Cost is no object show: Martin Logan Neolith with AR Ref 750!

[bart]

Yesterday we attended a good show.
Different Martin Logan models, driven by Audio Research amplification.
Again organized by our dealer in Antwerp, who is celebrating the 30th birthday of his business.

This was the invitation:




Sammy is a very earnest music lover, but he always likes to keep things not too serious.


Edit: the good pics come from Meta, the mediocre iPhone pics from me.

[meza]

This is my first shoot with the Fujinon XF16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR... very exciting!

[2fastdriving]

I've never heard a ref 750...I bet it's great. It doesn't look that great IMHO though...like a science experiment.

[bart]

I went from the biggest system to the smallest.
The biggest was really cost no object:

Martin Logan Neolith
Audio Research Ref 750 mono blocks (indeed: 750 Watts from tubes!)
AR Ref 10 pre
AR Ref DAC
AR CD Transport

Here you see Meta getting ready to take pics, with the reference system, and Sammy providing the music.




This is the system:

[bart]

Sammy told me the room needed much less treatment than with the B&W 800 series a couple of months ago.
The Electrostats were much easier to tame.




100K for the speakers, 30K per mono block, 20K for the pre, the DAC and the transport.




Kimber speaker cables: not the lowest range either.

[bart]

Brandon Lauer from AR explaining about the brand and the system:




You can see that the speakers are not small...

[bart]

The Neolith is an entirely passive speaker.
The Power Cord was from Wireworld (to bring current to the panel).




I found the CD Transport to be a very nice piece of equipment:

[bart]

All kinds of music played: classical, jazz, folk, Elvis Presley (sounded good!), ...




I heard only CDs during the whole show, although some Macs were connected.








CDs were lying everywhere, even behind the Ref 10:

[bart]

The DAC:

[bart]

The mighty mono blocks:








18 tubes per channel (8 + 8 + 2 configuration):






Meta also finds tubes photogenic, especially since we have them at home ourselves.