Martin Logan speakers?

unleash_me

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Hi...

I was wondering how would be the Martin Logan speakers with Marantz setup. Anyone had any experience in these lines?

I have heard the Summit with Acoustic Research gear and another occation Vantage with Pathos+Esoteric. Some of the finest sound I have ever heard, i must say.

I know they are very expensive, but any idea how are these priced in India? I heard A2V deals with them in Blore, dont know if its true.

Cheers.

Note: I'm a complete newbe in ES speakers!
 
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Hi

The Martin Logans need high current amplifiers. Also the amps should be able to handle varying impedance loads. Which Marantz amp do you have? The more power you give the MLs the better they sound. Typically 250 watts and upwards.

Several years ago i had owned the Martin Logans. The amps that best suited them were the Parasound JC1s.

I hope that helps.
 
Hi Unleash,
Yes AVI does deal in ML speakers and should be available thru his bangalore dealer.
Actually i have heard them paired with his 100WPC jeff rowlands amps as well as with Nuforce and they sounded good.
Best is to call AVI in mumbai and speak to either Burge or Munir and shoot all ur questions as they have been selling them for a while now.
Regards
 
The 100w Rowlands do not do justice to the Logans. I have tried them. The JC1s are way way superior.

The Mcintosh 250 watter is also a good bet. Ability to handle varying impedance load is very crucial for an amp powering the Logans.

The Mcintosh MC275 tube amp is also a great match.
 
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Well Prem i have only heard the ML s with the above amps so cant comment on the pairing with Parasound. Anyway Unleash is keeping his Marantz electronics and only scouting for speakers at least thats how i read it.
Have heard the B&W 802 and the 40th Anniv signature diamond with the Jeff Rowlands pre/powers and i loved the powerful sound and i heard the Parasound pre/power with the Jamo 909 and i much prefer the former combo. Have not heard the ML with the Mcintosh u mention but have heard them with the Audio research combo and the sound is stunning but thats very expensive.
 
Hi Dinyaar never heard the Jamo 909. The pre power combo of Parasound is not impressive but i believe their new preamp JC2 is very good. The only amp i have liked in the Parasound range were the Halo JC1s which is designed by the legendary John Curl. For its price it easily compares with the $15000 amps. It got the Stereophile amp of the year in 2003 and there are a host of great reviews online. Takes a really really long time to break in, upwards of 500 hrs. Its brutally revealing for a solid state amp and thus needs a very good front end. I do not know what it costs here but for $6000 its one helluva amp. I could have lived with that amp forever but because i moved to Rethms, i opted for a SET amp.
 
Dear Prem,
Model nos is something i am terrible at so i hope the big red Jamo was the 909 as i mentioned earlier!! I thought u were referring to the Parasound pre/powers as thats what i had heard. Am not sure if i have heard the JC2 preamp though.
Best regards
 
The red speakers are the 909s. For a brief period i was interested in those speakers. Unfortunately then it was not available in India. I spoke to the designer of 909 in Denmark and he told me it needed a huge room because it had a 15 inch woofer. So out they went. What attracted me to the 909s were the fact that they are based on Linkwitz speaker designs. I had a Linkwitz designed speaker several years back and they were very nice. Probably the easiest speakers to place in a room.
 
The red speakers are the 909s. For a brief period i was interested in those speakers. Unfortunately then it was not available in India. I spoke to the designer of 909 in Denmark and he told me it needed a huge room because it had a 15 inch woofer. So out they went. What attracted me to the 909s were the fact that they are based on Linkwitz speaker designs. I had a Linkwitz designed speaker several years back and they were very nice. Probably the easiest speakers to place in a room.

Yup 15 " woofer/ Linkwitz design same one. I was never interested in a speaker of that size or price really just heard them with the Parasound @ Lakozy as i had gone there to buy some supra Ics for a friend. I currently own a decent SS pre/power with small B&W stand mounts and i am satisfied. What i could do better is a cdp where i feel my cyrus cdp is just average but have not really seen/heard a cdp upto a lac which is wow!
 
Hi have not heard the Cyrus CDP. Before you change see if a power cord makes a difference. Also try floating the cdp. The cheaper cd players normally benefit a lot from resonance control and good power.

Blue Note Koala is a decent tube cd player under a lac.
 
Martin Logan are the front runner in the development and manufacturing of Electrostatic/Semi electrostatic designs. Martin Logan Summit is one of the finest sounding speaker ever produced. But as the above has been expressed they are very taxing on the amplifier. They not only need high-quality but also high-power and highly-stable amps to extract the best out of them.

Martin Logan Vantage was the first "affordable" ML ever. It is not an ESL but a semi ESL design. At some point of time I myself had considered a Vantage but didn't think my exisiting amp could have done justice with them, so bought a regular speaker which cost me more but could be driven by my existing amp with authority.

Martin Logan Vantage costs about 70-80k a pair and is a very good VFM at that price.
 
I find the Indian prices for most foreign eqipment ridiculous. Cables are much cheaper ordering online. If you are serious about your equipment it is cheaper to fly to Singapore and buy from there.
 
Thank you all for the inputs.

Prem, perhaps you are right when it comes to the power requirements. I have the Marantz 15S1 combo. The amp is PM15S1 with a very modest 90 Watts/Ch into 8 Ohms / 140 Watts/Ch Into 4 Ohms output. So if I go with your experience compared to the Parasound or McIntosh amps, mine will be terribly underpowered.

Dinyaar, I??ll definitely check with AVI (or is it A2V these days?!) regarding the MLs. You are right in your assumptions also; I do plan to keep my current Marantz gear for a long time- so the question of a new amp upgrade is out for the time being!

Ranjeet, thank you for the info. From what I could collect from the inputs here, even I am getting to believe that the Marantz-Martin Logan wouldn??t be a good combo- mainly due to the fact that my amp could be the limiting factor.

The reason I thought about ML is due to the very fact that I don??t know much about the ES speakers and some of my colleagues and friends swear by their superiority over the normal designs around. I thought may be an audition will be the best way to go and where else can I go but here for some homework! My current shortlist of speakers include the JM Labs Focal Electra 1027 BE and ProAc D28. Any experience around these speakers?

Best Regards.
 
What budget are you looking at for your speakers?

If you dig the electrostatic sound, the Devore Fidelity are great speakers. Great transparency and they do the disappearing act like the electrostats. You could write to them. The Marantz will be fine with them. Another one worth considering is the Tetra 5.
 
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My initial budget was around 5k USD-but not restricted for the right product. I'm not very particular about buying it new. Ex-Demo or even 2nd hand is also fine with me. I have the option of picking it up from the US/UK or even Singapore. Unfortunately, my own country always let me down when it comes to price.

Prem, I'll definitely check out the Devore Fidelity you referred. I see that they have 2 series; the Gibbon and Silverback. Any particular model that you are familiar with?
 
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