Self aware sack of staff star stuff (retired)
Joined:
Nov 2000
Posts:
190606
EE: 100% (4)
MI, USA
Posted: 8/31/2024 2:31:14 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Paul][Edited]
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Ordering/Shipping/Unboxing The ordering process through Crutchfield went perfectly. They sent emails updating me on the whole processes step-by-step. Due to the size of these speakers they were sent via a freight company. My local company called, arranged for a delivery date, arrived on time and delivered the boxes to the door step. The speakers weigh just under 80 pounds each and they ship in a very well constructed, and complex large box. Follow the clear instructions and MartinLogan will guide you on how to remove the box from the speaker - you do not remove the speaker from the box as much as removing the box from the speaker.  The packing was mostly cardboard and did a very good job of protecting the speakers. Each speaker was wrapped in a cloth-line 'sock' to protect the high gloss finish. I recycled the boxes but kept the 'socks' to use if I ever have to move them. One of my two boxes was marked as inspected by US Customs and also happened to have a bad foot. The spike and screw was loose in the fitting of the cabinet. A trip to the local Ace Hardware and a tea spoon of glue later and things are good. I called Crutchfield customer service to document the damage if the glue didn't cure the problem. I have no evidence that Customs damaged the speaker but if they didn't reassemble the rather complex 3D box correctly that might have led to the damage. Set-Up and Break-In These speakers are replacing a set of Bowers and Wilkins 705 S2 bookshelf speakers which were holding the place in a dedicated audio room while I was searching for a pair of floor standing speakers. My room is 15x26' with 7.5' ceilings and using the excellently written and illustrated owner's manual MartinLogan guided me though a series of measurements on where to place each speaker. Amazingly their simple math put the speakers to within about 6" of where I had the B&W speakers after doing hours of listening. Their guide is a really good place to start your own adjustments if nothing else.  Like a new pair of shoes speakers also need a period of adjustment and breaking in. After putting the speakers into place I allowed them to come to room temperature and then I did some non-critical listening and was immediately pleased from that first sweet sampling. I left the speakers play for a few days in the room at a moderate volume to allow the woofer's surround rubber time to loosen up some. I found the suggested one third of the panel tilted in provided the fullest and widest sound stage just as the manual suggested. The B&W speakers benefited from a pair of acoustical panels on the ceiling the MartinLogans did not need. My audio room is dampened with bass traps, heavy drapes, and acoustical art work panels. Fit and Finish These speakers have an amazingly appearance. Upon first seeing the unique electrostatic transducer it looks like a piece of art work. The pattern of the holes, the gentle arch of the speaker, and the subtle play of light on the high gloss finish make for a very high acceptance factor in a mixed use room. There are no other speakers that look like these pieces of technical art.  With the exception of the one speaker foot which was damaged in shipping the speakers were flawless and looked untouched by human hands. The high gloss black finish was a perfectly smooth black mirror. The metal parts and frame meet with very tight and uniform seams. Critical Listening As with many things in life one's opinion of a particular speaker is as personal as one's taste in music. I don't listen to music too terribly loud and I'm interested in the sound stage, that almost real acoustical illusion that the band is spread out in front, or around you in some cases. These speakers deliver that sonic illusion better than any other speaker I've sampled.  I've owned these speakers for fews months and have spent a hundred hours enjoying them. I have to listen and listened again to many old songs, enjoying them as if I'm hearing them for the first time. The B&W speakers that were replaced by these MartinLogan speakers are famously magical and delightful. They 'punch' way above their size and weight. But these MartinLogan Masterpiece Classic speakers are a whole level beyond. Doing a proper set-up and using good electronics most speakers will sound good and entertaining enough. Some speakers have the ability to fool the mind into that sound stage effect, the B&W book shelf speakers had a wonderful area of illusion. Sitting in that critical area of the listening room brings lots and lots of broad smiles as music and musicians dance through your head. With the big electrostatic speaker the MartinLogan's area of illusion is tremendously large, not just a chair but a whole sofa, maybe a second row of sofa sitting folks too.  I've been amazed at the sound of Jethro Tull's Songs from the Woods, Madonna's Like a Virgin, King Crimson's Starless and Bible Black, and Pink Floyd's Final Cut albums. All have 'fun' sound stages and challenging passages that I know well. These speakers just don't miss a beat literally or figuratively. At a live performance, huge concert hall or intimate club, there can be a certain point where the music just becomes compelling as the artist pour their energy into the music and the crowd 'comes alive'. With a good recording these speakers can demand that sort of attention and that's just amazing.  The stars of the show are those amazing electrostatic upper range transducers but the twin 8" woofers are no slackers themselves and punch very well. I never heard even a hint of the boxy-ness that I've heard in dozens of other speakers. They run clean, clear, and deep enough to cover most music. That said I run an SVS SB-16-Ultra to help with the bottom two octaves with a 16" woofer and another 1500 watt amplifier. I did my initial testing with a single Schiit Aegir power amp running in a class A mode delivering 40 watts per channel and found that it wasn't enough for louder passages so I added a second and flipped the amplifiers to mono mode using balanced audio signals. That gave the speakers enough power to open up and keep up with more difficult music.  Test System and Room Source: Apple iPad DAC: lavaudio Pre-amp: Schiit Audio Freya+ Amplifiers: Schiit Audio Aegir The room is six-sided with the back wall split into three angles which is nice breaking up the nasty 90 degree reflector. Off of two of those three walls I've hung 4x2 foot panels. The main treatment is through the use of heavy insulated curtains that cover the primary reflection surfaces to the rear, left, and right. The difference in the room's sound with and without the curtains closed is dramatic. In the front two 90 degree corners is a pair of base traps low.  Acoustically the room is amazing pleasing. The MartinLogan Masterpiece Classic ESL 9 are $6,750 a pair delivered. |
Celebrating the remains of the Second Amendment one Fine Firearm at a Time.
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Nice set up. If you are single, stay single or make sure your next house has a dedicated listening room. LOL. I got my theater, but my listening room is our downstairs family room. Wife does not understand the concept of arranging furnishings in a listening room. I got tired of fighting. My soundstage and imaging are less than ideal. |
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Originally Posted By Gthirteen: Nice listening room, sir!!! Originally Posted By Gthirteen: Nice listening room, sir!!! Originally Posted By Johnnymenudo: Nice set up. If you are single, stay single or make sure your next house has a dedicated listening room. LOL. I got my theater, but my listening room is our downstairs family room. Wife does not understand the concept of arranging furnishings in a listening room. I got tired of fighting. My soundstage and imaging are less than ideal. I got tired of compromising and I'm too old to wait any longer. When we were blessed with this house there were three large finished rooms downstairs that the family had used for a pool table room, a cigar room, and a weight gym. The now empty gym was nice with windows on two sides and double doors leading out. The acoustic treatments were important as there was just too much glass especially on the side's first reflection and the normal ceiling ones. |
Celebrating the remains of the Second Amendment one Fine Firearm at a Time.
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Originally Posted By superdoc: Beautiful speakers ! Originally Posted By superdoc: Beautiful speakers ! Originally Posted By SteveOak: I am a fan of planars. +1. The output of the panel is very much a "beam" of sound so they can sound good in rooms with poor acoustical treatment as long as you can get their open backsides away from the base wall. They form a zone of audio magic/maximum pleasure that's huge compared to others speakers. |
Celebrating the remains of the Second Amendment one Fine Firearm at a Time.
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Originally Posted By Coweta_Redneck: Very nice speakers! Are those Sylvania chrome tops in your preamp? Nice room also. No those are the stock ones from Schiit. I have looked at swapping them out. Thank you. |
Celebrating the remains of the Second Amendment one Fine Firearm at a Time. Ever notice how the posts here are getting less intelligent?
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Originally Posted By Coweta_Redneck: Very nice speakers! Are those Sylvania chrome tops in your preamp? Nice room also.  See next post. |
Konfirmed on-foing victom of da Americen edukation systim's inabitty to teash reeding comperhension.
We need common senses apple cider vinegar regulations in America, this madness has to end.
U
We need common senses apple cider vinegar regulations in America, this madness has to end.
U
This is how we roll! One of the advantages of tubes is that you can change them out and get a different sound from your system. The Freya pre-amp needs low-noise tubes but otherwise is pretty flexible and best of all - automatically does the biasing. I used AI to seek out tubes that might give me a better sounding system. It gave me five vendors, I called Tube World Express out of Plymouth WI. I called them after finding the two matched pair of tubes AI recommended - a pair of the Sylvania Chrome Tops from 1954-58, and a set of GE's from the mid-1960s. The GE's are recommended in the left-hand positions while the Chrome Tops are recommended in the right-hand positions. The lefthand tubes are the output stage and the righthand ones are the voltage gain stage. The Freya supports "tube blending" where you can mix and match tubes in stages. The GE tubes are famous for their fat rich bass and the Chrome Tops for their sound stage and vocals. The Freya has the ability to remove the tube gain stage and listing to only transistors. I listen to a couple of songs tubeless to calibrate my ears and get a smile started. Clicking a button on the remote and waiting 30-seconds for the tubes to stabilize launches the tubes and a huge smile as the sound stage expands.  I love a fat bass so I dropped the GE's in to the output stages and fired up my test playlist. It starts with Genesis' Mike Rutherford, then to Yes' Chris Squire, then Queens' John Deacon, ELP's Greg Lake, and finishing with Pink Floyd's Rodger Waters. The bass pedals in Genesis' Firth of Fifth are incredibly deep and finally, FINALLY!, they hit me like I remember in concert. Not so much loud but deep deep deep. I was half-way through Queen's The Profit's Song and had to stop - I wanted to hear the Chrome Tops. I restarted the play list and immediately noticed the Chrome Tops influence bringing the vocals forward and immensely opening the sound stage. I'm tempted to seek out a second set of Chrome Tops to put into the gain stage possibly. The changes took a very musically system and sunk the bass and opened the sound stage. My next step is a better DAC and put the iFi to work as a BlueTooth receiver only.  |
Konfirmed on-foing victom of da Americen edukation systim's inabitty to teash reeding comperhension.
We need common senses apple cider vinegar regulations in America, this madness has to end.
U
We need common senses apple cider vinegar regulations in America, this madness has to end.
U
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This space for rent. I'm working on stuffing the ceiling portion above the where the speakers used to sit with rock wool and coating the duct work with automotive rubber dampening. That will help even out a 70 Hz peak the room exhibits as the height of the room and width are a 1:2 ratio. Inbound are a power conditioner, a headphone amplifier and new headphones, a streaming transport, and a DAC.  |
Konfirmed on-foing victom of da Americen edukation systim's inabitti too teash reeding komperhencenn.
Make AR15.com pro-gun and conservative again.
Make AR15.com pro-gun and conservative again.
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The Eversolo T8 Streaming transport arrived along with the Schiit Mjolnir class A headphone amplifier, and Audeze LCD-3 planer headphones. Still waiting on the Gungnir 2 balanced DAC and a new equipment stand to arrive next week. I'll have a digital side of the Eversolo T8 and a bluetooth receiver feeding the Gungnir DAC to the Freya and a turntable and pre-amp feeding the analog side of the Freya preamp. Debating on a CD/SACD transport. The 65-75 hertz resonance seems much better with the acoustic treatment.  DAC arrived.  |
Konfirmed on-foing victom of da Americen edukation systim's inabitti too teash reeding komperhencenn.
Still shaken over Micheal J Fox's death.
Still shaken over Micheal J Fox's death.