System #217 (Vantage, Stage, Fresco, Depth)

1. Member Name: Doug Robinson

2. Location: Crown Point, IN

3. ML Model(s): Vantage - Mains, Stage - Center, Fresco - Surrounds, Depth - Sub

4. Year Purchased: 1992 - 2007

5. Mods/Changes: None

6. Associated Electronics: Cary Cinema 11 Processor, Cary DVD-7 CD/DVD, Slimdevices SB3 Digital Player, CIAudio VDA-2 DAC, CIAudio VAC-1 Power Supply, CIAudio VDC-SB Power Supply, Samsung BD-P1200 BluRay, Motorola HD Cable Box, Edge GAV Amplifier, Rotel RLC-1040 Power Conditioner, MIT Shotgun 750 Speaker Cables, Kimber Hero Interconnects

7. Comments and/or stories about your Martin Logan experience: I have loved the "logan sound" since the first day I heard them many years ago. I will never go back to "box" speakers! Sorry about the bad photos!

welcome aboard!

Welcome Doug, Nice HT ! Are you by chance a railfan ?? Noticed your moniker......"RS2" , Diesel engine (Alco) designation.

Again, welcome to the 'funny farm'

Some additional pictures...

...amp...SB3...DAC

...center...

...vantage...sub...

...surrounds...Sorry about the bad pictures! Photography is not one of my strong points but I wanted to post pictures because I really enjoy looking at pictures of others systems.

Very nice system.

Tom: Thank you for the welcome!

Dave: Thank you for the welcome! I am not much of a railfan. RS2 is the name of my company (not very original I know) and I did not know it was an engine designation.

edwinr: Thank you for the compliment! After looking at the pictures on-line I really need to do some cable management

rs2 said:

After looking at the pictures on-line I really need to do some cable management

Click to expand...

Boy, I'll say!

Just kidding, you should see my rats nest.

Welcome to the club, great looking system. How do you like the Cary gear, and how does it pair with the Edge amplifier?

Happy Listening/Watching!

Nice setup!

A couple questions...
-How far out are your Vantages from the front wall?
-How far apart are they (center to center)?

MiTT: Thank you for the welcome and the compliment! I have been extremely happy with the Cary gear. My tastes run about 60% movies and 40% music and the Cinema-11 is one of the few processors that I can afford that does both well. The DVD-7 is also excellent as a red-book CD player. The Edge amplifier is a fantastic amplifier but it doesn't mate as well with the Cary processor as it did with my old Rotel processor. I am eventually looking to "upgrade" to the Cary Cinema 5 amplifier which I think will sound great with the other two pieces. I don't mean to sound like a Cary commercial but I am very happy with them.

sleepy: Thank you for the compliment as well! The Vantages are about 3 feet from the rear wall and about 12 - 13 feet apart. I have a difficult room and I want to experiment with better speaker positioning and room treatments. I am hoping to learn more about both of these things in this forum.

rs2 said:

edwinr: Thank you for the compliment! After looking at the pictures on-line I really need to do some cable management

Click to expand...

LOL! Don't worry about cable management! All you need is Adobe Photoshop. Prior to posting pics of your system, use the tool features (spot remover) to edit the cables out. No-one will ever know... :devil:

Great idea! Maybe I will put a pair of Summits in the picture while I am at it. :rocker:

edwinr said:

LOL! Don't worry about cable management! All you need is Adobe Photoshop. Prior to posting pics of your system, use the tool features (spot remover) to edit the cables out. No-one will ever know... :devil:

Click to expand...

So that's how you guys do it !!! I see all those neat systems and wonder what I am doing wrong !

Seriously, though, I always thought that neatly dressing cables was not necessarily the best sonically.

Nice system! I love the Vantage in black

How long have you had the Cinema 11? I am also looking at that because I want a dedicated audio processor. Don't need all that video switching.

Do you find the Depth adds enough bottom end on movies? As you are probably finding out, the Vantage can deal out some bass.

rs2 said:

The Vantages are about 3 feet from the rear wall and about 12 - 13 feet apart. I have a difficult room and I want to experiment with better speaker positioning and room treatments

Click to expand...

Looking at the pic of your setup, you might try moving the speakers closer together, which would likely give you a more coherent image. I can't tell if your "sweet spot" is centered on the TV, but if so, you could move your sub and component rack to the outside of the Vantages. Try getting that right speaker farther from the door opening. I'd aim for 7-9 ft speaker separation (center to center), but you could probably get away with a bit more if you use slightly more toe-in.

I found it helpful to use "furniture gliders" under my Summits when experimenting with speaker positioning, as in this post...
http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showpost.php?p=44505&postcount=121

Brian_74 said:

Nice system! I love the Vantage in black

How long have you had the Cinema 11? I am also looking at that because I want a dedicated audio processor. Don't need all that video switching.

Do you find the Depth adds enough bottom end on movies? As you are probably finding out, the Vantage can deal out some bass.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the compliment Brian!

I have had the Cinema 11 for about a month now. It just keeps getting better and better as each day goes by. I was using a separate tube preamp with a bypass with my old processor. This setup is much easier to use and the two channel stereo out of the Cinema 11 is every bit as good as what I was getting with the separate preamp. I didn't want the video switching either. Cary put the $$$ in the audio and it certainly shows.

I have been very happy with the Depth for HT. As you said the Vantages put out more than enough bass for two channel listening.

BTW I checked out your system...SWEET! Nice and clean and I love the cabinet. Are you happy with you Vantages?

sleepy surf said:

Looking at the pic of your setup, you might try moving the speakers closer together, which would likely give you a more coherent image. I can't tell if your "sweet spot" is centered on the TV, but if so, you could move your sub and component rack to the outside of the Vantages. Try getting that right speaker farther from the door opening. I'd aim for 7-9 ft speaker separation (center to center), but you could probably get away with a bit more if you use slightly more toe-in.

I found it helpful to use "furniture gliders" under my Summits when experimenting with speaker positioning, as in this post...
http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showpost.php?p=44505&postcount=121

Click to expand...

Thank you for the suggestion sleepy! I am going to start by moving the rack to the outside of the right speaker and putting the Vantage next to the right side of the TV. This will put the mains about 9 feet apart. It will also move the sweet spot over to the left a bit which will correct a second problem that I had.

Great idea with the furniture movers! I just happen to have a few sets of those from my last move.

I will let you know how it works out.