Martin Logan speakers

I think MLs are great speakers. The Absolute Sound gave the ML Neolith their "Overall Product of the Year 2015". The Neolith is probabIy out of your price range, but it does say something about MLs.

I don’t know if the 130 would have enough power for MLs. A lot of people say they sound best with tubes, but I haven’t tried them. There was a post a few days ago from someone who had Summit Xs and loved PrimaLuna amps with them. I think they put out 75 or 80 wpc.

My experience is that they like a lot of power in a solid state amp that doubles watts as impedence halves. I’d like to try tubes with them but I’m really happy with the sound I have now.

With each generation of speakers ML is getting better at integrating the cone woofer with the panel. I don’t know how well they were doing that with the Vistas, but that is the main gripe people had about them in the past.

I don’t get what people mean when they say the woofer response lags behind the panel so badly. In Stereophile’s review of the Montis the step response of the woofer lags behind the panel by 1.7 milliseconds. This is a greater lag than many cone speakers but can people really distinguish a 1.7 millisecond response lag from a 1 millisecond response lag? Live music must sound very disjointed to people who can.

Another reason I like MLs is the way the music is totally unattached to the speakers. It would be hard for me to give this up.

Here’s what ML says about the Montis’ woofer:

" Montis uses an extremely precise 24-bit Vojtko™ DSP engine in conjunction with a powerful 200-watt class-D amplifier to deliver a stunningly detailed low-frequency performance reaching down to 29Hz—uncommon in cabinets this compact"

I know that ML speakers do not have the tightest bass available, I have owned speakers with tighter bass, but ML is aware of the problem of the bass lagging and overshooting and work to optimize their bass response. Other manufacturers may do it better, but I still don’t hear an awful, lagging or bloated bass from MLs. I find the bass control to be very respectable and tuneful. Not at all "one note." I do not have golden ears and I’m not a bass freak, though.