30th Anniversary Monolith Speaker

[MOON]

I heard on good authourity from a dealer that Martin Logan plans to make a very special speaker to celebrate their 30th anniversary, that being a brand new designed Monolith.
I googled 30th anniversary Martin Logan monolith and this popped up http://www.soundstageglobal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=238&catid=87&Itemid=304

 

[RUR]

I heard on good authourity from a dealer that Martin Logan plans to make a very special speaker to celebrate their 30th anniversary, that being a brand new designed Monolith.
I googled 30th anniversary Martin Logan monolith and this popped up http://www.soundstageglobal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=238&catid=87&Itemid=304

What a great walkthrough of ML manufacture!

Nouveau Monolith was "an idea" shared with me almost exactly a year ago, so I'm guessing it's for real. Can't wait to hear the details.

 

[georgehifi]

I heard on good authourity from a dealer that Martin Logan plans to make a very special speaker to celebrate their 30th anniversary, that being a brand new designed Monolith.

Hope they get the woofer right this time, the old Eminence driver of the Monolith III was a one note shocker.

Cheers George

 

[Rich]

Very interesting! I hope they have listened to some of our comments about the size of the panel. One of the key attributes of the Monolith, in my opinion, was that the size of the panel gives you that impressive "wall of sound" feeling that few speakers can match and that is totally lacking in ML's current lineup. JonFo, are you paying attention? You may have reason to upgrade your main L&R speakers.

 

[JonFo]

Very interesting! I hope they have listened to some of our comments about the size of the panel. One of the key attributes of the Monolith, in my opinion, was that the size of the panel gives you that impressive "wall of sound" feeling that few speakers can match and that is totally lacking in ML's current lineup. JonFo, are you paying attention? You may have reason to upgrade your main L&R speakers.

Reading in rapt attention right now. more comments later. But this is great news!

 

[JonFo]

Hope they get the woofer right this time, the old Eminence driver of the Monolith III was a one note shocker.

Cheers George

George, I finally fixed that in my Monoliths as noted in this thread. And I expect the new design to use the techniques advanced in the Theos, which pretty much is an active x-over + DSP correction. So should be much better.

 

[beek]

Monolith

I remember being in a high end shop in NYC when the first Monolith was released asking him what is this?
His response was nahh and made a face, they never carried them afterwards.
Bettcha they are sorry now...............:ROFL:

 

[JonFo]

From the Link posted above:

The next steps for MartinLogan will be a new flagship speaker product to celebrate the company's 30th anniversary in 2013 along with other new Reserve-series products, which will only be available through selected dealers worldwide

Not much info to go on there. But a large-panel hybrid is overdue from them IMHO ;-)

The Monolith form-factor is not bad, with a 2' x 4' panel whose top is at 70" or so, it really does provide excellent coverage in a medium to large sized room.

Coupled with a woofer system in the base, it should make a nice single unit speaker that delivers a much bigger soundstage than say the Summits.

Now, I hope they don't try and make the speaker 'full-range'; that is: go below 50Hz or so, as that totally wrecks the mid-bass clarity and capabilities of the system.

A 12" woofer (the likely size to be used in this application) that has clean extension past 500Hz on the high-end can rarely reach below 50 or 60Hz on the low end at high-volumes with low distortion. And trust me, I've been all over that exercise

To obtain the optimal panel / woofer integration, even a large panel like that needs to be crossed over at 250Hz or above if you also want to reach high SPL cleanly in that register.

If you can afford the >$15K per pair these are likely to cost, a sub or two is well within reach, and is a must IMHO for best room integration and optimal low-frequency performance.

Which brings me to the crossover choices. I sincerely hope the high-pass passive is easily bypassed so that folks like me can use active crossovers ahead of it, and that the low-pass section has a (optionally) defeatable crossover with a line-level (on balanced XLR please) input.

The low-pass section is likely to be modeled after their new lines such as Montis with an active LP crossover ahead of a DSP and an integrated woofer amp. This is all fine, as the fine tuning and custom DSP EQ / Phase corrections are best done by the speaker designer. I just want to control crossover points and use an active x-Over for the panel.

 

[beek]

New Monolith

From the Link posted above:


Not much info to go on there. But a large-panel hybrid is overdue from them IMHO ;-)

The Monolith form-factor is not bad, with a 2' x 4' panel whose top is at 70" or so, it really does provide excellent coverage in a medium to large sized room.

Coupled with a woofer system in the base, it should make a nice single unit speaker that delivers a much bigger soundstage than say the Summits.

Now, I hope they don't try and make the speaker 'full-range'; that is: go below 50Hz or so, as that totally wrecks the mid-bass clarity and capabilities of the system.

A 12" woofer (the likely size to be used in this application) that has clean extension past 500Hz on the high-end can rarely reach below 50 or 60Hz on the low end at high-volumes with low distortion. And trust me, I've been all over that exercise

To obtain the optimal panel / woofer integration, even a large panel like that needs to be crossed over at 250Hz or above if you also want to reach high SPL cleanly in that register.

If you can afford the >$15K per pair these are likely to cost, a sub or two is well within reach, and is a must IMHO for best room integration and optimal low-frequency performance.

Which brings me to the crossover choices. I sincerely hope the high-pass passive is easily bypassed so that folks like me can use active crossovers ahead of it, and that the low-pass section has a (optionally) defeatable crossover with a line-level (on balanced XLR please) input.

The low-pass section is likely to be modeled after their new lines such as Montis with an active LP crossover ahead of a DSP and an integrated woofer amp. This is all fine, as the fine tuning and custom DSP EQ / Phase corrections are best done by the speaker designer. I just want to control crossover points and use an active x-Over for the panel.

Sounds fantastic Jon they should listen to their customers, I would like to see locking IEC"s on all the models...

 

[Rich]

Sounds fantastic Jon they should listen to their customers, I would like to see locking IEC"s on all the models...

They should definitely listen to Jon. He is one of the most knowledgeable ML customers on the planet in respect to optimizing these speakers.

 

[jmschnur]

What improvements would this hypothesized large hybrid panel have over the current Montis or Summit.?


J

 

[JonFo]

What improvements would this hypothesized large hybrid panel have over the current Montis or Summit.?


J

good question, I'll take a stab:

First, it would be a fully vertical (no rake) speaker like the original Monolith and the current CLX. The benefit is no ceiling reflections, and a straight line source across the 4' height of the panel, which is placed much higher than the Montis/Summit, giving good seated vs standing coverage. And for folks with staggered level seating in their home theaters, better coverage across front and second row.
That later one is why I never considered the Summit/Spire or new Montis for my rig.

Second, a much wider panel (24” vs 11.3”) will:

• Play louder, especially in the mid-bass (250 – 500hz)
• Deliver a wider, fuller soundstage
• Be able to cross-over lower to the woofer for broader ESL coverage

A taller panel (48” vs 44”), allows for:

• Vertical speaker for benefits outlined above
• Seated vs standing coverage
• Larger line-source energizes more of the room, evening out room mode interactions

Larger bass bin allows for:

• Less power demands and less spring action due to less air-compression in sealed alignments, which means lower distortion and higher output levels
• Possibility of a Transmission Line design (but not likely)
• Option to do two 10” drivers (improved mid-bass)
• More solid support structure for bigger panel.

 

[JonFo]

They should definitely listen to Jon. He is one of the most knowledgeable ML customers on the planet in respect to optimizing these speakers.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Rich, really appreciate it.

I hereby volunteer to alpha/beta test the new designs, and if they beat my current rig, I even commit to buying them. ML can PM me for details

 

[edwinr]

An updated Monolith is an interesting concept. I first heard them about 8 years ago, and I was very impressed. I can just imagine ML techs rubbing their hands together at the thought of implementing the new dsp bass management technology on the 2012/13 models.

 

[Necrosuit]

I also heard of a possible CLX Statement.

 

[JonFo]

I also heard of a possible CLX Statement.

That would interesting. Any possible configs mentioned?

One approach would be to take current CLX and add a matching bass tower to it. Maybe two stacked Sub2's from Paradigm (sister company) and create a 12-driver sub stack per side.

So one would get a total of 4 Sub2s plus the CLX, and could set up the subs as stacked pairs in towers or distribute around the room (a much, much better approach).

I think the era of massive 6' tall bass-bins is over, no Statement e2, Genesis IRS IV, etc. big stacks. They look cool, but frankly, 2 or 4 good subs (and that Sub2 is awesome) well placed around the room would perform way better.

Anyway, any actual feedback?

 

[Necrosuit]

No Real facts. About 6 months ago I was working heavily with some ML folks to try and get my CLX a perfect setup in my small room etc, I made a comment saying it would be cool for a smaller pair of CLX and they made some claims of a possible CLX Statement in the works. Thats all, no real validity.