Posted by Joseph Oberlander on August 14, 2003 at 12:16:12:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Mosaics are killer! posted by Wil on August 13, 2003 at 17:10:24:
Their soundstaging should be better than a conventional speaker of the same size. It definately will be free of the "head zone" that the smaller MLs tend to have - where you move from your chair to standing and the sweet spot changes dramatically.
The Magnepans kind of have a Faustian bargain going on. Their lower panels are superb, but lack impact and range. Almost everyone has to buy a seperate subwoofer, which tends to drown out of muffle the lower end of the panel anyway. A good hybrid design and their dropping of the lower range panel seems like it would be better. Make the speakers smaller too.
ML seems to have beat them to it. Same quality sound and yet in a smaller, decor and user-friendly form.
As for the midrange and tweeter, the new MLs use a push/pull design like a true ribbon tweeter, while the pseudo-ribbon maggies in this price range use a pull only design. Obviously this makes the high-end less precise for the Maggies. Now, the high-end true ribbon maggies - they will sound better than these, but then again, they are a lot more expensive.
Martin Logan has enough technical experience and a history of making decent products that I believe that this isn't going to be junk. If the tweeters live up to what I saw on paper, this is going to be one of the best tweeter assemblies ever made at this price.
Is it a stat? No. OTOH, it was designed with a Denon 3802 in mind - a normal consumer grade amplifier anyone can buy. A Nad or HK or Rotel would work just as well.
Right now, I'm trying to find a retailer near me that has a pair in :) So far, it's "a week or so - everyone is calling about these things." Heh.