Auditioned: Martin Logan CLX

[roebedo]

I auditioned the Martin Logan CLX Art today.. The demo system was as follows:

CLX Art
Descent i Sub
MC452
C2300
MCD301
Clear Audio TT, (not sure of tone arm and cart)

Wow, very unforgiving speaker, which I was ready and prepared for (previous ML owner) Overall I was really, really impressed! I listened for about 90 mins, with and without the sub running. I would have to say I was shocked with how well the stator handled the low-frequencies as I wasn't expecting it to be that good! Source material went from a heavily compressed CD burned from iTunes, to SACD, to Vinyl. Next week I'll give the Summit X a shot and see where I land after that.


Question for CLX owners, Do you run a sub and at what point do you have it crossed-over? If I remember correctly, the system today was set at 30-Hz.

Cheers!

[tsv_1]

Originally Posted by roebedo

I auditioned the Martin Logan CLX Art today.. The demo system was as follows:

CLX Art
Descent i Sub
MC452
C2300
MCD301
Clear Audio TT, (not sure of tone arm and cart)

Wow, very unforgiving speaker, which I was ready and prepared for (previous ML owner) Overall I was really, really impressed! I listened for about 90 mins, with and without the sub running. I would have to say I was shocked with how well the stator handled the low-frequencies as I wasn't expecting it to be that good! Source material went from a heavily compressed CD burned from iTunes, to SACD, to Vinyl. Next week I'll give the Summit X a shot and see where I land after that.


Question for CLX owners, Do you run a sub and at what point do you have it crossed-over? If I remember correctly, the system today was set at 30-Hz.

Cheers!

"unforgiving" is entirely accurate wrt CLX. They absolutely demand quality gear all the way back to the wall. That said, mate them with solid gear, feed them high quality media and they respond with such emotional resonance, accuracy, articulation, speed, and presence that... well, let me put it this way. I played Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus for my father in law a few months back. He teared up (and so did I... I'll admit it). I've never owned a speaker that comes anywhere near that level of "connection" to the music.

I run mine with a pair of Depthi subs and currently have them crossed @ 35Hz - seems about right for my room (though admittedly, I do have some measuring and more adjusting to do). Also, ML offers special "CLX Filter" boards you can insert in Depth or Descent that are designed specifically for the CLX.

As it turns out, my last previous speakers were Summit X... a wonderful model but, frankly, not even in the same league as the CLX (IMO). The CLX are "this" close to magic. I've not heard better in my 35+ years of spending way too much time and money on this hobby

Please keep us posted as you continue your auditions.

[GaryProtein]

Planars and ribbons rule! The CLX is a great loudspeaker.

Isn't a cone something you put ice-cream in?

[roebedo]

tsv,

Wow!! Thanks for the input! I'm already expecting that the CLX will be the better performer (as it should be) I'm coming from a Vantage and Depthi set-up, so this is a leaps and bounds for me already. I listened to some really not so great compressed stuff today, sounded good, but you can hear the poor quality, when switching to the higher quality and good recording's, these things where amazing!!

Needless to say, I came home and started measuring If I go the CLX route, I'll pair with the MC452 and C2300. Descent i will be a couple months behind, as the CLX is adding another 10k into the mix

Originally Posted by tsv_1

"unforgiving" is entirely accurate wrt CLX. They absolutely demand quality gear all the way back to the wall. That said, mate them with solid gear, feed them high quality media and they respond with such emotional resonance, accuracy, articulation, speed, and presence that... well, let me put it this way. I played Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus for my father in law a few months back. He teared up (and so did I... I'll admit it). I've never owned a speaker that comes anywhere near that level of "connection" to the music.

I run mine with a pair of Depthi subs and currently have them crossed @ 35Hz - seems about right for my room (though admittedly, I do have some measuring and more adjusting to do). Also, ML offers special "CLX Filter" boards you can insert in Depth or Descent that are designed specifically for the CLX.

As it turns out, my last previous speakers were Summit X... a wonderful model but, frankly, not even in the same league as the CLX (IMO). The CLX are "this" close to magic. I've not heard better in my 35+ years of spending way too much time and money on this hobby

Please keep us posted as you continue your auditions.

[roebedo]

Originally Posted by GaryProtein

Isn't a cone something you put ice-cream in?

[GaryProtein]

Unfortunately, very fine speakers come with a very big curse.

You realize how poor so many recordings you used to like, are. Luckily, the good ones are magical.

[tsv_1]

Originally Posted by GaryProtein

Unfortunately, very fine speakers come with a very big curse.

You realize how poor so many recordings you used to like, are. Luckily, the good ones are magical.

So very true!

[cstmar01]

The CLX are very nice indeed. The only time I had a chance to hear them was at a dealer with a Descent sub running off of Krell amp and pre. The sound was detailed and really did show the recording well.

They really are a beautiful speaker but think they could have been set up a little bit better in the room. They were pushed towards the back wall and didn't have much room on the sides as the room wasn't very wide. From my reading they perform even better when they have a good amount of room.

[tsv_1]

Originally Posted by cstmar01

The CLX are very nice indeed. The only time I had a chance to hear them was at a dealer with a Descent sub running off of Krell amp and pre. The sound was detailed and really did show the recording well.

They really are a beautiful speaker but think they could have been set up a little bit better in the room. They were pushed towards the back wall and didn't have much room on the sides as the room wasn't very wide. From my reading they perform even better when they have a good amount of room.

On room placement, yes, good commentary.

I have mine 5 ft out from the wall and I have the good fortune to have considerable clearance on the sides as well. They def have a BIG footprint when considering relative placement.

That said, the somewhat figure-8 (ish) radiation pattern of the CLX allows for less side clearance than one would think - and still offord very good sound.

I have a friend who has them set up in an 11' wide room (until he can get his dedicated music room completed). He has maybe 6" of side clearance and still claims to get excellent imaging... thus supporting the science I guess.

[cstmar01]

Originally Posted by tsv_1

On room placement, yes, good commentary.

I have mine 5 ft out from the wall and I have the good fortune to have considerable clearance on the sides as well. They def have a BIG footprint when considering relative placement.

That said, the somewhat figure-8 (ish) radiation pattern of the CLX allows for less side clearance than one would think - and still offord very good sound.

I have a friend who has them set up in an 11' wide room (until he can get his dedicated music room completed). He has maybe 6" of side clearance and still claims to get excellent imaging... thus supporting the science I guess.

Your friend's room is similar to the dealer I heard them at. I would say the room was no wider than 12ft. But the speakers were only about 1.5-2ft max from the back wall which from what I read they should have been pulled out further into the room for placement.

They sure are a beautiful speaker to look at and hear!