Martin Logan Ascenti's or the new Vista. Help

I am auditioning them now with a Mac mc 402 and c 2200 preamp. I hate them. They sound like home theatre speakers, not for 2 channel purist audio. Too much bang, boom, sizzle. The new panel is more revealing on the high end which will make your bad recordings sound worse. No bass adjustments. I like their old designs better. I think the Ascent I sounded better. I think the "microperf" panel is just marketing BS. I had the ascent I for an extended audition and it sounded just as big with much tighter bass. DO NOT buy this speaker without a careful home audition. Did You hear me?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Agree with ovature my good friends a ML dealer. I feel products from ML are geared for HT owners.I owned many logans over the years but the new designs left me wanting.I think of ML as HT gear now.Maybe look into a maggie 1.6 or used 3.6 if you can afford it and the amps.

Johnk, I appreciate your post. I used to own a pair of AeriusI and a pair of SL3. I loved the warm sounding of the AeriusI and the spatial open of the SL3. I have listenned to the newer versions of ML and you are right, ML is going towards HT direction. Well, those were the days...

Never liked the Ascents sound.... if I were to choose a speaker between the 2, I would go vista hands down.

I have the Vista's and they sound incredible.

Andrewdoan,

Speaking of "warm" Aeriuses, I recently bought a used pair of Aerius i's and am finding the mid-bass a bit overripe. I had the same problem with my Spica TC-60s, though to a lesser extent. I suspect there's a substantial room resonance. Could you tell me if this was a characteristic of your Aerius i's as well?

I've got mine 42" from the front wall and 18" from the side walls in a very lively 12x19x9 room with an open doorway at the back.

JC, I bought the Aerius I new and lived with them for over 10 years. Aerius I is the most coherent speakers I ever owned including the SL3. Three feet from side walls, and four 1/2 from front wall, toed in 1/4 degree. This is just my own opinion abt the Aerius I with my own musical preferences : soft jazz and mostly vocals...For bid bands or full orchestra, SL3 is definetly a better step up. BTW, thank you all you folks at ML customer service. You are the last samurai who know what customer service is all about.

Andrew, I've added a Behringer DSP8024 between my HK CD changer and my Adcom preamp, and the effect of EQ is pretty amazing. It completely tamed the room resonance at 80Hz, fixed a huge (-9db) suckout at 40Hz (probably due to an open doorway in the back wall) and yielded flat response down to 20Hz. Not only that, but it smoothed out a 2db peak at 400Hz and a 2db trough at 800Hz, making male vocals less warm and more neutral. And, it tipped up the treble just a tad, really opening up hi-hats and strings. I kind of like the warm sound of the Aeriuses, though, so I reduced the correction from mid-bass to mid-treble by about 1db to restore just a tad of the Aeriuses' character - flat response sounded too bright. Haven't yet done a critical comparison with the Behringer set to flat in and out of the circuit to see if there's any signal degradation. But, its DAC probably isn't any worse than the one in my HK CD changer, and at least it doesn't have to convert analog to digital and back again. I'm very impressed with this unit, especially given its very reasonable cost.