Beaker wrote: 
That review is one of several that I read prior to purchase.  The tweeters are at the same level that my previous speakers were up on their stands.  Not a con for me.  Wide and deep carpeted room.  The system is parked on the side of one half of a 30 foot wide room and the couch is about 20 feet back. Ceiling pitched up from the sides to the center. Very irregular shaped.  Haven't put the spikes on yet.  I'll do that after I've taken down the old speakers and gotten them out of the way and after break in so I can put them where they will sound best given the spaces to park them.  Not noticing any real directionality issues either.

This is the receiver    tx-rz820   

Probably about 7 or 8 years old now.  The video output has long ago failed which is a now well known Onkyo weakness.  No worries, I'm just running it in 2.0 bi amped which gives me 4 - 130 watt amps going into the speakers.    And I was worried about having enough power, silly me.  I could try conventional wiring and hear the difference between that and the bi - amped, but as I sit here now, have zero interest in finding out how much better it makes them.

Using the Direct / Pure sound listening mode.  Toslink optical is hard wired from my audio computer / server via a 25 foot fibre optic cable. The sound card goes out at playback bitrate and @ 96 khz PCM. No hum or extraneous cable noises introduced. Ground loop immunity. The big rig shares the same wall as my studio so I put a hole in the wall and fed the cable through it.  The receiver has 384K/32 Bit DACs.  I try real hard to be forward compatible when ever possible.

I'm already hearing things not heard before.  Hearing more detail than on my Beyerdynamic 1770 headphones which are not a slouch by any means.  I seemed to have kicked things up not one but two or three notches from where I was which until now I knew was not anything special but was decent.  The sub is left over my old Optimus LX 5 Di-Pole 2.1 system. 

I really haven't heard anything this nice since the early 80's.  I had a buddy who had a pair of JBL 3 way Olympus' run off rack system that I forgot who made it. They were the nicest I had ever heard until now, at least at this price point. The wife says it the best she has ever heard, period.  And she is well traveled musically.  She commented that we have rich people's speakers now.  Then said happy birthday, happy anniversary, Merry Christmas and wasn't that a nice vacation we had thinking about the bucks they cost.

I got lucky and clicked on a spam email from Audio Advisor and there they were.  Had enough space on a zero interest card and after hemming and hawing for a week, jumped.  Single most expensive audio purchase I have ever made.  The previous was my VPI Cyclone RCM.  No regrets, glad I did it.  Still have an NOS AT20SLa cart in the box and two factory stlyli for backup. They will take us to the end, I'm done looking.

.
the jbl olympus

 Beaker wrote:
This is my home brew version of a double ML CLS series...You could always build your own.

 DaveInSaoMiguel wrote:

Way, way, out of my budget!

I noticed in the article review link for the Motion 60XTi's that the patent for Heil's AMT had expired.  This must be why we're seeing updates on the original design emerging in modern products.  Good ideas get improved upon!

Martin Logan's Aerius made me a believer:

 Beaker wrote:

A company in Berlin also uses a version of the Heil AMT driver in their line of powered studio monitors. They get pretty good reviews.

Adam Audio

Here is a better ML to drool over - The e2 Statements..

kurtster wrote:
Ah.  I wasn't aware ML was making traditional cone speakers.  Looking at a review of these, I see they've incorporated the ideas of the legendary Heil AMT tweeter.  Very interesting.

The MLs I've long been drooling over are their electrostatic panels.  Such as this current model.  To date, I've never have really had a suitable room for them for a proper placement that would allow them to fully express their imaging capabilities.  May have to remedy that.

What are you using to bi-amp power your MLs?

Bi-amping is always a good thing!  I first ran a bi-amped rig long ago at a house party where a buddy & I brought together our two systems.  My Crown DC300A ran the huge Altec sub and his Sansui AU717 (or AU919 can't recall) ran a pair Celestion Ditton 662s. We had compliments on the sound & tunes for ages after that.  Heh.

 pilgrim wrote: 
Always kept my eye on Wharfedales but nothing really right now and those are about $600 more each with the stands than the ML's at this price.  Came down to the ML's or the KLH's.  The ML's won based on specs, the reviews and being able to bi - amp them.

 Beaker wrote: 
MartinLogan Motion 60XTi

Discontinued. They are selling out fast.  I got the walnut ones for this price and the black like these were $300 more.  Now the walnut and evidently the white as well are gone so the black ones have dropped to this price.  All in the past several days. Seen them on Amazon for this price, too.

Could not be happier.  Unobtainium  at list.  Just got done with a 4 hour break in, loud.  The wife was blown away.  Feel good afterwards.  Not worn out and beat up.  Do not need a sub, this is a true 3 - way old school 2.0 stereo and all the sound is well balanced.  Piercing high ends are nowhere near as painful, like Manzarek's organ notes on LMF.  Went through all kinds.  Started with 24 /192 50th DSOTM, 5 Petula Clark tracks for a female vocal to Patti Smith Dancing Barefoot then took off into all kinds of stuff.  Underture from Tommy  Zep When The Levee Breaks. Chest Fever.  finished with the Beginnings mix of Dreams.

Bi - Amped.  First time ever for me this way.  You never really plan for something like this, but my stuff is getting worn and better to jump on something like this before the old stuff dies and get something worth getting, not making do.  Small foot print, 65 lb. mo-fo's.

Iffen you've been poking around for speakers recently, I would say jump on these.  Don't know about prices and availability north of the border.

 kurtster wrote:
Fun!
Curious, albeit too late, did you give any consideration to the Wharfedale Lintons?

I have been wanting to give them a listen, but no dealers here have them. Supposed to be nice and warm with low-fatigue factor.

 kurtster wrote:

Nice! Which Martin Logan's did you buy?  They've long been a fave of mine.

 black321 wrote: 
yeah, used to do that many moons ago.  The album I took to play was the MFSL pressing of Aqualung.  A very demanding album with some tricky bass.

I got the MartinLogan's 

I read the reviews and two things jumped out. Comments about no listener fatigue after long listening sessions and no subwoofers really needed.  Pulled the trigger Friday afternoon after much hemming and hawing.  Next day at work, P called and said some big boxes were leaning on the porch steps.  Overnight.  Holy shit.  Ordered some cable and plugs from Crutchfield right after doing the speakers and they should be waiting for me when I get home shortly this evening.

I'm guessing that in about 3 hours from now, I'll be either smiling or cussing myself out for being stupid.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:

A-yup. 

And that poor floor.  Push the stand a wee bit and there will be gouges.  A quick look at the total weight in that stack, as most model numbers are easily visible - that's ~200lbs of gear, plus the weight of the stand, pressing down at four points, on that floor.  Divots, for certain.

 Beaker wrote:

And the metal rods carrying all that weight are sitting right on the hardwood floor. No dampening anywhere in the system; when a squirrel runs across the roof, he'll know it.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:

OP also said: "Any suggestions that would add horizontal stability without a complete redo?"

Yeah, my suggestion would be to buy separate & proper shelving for storage/display of units not actually in operation, thus removing all receivers in that stand, except the one in use. Place the TT on top, by itself, with the chosen receiver below.  Simple.

Clowns.  So many of the vintage stereo collectors are absolute clowns.

 Beaker wrote:
"If doing this again would use 3/4” rod for stability but regardless happy with the result."

I mean, he's clearly NOT happy with the result.  He'll have a calamitous failure and the Internet will tell him to add more rods in parallel with all the others.

 Steely_D wrote:
As a stereo know-it-all, can confirm that thread is full of garbage gear .OR. good gear, poorly set up.

NSFW:  (not for scott-from-wyoming)

And WTF is this supposed to be?

↓↓↓↓
https://www.reddit.com/r/vinta...
5 receivers, one TT, all in a butt-ugly custom stand from planz on the Interwebs.  That much weight in that stand is going to cause some interesting issues for the TT on top.

Those of you who are stereo know-it-alls might enjoythis subreddit.

 kurtster wrote:

They still make the LFT 8 series, They only have 1 panel. I made these up using 4 of them and different tweeters than they used.
I owned Martin Logan CLS-II's back before ML started to concentrate more on home theater speakers. They failed because the 3M double sided tape failed and I sold them and decided to make my own from scratch. That was 2001 and mine have failed twice since then due to the same problem. The new ML electrostatic still eventually fail that way also, Nobody has found a practical replacement for the 3M tape yet. The newer ML 'stats are all hybrid with built in subs were as the CLS line was a full range electrostatic. I've always thought the hybrid design is a compromise and not act good as their older ones.

 DaveInSaoMiguel wrote: 
I do remember those.

So what are your thoughts on Martin Logan ?  I know the name well and never heard anything distressing about them.  Just never heard any of them in the wild.

 GeneP59 wrote: 
Used SL's go for around $500 to 800 and are worth buying if you kind find one that wasn't used for DJing.  Still have my SL 1700 I got back in 1978.  Needs some cleaning and lubing.  I'd give it to you but Boston is a long drive.  Doubt it would survive shipping.

Guitar Center's or Reverb is a good place to look.

 kurtster wrote:
When I moved to the Azores I decided not to bring the speaker project I had as I was afraid it was to risky shipping them and would be to hard to get repair parts if they died here/ So they now reside with a friend in VA.They have 4 Eminent Technology LFT 8b panels and 20 planar tweeters crossed at 12k. the panels are crossed at 200. They are 8 foot tall.