The new Spire - Any Chicagoans going?

[Craig]

http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showthread.php?t=6150

ML is debueing the new Spire speaker at a Tweeter Store in Chicago on 4 April. Any of our Chicago members going? Is so, take a camera and let us know your first impressions.

 

[theWB]

http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showthread.php?t=6150

ML is debueing the new Spire speaker at a Tweeter Store in Chicago on 4 April. Any of our Chicago members going? Is so, take a camera and let us know your first impressions.

Craig.
I'll try to break away from work for a couple of hours to check it out.

 

[Rich]

Surely Joey (you remember that guy, right?) and Cherian are going. You guys have got to give us an early review.

 

[Bernard]

Surely Joey (you remember that guy, right?)

You mean the medic looking for the cure to upgradeitis ?

 

[longhorn]

What will it look like? Is it in the lower line of ML speakers?

 

[theWB]

What will it look like? Is it in the lower line of ML speakers?

I couldn't find anything, anywhere on this new speaker.
With the name being Spire, I'm guessing a replacement for the Script i??
If I can't break away from work today to check it out, I'll call that Tweeter to see what kind of info I can get on it.

 

[theWB]

With the name being Spire, I'm guessing a replacement for the Script i??

I guessed wrong.
The Spire is placed between the Summits and the Vantages.
Panel size is the same as the Summits, but with only one 10 inch powered 200 watt woofer instead of two.

Crossover is at 320 hz to the Summit's 270hz and I believe the Vantages are at 400hz.
Sensitivity is 91db, while the Summits and Vantages are at 92db.

Bass control is at 35hz same as the Vantage, while the Summits have control of 25hz and 50hz.

Frequency response is 29-23,000hz, while Vantage is 34-23,000hz and Summits fall in at 24-23,000hz.

Same height as the Summits, but the Spires only weigh 48 pounds, 4 less than the Vantage and 27 less than the Summits.

Woofer box has a blue neon Martin Logan Insignia and the front panel has a blue Led light below the Insignia like the Vantages,(which I didn't care for).

Price: $8,495 per pair in Black Ash, Dark Cherry, Natural Cerry, and Maple
$9,195 a pair in Birds Eye Maple, Wenge, and Rotary Cut Bubinga.

I'll post thoughts and pics soon.

 

[theWB]

Spires in Dark Cherry

 

[amey01]

Thanks for the introduction! It looks fantastic!

Now for the reveiw - what did you think?

Can't wait to hear your thoughts - the room looks like it was reasonably good too - reasonably well set up.

Did they say anthing about weighing less than the Vantages? That doesn't make much sense to me......

 

[Beakman]

Everything I want in a ML speaker, except maybe the amp. Passive radiator on the bottom? What's the switch on the back for?
Damn! it's past my upgrade time window.
Gee, ML. Dump the amp and I'll go into hock fo this one.

 

[David Matz]

Sounds like a dumb idea - it will kill the Summit

I guessed wrong.
The Spire is placed between the Summits and the Vantages.
Panel size is the same as the Summits, but with only one 10 inch powered 200 watt woofer instead of two.

Crossover is at 320 hz to the Summit's 270hz and I believe the Vantages are at 400hz.
Sensitivity is 91db, while the Summits and Vantages are at 92db.

Bass control is at 35hz same as the Vantage, while the Summits have control of 25hz and 50hz.

Frequency response is 29-23,000hz, while Vantage is 34-23,000hz and Summits fall in at 24-23,000hz.

Same height as the Summits, but the Spires only weigh 48 pounds, 4 less than the Vantage and 27 less than the Summits.

Woofer box has a blue neon Martin Logan Insignia and the front panel has a blue Led light below the Insignia like the Vantages,(which I didn't care for).

Price: $8,495 per pair in Black Ash, Dark Cherry, Natural Cerry, and Maple
$9,195 a pair in Birds Eye Maple, Wenge, and Rotary Cut Bubinga.

I'll post thoughts and pics soon.

I could not get away from work to hear it. But I don't regret it. I am sure it is a wonderful sounding speaker, but why muddy things up further and create another confusing option for the consumer? I used to love the days when I could walk into a store and buy 1 of 3 types of blue jeans. Now, it takes 90 minutes to try all of the designs and shapes and cuts.

Furthermore, this will kill the Summit. Most consumers don't buy the most expensive toaster. They buy something that has almost all of the bells and whistles of the best, at a fraction of the price. In fact, many companies create an expensive choice on purpose to steer people toward a slightly less expensive item, knowing that most will bypass the most expensive item. Maybe this is the plan?

There used to be a nice contrast in the line up between the Vantage, Vista, and Summit. Now, people will bypass the Summit and go to something that appears like the Summit. This will also give the customer flexibility to upgrade later with subs to approach the bass of the Summit. Furthermore, when the new CLX is out, the Summit may be discontinued altogether. I guess ML wanted to plug the hole in the $5K-$10K range.

 

[theWB]

The Spires I listened to were Brand New with less than 50 hours on them,so to write an evaluation on them is just unfair. On top of that the room was much smaller than I'm use to listening in and they were being driven by Equipment I was unfamilar with.

The Cambridge Audio rep was there and the Spires were being driven by all Cambridge Audio equipment.

Amp: Azur 840w Class XD 200 watts a channel into 8 ohms, 350 into 4 ohms
Amp can be bridged to mono and drive 500 watts a channel into 8 ohms
I believe the retail was $2,500

Pre Amp: Azur 840E Can't remember the retail

CD: Azur 840c Retail $1,500, I remember reading a very favorable review on
this player not to long ago.

I feel Martin Logan has a winner here, but to judge it on the listen I had today is unfair. You could definatly tell they were nowhere near broken in, both the panels and the woofers. Panel and bass integration again was very good. Soundstaging and stage depth was very good. Not to judge an amp by it's size, but I've never seen a 200 watt per channel amp as small as this one, the Cambridge rep explained to me what an XD amp was because I never heard of one and supposedly it's something they've invented that brings the quality of a class A amp with the power of a class B amp. I don't know maybe someone here can better explain it. The amp never got hot while listening.

Dennis from ML was there and of course I asked the question we all want to know. When will we see the CLX. He told me in the US by the end of the year.
I told him were having our MLOC gathering at RMAF this year and suggested to him it would be a great place to debut the CLX in the US. He told me ML currently didn't have plans to have a display at RMAF, but he said he would suggest it to the powers that be. I gave him the dates for RMAF. Dennis also told me that they aren't trying to make the CLX to a certain price point, but to make the best speaker possible. He wouldn't give me an estimation as to possible price, but he did say they are sparing no expense, whatever it takes to make this speaker, so I'd expect the retail to be on the high side.

Dennis also told me they are working on the next generation Summit, but didn't know when that might come to market.

 

[theWB]

Did they say anthing about weighing less than the Vantages? That doesn't make much sense to me......

I didn't catch it till I got home and compared the spec sheet I was given to the specs of the Summits and Vantages.

Passive radiator on the bottom? What's the switch on the back for?

No passive radiator no port. Switch is for the blue LED's High, Low, and Off

 

[sleepysurf]

...Dennis also told me they are working on the next generation Summit, but didn't know when that might come to market.

Aha! There will be a Summit II, or Summit i, likely well after the CLX!

I'm looking forward to hearing the Spire, and hope my local Sound Advice/Tweeters will have a decent demo.

 

[amey01]

I like this speaker. I'm sure I'll get to hear it here in Australia in about three months!!

 

[Joey_V]

Great... I've been gone for so long and now there's a new ML speaker I didn't know about?!

Spire?!

Geez...

 

[Craig]

No passive radiator no port. Switch is for the blue LED's High, Low, and Off

No passive radiator or port should help to produce tighter bass, but at the expense of efficiency. A good trade-off if you ask me.

 

[Craig]

Great... I've been gone for so long and now there's a new ML speaker I didn't know about?!

Spire?!

Geez...

This one showed up with very little notice.