Considering CLX purchase - wife says yes

[Wildblue]

Last year, I happened to be in Seattle for the CLX debut, and was blown away. Honestly can say that they're the best speakers I've ever heard. I listened again at CEDIA. The first night, I had called my wife from Seattle, and she couldn't stop laughing when I told her the speakers I wanted cost $25k. Understandable. She got to hear them at CEDIA later, which was good.

So the other day, she says to me, "I think you should go ahead and buy the Martin Logans". Whoa... took me a bit to figure out she's serious. I'm seriously debating whether to take the plunge, and have some big issues I'm hung on. Perhaps me mulling them over here on the forum would help. Background, current setup is dedicated enclosed theater/listening room, roughly 21' x 22' x 8.5'. 7.1 configuration with M&K S-150's, dual SVS PC-Ultra subs, all Parasound Halo amps. Front projection, 102" screen. If bought, new ML's would be mains, also used in home theater. Issues:

- Biggest is cost. Price still $20k? Any anniversary editions left for $25k? Either way, that's a huge purchase. (1st choice would be black aluminum, 2nd choice dark cherry) I wonder if any dealers are making deals out there with the economy being depressed.

- I live in Alaska. Only ML dealer is Magnolia in the Anchorage Best Buy, but they're not officially authorized for the CLX. Could buy from anywhere else and ship--next closest is Magnolias in Seattle/Bellevue, but I'm guessing shipping is mega $$$.

- Being that they would also be used for home theater, I'm still concerned about panel reflective glare from the projector when watching a movie in the dark. Not 100% sure of the info I've gathered on this from here.

- Not positive, but I think my room size would suit the CLX's pretty well. I'm a bit concerned about having to pull them out 5' into the room from the front wall to sound good. Might not work with the room layout, placing them aesthetically a lot closer to the front seating row.

Ehhh... I just don't know. A toughie. I'm on a deployment to the Middle East, so I've got some time to think about it.

 

[akm3]

Dealers have until the end of the month to sell before Martin Logan hard-line returns to enforcing their 'no discount' policy.

Call a dealer (such as DaVinci Media) STAT and you might save a respectable chunk off that $20k

 

[DrJRapp]

So the other day, she says to me, "I think you should go ahead and buy the Martin Logans". Whoa... took me a bit to figure out she's serious.

The big question becomes...what does she want? The CLS could turn out to be the cheap part..LOL

 

[MOON]

I think with the black aluminum frames that you wouldn't have a problem with glare from the projector. My Odyssey's are black and I don't get any glare off of my projector as well. The speakers are 5 feet off the wall to the stator panel and the electric pj screen is 2 feet behind the speakers, 92 inch diagonal.

I really think that if you can't get the speakers the required distance off the wall , it might not be a wise choice.

 

[Wildblue]

Dealers have until the end of the month to sell before Martin Logan hard-line returns to enforcing their 'no discount' policy.

Call a dealer (such as DaVinci Media) STAT and you might save a respectable chunk off that $20k

Thanks, appreciate the reply to that part. Interesting. I might as well look into that. would appreciate any contact/website info you might have for dealers that would be willing to do a deal. PM's would be very appreciated from anyone.

The big question becomes...what does she want? The CLS could turn out to be the cheap part..LOL

Right you are, Jerry! (it's me, Chris from HTGuide by the way)

I think with the black aluminum frames that you wouldn't have a problem with glare from the projector. My Odyssey's are black and I don't get any glare off of my projector as well. The speakers are 5 feet off the wall to the stator panel and the electric pj screen is 2 feet behind the speakers, 92 inch diagonal.

I really think that if you can't get the speakers the required distance off the wall , it might not be a wise choice.

Thanks, Moon. The part of the glare I'm concerned about is getting glare reflected off the electrostat panels themselves, though, not really the frames!

 

[theWB]

The big question becomes...what does she want? The CLX could turn out to be the cheap part..LOL

Exactly the first thing I thought.
There's always something coming on the backside
if the wife gives in too easily to a New Toy purchase.
(Usually costs me a new expensive handbag)
If she's suggesting you should buy the CLX,
You could be in big trouble.

 

[CCH]

I'd guess it would work the other way around, but the fact is that I am usually the one to start the cycle. If I spend $10k on stereo equipment, I am hard pressed to say that we cannot then afford to spend $10k on furniture. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, after all. I can't say that I've ever had my wife encourage me to buy a big ticket piece of gear, however. I'm willing to bet that will never happen! You're a lucky guy.

 

[amey01]

she says to me, "I think you should go ahead and buy the Martin Logans".

Where can I buy a wife like that?

 

[gregadd]

price increase

ML CLX is now $22.5k. Ignore the no discount policy. No dealer could pass up a $20k purchase in this market. There is no reason ML can't ship direct to you at no additional cost.
I hope you can find an anniversary pair. At the very least you'll be the coolest guy in Alaska.

 

[Craig]

You have a very considerate wife and it sounds like she is well deserving of at least a token of appreciation even if you don't go through with the CLX purchase.

I'm sure DaVinci Media who participates and supports this site will be glad to work with you. If the CLX don't work out for whatever reason, there is always the new Summit X as the pack leaders of your 7.1 HT system.

 

[houstonshark]

I was told that the pair of 25th Anniversary, black aluminum CLX I ordered for a customer at the end of December were the last ones ML would build(although I wouldn't rule out them having another pair laying around). I can check tomorrow for you.

My customer actually has mentioned that he wants the Art Frame version instead of the Anniversary version. I checked with ML and they do not have a way to easily swap the frames. They suggested replacing the speakers as it would cost nearly as much to ship them back to have the frames swapped!

I could check and see if he is interested in selling his 25th Anniversary Edition CLX (again supposedly the last ever) in order to buy the Art Frame version.

 

[DrJRapp]

Hey Chris...welcome

Do you still run the Halo gear? You may find the CLXs to be a bit more fussy than anything Klipsch but they will do OK on the Halos (ML even uses A21s and JC1s for demo). You will probably find that you will want the JC1s to power the CLXs if you don't already own them. I use Aragon Palladium 1Ks to power my Summits.

 

[DrJRapp]

- I live in Alaska. Only ML dealer is Magnolia in the Anchorage Best Buy, but they're not officially authorized for the CLX. Could buy from anywhere else and ship--next closest is Magnolias in Seattle/Bellevue, but I'm guessing shipping is mega $$$.

- Being that they would also be used for home theater, I'm still concerned about panel reflective glare from the projector when watching a movie in the dark. Not 100% sure of the info I've gathered on this from here.


Ehhh... I just don't know. A toughie. I'm on a deployment to the Middle East, so I've got some time to think about it.

Hey...you could always down your bird near a city that has a few ML dealers...lol

Seriously, the light reflection is a problem when you are working with a point source like a projector. When I auditioned the CLX it was in a darkened room with a point source for reading the reflections were a major detractor for me.

 

[JMAUSGP]

Chris Welcome,

As long as your wife does not hold some of your body parts hostage for buying the CLX, you should go for it. I have had my CLXs since early September of last year. I have owned several MLs including Summits and the CLX is not fussy, instead I would call it the most fun speaker that ML has developed to date. You can play with positioning and tweeking them to your hearts content. It has been almost 6 months and I still am playing with tweaks in my system and playing with the CLXs in general. The Summits were not a good speaker but rather the Summits were a great speaker IMO, the best I had heard and owned by a large margin and I have owned a few different MLs going back as far as 1995. With that said the CLX is another level above the Summits. You know you can look at it this way, at least for the forseeable future you can invest in a set of CLXs. You would probably lose less selling your CLXs after 6 months to a year than if you put the same money in to the stock market or even real estate...... yeah that's the ticket you aren't spending money on CLXs you are investing money in CLX technology.

As for your home theater, I would suggest two things. First due to limits in speaker placement because of the screen, the CLX will still be the best speaker with the best potential for your HT. You may have to experiment a little to find the optimum and even then you may not find the perfect set-up but for sure with a little diligence you can be rest assured that you could find the optimum killer setup if you wanted to. Also as an FYI, OPPO Digital is about to release a new Blu-Ray player that plays SACDs and DVD Audio as well. You could get a new OPPO BDP-983 for $500 and any time you want you could blow people away with surround sound music on your ML system. One other thing, you asked about reflections. I looked at my HT tonight and did notice that there was a small bit of light reflectin off of my ML Stylos. But then I got drawn back into the HD video and never looked back or noticed the reflecting off of the Stylos. In short, Life is short and not everybody gets the chance to own CLXs, expecially with your wifes permission, and that as they say is a whole nother story, my wife still doesn't know. Anyway, take a shot, I can guarantee that you will always have something to do especially if you happen to have cold long winter nights.

 

[Wildblue]

Thanks all, the input is much appreciated.

ML CLX is now $22.5k. Ignore the no discount policy. No dealer could pass up a $20k purchase in this market. There is no reason ML can't ship direct to you at no additional cost.
I hope you can find an anniversary pair. At the very least you'll be the coolest guy in Alaska.

Yeah, I thought I had heard/seen something about a price increase for the standard CLX model, but somewhere official I was still seeing $20k. (huh... I just checked the custom shop on the ML website, and now it says $22699) I guess that brings up a question then of what be a reasonable "discount" and final dealer price with this month's situation. I'm reading in another thread assumptions of anywhere from 0% to 20%. As for the coolest guy in Alaska, I don't know... we're all pretty "cold" there this time of year, although I'm burning up myself, halfway around the world in the desert!

You have a very considerate wife and it sounds like she is well deserving of at least a token of appreciation even if you don't go through with the CLX purchase.

Don't I know it. She's being really cool with me being deployed, and we're working on what we're going to do for vacation, family, house, etc later this year after I get home.

Hey Chris...welcome

Do you still run the Halo gear? You may find the CLXs to be a bit more fussy than anything Klipsch but they will do OK on the Halos (ML even uses A21s and JC1s for demo). You will probably find that you will want the JC1s to power the CLXs if you don't already own them. I use Aragon Palladium 1Ks to power my Summits.

Hey again, Jerry! I've been lurking for a while here, posting just occasionally. Yeah, the first demo in Seattle, ML used McIntosh, and I forget what they were running at CEDIA. But I did see that they were using a Halo A21 at the factory for demo, I thought that was really cool, and I've talked it over with the Parasound bubbas, who really like the Halo/ML pairing. I'm definitely up for the expected transparancy. The detail in the demos I heard was just amazing. I do use an A21 to run my mains (currently M&K) but have considered a future upgrade to two JC-1's for mains, or even another for the center channel, and use my other Halo gear to run the rest of the setup.

Chris Welcome,

As long as your wife does not hold some of your body parts hostage for buying the CLX, you should go for it.

Now THAT's funny, right 'dere!

Also as an FYI, OPPO Digital is about to release a new Blu-Ray player that plays SACDs and DVD Audio as well. You could get a new OPPO BDP-983 for $500 and any time you want you could blow people away with surround sound music on your ML system. One other thing, you asked about reflections. I looked at my HT tonight and did notice that there was a small bit of light reflectin off of my ML Stylos. But then I got drawn back into the HD video and never looked back or noticed the reflecting off of the Stylos. In short, Life is short and not everybody gets the chance to own CLXs, expecially with your wifes permission, and that as they say is a whole nother story, my wife still doesn't know. Anyway, take a shot, I can guarantee that you will always have something to do especially if you happen to have cold long winter nights.

Yeah, I'm currently running a Parasound Halo D3 player for my CD/SACD/DVD-A player. It's got a few problems with video playing, but really is nice for audio. I went to that from a Denon DVD-3910. For BD, I'm still using the PS3, which is still working great. Have considered a CA840 for a dedicated CD player.

We do get those long, cold Alaskan winter nights, so you're right. (although there are "other" activities for those times too)

And yes, I'm still hmming and hawing about the projector light reflection issue. I'm impressed if you have ML Stylos in your theater, *and* CLX's elsewhere, presumably a 2nd listening room!

 

[DrJRapp]

Do you intend to use the SVS Ultras with the CLX? If you do, then you may want to sell them off and get some Ultra 13s. The improved sound quality in the midbass region would be worthwhile as well as the added amp filter and crossover flexibility will help match them up with the CLX panels. Ron at SVS is being very kind to prior customers right now, and after selling off my PB+2 I didn't have to contribute much to get the Ultra 13. The other options include ML descents which contain a X over specifically tailored to match up with the CLX, but that option gets a bit pricey.

 

[User211]

Wildblue - here's a thread showing CLX light reflection, which I took a while ago.

http://www.martinloganowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7845

It's just a lamp in the room being reflected. It wouldn't bother me too much... but if you are any good at geometry you should be able to work out were the problem viewing poisitions would be.

If you'd like to see that CLX video in 720p high resolution (you'll need iTunes/Quicktime or the K-Lite codecs for Windows Media player), I can make it available for download for a day or two. It is a lot clearer... but you get the general idea from the YouTube vid.

Who put that "User211 rules" comment in the vid?

 

[DTB300]

The other options include ML descents which contain a X over specifically tailored to match up with the CLX, but that option gets a bit pricey.

Agree, the Decent would match up better with the CLX. Another option would be JL subs. As we all agree here, Wildblue would have to listen and decide what he likes.

 

[Wildblue]

You guys really are awesome. Yes, I've considered whether the dual SVS PC-Ultra subs would be better suited with something else. Ron was really great hooking me up with my original subs, and now that they've got the upgrades, I've been wondering. Besides, I could use a set of smaller speakers for a living room entertainment center, and have been thinking of SVS MTS speakers at that cost level.

User 211, the webfilter where I'm out blocks out Youtube, so I haven't been able to pursue that video till now. I'll see if I can find an alternate internet source tonight to watch that clip, though.

I'm also wondering if it might be possible to put "blinders" on my projector, so that it doesn't impede the image being sent directly to the screen, but would block the light leaking out to the sides to the speakers. (?) That would take care of the 1st-order reflections off the speakers, and then it would just be ambient light reflections.

 

[JMAUSGP]

Oh and I forgot, I already have a SVS PB13 Ultra subwoofer in my HT which is all Martin Logan except for the PB13 Ultra. My HT uses a Sony VPL-VW200 projector on to a Dalite 120 inch Hi-Power screen which is fed by a Running Springs Audio (RSA) Duke, don't ask, just look up Tone Audio and read the reviews of RSA and it will blow your mind what these power conditioners do to audio and Video.

Anyway, I have never noticed any reflection on the MLs and if you look in the member systems section at number 275 you can see that the Stylos are literally touching the screen.

As for the CLXs, I have a Descent i integrated with the CLX-based system which is strictly for 5.1 surround sound music system but I would expect that you could configure your HT system so that any time you want you too could play 2 channel or multi-channel 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound off of your universal player, whatever that may be.

I just suggested the OPPO because it is a true universal player that includes Blu-Ray and it is as fast if not faster and has better upscaling than the PS3 and you don't need whatever else you have to have to play music and DVDs.

Anyway, the main thing is to enjoy the journey, check out lots of stuff and enjoy the search, because once you get the CLXs you will have alot less time to do anything else. I go downstairs and lose hours and hours of time emersed in the CLX Rapture. Good luck and be sure to keep sharp objects hidden away from your wife, I am still suspicious of her motives, especially in Alaska