New Logan Info: Stage and Vista (from ML reps)

Alright, as instructed by fellow members, I took the initiative to contact ML and ask them about their new upcoming products. I asked about the Vista a little while back and asked again today for any new developments. Also, I asked about the much awaited Stage.

Here is what I found out.

Vista:
- Aeon replacement
- Around $3500
- Same design as Vantage with shorter (1-2") and slimmer panel (1" or so)
- Woofer will be an 8" passive woofer
- Bass extension will not be as low.
- Woofer will not be the same as the Vantage's heavy duty 8" woofer
- Regular port, not the slot port of the Vantage
- Out around May-June-July 2006.

Stage:
- Similar overall size as Cinema but TALLER by 1-2 inches (meaning larger panel)!
- Woofer size will NOT be Cinema's 5.25"... but will be equal in size to Theater's 6.5" woofers (one on each side).
- Single tweeter... NOT like Theater's 3 tweeters.
- New tweeter though...
- No more "vertical arc" in front of panel where the tweeters sit as seen on the Cinema/Theater.... the tweeter will be BEHIND the panel itself... will look much better integrated, he says... FLUSH design!
- Wood VENEERS that will match the Summits and Vantages... not just TRIMS.
- Around $3500
- NO powered woofer.
- Out in May 2006.

Thats all for now.

$3500 for the Stage! Fark!

Hummm...

The stage sounds like its part Logos and part Theater.

For $3500.00 it better kill the theater, in both looks and performance.

Zip3kx07 said:

Hummm...

The stage sounds like its part Logos and part Theater.

For $3500.00 it better kill the theater, in both looks and performance.

Click to expand...

My very gut feeling tells it will.

For $3500.00 it better kill the theater, in both looks and performance.

Click to expand...

Apparently, they won't release it until it's ready to do just that!

Small is good. My Cinema is perched on top of my DLP where a Theatre would be too much. I wonder if it will be lighter and easier to mount on a wall? Will it be powered like the Vantage and Summit? Ported woofer design perhaps? Hmmm?

I was told by Logan that the Stage will NOT have a powered woofer.

Mission Impossible - Stage...

Zip3kx07 said:

Hummm...

The stage sounds like its part Logos and part Theater.

For $3500.00 it better kill the theater, in both looks and performance.

Click to expand...

Joe,

I concur. My take is it will out shine Theater i though it will not be ellipsed by the Stage...
I just knew the designers were going to have to address the upper & lower registers of the current Theater i's sound range, which the Stage will be addressing, as it looks like the Stage will have woofers and a tweeter too... I believe the only reason the Stage will require only one tweeter is because of the larger Xstat panel and will more than handle the upper registers of sound. The flush profile makes excellent design sense as well. We will have to just wait and see how well it performs and how beautiful it will look...


Joey,

Your mission though impossible for most mortal men proved to be very interesting information. Congradulations, Joey...

Now for your next mission Joey, should you deside to accept it is to...
1). Take delivery on your New BEM Vantages in approx. 17 days.
2). Continue to study hard and become an excellent physician.

Good luck, Joey

This tape will self-destruct in 10 seconds....

Thanks again Joey.

LOGANLOVE said:

I was told by Logan that the Stage will NOT have a powered woofer.

Click to expand...

The Stage was never suppose to have powered woofers. The rumor was the theater was going to get an XStat panel and powered woofers. To better match the characteristics of the Summit and Vantage.

Now that Joey has dug up this info I think this rumor is bull. If what Joey says is true and the stage will be about the size of the cinema but 1 or 2 inches taller that would put it around the current height of the theater. Its sounding like that XStat panel may remains the same size as the theaters current panel, only the bass boxes on the sides may be more compact? The more I here about the Stage the more its starting to sound like the theater on a diet.

I do agree all of ML’s current center channels leave a little something to be desired but I hope ML can give us all what we have been waiting for with the stage.

Zip3kx07 said:

The Stage was never suppose to have powered woofers. The rumor was the theater was going to get an XStat panel and powered woofers. To better match the characteristics of the Summit and Vantage

Click to expand...

If you are implying that it was rumor that the stage was in addition to the Theater, then you are incorrect. From the beginning the Stage was a replacement for the Theater see this link to the logan web site...http://www.martinlogan.com/itscoming/Stage.asp

LOGANLOVE said:

If you are implying that it was rumor that the stage was in addition to the Theater, then you are incorrect. From the beginning the Stage was a replacement for the Theater see this link to the logan web site...http://www.martinlogan.com/itscoming/Stage.asp

Click to expand...

That banging sound is my head hitting the keyboard because I have to retype this again.

The Stage IS replacing the theater. Fact

Rumor: After the stages release, there may be a re-release of the theater with an Xstat panel and powered woofers, letting the theater II? Sonically matching the summit and vantage's powered woofers.

Yes I know all about that link, I have been staring at it for over a year now.

I've spoken with someone at ML who knows everything that goes on there. We've been dealers for a long time and have an excellent rep with them.

This person said there are two prototypes currently for the Stage that are receiving a lot of scrutiny. One will likely be the Theater i replacement. Both may end up in production.

One is described above. This is the original design with a few tweaks over the last year. It sounds "a lot," better than the Cinema, but is described as "barely better," than the Theater i.

This unit would be best priced around $2,600.

There is another prototype that is bigger, with a larger X-Stat and 3 tweeters like the current model. Its basically the Theater i with a new X-Stat panel of similar size. This unit blows away the Theater i.

However this unit would likely cost around $3,500.

I say put them both in production and be done with it.

Two Stage Choices...

tsd2005 said:

I've spoken with someone at ML who knows everything that goes on there. We've been dealers for a long time and have an excellent rep with them.

This person said there are two prototypes currently for the Stage that are receiving a lot of scrutiny. One will likely be the Theater i replacement. Both may end up in production.

One is described above. This is the original design with a few tweaks over the last year. It sounds "a lot," better than the Cinema, but is described as "barely better," than the Theater i.

This unit would be best priced around $2,600.

There is another prototype that is bigger, with a larger X-Stat and 3 tweeters like the current model. Its basically the Theater i with a new X-Stat panel of similar size. This unit blows away the Theater i.

However this unit would likely cost around $3,500.

I say put them both in production and be done with it.

Click to expand...

tsd2005,

I concur, IMHO two choices is a wonderful idea and gives us consumers more options depending on our budget. ML has generally been very sensitive to providing products at a verity of price / quality ranges in which consumers can choose...

2 votes for 2 models

I also agree that they should make both center channels

tsd2005 said:

This unit blows away the Theater i.
However this unit would likely cost around $3,500.
I say put them both in production and be done with it.

Click to expand...

IMHO a $3500 center is DOA. Will maybe sell 10 units per year. You can argue that a center has a big responsability (handling dialogs etc) but it's still way too expensive. Looks like a project coming from the old philosophy of ML, in a development stage too advanced to be killed.

lugano said:

IMHO a $3500 center is DOA. Will maybe sell 10 units per year. You can argue that a center has a big responsability (handling dialogs etc) but it's still way too expensive. Looks like a project coming from the old philosophy of ML, in a development stage too advanced to be killed.

Click to expand...

I agree, $3500 is too much to ask for a center channel. If its performance can double that of the Theaters it will sell, there are stupid people out there like me that will pay good money for the better product. Take the summits, I can’t afford them, but the price won’t stop me from trying, sure I could pay half the price for the Vantage and have 80% of the performance of the summit, but I just have to have the better product. I tried the Depth at home and loved it, it was a great little sub, by far the best I ever had in my system but it was NO Descent.

Personally I do have a Theater center channel and love it, sure it’s not perfect, but I enjoy it. I am curious about the stage and what it might look like and how it compares to the Theater. When it is finally release I will audition it and if it can better my Theater, I will buy it, if it can’t? Just one less speaker I need to buy. I hope Martin Logan does release both Stages, I would like to have the option of buying the $3500 better performing center. If they do release it, it will defiantly be in a limited market, a center channel for the price of the vista.

I was on the phone today with a ML rep for an issue with my Summits (saving that for another post) and I asked about the new Stage and Vista.

No new info on the Stage but I was told that the Vista will be available by Mid April and MSRP will be $3695 for Black Ash or Dark Cherry and $3995 for Maple or Natural Cherry.

Zip3kx07 said:

I agree, $3500 is too much to ask for a center channel. If its performance can double that of the Theaters it will sell

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There's another aspect you might not be aware of. The outside US market. If you build exclusive power amps in your kitchen at a rate of 2 per month and make your living out of it at $ 9999 apiece, you don't care about this. But if you're Martin Logan, you should. Fact: prices in Europe often reach the double. A piece of gear like the Benchmark DAT1 - something I'm looking for right now - is shamelessly offered right now on the german eBay at 1095 euros. The official price for ML Prodigys in Switzerland was 21'000 swiss francs, for Aeon i 6'200. My CLS IIz were 9000 francs. If I want to change their panels, it's 1000 francs apiece + VAT. Check out www.xe.com for a conversion in USD, you'll be shocked. Now, a $3500 center is going to cost at least the equivalent of $5000 in Europe. Do you snob a wealthy, 250 million people potential market ? You can, but it's not a wise thing imho.

Well....


Currently the prototype that almost went into production was the Stage that doesn't outperform the Theater i. The price they discussed? $3299. That is $400 more than the Theater for performance that isn't noticably better?

Selling it at $2,699 is smarter.

$3,299 for the same type of performance is close enough to $3,500 to be scary.

Vista as Aeon-i Replacement... "Aeon-i Lite"?

Joey_V said:

Vista:
- Aeon replacement
- Around $3500
- Same design as Vantage with shorter (1-2") and slimmer panel (1" or so)
- Woofer will be an 8" passive woofer
- Bass extension will not be as low.
- Woofer will not be the same as the Vantage's heavy duty 8" woofer
- Regular port, not the slot port of the Vantage
- Out around May-June-July 2006.

Click to expand...

Am I glad I got the Aeon-i for $2,500 whn it went on sale last month

From the above description it sounds like the Vista is "Aeon-i Lite" ... for $1,000 more.... less bass, smaller panel... perhaps more profit?

Am I too cynical? Perhaps..but it will be interestingly to compare the Aeon-i with the Vista ...if the local dealer will have them both on display....

CVJ

cvj said:

Am I glad I got the Aeon-i for $2,500 whn it went on sale last month

From the above description it sounds like the Vista is "Aeon-i Lite" ... for $1,000 more.... less bass, smaller panel... perhaps more profit?

Am I too cynical? Perhaps..but it will be interestingly to compare the Aeon-i with the Vista ...if the local dealer will have them both on display....

CVJ

Click to expand...

Somehow I dont think this is an Aeon lite.... this should sound better than the Aeon if it has the panel of the Vantage.