Martin Logan's Prodigy

I heard the prodigys on Levinson mono blocks and the bass was fine.power is very important when you get into a logan. I own a Levinson 335 and A pair of Martin Logan Ascents and the intergration in the Ascents is awesome the 335 is 500 per side into 4ohms

Like you, I read the recent Stereophile review that praised the Prodigy's for their bass. That review was in complete disagreement with the conclusion I drew on their low-end when I auditioned them at my local dealer's showroom. I heard them in a dedicated listening room with, as I recall, an all Krell system. I'm pretty sure the amps were the FPB 200 monos--amps known for quality bass. A friend of mine owns ML's CLS IIz's, and I own ML's Logos center channel speaker. True to form, the Prodigy's mid's and high's were everything I've come to expect from ML--very transparent and detailed. But my impression of the bass mirrors yours; I thought it was boomy and very lacking in detail. It stood in stark contrast to the crisp mid's and high's provided by the electrostatic panels. To be very honest, I was surprised that such an expensive speaker could have such a poor low-end. I pointed it out to the salesman, and he actually agreed with me. So I was just as surprised to read the Stereophile review praising the Prodigy's bass. In fairness to the speakers, I have no idea how much break-in time the pair I heard had. They appeared to be set up properly, but maybe they weren't tweaked to perfection. But they never struck me as being in need of break-in. My conclusion was that ML has a thing or two to learn about woofers.

By the way, my friend with the CLS IIz's combines them with a Genesis subwoofer. THAT is the route I would recommend you go. The CLS IIz's are just as attractive as the Prodigy's, and the Genesis provides bass that, in my experience, was far tighter and more detailed than what the Prodigy's provided. Any high quality subwoofer should be a good mate. Just my $.02.

The Stereophile review was shoddy. It failed, as I recall, to compare the Prodigy's directly to other speakers and seems to have been written in slap-dash fashion. I found it uninformative.

I don’t know if I qualify all that well to comment on such a topic, but here goes.

First off I do not own the Prodigy’s, but a close friend of mine has had a pair for about 4 months. I have been fortunate enough to be able to listen to them for hours upon hours with both music and Home-theater during the past four months. Over the weekend I had a conversation with my friend about my recent experiences in auditioning some Classe amps at a local dealer paired with the ML Prodigy’s. I told him “Had I been there to buy a pair of Prodigy’s I would have been very disappointed”. With the set up they had Classe CAM350’s, Classe SSP-75 I thought great set up, but to my surprise the Prodigy’s sound was thin and lacking detail no bass slam. I was concern that the room acoustics were inadequate due to some recent re-construction taking place. (I.e.: The front wall behind the speakers was just un-taped sheet rock). Obviously there were some flaws. I don’t think I could attribute the sound to just that though. None the less I walked away disappointed with both the amps and the speakers. Especially knowing what I know.

At my friend’s house the ML’s matched with a Classe CA401, Theta Casablanca II for Home-theater and Bluecircle tube preamp for music. The music the ML’s produces is amazing. Very airy and transparent with very good slam when needed. His dedicated room is on the second floor, which allows for a raise floor instead of slab floor that the dealers use. This I have found to attribute quite a bit to the lower end effect of a system. The ML’s sounded great in Home-theater applications as well, but then again the remaining system has a lot to do with it.

Also to answer Gerry’s question about using a Velodyne. My friend uses two HGS18’s in his big @22WX34 room. Just for kicks we used them in music mode. Even with the volume levels at 2 the bass was bit excessive, but controlled. I really feel that with the 800 watts@4ohms coming from the Classe 401 made the ML sound awesome.

Just my .2 cents.

Jim