Demo'd Neoliths tonight
 

After reading about the Neolith's I was excited to see them in person at the Magnolia Design Center in Houston. These things do look impressive ... even more so than I had imagined. They were being fed by a pair of MC1.2KW Macs with the new C1100 preamp. I did some casual listening with the cd's they had there with the 550 CD player also from Mac. What I heard was equally surprising as how they looked ... only in the not so good direction! First, I think the room had some issues and was nowhere near large enough with the speakers 3 feet from the front wall and as usual all the other walls were jammed with speakers.

First the good ... they had a very solid image with good separation between instruments and voices and there were very distinct layers in the presentation. Image height at times was very good. Also, even though the efficiency rating isn't as high as their hybrids, the big Mac's had no issue driving them louder than I wanted to hear.

Then the average ... I thought the bass was ok but didn't have the reach of the Wilson Alexx or even the Alexia. It was very tight and clean bass and not muddy in any way and I never once found myself noticing woofers being mated to the panel .. that was seamless.

Now the bad ... I've never heard a Martin Logan speaker with less depth or presence. After 5 min of listening I had listening fatigue and wasn't driving them all that hard. The thought I kept having was that there was just way too much high frequency energy in the room. I thought the c1100 pre might have warmed things up a bit but the overall presentation was bright and edgy and not emotionally involving at all.

I have to believe that the combo of too small a room, less than optimal setup, and overall room acoustics had to be causing most of the issues I was hearing. Heck, my system is not in the same league as this one but to my ears sounds worlds better. Hopefully at Axpona next year the Neoliths will be there and sounding the way I sure hope they can.

George

Was any this broken in ect?

The team at the store told me the speakers and the amplifiers had been there for about 6 months and had been played everyday so I'd have to assume that at least the amplifiers and the speakers were broken in. I'm really wondering if the C1100 had been properly run in yet with that being a newer release they weren't really sure how long it had been there. I remember(vaguely at this point) my old Counterpoint SA-5000 sounding rather bright and edgy until it had several hundred hours actually playing music through it ... wonder if anyone else can speak to what a new out of the box C1100 sounds like?

I couldn't imagine a demo at any magnolia qualifies as a real demo... every room I've been in at any of the magnolia's I've been to sucks - in addition, the vast majority of personal there are far from experts. Simply having access to good equipment is only a small part of making good sound.

+1. Same experience at my Magnolia inside a Best Buy. Room sounds horrible. BW 802D3, MC601s, C52, MCD550 sounds very very average (being polite). It's the set up, room, power etc.

Yes. Think McIntosh, et al, are doing themselves a disservice by using Magnolia. My one experience in ours was so ridiculous in the set-up and presentation (to say nothing of lack of knowledge on the part of the sales force) that I've not returned in the years since.

Ditto to what Glenn has said, a lot of us have voiced this opinion over on the ML forum as well.

Trust me, when done right, as in Overture's demo in Delaware, those puppies do 'sing' !

I'm surprised to hear that BestBuy would be displaying an $80,000 speaker. Seems out of their league.

Have to agree on Magnolia's room. I love my sales guy tho. Super nice and has really given me some fantastic customer service and deals. But their rooms are awful. Its almost as if you are buying their nice gear hoping it will sound better at your home.

They had some 75K Sonus Fabers out but not the Neoliths at the Dallas Park Lane store.

I definitely agree with you on both counts...the guys I deal with are very nice and provide great customer service but the rooms don't do the equipment any favors for sure. I've heard(not confirmed) they pulled the Neoliths out of the store in Houston because they just didn't work there.

never buy hifi at a store that sells washers and dryers......could you really expect better there?

I personally will affirm comments regarding Magnolia. These issues are not isolated to any given location it is the result of a corporate mentality driven by the "bean counters". I will only go back to view the picture of a new TV and subsequently buy somewhere else at a great savings.

IMHO manufactures (Martin Logan, McIntosh etc.) should put some effort in reviewing their distributors on all facets of how they run their business. It worked well for me in my 45+ years prior to my retirement. It was never pleasant to tell an existing distributor he was done but necessary to maintain and grow my business.:sigh:

I agree with you guys but Magnolia/Best Buy is a drug for these vendors that’s tough to escape. My local Best Buy had 3 full McIntosh home theater systems go out recently and I’m friends with one of customers so i know it went out with nice speakers to boot. I’m guessing they sell a ton of McIntosh, B&W and Martin Logan despite their sound rooms. Wonder how big Magnolia is for these vendors vs any other single dealer or chain?

George

I saw something recently, I believe it was from Audioquest but not sure, that stated Magnolia sells more High End audio gear than all other high end dealers combined.

I am surprised the Neoliths have not gotten better reviews.

Not that it directly competes, but the Martin Logan Statement E2 was absolutely SPECTACULAR in every way.

I’ve heard them twice and wasn’t impressed either time. Thought the CLXs sounded waaaay better but that’s just me.

George

Surprised at the negative comments.I have never had a chance to hear these.They certainly look impressive.Being in Canada,the Bestbuys here do not carry this brand so I will have to try and get out to an audio show one of these days and hope to have a listen there.

Heard them on a top Naim system (280K!).
I was disappointed.
Not that they sounded awful.
But I've heard better at a much lower price.

I too am a bit surprised at the negative reviews. All I really know about this model is it got a pretty positive review in TAS, and it's a great looking speaker. I was kind of half-hoping I could hear a pair someday.

I have heard them, and don’t own them; nuff said.