Heading to listen to the CLX in Seattle !

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C.A.P

C.A.P

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As luck would have it the CLX will be in Seattle this Thursday and Friday at Magnolia Hi Fi in Bellvue WA .Low and behold,.... I am here for sales meetings and will be heading there tomorrow for a listen. Some times you can fall into a bucket of sh!t and come out smelling like a rose ! or is it better said "even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then !"

I will be burning a demo disc today and will take it with me. It will be a disc of recognizable music. The 56 hz will be tested with some great tunes.

This will be a good comparison as I just got my system, CLS finalized and set up with the new stands.
 
I am boarding a plane . Full review with pics coming when I get home and am able to hold my jaw up.......this phone typing is for the birds.


All I can say now is WOW....................(jaw just fell thinking of them)
 
OK ! Here is the skinny !

I walked into Magnolia Hi Fi thinking it was going to be some big box store type deal. We don't have them here in MI. Boy was I wrong. They had several dedicated rooms to listen to different gear. When I got there the sales man said they were not ready yet ! I asked to see them anyways and was escorted to a HUGE dedicated room, about 40 X 25. David Allen(VP of design and development) and the local Martin Logan Rep., were finishing up the set up. They asked where I was from and how did I hear about this. David immediately said sit down and have a listen, he asked me what I had and I told him CLS , his face lit up with a grin. He said we love CLS owners. At first appearance they are much better in person than than pictures. They are sleek and svelt. I will say that my first impressions did not impress me from pics but I must pull my foot out of my mouth and say they are sexy in person. Its a form fallows function build according to David Allen. They were hooked up to a set of Macintosh 300 watt mono blocks with a Mac pre amp and CD player. This was great I was the only person in the room and had the hot seat all to my self with them running and changing tunes. A personal demo by Martin Logan. As later that night there were going to be a lot of people there. Hot seat time would have been limited and there would be lots of background noise. The first song was Capella version of Danny Boy by a female vocalist. It was so shockingly eerie and real sounding that I could not believe it. The stage was 25 feet wide. I was impressed! I listened to a few other vocal recordings and was ready to push these puppies to their limit. The Whole gang was eager to please. This is where the CLX blew my mind. They said OK are you ready to listen to something your CLS cant do? They put in a CHESKY Drum Demo disc that was incredible. The Toms and bass drums shook your body. The detail and SPL capability of these speakers are amazing. They can play LOUD and clean. The area everyone is concerned about, is the 56 HZ bass. It is a true 56 hz, as it sure pressurizes the room. Its the best bass I have ever heard. Its faster than any SUB or full range speaker I have heard. Is it the deepest? No, but the 56 hz sounds like a solid clean 30 hz. that is as fast as the panel. I could run these with NO sub, and that is saying something as I LOVE bass.


The Rodrigo y Gabriela Tamacun track was as if they were sitting right there. Stairway to Heaven was incredible. We listened to a few tech no pop recordings A la Depech Mode type music. Again the bass was deep and solid.
The Magnolia people were very professional. They were giving a set of Spires away as a drawing. ( If I win it will go towards a set of CLX :D)

Now the question you all want to ask! ARE THEY BETTER THAN CLS?...

The solid answer without any doubt is YES! They are the single best loudspeaker I have ever heard. They blow away the CLS and the Summits! The big Maggies 20.1 are like listening to muffled panels, the big Apogee Divas of old are not even close. The Wilson Wilson MAX is kids play to the detail in these.. Never has sound staging and imaging taken a room over like these speakers. They literally crush the Summit in all areas. Even though the Summit has measurable bass to 24 hz its not as tight and detailed as the triple stator. Not that the Summit is bad its just not nearly as good as these. These take a CLS and eat it up and spit it out and they are my reference speaker until these. They are not just a bit better than the CLS they CRUSH them. I talked to David about the triple stator design and he said" Its a dipole design with the Mylar in Phase with each other moving twice the mass" you can actually tap the bass sections and get different tones as they are tuned for each frequency range. For those who think they can tell its a crossover design, your fooling your self. Its as seamless as it gets. These really have no rival in my book. For what they do and their size they are a sonic home run.

Are they worth $20 to 25K???..........................YES ! :bowdown:

David Allen and I standing next to the CLX.(Phone camera)
 

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All I can say is WOW! I sure hope a demo will make it's way to the Tampa Bay area!
 
Yep, they were quite good and much better looking in person.

Definitely a home run for ML, and definitely worth the $$, considering
what else is on the market for 25K.
 
tonepub said:
Yep, they were quite good and much better looking in person.

Definitely a home run for ML, and definitely worth the $$, considering
what else is on the market for 25K.
Click to expand...

How does the CLX compare to the Wilson Alexandria X-2?
 
Thanks for the review C.A.P. How was the sweetspot? I keep asking this because my wife and I listen to music together,and friends to when they come over.
 
Man, way to go C.A.P.!!!

The Gods of good timing are really on your side:) If the CLX world tour makes it to Florida I might have to wrestle with Sleepysurf and the rest of the Tampa crew for five minutes in the sweet spot!

Thanks for sharing...
Satch
 
Thanks for posting this write up - there will be a lot of envious people out there (including me!)....you realise that you may have written & published the world's first review of this new ML masterpiece?

From your write up they sound very impressive and I can't wait to hear them for myself someday...are you able to make any comparison between what you heard and the Prodigy's?

Thanks again......
 
longhorn said:
How does the CLX compare to the Wilson Alexandria X-2?
Click to expand...

Not a fair comparison, because the X-2/series 2 goes down to 16hz; they really move a lot of air. Also the X-2 is about six times more money...

When I heard the X-2 at Dave Wilson's house, he had top shelf electronics and fabulous recordings and a perfect room. The Mac gear was good, but didn't have the level of detail and resolution that Dave's system has, so I think the CLX is capable of much more than what I heard at Magnolia.

The X-2 is bigger sounding and more dynamic on one level, but the CLX and the rest of the ML speakers really have a transparency that I love. I'm pretty biased towards ML.

I've only heard three speakers that I've enjoyed more than ML, The Gamut L-9 ($135k), the Avalon Sentinel ($130k) and the Wilson X-2/series 2 ($150k), so I think that puts the CLX in pretty awesome company.

And I really need to hear em in my room with a pair of Descents and my gear.

Even with the limited demo we had at Magnolia, it was obvious that this will be as significant of a speaker as the CLS was 25 years ago. That speaker changed my perception of a panel then and these do now.

I don't think that anyone who buys this speaker will be unhappy, unless you just want bone crushing 20hz bass or are trying to have 130db in your living room.

Interestingly, because of the panel woofer, they do the one thing that my Summits could not and the Final did; that slight lack of upper bass coloration that a full panel speaker does not have.

I can't imagine that any ML lover will not come away from this speaker highly impressed.
 
C.A.P. thanks for the great review.

Did you feel the mid-bass impact is the same as a line array of dynamic drivers?
I'm sure it would be less colored and more articulate, but was it 'powerful'?
 
Thanks for the write up, Cap. I think you are going to see more and more of these posts. From the looks of it (I am refering to Jeff's post here) the CLX is in elite company. It'll give speakers in the 50k-100k range a run for their money.

But I feel that has always been ML's mantra - to provide truly excellent products at outstanding price.

Alas - It will be a looooooooonnnnnggggg time before I could consider buying a 25k pair of speakers (I don't even own a home yet). But the release of the Spire and CLX will push more Vistas and Summits on to the used market, and that's good for all of the second buyers (like me!) out there.

Thanks again for taking the time to give us the feedback!!

Erik
 
longhorn said:
Thanks for the review C.A.P. How was the sweetspot? I keep asking this because my wife and I listen to music together,and friends to when they come over.
Click to expand...

Its as wide as I have heard. Unlike the CLS where its a one person sitting affair. You would easily be able to sit 2 people close but still get a good stage !

JonFo said:
C.A.P. thanks for the great review.

Did you feel the mid-bass impact is the same as a line array of dynamic drivers?
I'm sure it would be less colored and more articulate, but was it 'powerful'?
Click to expand...
The Mid bass is as sweet and articulate as I have heard. Toms and bass drums are crisp and clean. The male chesty voice is strong and not colored at all. This has no point source like some line array I have heard. Its seamless.

As for the comparison to the Prodigy . I have first hand experience with them and Great equipment. A member who lives close to me has them. They are damn good and would be to my liking but they are far behind the CLX in overall sound and detail.

They are something you must hear ! Martin Logan has made a speaker that literally made them redesign their own line as the CLX is that much better than the rest ! The Summit will be re released with new technology learned from the CLX.



Its been hard the last few hrs as my ears have had the taste of sonic nirvana. The CLS are outstanding but until you realize what you are missing you don't care ! I am feeling a bit of upgradeitus but I just don't have the 20k to cough up. I sit here feeling like I have a regular sounding system when most people would give a arm for what I have ! I am sorry for sounding rude but they are that good! If you have a chance to go listen DON'T ! It will ruin you forever when you go home ! As Sinead O'conner Nothing Compares"
 
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CAP, it's so amazing how ML built that bass panel. Like nothing I've ever heard from an ESL before. The drum hits were so pronounced, like you said.... so real. huge soundstage... Just astonishing!

Dude... fight this clx strain of joey-itis as long as you can... It got the better of me and the Summits have made me at peace with my system again..... (for now)...

Rock on!
 
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