System #365 (CLX)

1. Member Name: Todd V

2. Location: Southern Maine (USA)

3. ML Model(s): CLX ART - Maple (2 channel system)

4. Year Purchased: Summit X purchased in 2010

5. Mods/Changes: None

6. Associated Electronics:

Source Components:
- Olive 04HD 2TB high-resolution wireless music server

DAC:
- W4S DAC2

Preamp:
- PrimaLuna Dialogue Three

Amplifiers:
- PrimaLuna Dialogue Seven Monoblocks

Transducers:
- Martin Logan CLX ART (Maple)
- JL Audio F112 subs (x2)

Power Conditioner:
- PS Audio PPP (Premier Power Plant) power conditioner

HDD Backup:
- LaCie 2TB HDD (designed by Neil Poulton)

Interconnects:
- White Zombie El Chupacabra - RCA Analog
- Morrow Audio MA6 Grand Reference - RCA Analog
- Belden/Canare 75 Ohm RCA Digital (instrumentation grade)
- Amphenol "280" Glass Toslink

Speaker Cables:
- Morrow Audio SP6 Grand Reference

Power Cables:
- Lessloss DFPC (x8)
- Custom Audio llc - subs (x2)

Shelving:
- Mapleshade Samson V3
- Mapleshade maple platforms (x6)
- VTI Ampstands

Vibration Control:
- Adona XL Multi-Element Brass/Kevlar Cones (all components)
- Mapleshade Isofeet (all components)
- Mapleshade Heavyhats Brass Weights (Music Server, HDD, DAC, pre)

Tweaks / Treatment:
- PS Audio Power Port AC Receptacle
- Mapleshade Silclear - Silver Contact Enhancer (all AC, Analog, and Digital connections)



7. Comments and/or stories about your Martin Logan experience:

You can refer to my "CLX Odyssey" thread for the long story. Short story is I made the desicion in early November 2010 to acquire a pair of CLX speakers and they finally arrived on January 3rd 2011. They are beyond belief wrt clarity, articulation, transparency, sound-stage, dynamics... you know, all those abused (but totally accurate) terms we love to hate. I love them (the speakers) and am in love with them. Pure materialism at it's very best


8. An image of your system.

Welcome Todd !

Todd welcome , beautiful room and system very classy

Welcome!

Very nice & clean system. Enjoy the glow!

Spike

Welcome Todd! Very nice system.

What are the dimensions of your room? It seems like your Summits are very far apart, but that of course depends upon the size of your room. Did you use the flashlight method to position your speakers?

Great looking set up Todd!

Agree! Very nice looking room.

My audio lair also has a pitched ceiling. I plan on adding some room treatments in the coming months. Have you considered adding any treatments to your room?

Erik

twich54 said:

Welcome Todd !

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Hi twich,

Thanks for taking the time to welcome a noob :~)

BTW, I once owned the same Rogue amps shown in your beautiful setup... nice! I really do love a well built tube amp.

Cheers

repman said:

Todd welcome , beautiful room and system very classy

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Gracias Repman... I appreciate the comment.

Cheers

Spike said:

Very nice & clean system. Enjoy the glow!

Spike

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Thanks Spike! Love those Sixpack amps in your setup... it's really all about the glow

Bernard said:

Welcome Todd! Very nice system.

What are the dimensions of your room? It seems like your Summits are very far apart, but that of course depends upon the size of your room. Did you use the flashlight method to position your speakers?

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Hi Bernard,

Thanks for the kind welcome. My room is 24' wide (across the front wall you see in the photo), and averages about 25' deep. The speakers are about 8' apart (inside edge to inside edge) and I sit about 11 feet back from them. And yes, I did indeed use the flashlight method to try and optimize toe-in. It's funny you ask about distance between the speakers... I've done a lot of placement experimentation and was actually quite surprised to find that I could separate them as much as I have without any "holes" in the middle. The soundstage is solid and instruments are placed nicely side2side and front2back. My room is a little funky in that the ceiling pitches from 12 ft all the way down to 2ft kneewalls (you can see the pitch angle in my photo)... so this means that the tops of the Summit X speakers are about 3.5 ft from the sloped ceiling whereas the speaker bottoms are about 7 ft away from the kneewalls. Hope this makes sense.

BTW, how do you like the Prima Luna CD player? I've read good things about it and would consider it as well (along with my PL amps) but I'm currently vectoring toward a high-end music server.

Cheers

churchill said:

Great looking set up Todd!

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Hey Churchill (cool screen-name),

Thanks for the welcoming comment. I took a peek at your system and you've certainly given your room the treatment treatment. Love the Pass amps too. I used to run my 2-channel with Aleph 2 monos (many moons ago) and loved them... even after they started turning a little purple (as the metal heated up over time). I still run Pass in my HT setup with glorious results. I dare say there is no more robust design in all of audiodom than those of Nelson Pass.

Cheers

eknuds01 said:

Agree! Very nice looking room.

My audio lair also has a pitched ceiling. I plan on adding some room treatments in the coming months. Have you considered adding any treatments to your room?

Erik

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Hi Erik,

Thanks for the kind comment. Yeah, I've been struggling for a while on how best to treat the sloping ceiling situation here. My room now is not super-live, so I don't think I need much... but a few well placed "side" panels (if you can call a sloping ceiling a side-wall) would like improve things by eliminating first reflections from the "sides".

Have you posted a pic of your system?

Cheers

Todd welcome! Nice clean attractive layout you have there. I also have the Summit Xs.

Audioseduction said:

Todd welcome! Nice clean attractive layout you have there. I also have the Summit Xs.

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Hi George,

Thanks... and yes, I stole a quick peek at your system, also very clean and really nice... those big Pass amps are gorgeous! I run Pass in my HT, but have recently made the change to tubes in my 2-channel setup, i.e. swapped out my solid state amps (Bel Canto Ref1000Mii) for the Prima Luna Dialogue 7 monos. Man, those Dialogue amps are amazing on so many levels. I could go on and on about how they reveal so much inner detail in recordings I *thought* I knew really well. That's what makes this hobby/addition/sickness so much fun though, no? Discovering new configurations and new component match-ups that just stun you.

The Summit X are pretty amazing aren't they? The bass integration is nothing short of genius... not perfect, but waaaay better than any other hybrid I have ever heard, hands-down. And all that additional bass control with the 25 and 50Hz crossovers... makes room matching pretty easy (at least it was for me).

I've made up my mind that I will be migrating to CLX next, it's just a matter of deciding which ones and where to buy. Everything I've read/seen/heard on the CLX leads me to believe they will elevate my dedicated 2-channel system to new all-time highs in terms of performance and realism. I can't wait! One thing I need to investigate more though is whether or not the CLX trim boards can be easily removed and replaced with custom trim of my own. If that's a fairly do-able process, then I'll just pick up some used CLX for ~14K on Agon and go from there. I think I'll need to start a forum thread here on MLC to get some expert advice before I pull any triggers though.

How about you? Your system is so nice I don't anticipate you really need to make any changes soon, but have you thought about the next upgrade or change? To me, that's what really makes this whole thing so entertaining... I get antsy if my system stays stagnant for much more than one year (even if it's just trying different cables, etc).

OK... way past my bedtime.

Enjoy!

-Todd

My next addition will be a high-end music server next year. I have spent my allowance for my audio hobby for the year my wife says.

Nice setup Todd, I really like your room. Just out of curiosity, how much wattage do those amps put out?

Cheers, Greg

I see you've posted your Summit - X's for sale on Audiogon.. what are you moving into ?

Wow - nice, nice, NICE room! I'd love a room like that!

Todd.. Welcome aboard.. what a lovely system.. love the room and symmetry!