New ESL Center Channel Speaker "Matinee" coming soon

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tarigaad

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I just came back from my local ML dealer I was interested in the Motif. He told me to wait because a new ESL Center Channel Speaker the "Matinee" will be coming soon. He did not have further information.
 
I just came back from my local ML dealer I was interested in the Motif. He told me to wait because a new ESL Center Channel Speaker the "Matinee" will be coming soon. He did not have further information.

The Matinee is coming..... but not to the ESL line. It is coming as a new center for the Design line. I will likely be geared around the new Source and Purity towers. I cannot confirm details at this time, however if I had to guess I'd say it will look similar to the Motif but with a Gen 2 panel instead of the Xstat and that it will probably be about $1300 (Again just speculation)
 
Will this be below the Motif?? Wow, $1300 for a Design center?? Isn't that expensive for a low-end center??
 
I was told at the Heathrow show last weekend that it would be an active Motif (maybe that'll be another centre?)
 
I was told at the Heathrow show last weekend that it would be an active Motif (maybe that'll be another centre?)

That would make sense, since the new Purity is an active front channel speaker and the new Source is basically the same speaker, but not active. Thus, if you were setting up a five channel system and wanted to supply the amps you would purchase a pair of Source and a Motif for your front end, but if you wanted an all active front end, you would purchase a pair of Purity and the Matinee.
 
Matinee is already in the Best Buy Magnolia system. I don't have a date when it will arrive, but it will be priced at 1399.99. I think the pricing is pretty accurate as we've had both the source and purity in the system for nearly 2 months already.

I believe some stores already received the sources as display, and some will receive the purities this week.
 
I think they are about a month or two out.

And I'm going to put my $ on non-powered
 
I believe some stores already received the sources as display, and some will receive the purities this week.


I was in the local Magnolia last week watching them replace their Clarities with The Source. The Source looks very much like a smaller ESL series. I couldn't stick around long enough to listen unfortunatly.
 
the sources sound pretty good. I have a feeling that the Clarities had a little bigger dispersion, the sweet spot of the source is small just like most ML speakers. The Clarities used to have a little tweeter on the back, but the source does not.

They sounded nice and full on a denon 2808 but lacking in the low/mids when using a rx-v2700. The sources also added a detachable base which can make the speaker lean backwards and aim the sound at a standing listener or be perpendicular to the ground and aim for the listener sitting in a chair

Now just waiting to compare them with the Purities. Personally I'm debating between getting ML vs. Vienna Accoustics.

Purities on paper look similar in size to the Sources. Correct if I'm wrong though, but I believe the Purities have internal amplifiers so hopefully they'll sound better.
 
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I have the Sources and Purities in my BB/Mag store on display now.. There's something wrong with the Sources in our room, they sound pretty bad. There is a ton of echoey type of distortion going on, they don't sound clear at all. We have them hooked up to a Pioneer VSX-92TXH (I'd personally prefer it be hooked up to a Denon 4308 that we have but our planogram says the Sources must go with the Pioneer) through Audioquest cables terminated with banana plugs.. Haven't had a chance to listen to the Purities yet but looking forward to checking them out.

If they sound good I may buy a pair for my 2.1 laptop/flac based audio system.
 
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I have the Sources and Purities in my BB/Mag store on display now.. There's something wrong with the Sources in our room, they sound pretty bad. There is a ton of echoey type of distortion going on, they don't sound clear at all. We have them hooked up to a Pioneer reciever through audioquest cables terminated with banana plugs.. Haven't had a chance to listen to the Purities yet.

I'm going to pay my local BB a visit then... thanks for the heads up.

Joey :)
 
I'm going to pay my local BB a visit then... thanks for the heads up.

Joey :)

You may want to call and check first! I don't think too many stores have them yet. We are one of the first stores to receive shipment on Magnolia products since we are one of the two original test stores in the whole Magnolia mini-stores inside of BB.
 
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