Here they are, about to be shown on the floor at CEDIA. DaVinci Media ordered them 2 weeks ago, site unseen and details unknown, we knew they'd be great. Give us a call or drop us an email if you are interested!
Meet the new Martin Logan Centers
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GaryG
Well-known member
I am flying into Dallas for CEDIA tomorrow. I'll post thoughts when I see them. I'm sure ML will be giving info soon.
Gary
Gary
Predictably, I have an opinion on these new centers 
First, congrats to MartinLogan, it is nice to finally see the new line of centers, and I wish you great success with them.
So, starting with the largest model, the Illusion C34A, this is an interesting approach to a 'below the screen' center channel. It is floor standing, which allows the design to 'know' the relationship to one of the important boundaries, the floor, and integrate that into the architecture. The tilt of the panel seems to assume fairly close spacing to the seating, but I guess the rake is adjustable via threaded spikes/feet on the rear. Because it is floor-mounted, and the panel is only 8" tall it likely will only cover one row of seating.
I like the built-in amp/DSP/ARC, as that should really help with room integration in the ever-important bass / mid-bass. I wonder if the woofer array is configured as a Bessel-array, as the dispersion characteristics of a plain horizontal array is not ideal for this application and that low a location.
Overall, this is a nice unit designed for the most common deployment scenario, it seems to me a good step up over prior-generation centers from ML.
To future owners I would add a strong recommendation to place signifiant absorption material on the surfaces directly behind the center to absorb as much of the rear wave as possible, as the comb-filtering cancellations and image smearing will destroy dialog intelligibility otherwise.
On price, it looks like I was not far off in my guess back in 2006 when I built my SL3XC center, I said a commercial edition would be about $8K, so this one at $7K is in the ballpark
First, congrats to MartinLogan, it is nice to finally see the new line of centers, and I wish you great success with them.
So, starting with the largest model, the Illusion C34A, this is an interesting approach to a 'below the screen' center channel. It is floor standing, which allows the design to 'know' the relationship to one of the important boundaries, the floor, and integrate that into the architecture. The tilt of the panel seems to assume fairly close spacing to the seating, but I guess the rake is adjustable via threaded spikes/feet on the rear. Because it is floor-mounted, and the panel is only 8" tall it likely will only cover one row of seating.
I like the built-in amp/DSP/ARC, as that should really help with room integration in the ever-important bass / mid-bass. I wonder if the woofer array is configured as a Bessel-array, as the dispersion characteristics of a plain horizontal array is not ideal for this application and that low a location.
Overall, this is a nice unit designed for the most common deployment scenario, it seems to me a good step up over prior-generation centers from ML.
To future owners I would add a strong recommendation to place signifiant absorption material on the surfaces directly behind the center to absorb as much of the rear wave as possible, as the comb-filtering cancellations and image smearing will destroy dialog intelligibility otherwise.
On price, it looks like I was not far off in my guess back in 2006 when I built my SL3XC center, I said a commercial edition would be about $8K, so this one at $7K is in the ballpark
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jmschnur
Well-known member
Normal room for viewing would have a coffee table near the seating . This sound from the speaker would hit the table prior to the listeners .
Why not design it for ceiling mounting?
Why not design it for ceiling mounting?
sleepysurf
Well-known member
The Illusion floorstander is intended for a more dedicated theater setting with no obstructions. The Focus is wall/shelf mountable.
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Next up, the EM-ESL C
This is actually as interesting a design as the Illusion, with a novel architecture that I think is a great step forward for ESL centers.
First, I believe this is the first unabashedly monopole ESL from ML. And that is absolutely the right choice for a center, especially one that will mostly be deployed in normal media / living rooms. So Kudos to ML for that choice.
Second, while they were light on details in the press release, I’ll take a stab at guessing that the ‘CenterForce’ woofer arrangement is a dual-opposing configuration to cancel cabinet vibrations. Firing into a wave-guide that exits around the center-mounted tweeter between the ESL panels. This integrates the mid-bass to panel frequencies much better from a dispersion standpoint compared to two woofers flanking the outer edges of the panels. So again, well done.
My only concern here is the woofer to panel to tweeter time-alignment, as passive crossovers are a bear when it comes to fine-tuning delays. A fully active version for $2k would have been a much nicer solution, especially for people with receivers.
While the folded-motion tweeter might not be sized ideally for this concept, one thought I immediately had is that a true killer Center channel for someone with a perforated screen is to stack four or six of these into a line-array
Overall, this is a very nice, innovative design, and affordable at that.
This is actually as interesting a design as the Illusion, with a novel architecture that I think is a great step forward for ESL centers.
First, I believe this is the first unabashedly monopole ESL from ML. And that is absolutely the right choice for a center, especially one that will mostly be deployed in normal media / living rooms. So Kudos to ML for that choice.
Second, while they were light on details in the press release, I’ll take a stab at guessing that the ‘CenterForce’ woofer arrangement is a dual-opposing configuration to cancel cabinet vibrations. Firing into a wave-guide that exits around the center-mounted tweeter between the ESL panels. This integrates the mid-bass to panel frequencies much better from a dispersion standpoint compared to two woofers flanking the outer edges of the panels. So again, well done.
My only concern here is the woofer to panel to tweeter time-alignment, as passive crossovers are a bear when it comes to fine-tuning delays. A fully active version for $2k would have been a much nicer solution, especially for people with receivers.
While the folded-motion tweeter might not be sized ideally for this concept, one thought I immediately had is that a true killer Center channel for someone with a perforated screen is to stack four or six of these into a line-array
Overall, this is a very nice, innovative design, and affordable at that.
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