Martin Logan vantage vs Musical Fidelity

Hello
I have the martin logan vantage with this system:
Musical Fidelity kw 550 - amplifier
Musical fidelity dm 25 transport and converter
Nordost heimdall speaker cable and interconnet.

Does any body have listenned this system or have it??
i need opinions about this system because i have the impression that the vantage could do more with valve amp´s or another cd.
Let me know

Hello!
any body as a similar system???
Can any body help me??
i´ll apreciate
thank you

Welcome ! While I can't comment directly on your amplifier I can tell you of my recent change in my Vantage based system.

Last month I incorporated a pair of Rogue Audio M-150 MonoBlock, KT-88 based tube amps. Prior to this I had been driving my Vantage's with my Plinius SA-102.

So, did I experience a dramatic change for the better......no ! For starters the Rogue's are a very wide bandwith amplifier, so they did just fine at both ends of the spectrum, top end required a little run-in time and a change in I/C from my pre-amp. It's in the middle freq range that the differences were made, not that this is a big surprise !

The simplest way for me to put it is I now have the benefits of the Plinius running in Class "A" bias with my Rogues. FWIW, I'm still not convinced the Rogue's have the last bit of sparkle, sweetness call it what you want that the Plinius has up top. That is just one of the reasons that Plinius has not been put up for sale !

I have listened to the KW550 powering the Summits if that helps. What about it do you want to know?

Joey_V said:

I have listened to the KW550 powering the Summits if that helps. What about it do you want to know?

Click to expand...

Joey,

How would you describe the sonic signature of Musical Fidelity? The guys at Stereophile really love the brand and review it every other month.

Thanks

fcordovil said:

Hello
I have the martin logan vantage with this system:
Musical Fidelity kw 550 - amplifier
Musical fidelity dm 25 transport and converter
Nordost heimdall speaker cable and interconnet.

Does any body have listenned this system or have it??
i need opinions about this system because i have the impression that the vantage could do more with valve amp´s or another cd.
Let me know

Click to expand...

Although I have never heard the MF brand, I have listened to a number of amps recently with the Vantages. The Vantages love power. To generalize there are 2 types of sound that audiophiles prefer. The first kind likes their amp with tubes, which provides a very nice, but sugar coated sound. For example, the BAT VK 55 has only 55 wpc, but sounds beautiful (although not realistic). When the power is lacking this type of amp will still sound pretty good.

The second type of audiophile likes the more transparent, dynamic sound from SS. This is achieved only through a high powered amp. The lower powered SS amps sound poor with the Vantages. However, an audiophile grade, high powered SS amp will bring an amazing sense of realism. I have recently heard the Sanders amp, which is specifically designed for ESL speakers, and it was quite impressive.

Not sure what the specs of your amp are, but maybe the two generalized categories can help out.

Good luck!

PS. What do your think of your dm 25? Did you audition and compare with anything else?

I'm a big MF fan, having 6 of their monoblocs.
The higher-spec models (like the KW550 amp) do cater for high-current needs, so they should make your vantages sing.

David Matz said:

Joey,

How would you describe the sonic signature of Musical Fidelity? The guys at Stereophile really love the brand and review it every other month.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Honestly, I thought ML and MF get along real well. By ML, I mean the Vantage and the Summits from my experience. A cross between SS and Tubes is probably the best way I could describe it. Very good with imaging and definite instrument spaces.

It took me a while to get to the point where I feel that I superceded the experience I had when I initially purchased my Summits from a guy who ran them through the KW550. That's saying a lot.

Hello
Thank you for your replies.
what i really want to know is what did you felt when you heard the vantage with the kw 550? there were everything there (bass, medium, high frequencies) or can it do better?
can you tell me witch cables did you use? and cd player?
thank you

Can any body give me more opinions???

:rocker::bowdown::music::musicnote::devil:

Great thread! I will be paying attention to further input you receive fcordovil. I most likely will be hunting for somewhat "modest" 2-ch electronics in the near future.

Personally, I am all over the board when hunting A-gon, etc, anywhere from monoblocks/separates to integrateds. Whether all SS, hybrid, or all tubes~!! LOL, I don't think I've narrowed anything down...

I hope you don't think of it as hijack, but rather a friendly bump + more pertinent information...

Anyone here have opinions on the BAT VK-300SE? This is about the price point that I can max out to... and that's as used... (popping in the model# in the search shows nothing?).

Cheers all.

I don't think you will get a lot of opinions regarding the Musical Fidelity combination because I don't think a lot of folks on this forum are using Musical Fidelity gear with their Martin Logan Speakers. You can verify this by looking through the many member's systems threads. That may be why you have seen very few posts on this thread, simply because most folks on the forum simply haven't heard MF gear on their Logans.

However, if you do some searches on the forum and look through old threads, you will read many discussions on using valve (or as we say here, "tube") electronics with the Logans. Many people on this forum prefer tube electronics with the Vantages and Summits, because it gives a smoother, richer midrange and is not so harsh. There are lots of opinions on this site about which electronics work best with the Martin Logans.

But opinions are only so helpful. In the end, you just need to audition another source or some valve amps and preamps in your own system to see if it really sounds better to you. Ultimately, whatever you try will have to synergize with your system and your room in order to sound better to your ears.

Yes, that is the usual and very sound advice that's given. The easiest way to do this is thru my dealer, being mostly limited to BAT, Jolida, and Rogue. I don't know if I really want (or even be able) to buy multiple used components and simply keep the winner.

Another thing is that I would for sure be buying the dealer's demos. Yet, he still will be asking for more money than what I could get at the 'gon. Oh well, rock and a hard place.

FWIW, anyone have experience with Primare with ML? I've only heard Primare once, but that was with Sonus, and I have no idea how much the amp played a part in what I heard. I saw this interesting deal on the gon yesterday, 1000w into 0.5 ohm!? They look beefy, in any case...
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?preatran&1205689816

Ok, searching shows a couple of happy Primare owners, if not just for the pre. Sebrof2000 for the most part...

The only other member that I recall that uses MF gear with his Aeons was Suger Media, who if I'm not mistaken may have sold off some or all of his equipment. You might want to look up his system, pm and/or email him.

Edit: I just looked up his sys. http://www.martinloganowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2382&highlight=sugar+media

I have the Primare sp31.7 processor with the McIntosh MC 205 amp with the Vantage speakers. I am very pleased with this combination. Before this I had a Primare SPA 21 processor and amp combo. Still very good but no comparison.

Hello!
thanks for your reply´s!!!
i recalll a member that has a similar system like mine: vantages with kw system from musical fidelity, but i cannot find him.
I did know that the martin logan likes better tubes but teh musical fidelity kw 550 has a tube preamplifier and the dac from musical fidelity (the DM25) has a tube output. that is why i bought this system and i think that i works very well.
i just want to compare specs and opinions with owner of vantage and summit to improve my system.
thaks for all your help

More opinions of this system????

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MF TriVista 300

I suspect your KW amp sounds much like the Tri-Vista series and it was a great match for both my Aerius and the Summits that followed. Both midrange and frequency extension were terrific. Never harsh but still very detailed. Bass was just right for the Aerius but too much for the Summits. Fortunately they are adjustable. MF makes some of the best sounding equipment around but I personally would never buy anything from them again. I also boycott anything made by Philips.