Neolith debuts at Munich High End

Hi folks ....

with great pleasure I met the friendly ML folks at High End again.

It looks like I have a privilege again to have a look at new flagship ML product (as it was with CLX) on the first day.

Well - what can I say - these spaeakers are real beasts! probably reaching someting like 2 meters in height, with huuuuuge panels.

A spoiler: the bass section is passive, it's a 3-way system and the frames are not wooden

Looks and sounds impressive. More on the sound later when I have a chance to spend some time on concentrated listening (had to rush to set my own gear up here at High End)

More impressions and (better) photos to come in next couple of days!

The initial photo from my mobile device:

WOW.. those are HUGE.

Definitely will have a limited market, but that's normal for "Flagship" or "Statement" loudspeakers. Maybe one of our local audiophile club members with a dedicated listening room will buy them!

I'm surprised the woofer(s) are passive. Will take some serious watts to drive those babies!

Looking forward to seeing their specs, and hearing about possible new technology that may trickle down to the rest of the Reserve line for us mere mortals.

They look impressive, and the extra bracing of the panel will surely make for a purer sound. Will be interesting to see the trickle down effects on lower products. Trying to warm up to the new ML design.

http://www.martinlogan.com/munich/index.php - with cover off

Here is a pic of my dear Martin Logan friends, John Suden and Peter Soderberg. It is a massive, huge speaker. It is based on the previous Monolith. Happy listening!

roberto said:

It is a massive, huge speaker. It is based on the previous Monolith. Happy listening!

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Ha! Jonfo was right! Looks like a fantastic speaker and I must say it somewhat restores my faith in ML and their commitment to the high end. I am still waiting to hear the price, though. Will it be reasonable for what it is? Or will it be priced in the stratosphere?

Rich said:

Ha! Jonfo was right! Looks like a fantastic speaker and I must say it somewhat restores my faith in ML and their commitment to the high end. I am still waiting to hear the price, though. Will it be reasonable for what it is? Or will it be priced in the stratosphere?

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Rich, I share your sentiment. I'm very happy to see ML design and build this speaker, even if I will not be able to afford it new.

MartinLogan Unveils NEOLITH
A Statement Class Curvilinear Hybrid Electrostatic Loudspeaker
The stunning Neolith pays tribute to MartinLogan’s heritage, incorporating advanced audio technologies with exquisite components, materials, and design.

Munich, Germany – High End 2014 – May 15–18, 2014 – Atrium 4, F 116 – MartinLogan, the world’s leader in electrostatic speaker technology, proudly unveils their upcoming statement class hybrid electrostatic speaker, Neolith. Culminating from MartinLogan’s three-decade long history of pushing the limits of audio technology, Neolith combines a stunning performance that evokes the legendary Statement Evolution 2 loudspeaker while capturing the iconic simplicity of MartinLogan’s original inspiration—the Monolith.
When released in 1983 MartinLogan’s Monolith hybrid electrostatic loudspeaker, with its gossamer thin transparent diaphragm, represented an exciting new direction for electrostatic technology. The iconic new low-mass curvilinear design, combined with exhaustive crossover engineering and dynamic driver research, set new standards for dynamic range, precision, and bandwidth.

STATEMENT LEVEL PERFORMANCE
While Monolith was our inspiration, Neolith’s technical execution and unrestrained performance evokes MartinLogan’s legendary Statement evolution 2 loudspeaker. In comparison, Neolith features a 22x48-inch electrostatic transducer with a radiating surface 35% larger than that of the Statement e2. Flawlessly matched with the electrostatic panel, a 15-inch rear-firing ported woofer and 12-inch front firing sealed mid-bass woofer deliver deeply moving, powerful, and extremely accurate bass down to 23Hz. A fully passive design allows customers to single wire or bi-amp the speaker with high-performance audiophile grade solid state or tube amplifiers.
Neolith is built with an exceptional, super-dense composite material, creating an ideal baffle with a high-mass design that inherently minimizes cabinet vibrations resulting from reactive forces of the powerful woofers.
Featuring MartinLogan’s largest electrostatic radiating surface to date, Neolith’s proprietary curvilinear electrostatic transducer delivers an enveloping 3-dimensional soundstage. MartinLogan’s unique controlled dispersion electrostatic technology results in a single transducer capable of reproducing nearly the entire the audio spectrum while minimizing undesirable acoustic interactions with a listening room’s side walls, floor, and ceiling.
Neolith’s hybrid system delivers living sound—perfectly rendered as it was originally performed with the distinct energy and personality of every voice and every instrument.

FINISH OPTIONS & AVAILABILITY
The handcrafted Neolith will be available in a variety of custom luxury paint finishes. Full details on these colors, pricing, availability and the all important technical specifications will be available at a later date; keep checking the MartinLogan web page in the months to come: www.martinlogan.com/neolith

________________________________________
About MartinLogan
Since 1983 MartinLogan has handcrafted high performance electrostatic speakers. Their award-winning designs, advanced technologies, and outstanding customer service have long made MartinLogan's amazingly detailed speakers a must have for home theater and music lovers around the world. Located in Lawrence, Kansas, MartinLogan's dedicated in-house design and engineering team carefully creates each speaker to provide unparalleled sound reproduction along with industry leading aesthetics.

the last sentence, my dear friend Rich...it is going to be the top of the line and it is going to be more expensive than the CLXs. My guessing is 40 to 50K the pair. Happy listening!

I'm with Roberto... $40K at least.

I will give you props Rich.... this is indeed the Prodigy on lots of steroids... and of course new tech..... So, I am not minimizing it.... They took out what I think some of us had issues with - or at least me!!... the powered woofer in a very small cabinet... any description of the not so new ML line was 'punchy bass'.... I don't want 'punchy bass' ... I want smooth bass...real bass... just my opinion of course....

Hmmm... since it is not powered -- how are they getting the cone to integrate with the panel without the DSP?... figured you would need an amp for that.... what am I missing here.... or is that at the crossover?

One more thing... no amps...should decrease price ...No??

I love it! As with "Statement" (pun-intended) level, the owner will be able to customize his set up by supplying his own (Class-A) amp for the bass. That said, it'll be even better if there is an option for the owner to purchase a matching Class-D amplifier tuned for this speaker. Think of it as a plug in module which can either be a passive crossover, straight-through (for active bi-amp), or a compact Class-D module for internal power. I don't think providing this option is too much to ask from ML.

Spike said:

I love it! As with "Statement" (pun-intended) level, the owner will be able to customize his set up by supplying his own (Class-A) amp for the bass. That said, it'll be even better if there is an option for the owner to purchase a matching Class-D amplifier tuned for this speaker. Think of it as a plug in module which can either be a passive crossover, straight-through (for active bi-amp), or a compact Class-D module for internal power. I don't think providing this option is too much to ask from ML.

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Maybe external active crossover to bi-amp for Neolith i, LOL!

Thanks for the props, timm. It does look more like a larger paneled Prodigy than anything else to me. I think the nod to the Monolith is more of a marketing gimmick than anything else, hearkening back to ML's beginnings. But it does look to me like the design of the Prodigy was the inspiration for this speaker.

As for cost, I believe if it retails for near $40 grand that is way overpriced, by about double, and a huge mistake for ML. I mean honestly, how much new tech is in this thing? No new panel tech, no internal amps, no DSP. We have a larger panel, larger woofers, redesigned woofer cabinet, and probably updated crossovers. Does that really justify a cost almost three times the Summit X?

For comparison, the Prodigy retailed for $10 grand when it came out in 2000. With inflation, that is equal to a little over $13 grand today. The Summit X has internal amps so no surprise it's a little more expensive. But this speaker doesn't have internal amps and basically is a Prodigy style design with a bigger panel, bigger woofers and redesigned woofer box. Where is the huge increase in cost justified? Yes, the Statement was incredibly expensive, but it included those monstrous line-array bass modules, so it was very expensive to produce.

And wasn't the move of production to the Paradigm facility in Canada supposed to increase efficiency and therefore cut the cost of production?

Now before everyone jumps on me, I know this is all rumor and speculation at this point. We don't know all the technology in this speaker yet or how it performs. We don't know for sure what ML is going to charge for it. So we will have to wait for more information before making any definitive conclusions.

I am very happy with the design of this speaker and believe it gets back to the heart of what ML is capable of from a high end audio perspective. But I will be very disappointed if they price it out of proportion to what it is . . . basically an updated Prodigy (what the Summit should have been).

Well, the naming was indeed appropriate as this is basically the Monolith architecture but with an updated bass section. The panel is identical in size to the original Monolith, note the quote: "Neolith features a 22x48-inch electrostatic transducer ", and the original Monolith was also 22x48, but based on Gen1 panel tech (larger perfs, thicker stators).

So I'm happy to see a new iteration of the classic, but I'm not tempted in the least, as I'll just build my Mondolith design that's been in the works for a while.

MPS said:

Maybe external active crossover to bi-amp for Neolith i, LOL!

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Oh, I fully expect to see a Neolith X sometime soon, featuring an external DSP-based crossover that provides not only the active x-over for the speaker, but also allows for 2.1 or 2.2 sub integration options with full PBK. Now that would be more 'Statement' in my view.

The only Statement a passive crossover makes is that someone is stuck in last century :devil:

Well I thought someone would beat me to it. I won't be there until Saturday unless I decide to go straight there Friday morning. I doubt that though.

JonFo said:

The only Statement a passive crossover makes is that someone is stuck in last century :devil:

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Ha. Ha. Love it! :ROFL:

And let's not forget that the Sanders Sound Model 10 has a panel only seven inches narrower and it includes an external programmable crossover and an acclaimed Magtech amp for the bass, for a price less than the Summit X! Talk about value for your money.

TomDac said:

Featuring MartinLogan’s largest electrostatic radiating surface to date, Neolith’s proprietary curvilinear electrostatic transducer delivers an enveloping 3-dimensional soundstage. MartinLogan’s unique controlled dispersion electrostatic technology results in a single transducer capable of reproducing nearly the entire the audio spectrum while minimizing undesirable acoustic interactions with a listening room’s side walls, floor, and ceiling.

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I was fine until I got to that bit. How precisely does a curvilinear panel achieve that? I think the answer is it doesn't. It may chuck the sound around a lot and make for a very entertaining sound, but that's the opposite of minimising room interaction lest I am mistaken.

I'm sure it'll be good. I'm also positive it will be bettered by other contenders at the show, judging by my last visit. Price WILL be interesting. It does look substantially built which is worth paying some $$$ for IMHO. I'd love to hear a CLX in a proper heavy duty frame to see what that sounded like.

Kedar should come across these tomorrow. Kedar doesn't BS - he tells it exactly like he sees/hears it. That should be interesting

User211 said:

I was fine until I got to that bit. How precisely does a curvilinear panel achieve that? I think the answer is it doesn't. It may chuck the sound around a lot and make for a very entertaining sound, but that's the opposite of minimising room interaction lest I am mistaken...

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A stat panels 'Figure 8' dipole dispersion indeed limits side wall and ceiling/floor reflections. However there will always be low frequency room interactions from the woofer(s).