Hello from NO Colorado

[Zardos]

I have been at this for a long time, I have tried countless pieces of equipment and hundreds of pairs of speakers over the past 40+ years doing this. I have always been curious about electrostatic speakers and finally gave Martin Logan a serious try. I got a pair of Theos and a Stage center and now I am hooked. I got rid of the rest of my box speakers and even got a pair of Magnepan MG.7 for my 2 channel rig.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

Welcome, lots of great info here.

How do the magnapans compare to your Theos?

 

[Zardos]

How do the magnapans compare to your Theos?

A lot of the same open airy clean detail but the ML are just a bit more detailed.

 

[Lurch490]

Welcome! I'm just south of Denver. Did you sell some Snell, Sony ES, and Quad box speakers?

 

[Zardos]

Thank you. Yes, who is this?

 

[Lurch490]

I'm Jeff. My friend Rick is the guy who purchased those speakers from you.

Small audio world!

 

[Zardos]

I'm Jeff. My friend Rick is the guy who purchased those speakers from you.

Small audio world!

Yeah, and seems to keep getting smaller, most people are good with Bluetooth speakers, lol. I remember when I got those Quads I thought I would never get rid of them, they are some amazing and highly underrated speakers. After listening to the ML it was just about impossible to go back. I still have a few box speakers that I made, but really like these for right now.

 

[Lurch490]

I heard the Quad's at Rick's house and, you're right, they are excellent. I have a pair of M-L CLS-IIz. They do some special things, but I'm not going to have enough room for them when we downsize next year. So, I'm looking for a smaller, more conventional set of speakers. We'll see what I find to fit that bill.

 

[AuBrisbane]

Welcome to the Forum, Zardos.

As you are saying, doing this for 40+ years that tells me you are an very young at heart man.
I understand what are you saying abot ML, Theos was my first ML encounter nine years ago.
It was driven by tiny looking Devialet integrated amp and I was left with loud "WHAT!?".
Price and space to house them was out of my reach and I walked out with pair of Electromotin ESL.
It did not end up there, number of ML speakers at my place was increasing steadily over time, including C2 Centre speaker, 2 X Dynamo 700W SUBS and 2 X Rear FX Speakers.

Glad you joined this Forum (I am free to say) generation.

Cheers from Australia
Zoran

 

[Brad225]

Welcome Zardos. Glad you are happy with your Theos and Stage.

 

[DanR]

Welcome Zardos, I’ve been at this for about 40 years as well, what a great ride it’s been too. And just like you I’ve had many many different pieces of equipment and speakers in that time. I came back to stay with M-L for my 2 channel rig and couldn’t be happier!!

 

[Zardos]

Thanks for the welcome! I am currently powering them with a 20? year old Lexicon 225 (aka Bryston 4Bst). I have tried other amplifiers including a re-capped Aragon 4004 Mark 2 and most recently a Monolith 3X made by ATI. Neither one did these justice, there is a special kind of magic that is happening between this Bryston amp and speakers.
Does anyone else have a similar experience with Bryston and ML? Or other amplifiers?

 

[Lightloopy]

Welcome. Glad you are enjoying your setup. Lots here about amps for these speakers. It's a journey but when you find one you like you will settle in. Mine has been early VTL's specifically VTL MB 250's for many years and now MB 450's .

 

[DanR]

Yes the amp thing is something many of us have had multiple different brands and types of amps before finding what makes the magic happen with our individual systems. Between the 9As (for sale) and the Odysseys which are now a permanent fixture in my system I’ve had both tube and solid state amps on the speakers from a Rogue Audio stereo 100 tube amp (still have), PS Audio Stellar 700 mono blocks (class D sold not my cup of tea), Parasound A-21+ (solid state class AB sold sounded better than the previous 2) and now I found the keeper, when I bought this Krell KSA-100 MK II that has been totally recapped and gone thru and brought to factory specs and put it in my system it has the MAGIC!!! I’ve never owned a full class A amp before but this beast brought my Odysseys to life like no other amp I’ve had. Now many on here say the Pass Labs class A amps sound absolutely stunning as well and I have no reason to doubt that. So for me its the 41 year old Krell without a nick or scratch on it which is amazing in itself that did the trick. I’ll take the heat it produces for the beautiful music it makes every day of the week and twice on Sundays!

 

[Len44]

Hard to beat the Pure Class A. Magic with the Martin Logans.

 

[Lightloopy]

As DanR says we've all had some amp journeys to get "there". Interesting to compare to speaker journeys ...

Here's mine -

Amps- CJ MF2500A Classe CAM 350 MFA D75 VTL MB 250 (demos Rogue M180, Raysonic 100, Hegel) Mcintosh MC1502 VTL MB 450

Speakers ML SL3, ESL 11A ( over a 22 year span!)

 

[DanR]

My speaker list over the last 20 years

Klipsch Lascalas (sold)
M-L Ascent i (sold)*
* wish I never sold these*
Linkwitz Orions (sold)
Geddes Abbey 12A (still have) will not sell
B&W 706 S2 (still have)
M-L Classic 9A (for sale) somebody make me an offer
M-L Odyssey (current) these are going NOWHERE

I have to put these on here too they are near and dear to my heart. My small 2 channel garage system amp/preamp/tuner/oppo disc player. It’s the speakers that are so special.
A pair of AR-3 Henry Kloss design from 1963 and they are ALL ORIGINAL which is simply amazing they are now 60 years old and still sound great!!!!