Vignette or Fresco Anyone ? Your thoughts are welcomed !

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Wayne

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Here comes another test for your mind everyone. Has anyone actually seen the Vignette in person or was it at the CES show ? I have been considering Fresco's but when I saw the picture of the Vignette I thought this might work as well... I have 2 dealers within 1 hr of myself but BOTH said they will not carry it BUT would order it if I wanted. Actually one dealer stated "why should I carry it?". What does that mean?, does that mean the Fresco is that much superior ? So I ask if anyone has heard both, please be kind enough to put your thoughts down in this thread.
 
Wayne, I have not seen the Vignette and I own the Fresco. Allow me an educated guess. They have different purposes. The Vignette is an in-wall speaker that can also be used in the ceiling. The Vignette only has one ATF and the Fresco has 2. The Fresco can be used as mains, center or surround and you can mount them on the wall. I would guess that you would mainly use the Vignette as surround and possible a main if you need an in wall. The Vignette is the cheapest of the in wall so you could step up with the Voyage. I'm not quite sure how the Passage fits in. So the bottom line is the Fresco will have a fuller ATF range than the Vignette and you would just use the Vignette if you need an in-wall or ceiling sort of mount.

BTW, I have the need for an in-ceiling and ML only recommended the Vignette but ML only has this in silver and not white which has me grumbling.
 
You are not correct. The Vignette is the same type of on wall or on stand speaker as the Fresco. Check the Logan site or here for confirmation. The Fresco does have two ATF drivers that allow the 4" woofers to cross over at a lower frequency, while the Vignette is a two way with only one ATF tweeter. I have not heard the Vignette because my dealer is not carrying it in stock either. I suspect they will sound similar but if you plan usage as a center or main front, I would be inclined to go with the Fresco due to the use of the ATF over a wider frequency response. On surround use, I would be more inclined to go with the Vignette due to cost savings. :)
 
Ok. Checked out the site. You are right, the Vignette is on wall. The Voyage and Passage are in walls. ML had recommended only the Vignette for on ceiling to me.

It seems like the Vignette is to the Fresco as the Montage is to the Mosaic. In which case they would both be nice but the Fresco would be nicer.
 
Thanks For the Input !!!! I am considering the Vignette as surrounds, could I get away with another as a center channel or would a Fresco be that much better? I assume it would have a "fuller sound" ... I like the idea of the Vignette because of it's size .......about 5 inches smaller than the Fresco and slightly narrower as well.
Regards to all !!!!!!
 
Do not scrimp on your center channel, its the most important of the five for home theater. If funds allowed I would get three Frescos up front and the Vignettes for the surrounds. ;)
 
Attyonline,
Let me start over .... I am looking to have either Mosaic's or Clarity's upfront.."having trouble getting a side by side demo" Secondly.. for the surrounds either the Vignette's or MAYBE Montage's "similar pricing".. and for the center Vignette or Fresco. I apologize for the lack of me wording it that way from the beginning. .. "I hope the reasoning is the extreme cold here in the Northeast" and not my brain. So please give me your thoughts along with anyone else as well.
Regards as always,
 
Wayne said:
Attyonline,
Let me start over .... I am looking to have either Mosaic's or Clarity's upfront.."having trouble getting a side by side demo" Secondly.. for the surrounds either the Vignette's or MAYBE Montage's "similar pricing".. and for the center Vignette or Fresco. I apologize for the lack of me wording it that way from the beginning. .. "I hope the reasoning is the extreme cold here in the Northeast" and not my brain. So please give me your thoughts along with anyone else as well.
Regards as always,

If you're in the northeast, you shouldn't have any trouble doing a comparison of Mosaic vs Clarity & Fresco vs Vignette. Tweeter typically has every one of these out on the floor & usually in the same room.
 
I use a fresco as a center and I recently bought a pair of vignette's for surrounds, though I won't have a chance to use them until my basement is finished.

Tweeter should have them on display, but I'd have to wonder if they've(vignette's) had enough playing time to be properly broken in.

I bought them based on my experience w/ the fresco (which is really a great lil` speaker) and the mosaics. The brief demo I did of the vignette's in Tweeter was not what I was expecting(lacking on the mid and low end, my guess is the single transducer as opposed to having two like the Fresco) , though they were being demo'd as L & R mains.

I convinced myself two things ultimately 1.) They were just put on the floor, so they hadn't been broken in 2.) they'd only be handling surround duties.

They are beautiful speakers, and it's nice that a wall mount is included and it comes w/ two grilles (one black, one gray).

It'll be another couple months before I'll know if I made the right choice :)
 
Great input Mike !!
Did you say that you were using Mosaic's upfront? And if you are did you audition any others for the mains "Clarity's perhaps". Which would be my other choice. And Mike lastly did you consider Montage's as surrounds, or did you need a wall mount speaker?
 
I am interested in the Vignette as surrounds for my ML Aerius i and Cinema front spkrs. I have no Tweeter store in Indianapolis and the local ML dealer does not display the Vignette. I am very interested in your experience with them since I likely will not get to hear them before I buy. :(
 
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I am very anxious to go to Tweeter's, I will be going sometime next week. I called and they do have the VIgnette's along with the other couple of speakers I want to audition. Attyonline have you considered other ML's besides the wall mounted ones? Floorstanders perhaps.......
 
Attyonline,

If you are in Indianapolis is your local ML dealer Ovation Audio Video? If that is not the one you are dealing with you may look into them. They offer a speaker upgrade policy where you can buy a speaker and then within a year you can trade that speaker in and they will refund you the full price plus tax for you to apply towards a speaker that is 50% more in price (they are normally flexible). So in your case you could use the Vignette and if you didn't like them then you could trade in for something else and you are never out money for the upgrade.

Adam
 
Wayne said:
I am very anxious to go to Tweeter's, I will be going sometime next week. I called and they do have the VIgnette's along with the other couple of speakers I want to audition. Attyonline have you considered other ML's besides the wall mounted ones? Floorstanders perhaps.......

I have thought of Mosaics, but my room is only 17 x 13 so they would only be about three feet from the closest listener on each side of the couch. They are also kind of low which is not good for surrounds. As for the stats, my left side of the room has only a switched outlet which would not work well with them. I like the flexability of the Vignette for surrounds which would allow either shelf or wall mounting.
 
77engineer said:
Attyonline,

If you are in Indianapolis is your local ML dealer Ovation Audio Video? If that is not the one you are dealing with you may look into them. They offer a speaker upgrade policy where you can buy a speaker and then within a year you can trade that speaker in and they will refund you the full price plus tax for you to apply towards a speaker that is 50% more in price (they are normally flexible). So in your case you could use the Vignette and if you didn't like them then you could trade in for something else and you are never out money for the upgrade.

Adam

That is true but if I do not like them then I am not interested in the other Logans for surround use so I would probably have to sell them.
 
Wayne said:
Great input Mike !!
Did you say that you were using Mosaic's upfront? And if you are did you audition any others for the mains "Clarity's perhaps". Which would be my other choice. And Mike lastly did you consider Montage's as surrounds, or did you need a wall mount speaker?

In addition to the Mosaic and Montage, I auditioned the Clarity's and Aeon i's.

Clarity - nice speaker, but it lacked the immersive sound of the Aeon's (and ESL in general). The extra speaker mounted on the back of the cabinet also seemed to cause reflection off the front wall, bass was a bit lacking. I had demo'd these previously as well, but ended up buying a pair of scenario's instead.

Aeon i - Had money not been a factor, this would've been my choice. The typical immersive sound you'd come to expect from a set of ML's and they disappear when the music starts, low end was acceptable. Only negative: small sound stage, if you're not in the sweet spot, you lose the immersive feeling.

Mosaic - great speaker, good bass. I was expecting to hear a big difference between ATF and ESL and I was pleasently suprised to hear otherwise. If i were to rank these out of the ML products, I'd put them between the scenario(first ML speakers I ever owned!) and the Aeon i. Fairly broad soundstage, immersive and warm are the best way to describe them.

Montage - Of any ML floor speaker, this was the one that really sounded like it didn't belong. The high end seemed muddied, and it just didn't wow me like ML's other products.

I ended up not considering the Montage as a surround because of the muddied high end. I did consider another set of Mosaics though, but I prefer something smaller for rear surrounds and surrounds, and if possible wall or stand mountable. It's much easier to put the Fresco or Vignette at a proper listening height if you're wall mounting rather than having to build a platform for a floor speaker.
 
Good review, but keep in mind that the Vignette has the same type of two way setup as the Montage so it might have the same muddy sound you heard with the Montage. Course I would not know cause I have not been able to hear them :)
 
Scary Point Attyonline !!!!!
Glad you brought up how the Vignette and Montage are "driver wise" the same. Hope Michael that the Montage you heard was not broken in, and your analysis was great !!! The Mosaic seems to have alot going for it, if you don't opt for an Aeon or larger.
 
I would think the Montage was not broken in. I have them and they do not sound muddy to my ears. They do have the ATF for the high range and the two six inch cones for mid and low range. It could be that the cones needed breaking in. I find them quite accurate and revealing and not muddy at all.
 
I would tend to agree with Daryl given the fact that ML would not release a bad sounding speaker in my experience. OTOH, the opinion of muddy sound was made by a listener directly comparing the Montage and Mosaic. The opinion was based on relative sound and not an absolute verdict. Since I have not directly compared these two speakers, I cannot say how they would rate.
 

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