Help selecting surrounds and rears for my system.

[snappy]

I currently have a set of Martin Logan Aerius i's and Center i. I have a pretty large 700sq/ft living room. "well large for san francisco at least "

Problem i am having is that due to the layout I cant place floor standing or mid wall mounted rears. So it leads me to look at down firing backs and surrounds. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I am currently looking at the Mythos Gem's.
I am open to doing 5.1 only. So they dont have to be bi-pole.

My budget is around $500 - $1000 per set.
As for amplification I just received the Marantz SR8001 which is a 160x7 at 6 ohm. I have not hooked it up yet, I will first try connecting them normally then also try it by bi-wire'ing the fronts using the multi room out's. which should be ample to drive the ML's.

ps. I had a pair of Script's not the i's. That I tried but I could not get them to work with the layout.

This is my first post on the site - go easy on a newbeeee

 

[Charliemike]

I currently have a set of Martin Logan Aerius i's and Center i. I have a pretty large 700sq/ft living room. "well large for san francisco at least "

Your living room is bigger than my condo so hush

Welcome to the forum!

And I am of no use to you in this thread

 

[Robin]

Surrounds and Rears...

snappy,

Welcome to the ML Club!
I would highly recommend downward firing Script i's ~ suspended from the ceiling as surrounds as I have done (please see my system #57). I love this surround set-up of my system. I do not think, room size matters the positioning of the Script i's is key to offering a powerful sound stage for 5.1 HT. For your rears I would recommend the same Script i's suspended from the ceiling. Flying killer ML electrostatic sound from above. I just love it. I do have an awesome powerful amplifier though the Anthem P5, which really makes all the difference in my system...

HTH

It is good to have you here.

 

[snappy]

Thank you for the warm welcome Robin. I saw your system and have to say thought about it but there is no way i can get the MIS "minister of interior stuff" to agree to that. I also have a about 15 ft celling behind me. it's a pity though cause I can mount one of them in the perfect spot, but the other one would be about 4 times as far back and not against the wall but at an 90deg angle. I also have a very active 2 year old which ruined my previous set of Quads that I use to run on a sunfire theater grand with a meridian 565z3. hmm i just have a though. could I construct a 90 deg bracket and mount it to the side wall? wonder if I can fix the imaging by dampening the back?

 

[edwinr]

Try some Vignettes. Their build and sound quality is outstanding and they're easy to place just about anywhere.

 

[attyonline]

Give the Mirage Omnisats a listen. They are small, ceiling mountable and mate well with Logans as surrounds IMO.

 

[Thai]

Shouldn't he stay with ML speakers (instead of other brands) to avoid tone differences??

 

[snappy]

Try some Vignettes. Their build and sound quality is outstanding and they're easy to place just about anywhere.

Yea I looked at them but they seemed rather steep $1450 a pair. taxes included.

my search continues..
to make things worse I have a friend who wants to trade his Aeon i's for my Aerius i + $700. Well $700 from my side. I have never heard them so I do not know if they are worth the extra $700 and most of the info I read here on the MLC sways in both directions.

 

[edwinr]

The Vignettes may be expensive, but you get what you pay for. Just for fun last night, I set up my Vignettes as front channels while my Summits were switched off prior to cleaning. The Vignettes were run by my Classe power amp and ARC LS25 preamp. I played Patricia Barber's debut album at very high spl's. I was gob smacked. The punch and detail these things are capable of is amazing. When reproducing the drum solo, the Vignettes displayed lightening speed and dynamics. This is not something you would expect out of so called surround speakers.

I know ML put a lot of design effort into these little gems, but I think they're doing themselves an injustice by not promoting them as they should be. In saying that, my local hi-fi shop has sold several pairs of them to Summit owners during the last few weeks. Any doubts I had about them keeping up with the Summits have been totally dispelled.

Also, I choose the Vignettes over a used pair of Aeons. I auditioned both in my home with my Summits. I had pretty much made my mind up to go with the Aeons. But when I played the Vignettes as surrounds in place of the Aeons, the Vignettes proved to be the superior performer for reproducing the rear effects on DD movie soundtracks.

 

[Thai]

How do the Vignettes compared to Fresco??

 

[attyonline]

How do the Vignettes compared to Fresco??

Sound alike with the same woofers and tweeter but an additional ribbon style midrange in the Fresco which allows the woofers to roll off in the midrange at a lower frequency. However, the few times I have heard both at Magnolia/BB, I could not tell much if any difference in the sound quality between the two. Perhaps better equipment upstream would reveal more differences.

 

[snappy]

i will try and listen to them tonight. i really did not want to pay more from my surrounds than I did for my front stage

 

[snappy]

So I heard the Vignettes at a magnolia store tonight on my way home both in surround mode and in a main mode. The sounded overly bright to me. they did show a nice low/midrange but they sounded a bit dare I say "cold" in both the surround and mains mode. They paired them up with the best amps they had there. and the best sound came from the yamaha 2700 something. interesting thing for me at least is that they sound more like a new age speaker to me. nothing at all like the older version ML's or Quads have. I heard some of the ML towers they had there as well and it seems to be a trend as I dont like the sound from the new ML line. now I know that the right amp will bring out the warmth a bit more but it seems that my older ML's has that warm even without the tubes. i hope not everyone is jumping on the HT wagon. over extended highs - low mediums.

I also listened to the Mirage Omnisats v2's and other than the bottom i think they are so far the best match i think to my Aerius i's. They were out of the Definitive Mythos Gems. But judging from the center I heard it sounds like a promising match. I am open to trying anything right now so please send your ideas along.
tia ...

 

[attyonline]

I had Aerius i speakers when I bought the Omnisats for surrounds and they sounded great. I have since moved up to the Aeon i mains and am still happy with them. BTW, the Vignettes sound very good but are not euphonic in any way IMO. An Arcam or Rotel receiver/amp would give you a little more warmth. Keep in mind too that Magnolia/BB does not have any effective room treatment in their demo rooms which also will accentuate the harder aspects of the Vignettes sound.

 

[cstory]

I will also add a vote of recommendation for the Mirage Omnisats. I have a pair of them ceiling mouted that really work quite well. The newer OMD-5 models are a bit more expensive, but still within your price range, and they look and sound nice. The omnipolar diffusion pattern is similar enough to the bipolar radiation of the Martin Logan's that the mismatch isn't as great as it would be with conventional direct radiating speakers, and the diffuse sound works well in the surround channels.

Chuck

 

[edwinr]

I need to emphasise that the Vignettes ARE very detailed. You need that ability to project detail into the room in your surround speakers. Otherwise the surround effects will be lost or lose impact. As I said, the Aeons just didn't cut the mustard for the back channels when compared with the Vignettes. Also the Vignettes need SERIOUS running in. Much more than the Summits IMHO. Many shops would not have had the Vignettes running long enough to settle the drivers in properly. I reckon my Vigenttes started losing the edginess after 4 weeks of continuous use. In fact the ML instructions with these speakers make a point of informing owners about the very extensive running in time. Judge these speakers for the purpose they were designed for.

 

[JonFo]

Give the Mirage Omnisats a listen. They are small, ceiling mountable and mate well with Logans as surrounds IMO.

+1 on this recommendation.

In rooms where I can't host a ML system, I use Mirage.

Even in my theater, the sides are Omisat FX's. No blending problems at all with the rest of the ML setup. I do run them a bit softer than the rears, so I never actualy 'hear' the sides. But then, that's how it should be

Get the best omnisat you can afford that will work in your physical constraints.

 

[snappy]

thank you, I also think that the omnistats are my best bet, Going to see if my dealer has the new OMD-5. thank you for the info all//.

 

[attyonline]

+1 on this recommendation.

In rooms where I can't host a ML system, I use Mirage.

Even in my theater, the sides are Omisat FX's. No blending problems at all with the rest of the ML setup. I do run them a bit softer than the rears, so I never actualy 'hear' the sides. But then, that's how it should be

Get the best omnisat you can afford that will work in your physical constraints.

I assume from your post that you would recommend your best surrounds in the rear rather than on the side?

 

[AgFrost]

Holy Thread Revival!!

Any changes in opinion in almost 2 years? I've always had Scripts on my list for rears, but now I'm actually getting close to finishing the drywall in my theater and need to make some plans. Suggestions?