MartinLogan have a new $80,000 flagship speaker called the Neolith.I want. I want. I want. http://www.audioholics.com/tower-speaker-reviews/martinlogan-neolith-loudspeaker-review
MartinLogan Neolith
- Thread starter steve_1979
- Start date
tino
Well-known member
matt49
Well-known member
I'd love to hear a pair. Probably only at shows though: I doubt if any dealers, even the Russian-backed plutocrats at KJ West One, will stock them.
Odd that they've broken with (recent) tradition and made the speaker fully passive. The Ethos (£7K), Montis (£10K) and Summit X (£13K) all have active woofers, which integrate beautifully with the panel. I guess the reason is that the very wealthy buyers will be a bit sniffy about Class D amps and will want to use their own (super expensive) amps.
Odd that they've broken with (recent) tradition and made the speaker fully passive. The Ethos (£7K), Montis (£10K) and Summit X (£13K) all have active woofers, which integrate beautifully with the panel. I guess the reason is that the very wealthy buyers will be a bit sniffy about Class D amps and will want to use their own (super expensive) amps.
Al ears
Well-known member
matt49 said:
Surely you still need an amp to drive those speakers you mentioned, sure they have active woofers but those super-rich can still use their super-expensive amps.
The fact that these are passive simply means you are going to need a super-expensive amp to drive them successfully.
plastic penguin
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I think they should keep them passive to give to give people the option to choose their own amplification but they should also make a custom 4 channel amplifier and which is specially designed just for those speakers.
Al ears
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"Requires a medium to large room"? Requires a large bank balance I'd say, and a wife who has no taste at all. 
matt49
Well-known member
Al ears said:
'tis true, but with the hybrids your super-expensive amp only gets to drive part of the speaker, which may be an issue for some folk.
In fact you don't need a super-expensive amp at all, just one that outputs about 500WPC. I've got a very successful result with a power amp that costs one third the ticket price of my ML speakers.
Al ears
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matt49
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Infiniteloop
Well-known member
Holy mother of God those thongs are ugly. - I can't imagine those fitting any interior other than a Ferrari/Lambourghini showroom.
- What were their designers thinking?
- What were their designers thinking?
steve_1979 said:
On a tangential theme, I had a wonderfully eccentric cousin in Australia who made bespoke motorized bicycles with custom paint jobs. He was tragically killed when he was deliberately run off the road on his way back (from rescuing people who had go into trouble in a boat), by the person he was sponsering in AA.
Here are examples of his work.
Infiniteloop
Well-known member
Infiniteloop said:
Thank you. He was totally unique and is certainly missed.
(Apologies to Steve for the diversion).
steve_1979 said:
Appreciate it.
He was formerly a Landscape Architect, who designed parts of Sydney's Hyde Park, when he lived there. He then moved to New South Wales, where he started that business.
matt49
Well-known member
steve_1979 said:Here's an interview with Roger Sanders which is very interesting. I think you may like this Matt. He sounds like a very clever guy who really knows his stuff about audio and electronics engineering.
Clicky
Roger Sanders is one of the good guys: he makes solid, unpretentious kit to reasonable prices. And probably no-one on the planet knows more about ESLs than him.
matt49 said:steve_1979 said:Here's an interview with Roger Sanders which is very interesting. I think you may like this Matt. He sounds like a very clever guy who really knows his stuff about audio and electronics engineering.
Clicky
Roger Sanders is one of the good guys: he makes solid, unpretentious kit to reasonable prices. And probably no-one on the planet knows more about ESLs than him.
I've just been reading through his blogs. Some really good stuff there and I'd love to hear his speakers. Clicky
matt49
Well-known member
steve_1979 said:matt49 said:steve_1979 said:Here's an interview with Roger Sanders which is very interesting. I think you may like this Matt. He sounds like a very clever guy who really knows his stuff about audio and electronics engineering.
Clicky
Roger Sanders is one of the good guys: he makes solid, unpretentious kit to reasonable prices. And probably no-one on the planet knows more about ESLs than him.
I've just been reading through his blogs. Some really good stuff there and I'd love to hear his speakers. Clicky
The one thing that bothers me slightly about his speakers is that they use TL bass. Haven't heard them though, so my prejudice may be empty.
I'm also not sure I buy into his criticisms of curved panels. The fact is, narrow flat panels will have less dispersion than curved ones. He tries to make a virtue of this by saying his speakers suffer less from lateral reflections, which is OK if you're prepared to live with the beaming, I suppose.
daytona600
Well-known member
[The one thing that bothers me slightly about his speakers is that they use TL bass. Haven't heard them though, so my prejudice may be empty.
found this about the TL bass
The Sanders speakers exhibit all of the expected electrostatic virtues (transparency, neutrality, superb detail retrieval, and lightning-fast transient speeds), plus something more: namely, astonishing dynamic authority and clout, augmented by robust, rock-solid, deeply extended, and beautifully defined bass. Integration between the electrostatic panels and the transmission line bass system was simply superb. Chris Martens HIFI + The Absolute Sound June 2015
The Absolute Sound Best Speakers Under $20,000Sanders 10D SpeakersThe Sanders 10D loudspeaker was the best of the best at this show (of what I heard). Perhaps not everyone wants a speaker that emphasizes the direct arrival to this extent—the entire range above 175Hz is covered by a flat electrostatic panel, 15 inches wide, operated as a unit, hence quite beamy as frequency rises. But for the centered listener, something very close to sonic truth to the recordings emerged. And the new aluminum woofer, operated with a very steep DSP crossover at 175Hz produced bass that was awe-inspiring in power and extension, with precision to match the purity above (the bass is transmission-line-loaded). The whole had neutrality, low distortion, and sheer sonic power. Forget about the idea that electrostatics are subtly wimpy. Not so here, not at all. The Reference Recording version of Rutter’s A Gaelic Blessing was as close as one is going to get to the direct experience of live, large-scaled concert music at an audio show—or anywhere else outside a concert hall—with remarkable beauty, clarity, and delicacy in the voices, combined with power in the organ part. Wonderful stuff. This is a groundbreaking product. And the price is reasonable. The whole system, including amplification for the bass, is $15,000.
found this about the TL bass
The Sanders speakers exhibit all of the expected electrostatic virtues (transparency, neutrality, superb detail retrieval, and lightning-fast transient speeds), plus something more: namely, astonishing dynamic authority and clout, augmented by robust, rock-solid, deeply extended, and beautifully defined bass. Integration between the electrostatic panels and the transmission line bass system was simply superb. Chris Martens HIFI + The Absolute Sound June 2015
The Absolute Sound Best Speakers Under $20,000Sanders 10D SpeakersThe Sanders 10D loudspeaker was the best of the best at this show (of what I heard). Perhaps not everyone wants a speaker that emphasizes the direct arrival to this extent—the entire range above 175Hz is covered by a flat electrostatic panel, 15 inches wide, operated as a unit, hence quite beamy as frequency rises. But for the centered listener, something very close to sonic truth to the recordings emerged. And the new aluminum woofer, operated with a very steep DSP crossover at 175Hz produced bass that was awe-inspiring in power and extension, with precision to match the purity above (the bass is transmission-line-loaded). The whole had neutrality, low distortion, and sheer sonic power. Forget about the idea that electrostatics are subtly wimpy. Not so here, not at all. The Reference Recording version of Rutter’s A Gaelic Blessing was as close as one is going to get to the direct experience of live, large-scaled concert music at an audio show—or anywhere else outside a concert hall—with remarkable beauty, clarity, and delicacy in the voices, combined with power in the organ part. Wonderful stuff. This is a groundbreaking product. And the price is reasonable. The whole system, including amplification for the bass, is $15,000.
matt49
Well-known member
Yes, I'm sure they're splendid speakers, and the price including amplification isn't outrageous. Oddly (or maybe not) I've never seen any on the second-hand market. This must mean either 1. not many have been bought or 2. people love them so much they don't sell them on or 3. I haven't looked hard enough.
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