Question about Receiver for ML speakers

[hobbes2702]

So I am not building a system yet and am not yet an owner but I am just trying to get a little information. Once I graduate from college my first big purchase is going to be my sound system which will be Martin Logan speakers.

Martin Logan uses 4 ohm speakers. Let's say I was to get any Onkyo receiver at or above the TX-SR807. All of these are rated to handle 4 ohm impedence. Would I still need a separate amplifier? What big advantage would it provide? This isn't just for me. I also work in Magnolia Home Theater for BestBuy and want to be able to give the customers the best solution.

 

[RichTeer]

So I am not building a system yet and am not yet an owner but I am just trying to get a little information. Once I graduate from college my first big purchase is going to be my sound system which will be Martin Logan speakers.

Martin Logan uses 4 ohm speakers. Let's say I was to get any Onkyo receiver at or above the TX-SR807. All of these are rated to handle 4 ohm impedence. Would I still need a separate amplifier? What big advantage would it provide? This isn't just for me. I also work in Magnolia Home Theater for BestBuy and want to be able to give the customers the best solution.

If you want to get the best from a pair of MartinLogan speakers, a separate amp is the way to go. Your average receiver just won't cut the mustard. Also, be aware that the impedence of many ML speakers actually dips below 1 Ohm at certain frequencies!

 

[timm]

a lot of mention here lately on the onkyo receivers... My input would be this -- if you are looking at MLs - and are looking at their upper end speakers - either the older line (aeon,ascent,odyssey,prodigy) or the newer line (vista,vantage,spire,summit...or oh yeah, the CLX) ... then I think you go with an external amp... and I really think the beauty of MLs (with the previous speakers mentioned) is for 2 channel - my personal opinioin of course - because of the soundstaging, intricate detail, etc.. Personally, I don't think that is as critical for HT... HT is all about your screen, slam, spl, and your center channel.... I have used my odysseys for HT - and quite frankly, although they do sound better than my paradigm mini-monitors - I could easily just use the mini-monitors for a HT application... 2 channel is a whole nother thing...I'm sure there are those that disagree....

 

[JRace]

In November I began using a pair of Summit X's with a Stage and Vistas in the rear. I was using a Bryston 9Bsst2 being controlled by a Denon 4308 receiver, with a Descent i handling 40Hz and down.

Two weeks back I took the Bryston out of the chain....and so far, even after some intense 4-8hrs movie/music sessions (wife was out of town:rocker the Denon never quit, never got too hot, and sounded fabulous with CD, SACD, Blu-Ray and more.

What the differences I noticed are:
Cannot turn the volume as loud before some distortion
The Bryston sounds noticeable better throughout the entire volume range, where as the Denon was good from mid-mid high, and not as clean at very high, and flat/lifeless below mid volume levels.
The Denon has a slight bump from mid to treble compared with the very neutral Bryston.

In the end, I am sending the Bryston back and using the Denon for now.
Not because the Bryston was poor, I would just rather spend the money on the Martin Logans at this time.

If you told me I would hav eto only use the Denon receiver for the rest of my days with the ML's I would not be an unhappy person.

 

[tsmooth]

I think JRace hit it on the head. If you have a powerful enough receiver you can make it work, and I think the Summit X having on-board amps is helping the receiver out a lot. But if you have a seperate amplifer it is going to clear things up for people that love to critically listen to music.

At Magnolia, I assume many people would be in the preface to source / purity range and a good receiver can definitely handle that. Especially since most of the customers are going to be home theater first and music listening second.

Having the preouts to an amplifier from a good receiver has given me the best of both worlds. It is as good as I need it to be for music but also gives my the switchablity to have blue-ray, direct TV, xbox 360, and a CD player all a button away. I would personally not go back to just a receiver, but that is because I do a good deal of music listening and I like the smooth, clean watts that my Sunfire amp provides at all frequencies.