Is this an upgrade or downgrade in sound quality?

[silver305]

i have a pair of electromotions that i have been contemplating to sell in order to buy a pair of Theos since the montis i originally thought of purchasing are no longer an option for me because i went ahead and replaced my Bryston amplifier for a Butler audio 5150 hybrid amp (which sounds amazing to say the least).
Today, i have a gentleman who is local to me and he offered to do an even trade for his martin logan Odysseys.
Since these electromotions are my first rodeo with electrostatics and i really like how they sound, would i be downgrading if i swapped them out for the Odysseys?
I know they were built in 2001 and he said the only thing he had wrong with them was a power supply that went bad and that was it. He is the original owner too.
Thoughts? would you guys do the swap?
My current set up is the motif x, jl audio fathom f112, martin logan fx2s, butler audio hybrid amplifier, anthem mrx300 as preamp.
thanks in advance!

 

[Rich]

I think it would be quite an upgrade in sound, but those panels probably only have a few years of life left in them and they are very expensive to replace. Plus, they are quite a bit harder to drive than your EM's, so the Butler may strain on them (which is why I recommended you go with the more powerful two-channel model - it gives you a lot more flexibility when upgrading your speakers).

 

[amey01]

I reckon it would probably be a good move, but as I said before - be really careful of changing too many things at once. As Rich said - the panels need to be either near-new (check with the serial number decoder on this website), or budget for panel replacement which won't be cheap. 2001 panels may or may not need replacing soon depending on how the speakers have been treated throughout their life.

 

[bsandovalb]

I went from electromotions to odysseys with new panels.... HUGE improvement!.....

 

[edwinr]

Even trade? Gut feeling I'd say go for it! But I'd like to be sure the panels are okay and the speakers are in overall good condition. Even if the panels do need replacing in a few years, it still might be an interesting deal.

 

[gordonmenninger]

150 wpc to drive any Logans is a stretch to say the least! The older Martin Logans are harder to drive like other have said so if you go that route you need to get a different amp. 150 wpc is nothing when you are powering Logans! For comparison I am using SL3's as my fronts and they are powere by a Krell ksa300s two channel amp that is 300w into 8 ohms, 600 watts into 4 and 1200w into 2 ohms. When I am watching concerts etc I am pretty much taxing this amplifier so you can never have enough power!

 

[guido]

Gordon, I agree MLs require serious amp power. However, I drive my SL3s from a Music Reference RM 200 rated at 100W/channel into 8 ohms. I use the 1 ohm tap on the amp, which augment the power (don't know by how much). The system is in a smallish room now, but it sounds great. So I suppose it all depends on the details of amp and room.

Regards,

Guido F.