New Member - long time ML owner

[Brewnoser]

Just bought my second pair of MLs after over 30 years with Aerius i’s. ESL 9 Classic. Listened to the 11’s and loved them but budget and a desire to keep bi amping with my babies - restored McIntosh 240 and 275 - plus a killer deal on a low use demo pair got me here.

I do have a question I can’t find an answer to elsewhere. I’ve been bi amping the Aerius with the higher power to the panels and lower to the wooofer. Plus a Klipsch powered sub really throttled down to very low frequency.

It seems to sound better this way. The tech who last cleaned up the amps says the 275 is the better of them. So I’m going with that in the part of the sound that seems to demand quality.

Thoughts?

 

[Kermie]

Welcome!! Someone will be along with an answer for you shortly.

 

[Jazzman53]

Welcome to the forum, Brewnoser,

Just curious: What are you using for a crossover?

 

[Brewnoser]

Welcome to the forum, Brewnoser,

Just curious: What are you using for a crossover?

The speakers are designed to allow two kinds of bi amping. The crossover accommodates both.

 

[Jazzman53]

The speakers are designed to allow two kinds of bi amping. The crossover accommodates both.

OK I see; you are using the speaker's internal passive crossover.

My ESLs are DIY but I wasn't smart enough to design a passive crossover that works well with the ESL's radical impedance, so I took the easy but more expensive route and used a digital (DSP) crossover upstream of the power amps, which provides almost infinite tuning capability, in real time, and sounds wonderful.

I asked about your crossover because some ML owners are bypassing their speakers' internal passive crossovers in favor of bi-amping with an upstream DSP, and loving the results.

It's an option.

 

[Brewnoser]

OK I see; you are using the speaker's internal passive crossover.

My ESLs are DIY but I wasn't smart enough to design a passive crossover that works well with the ESL's radical impedance, so I took the easy but more expensive route and used a digital (DSP) crossover upstream of the power amps, which provides almost infinite tuning capability, in real time, and sounds wonderful.

I asked about your crossover because some ML owners are bypassing their speakers' internal passive crossovers in favor of bi-amping with an upstream DSP, and loving the results.

It's an option.

I can’t see myself doing this. The upstream to these is vintage McIntosh tube gear. Not one computer. Inserting something like that seems wrong. I’ve gotten to the point where stereo systems don’t get arguably better. Just different. Martin Logan owner for over 20 years and staying out of the boxes forever.

I’m more into room treatments now as my space is compromised until major renovations can happen.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

You can do an electronic Xover on just the woofers, there's a lot of information on the forum about doing this and the dramatic improvement it makes. It might seem counterintuitive at first, but the results speak for themselves.

Any newer Martin Logan speaker uses an active crossover on the bass to prevent the overlap between the panels and woofers. The stock passive Xover on the Aerius is pretty lame and really muddies up the whole sound.

 

[Brewnoser]

You can do an electronic Xover on just the woofers, there's a lot of information on the forum about doing this and the dramatic improvement it makes. It might seem counterintuitive at first, but the results speak for themselves.

Any newer Martin Logan speaker uses an active crossover on the bass to prevent the overlap between the panels and woofers. The stock passive Xover on the Aerius is pretty lame and really muddies up the whole sound.

I bi-amped the aerius-i’s for a long time. A McIntosh 275 on the panels and a 240 on the bass with a separate powered sub set only to play below the ML range. Packed the woofer cabinets with dense fibre insulation.

The 240 had volume control so I could tune/balance.

You had to hear it. People who have great ears and sensibilities would come and love it. Some were people who would have liked to sell me other things but after hearing, didn’t try.

Now I have new EL-9’s and I’m in the play with them
To see what works mode.