Martin Logan: They finally did it

I listened to the Ascents at a dealer a couple of weeks ago. The Midrange is spectacular but there was still a lack of continuity between the bass and the panel. IN fairness, I am not sure the speakers were set up very well, but there was a discontinuity between the two.

Interestingly enough, my wife loved the sound of the speakers while I less enthusiastic.

When I first got them I was far from impressed with the bass. After almost two weeks I love them.

I believe you can get the SL3, Ascent and Aerius to integrate, but the SL3 is the hardest. What they all need is a wonder amp and great setup before they integrate. The elusive wonder amp is the big problem. There are very few solid state amps that will not be shown up by electrostatics and very few valve amps that will move the bass woofer fast enough. Very rigid coupling of the speaker to the floor is perhaps the most important part of setup to get the upper bass to sound fast enough. Where they actually crossover, which is above the upper bass, they blend remarkably well.

I had a chance to listen to the SL'3's at Peak Audio in Halifax, here in Nova Scotia. The electronics were Moon 3 amp, E.A.R. pre, arcam fm23 cd player and all wiring was siltech. I found myself just wallowing in the music. Before I used to find the bass rather distinct or seperate but this set-up was working. I could live with it very easily. The martin-logan midrange can really do magic. Cheers, Bluenose

Has anyone heard an Aragon 4004 Mk II with the SL3s? Didn't change my life, but I thought it worked very well. Also, is the Prodigy head and shoulders above the SL3? (I would hope so, at $10K.) Thank you.