be built around Vandy Quatro's driven by c-j Premier 12 monoblocks, he now has Maggie .7's driven by a Marantz disc player and integrated amp, also sounding quite wonderful. We are debating whether a sub would help that system; no resolution yet.

"Put on your high heeled sneakers. Baby, we''re goin'' out tonight.


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Topic - The point of diminishing returns has moved - Bill Way 15:03:37 02/24/24 (13)

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