Nice one mate!Yo BD!
Always enjoy your colorful commentaries/comments.
In the context of ML products more than a few years old, I would say there are significant updates/upgrades that could be applied that would significantly improve the technical performance of the speakers. 15, 20+ years back, you could not buy near-professional grade 2-channel amps with built in low/high/band-pass filtering for less than $500. My money would be on that (add in a soldering iron) instead of battling with upgrading caps and bits-and-bobs in way-old X-Over circuits.
See Brandon's (@Brandon Hartwick) thread on upgrading Aerius:
https://www.martinloganowners.com/threads/how-to-active-bass-section.19237/
I am planning a similar approach for my SL3/Theater/Aerius system - I just need to (a) get the startup I'm working on funded, and (b) figure out how to best leverage my existing amp investment (Bryston 4B ST series) to power the panels.
BTW, for those following Gayle Sanders and Eikon, he's pretty much gone the same route (tho' FAR more complex)... reminds me of the early days of CGI in Hollywood... "fix it in post"! Basically, if you start with a solid bunch of hardware, and great design, you can sort out things about how our human ears hear things through powerful and incredibly fast DSP. This tech was not available when the ML guys first started working on Hybrid ESLs... it was ALWAYS the biggest design challenge.
All the best to all, and ting back to "normal"!
Russ
Couldn't agree more, in fact I've come across quite a number of owners, both ML and Maggie's, who've done remarkable mods on their gear, resulting in top performance!
Last year, around Feb 2022, my CJ techie finalised my monoblocks bias mod. First were the Output tubes, then Teflon caps then Vishay resistors, and finally the bias adjustments on a higher Class A output. The preamp had a full layout of Teflons as well as Vishays in critical stages... so overall it took about 2yrs to complete. It did cost me a pretty penny, though fully worth it! Especially now, the way the CJ monoblocks fully grip the CLX's is outstanding! Many who have visited and auditioned, didn't realise what 60w in Class A can do with stats.
They don't really require tons of watts to sound best. It's all about high current capacity + highly stable voltages that will drive stats optimally.
At this point in time, I think I'm done! Ah! Those famous last words... but seriously. I've been on this roller coaster since I was a teen, ran my own dealership network as a side gig in my midlife and now I'm tired! Just chilling...
Not chasing the latest & greatest anymore, I don't see the point, mainly because there's always one other round the corner.
Just last Oct, I was at my bank having a serious chat with my account manager to draw up some funds to buy CJ's top of the line Class A monoblocks- ART108A's (160w all tube design monoblocks at 60grand a pair). As we were drawing out the forms, the wifey also happened to arrive for the final chat Bank manager goes, so you want to buy "electric blocks?" From the US... correct? I tried my best to explain the difference between monoblocks and so called "electric blocks" ... whatever. And so what do these do? I replied they drive speakers... stats! So he goes, "ah...! So you need electric blocks to power the speakers whiles driving your car!" Ok no worries, let's write it up! That's about when I had a hernia and decided not to bother explaining anymore
![Upside-down face :upside_down: 🙃](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f643.png)
Then the wifey walked in, and all hell broke loose! She slapped us both silly !
![Rolling on the floor laughing :rofl: 🤣](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f923.png)
![Slightly smiling face :slight_smile: 🙂](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png)
I would have been the biggest idiot on earth or at least in Melbourne if I had gone ahead with that 60grand purchase, 60 large ones just for amplifiers! You got to be nuts...
Thank goodness gracious for the wifey, if not for her, I wouldn't probably even be in Aus! I'd be in some pond hole somewhere listening to frogs croaking... that'll be my highend audio, ha!
So, my point is... if the gear you have works really well and there are ways of modding it with further improvements then go for it! Once you've achieved a certain level of performance and the system has reached its threshold and it sounds bloody marvellous then why change?
Just leave it! And enjoy those fine tunes!
I'm sure those ML stats you've put together in a particular config, with the Bryston must be sounding tops! If the real feel is there, and it has reached full synergy then why change.
Woof! RJ
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