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(More customer reviews)The first impression of these speakers came as I unpacked them. The packaging is excellent as it should be to provide the proper protection. So, no surprise, they were delivered in perfect condition. These speakers are beautiful to look at and come with very classy baffles that connect magnetically to hid the speaker cones. Connecting them was very easy since they come with high quality connections that make it easy to make solidly connect with a variety of different kinds of wire connectors.
These speakers really deliver whether you are listening to Rock and Roll or classical music. My listing choices ranged from ELP's first album to Debussy's La Mer. Both kinds of music, even though wildly different, sounded great. You get the necessary powerful crunch needed to appreciate rock music, and when listening to classical music they very nicely reproduce subtle musical nuances required to fully appreciate the piece. They work very well for watching television or movies. My wife and I found the clarity to be excellent and made understanding vocals, and thus following conversations, easy.
I tested these speakers 3 different ways.
First, I tested them alone as a stereo pair. They seemed to disappear and the sound seems to come from the back wall. This is a great illusion that is a mark of high quality speakers! If you get out of the center sweet spot, the illusion dissipates somewhat but they still sound very good nevertheless. They were lacking a bit in the very lowest bass. For that reason, I would recommend coupling them with a nice sub-woofer for reproduction of frequencies below 60hz. This would probably only be noticeable with certain kinds of music played at fairly high volume levels.
Next, I tested them using a sub-woofer. This really helped get that powerful feeling that comes when these lower frequencies come into play. My subwoofer allows setting the frequency where it takes over and so I chose the 60hz. This worked great and I found that it was basically transparent as far as telling where the sound was coming from - which is a very good thing!
Finally, I tested them along with a center speaker and rear surrounds. All of my speakers were from the same manufacturer and were also of very high quality. When you get all of your speakers from the same vendor in the same speaker family, the good ones are matched with regard to the tone; or overall sound. As a result, properly setup, they can sound almost like a single large speaker that envelopes you. Replacing the two front speakers with these lost that illusion some, but in my opinion, still managed to improve the overall sound quality! The sound seems more accurate, crisp, and powerful! I love it!
That said, from this point on, since the main way I listen to my audio/video system is via a 5.1 surround setup, my remaining comments will be based on that listening experience.
It is very important to understand that the sound that is eventually delivered to your ears is not totally dependent on the speakers themselves. Equally important is the placement of the speakers and the acoustics of the room in which you are doing your listening. Working within the confines and shape of my living room, I placed the speakers 10 inches from the back wall and 7.5 feet apart from each other. My flooring is wood laminate so I didn't use the MiniETC spikes (which are a very nice touch if you are installing on carpet) that were included; instead I chose to use the pre-installed rubber feet. I have absolutely no doubt that these speakers could sound even better of I had different room size and acoustics to work with.
For my listening tests I chose some of my favorite pieces of music and those that I consider to be of the highest quality. Using high a high quality source is extremely important for testing speaker quality. The reason is that if you are testing $5000 speakers using an mp3 recorded at a bit rate of 128kbs, you may as well be listening to a pair of $500 speakers, The more expensive may sound slightly better, but the source itself would limit what the speakers are capable of producing. So, for starters, I have long considered "Emerson, Lake, & Palmer's" first album to be a great way to test any kind of audio gear; partly because of my familiarity with it, and because it is sonically spectacular. I found the experience to be spectacular. In my younger days, I owned Bose 901's, and have always considered them to be the best stereo speakers I have ever heard. These sounded as good and in my humble opinion, that is really saying a lot! Listening is a joy! In all fairness however, the Bose were all by themselves as a speaker pair and I'm listening to these as part of a 5.1 surround system. I can tell you that the sound is definitely an improvement over my previous main speakers. I really wanted to blast these up to ear-shattering levels, but alas, I share walls with 2 neighbors... For a short time however, I did approach that volume and it sounded sweeeeet!
Next up, I chose to listen to an SACD by "Porcupine Tree" titled "In Absentia". This sounded fantastic using my previous speakers. So good in fact that I found it hard to believe it could sound any better but - wow - the Martin Logan's sound even better - amazing.! The power and clarity is almost overwhelming. By the way, I can't recommend this album any more highly. It is one of my favorites in my entire collection.
For one of my classical music listening tests, I chose a piece by Debussy called "La Mer" that was recorded in DTS Surround. Again, I found these speakers to be quite excellent! I could easily hear all kinds of subtleties and make out the individual instruments. Shutting my eyes, I could easily imagine being seated at a live performance. It doesn't get much better than that. Other pieces I listened to were very convincing at reproducing the nuances of the violin and piano.
Not forgetting that an important part of today's home theater system is watching movies and television, I also checked out a few movies and again found that these speakers really deliver. For example, I put in a DVD of "The War of the Worlds" starring Tom Cruise. I jumped to the part where the lightning strikes start happening (close to the beginning of the movie) and was wowed by the awesome power and clarity. Continuing to watch the next 10 minutes of the movie it just sounded great. In fact, everything I've listened to on these sound great. They can definitely deliver crunch and power but still allow voices to be easily heard and understood.
My wife was skeptical about their size but she too has decided she loves these speakers. In most ways she was perfectly happy with our previous setup but what really impressed her the most was how much easier it is to understand dialogs when watching a movie. While she agrees that listening to music sounds even better, that's what really makes her the most happy.
I have listened to other, lesser quality, speakers in the past and find that after an hour or two, I experience what has been called listening fatigue. I think this is because your brain has to work harder to process less than perfect sound. That is clearly not the case with these. I was still immensely enjoying these even after having them on for several hours.
Overall, the words that come to mind to describe the sound these speakers produce are: powerful, controlled, accurate, crisp, tight, solid... For the money, one would be hard pressed to find speakers as good as these. These speakers are well worth considering for anyone who really cares about getting the best sound in the under $3000 price range.
Click Here to see more reviews about: MartinLogan Motion 12 Floorstanding Speaker (Black Ash, each)
Inspired by MartinLogan's ultra-high-end electrostatic loudspeakers, the Motion Series was created to provide stunning sound for your ultimate-performance home theater or stereo. MartinLogan's dedicated in-house engineers carefully crafted the Motion Series to create an extremely affordable and compact product line that seamlessly blends our exquisite Folded Motion transducers with powerful, compact bass technology. The result is a smooth, refined sound with stunning dynamic range and jaw-dropping clarity. The Folded Motion Tweeter works by moving air (which creates sound) perpendicular to the folded ridges of the diaphragm, similar to how an accordion works. This extremely low mass diaphragm "squeezes" air and requires almost 90% less excursion than the typical 1" dome tweeter, which drastically minimizes distortion while providing a lightning fast response time. The increased surface area also provides a wide, yet controlled sound dispersion to create a realistic and carefully etched sound stage. Convenient push-style speaker terminals and curved inserts help guide speaker wire effortlessly into place. The rubber end caps on the terminal are also removable for the use of banana plugs instead of bare wire. So simple, you'll actually enjoy hooking up these speakers.
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Click here for more information about MartinLogan Motion 12 Floorstanding Speaker (Black Ash, each)
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