First Logan experience

Hi all --

Was wondering if all of you recall the first time or times you saw or heard Martin Logans?

For me, I went into the local hi end shop - and saw them sitting off in a seperate seating area - but still in an open area. I think they were ascents - when they were first introduced . Saw some older guys playing classical music on them just going gagga... I remember looking at them going - 'What the hell is that?' 'Look at that price tag' ...'What is the big deal? - No bass to these whatsoever'...

Second time I heard them - I went and sat down - in the same space - and kept walking back to the rear of the room checking the rear channels to see if they were active...They were not - and THAT blew my mind. This was a year later.

Third time - my brother and I listened to Aeon's in a more dedicated room hooked to Mac equipment... To this day - I swear those aeons made one of the best ML sounds I have ever heard... My chin hit the floor. That same day - listened to the ascents w/ rotel - but in a worse room. My brother later bought the ascents in chicago.

Fourth time - listened to ascents with a descent in the middle of them.... WOOOWWWWW!!! I needed these now.... and finally, listened to the Odysseys - which I later purchased. Felt no need -ever for a sub (then I later got the descent....but hey, I still don't feel that I need it...I just like it) This was probably over a 5-10 year period... But each listening session is very clear and memorable. Each time I listened, my opinion just continued to grow more positive.

1987. San Fransico hi end store. Sorry, forgot the name of the store.

The original CLS. I still recall how enamored I was with the transparency.

Bit hook, line, and sinker.

The rest is history.

GG

1998. Overture in Delaware. Heard the SL3's with CJ and Classe and felt that was IT. I didn't know what else was going to be in my system at the time, but it was starting with those ML's! Same pair are still going strong with recently replaced panels.

I went to a Sound Advice store here in florida on a foray to get "a good stereo" setup, finally. I went there because I knew they sold Polks and figured that was a reputable name, my brother had a pair from years ago and I was impressed. The had a decent listening room from what I thought and in it were the 15LSi, 25LSi and these weird things with screens. I looked at the prices on the weird things and stood my ground for the polks. The 15LSi's were great. The 25LSi's were much better and I made up my mind to get those. With that out of the way, I asked about the weird things and the son of a B salesman had to demonstrate them. first was the small weird thing, 4 feet tall with black sides, looking slightly like an Easter Island statue.
WOW!
They blew the Polks away into the last decade. I stood up. I walked all around them but eventually sat back down to re-evaluate them against the polks. Still no contest.
Next was the bigger weird thing, with Bubinga veneer and a bigger screen. They were better than the smaller one but but the price was waaaaay to high for me. So was the price on the smaller one but I couldn't help myself. I had no idea a speaker could sound so good.
I picked up my new Aeon i's the next week. when I did, I wanted to hear the summit again. I still had some CD's with me and asked the salesman. he cranked them up and since I was familiar with the music, had noticed a blown woofer sound on the left speaker. The salesman denied this and got ****ed at me.
Six months later, the store had a customer appreciation day, 10% off. The salesman then reminded me of the upgrade difference price deal so the next week I picked up a pair of Vantages.
Since then, I went to liten to a pair of CLS at a fellow MLO member's house and eventually picked up that pair.
I can see myself 10 years down the road with a pair of CLX in the pickup.

I had wanted to hear ML's for a long time and had told my wife about them,constantly. One day in 2000, I walked into the local stereo shop and they had a set of Aerius i's there. That was the 1st and last time they had logans, they were not a dealer.

Anyway, my wife was with me at the time and gave in to me buying them on the spot after hearing me talk about them for probably 4 years straight before I even saw a pair in person.After a while, I thought I would like a bigger pair, having heard the Ascent model twice, once at a stereo show and the other time at a dealer 3 hours away.I ended up buying my Odyssey's unheard, but trusted they would sound great aftyer hearing the Ascents.I wasn't disappointed and still am amazed every time I listen to them. Anyone who gets a chance to listen to them loves the sound.
Cheers, Greg

Eighteen years ago, a friend and I took my Mustang to Bartlesville, Oklahoma one Saturday. He had a carrier stuffed full of CD's, and I had no clue what I was about to experience. He directed me to a high-end audio store the likes of which I never knew existed. He talked a few minutes to the salesperson, who then took us upstairs to a special room away from the general showroom. There was a lot of different types of audio equipment set up in a theater arrangement. What caught my eyes, and soon my ears, was a pair of speakers. I'd never seen anything so outrageous! They were bizarre looking beyond description.

My friend gave the salesperson a cd from the artist Enya, who'd I'd never heard before. We sat in a pair of chairs strategically placed in the room and experienced indescribable sound. Sound that seemed not to come from the speakers themselves, but rather from the air surrounding us. I closed my eyes and tried to define where the location of the two speakers were we were listening to and found it impossible.

The salesperson must have gotten a good laugh watching me, this rube from small-town Kansas, sitting with my mouth hanging open in disbelief!

The entire drive home, and for the next few weeks, my head was full of "If I sell the Mustang and just walk everywhere instead, I could come up with $3500 to buy those speakers." In time I gave up on the idea, instead choosing to focus on improving my education.

Two months ago I finally bought my first Martin Logans...a pair of used Vantages. Then I went a little crazy and bought a used Descent and a used Motiff.

F=ma,
Congradulations on your dream finally becoming reality!! I enjoyed your story.

...went to Audible Elegance in Cincinnati to pick out a new cd player as a Magnavox had died. The Rotel RCD 965 had just been introduced (Stereophile panned it). The manager was using SL-3s as the demo speaker to compare cd players and ended up buying it and the SL-3s. I used them for years with a Crown IC-150 preamp running a Carver m1.5 amp (also had a mint Carver PM1.5 which was a little more lively). I also used a Crown 724 reel to reel and Sony PSFL 77 linear tracking table for analog:music:

About 40 years ago. Roger Sound Labs, in West Hollywood CA.

1989 CES, listened to the CLS.

MOON said:

F=ma,
Congradulations on your dream finally becoming reality!! I enjoyed your story.

Click to expand...

Me too! I finally had my dream come true when I bought my Vantages about three-and-a-half years ago. Still enjoying them very much.

These are really cool stories guys. Thanks and keep them coming.

Pacific Stereo, a west coast chain in 1979 was distributing ML Sequels in one of their Seattle stores. I'd owned a pair of monster speakers with real rich striking walnut cabinetry, passive radiators, and Heil Air Motion Transformers which were pretty darned good performers at the time.

I observed the Sequels for the first time. Their transparent look made an impression upon me. It would be another 17 years before I actually owned my first pair of ML's, which turned out to be a pair of used Sequel's. 3 months later those were replaced by SL3's, then I continued moving up the chain to Requests, and finally CLSiiz's which were a 1 of 6 produced in Cherrywood. And now finally I've just about completed the cycle with the arrival of Monolith III's. It took me a while to acquire a pair after that first viewing, but I more than made up for that by the different types of ML's I've now owned. I've not acquired any of the newer products produced after GS sold the company.

Thx for the walk down memory lane into that Pacific Stereo store.

Enjoy All!

F=ma said:

Two months ago I finally bought my first Martin Logans...a pair of used Vantages. Then I went a little crazy and bought a used Descent and a used Motiff.

Click to expand...

Ahhh, so i c I'm not the only one it took awhile to finally land their first pair after first viewing them.

Great story, enjoyed it!

Hello,
My first real audition of ML's occurred at Read Brothers in Charleston, SC in 1996.
Very interesting store as the first part of the Store is a Fabrics and knick knacks and then you walk down a ramp and at the time they had a pair of CLS IIZ's driven by Aragon Amplification in the main setup. I walked out of the store with a pair of Aerius i's and have owned ML's since.

4 years later, they had Prodigies driven by Electrocompaniet Nemo Monoblocks as their flagship demo setup.
I desperately wanted that setup, but had just graduated College and could not come close to affording the Speakers or the Amplifiers.

Read Brothers is a great little hifi store. At least when I lived in Charleston, they still had a strong 2 channel bias in their setups. They did have a HT with PJ in the back of the Store, but TT's and 2 Channel displays was the rule.

If ever visiting Charleston, I highly recommend checking them out. Owner Tom Read is a great guy and really seeks out the best Brands to carry. It has been 5 years since I lived in Charleston, but I am pretty sure they are still a ML Dealer.
Here is a link to the Store:http://www.readbrothers.com/stereo.html
Cheers,
JJ

I heard CLX's on demo at an audio shop in Oct. 09. In Nov. 09, I bought a pair of aerius i, along with 4xvignette and 1xabyss to round out a theater. Then in Dec, I bought a Cinema. Then in Jan 10, I bought a pair of ascents. lol.

I was a kid and went to some audio store where I grew up..I can't remember which one...I can't even remember what year exactly. I remember the sales guy proudly showing the ML speakers.

I thought the grills were just that..grills and that the sound somehow was being transported up from the woofer, so that it seems like it was coming from the grill (versus the panels actually being the source). I do remember them sounding very lifelike. This was an experience that I remembered to this day.

So last year....
I randomly came across a pair of Aerius i and picked them up just because of the experience from my childhood.

Well..I picked them up cuz they sound amazing to me :music:, but now I'm in the process of going up the ladder and upgrading . *edit*. My new Vantages get here tomorrow afternoon..I hope I made the right choice .

MOON said:

F=ma,
Congradulations on your dream finally becoming reality!! I enjoyed your story.

Click to expand...

Pokey said:

Me too! I finally had my dream come true when I bought my Vantages about three-and-a-half years ago. Still enjoying them very much.

Click to expand...

2beornot2bop said:

Ahhh, so i c I'm not the only one it took awhile to finally land their first pair after first viewing them.

Great story, enjoyed it!

Click to expand...

Happy to share.

first listen

I hear my first Martin Logans at a friend house in Columbus they were the sequel's I had never seen or heard them before and i was very impressed with what i heard, after i left his home i new i had to have a set of these's but it took years and i ended up buying the Sl3's which i have enjoyed till a year ago when i bought a demo pair of Summits which sounded outstanding, i am still using my Sl3's as rear channels in my home theater, with the stage as the center and 2 depths and one grotto for lfe. Also using the scripts as side channels. An all logan surround package is something to enjoy.

Can't remember what put the bee in my bonnet, but I went to Christopher Hansen's in 1989 specifically to listen to some Logans, and walked out with a pair of Sequels. A few days later, my dad (whom I blame for my hi-fi curse) came by my place and almost immediately started to tell me about these amazing new speakers he'd heard. It quickly became obvious that he was describing ML's, so I glanced over at the Sequels, which he hadn't seen(!), and asked if he meant "those".

His jaw hit the floor.

It's been all downhill from there.