LTD
Member
I'll make it short: it sounds amazing, simply amazing =).
I thought I'll let others know as I found nothing about Musical Fidelity and Martin Logan online. Since a few days I'm proud owner of a pair Martin Logan Ethos and can now say, my travel has come to an end, an instance after I heard the first few notes. I've never heard something like it and I believe its hard to get any better at all. For me, that's it.
My listening room is about 6x4 with a corner on the long side. Placement of the speakers was as easy as placing normal speakers. I only had to dial down the bass to -6 and play a little bit with the distances. I know I will have to do everything again after burn-in but for now it sounds fabulous. I don't yet know how the speakers will improve any further but lets see.
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I owned a pair of B&W 703 on a Linn Chakra 4200 Amp before and quite liked them. They had a calm, unruffled sound with clear highs and strong mids. Yes, B&W tends to be a bit boring but better boring than exhausting - right? However, I was always missing something and so I decided to find some other equipment.
The first time I was able to hear the Ethos, they were wired up on a Linn Akurate DS/D and Linn Akurate 4200. Maybe not an ideal signal path, as the sound was incredible harsh with strong, but inadequate base. Singers were shouting at me, strings sounded a bit like cutting blades. Everything seemed way off, but I was still impressed by the difference of the sound. The stage was incredible wide, there was a lot of depth and instruments were easy to locate. As if you opened up a door into the recording room.
I decided to wait and try out other loudspeakers as well - and thanks to the High-End in Munich, I was able to hear a lot of them. But there was only one thing to notice: a lot of different equipment but a lot of the same sound. Only a few, mostly incredible expensive (and sorry, but ugly looking) speakers were different in a positive way. Some were more open, some had a bigger soundstage, some were more detailed or had more dynamic. After a day I left a little disappointed and thought about my listening sessions again: If I'd spend so much money, would I take something that sounds barely different? - NOPE!
I decided to go for the Ethos, and in that way had to change my amplifier to avoid harsh sound. I was looking for an amp with pre and found out about the M6i a little later. There was not that much information about the amp, and less about it with an ESL connected. So I gave it a try and believe me - its a different story.
Let me start of with the soundstage - it's huge but precise. You can locate every single instrument, even a little bit outside of the speakers. It seems like you're part of the recording and not only listening. Voiced seem to pop out of nothing, drum kits sound as if someone smashes the the ESL-Panels itself and you can even hear resonance and interference of guitar strings. Something I've never ever heard on any other speaker. The Ethos simply disappears, as if the sound comes out of nowhere.
Even my "I don't care about HiFi at all" girlfriend sat down and took a listen - a first since I know her. Then she concluded "... strange, as if there are no speakers ha?"
I've had a listen to a bunch of albums and every album feels like never heard before. I'm not exaggerating here - there is so much more detail, space and dynamic, that to me it feels like a whole new recording. And while, with the Linn Chakra 4200 and B&W 703, I didn't want to listen to my low-res MP3s anymore, I enjoy them again with the M6i and Ethos. Even the worst MP3 now sounds adequate, I wouldn't compare them to 24bit recordings, but I enjoy them and that's what HiFi should be all about, shouldn't it?
So thats it, Linn Akurate DS/D, ML Ethos and M6i: for me thats a dream team I can recommend to everyone looking into a system that'll stay a while. ML - you've got a big fan here.
Hopefully this little review was interesting to someone =) -> I'm off listening ...
I thought I'll let others know as I found nothing about Musical Fidelity and Martin Logan online. Since a few days I'm proud owner of a pair Martin Logan Ethos and can now say, my travel has come to an end, an instance after I heard the first few notes. I've never heard something like it and I believe its hard to get any better at all. For me, that's it.
My listening room is about 6x4 with a corner on the long side. Placement of the speakers was as easy as placing normal speakers. I only had to dial down the bass to -6 and play a little bit with the distances. I know I will have to do everything again after burn-in but for now it sounds fabulous. I don't yet know how the speakers will improve any further but lets see.
-
I owned a pair of B&W 703 on a Linn Chakra 4200 Amp before and quite liked them. They had a calm, unruffled sound with clear highs and strong mids. Yes, B&W tends to be a bit boring but better boring than exhausting - right? However, I was always missing something and so I decided to find some other equipment.
The first time I was able to hear the Ethos, they were wired up on a Linn Akurate DS/D and Linn Akurate 4200. Maybe not an ideal signal path, as the sound was incredible harsh with strong, but inadequate base. Singers were shouting at me, strings sounded a bit like cutting blades. Everything seemed way off, but I was still impressed by the difference of the sound. The stage was incredible wide, there was a lot of depth and instruments were easy to locate. As if you opened up a door into the recording room.
I decided to wait and try out other loudspeakers as well - and thanks to the High-End in Munich, I was able to hear a lot of them. But there was only one thing to notice: a lot of different equipment but a lot of the same sound. Only a few, mostly incredible expensive (and sorry, but ugly looking) speakers were different in a positive way. Some were more open, some had a bigger soundstage, some were more detailed or had more dynamic. After a day I left a little disappointed and thought about my listening sessions again: If I'd spend so much money, would I take something that sounds barely different? - NOPE!
I decided to go for the Ethos, and in that way had to change my amplifier to avoid harsh sound. I was looking for an amp with pre and found out about the M6i a little later. There was not that much information about the amp, and less about it with an ESL connected. So I gave it a try and believe me - its a different story.
Let me start of with the soundstage - it's huge but precise. You can locate every single instrument, even a little bit outside of the speakers. It seems like you're part of the recording and not only listening. Voiced seem to pop out of nothing, drum kits sound as if someone smashes the the ESL-Panels itself and you can even hear resonance and interference of guitar strings. Something I've never ever heard on any other speaker. The Ethos simply disappears, as if the sound comes out of nowhere.
Even my "I don't care about HiFi at all" girlfriend sat down and took a listen - a first since I know her. Then she concluded "... strange, as if there are no speakers ha?"
I've had a listen to a bunch of albums and every album feels like never heard before. I'm not exaggerating here - there is so much more detail, space and dynamic, that to me it feels like a whole new recording. And while, with the Linn Chakra 4200 and B&W 703, I didn't want to listen to my low-res MP3s anymore, I enjoy them again with the M6i and Ethos. Even the worst MP3 now sounds adequate, I wouldn't compare them to 24bit recordings, but I enjoy them and that's what HiFi should be all about, shouldn't it?
So thats it, Linn Akurate DS/D, ML Ethos and M6i: for me thats a dream team I can recommend to everyone looking into a system that'll stay a while. ML - you've got a big fan here.
Hopefully this little review was interesting to someone =) -> I'm off listening ...
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