I GIVE UP


Need practical advice from practical people, My Martin Logan SL3's are "tear your head off bright". I originally had a parasound line preamp, 2 parasound 125 wpc amps in a horizontal biamp configuration. I was told to try wiring the amps either mono or vertical biamp, try different interconnects, try different speaker cables, and try a different preamp. Well, I spent quite a bit of money and sonically, believe me when I say, there was absolutely no differnce at all. I'm certain, no ear could hear even the slightest differences. I'm not getting into the brands of cables I tried, i'm convinced solving real problems with cables is just BS. I went from the parasound pre to an EAD encore. I have been able to fix the problem, and make my system sound absolutely amazing. The problem is my wife cant deal with the blankets draped over the Martin Logans in our living room. Please help and give real advice. I'm considering giving up on ESL's, however there are many sonic advantages, that I really like about them. Please dont even bother with any ideas about positioning them, they have been everywhere except in the basement.

Thanks, Steve
sfrounds
buy a conrad tube amp and tube preamp. my buddy had sl3s with the same problem. he also bought some sound lab dynastats witch are much smoother.
The amps are wrong for that speaker. They would be better for Vandersteen. The class a krell or Kinergectis spelled wrong class a amps. But they would sing with a real good tube amp. I am not a tube fan but ive heard them with a Conrad Johnson and was impressed.
Well, if problem can't be managed acoustically (with room treatments) or by using different cables or associated electronics, then why not try one of the TacT room correction digital preamp/equalizers? I'd bet the RCS 2.0, with the new parametric EQ would tame that forward treble band easily and painlessly. Why give up when such a simple solution exists?
Abstrakt7 is right. MLs need a lot of trials-errors to sound right and in the first impression they do not seem to work with any components/cables. But beyond an acoustic and component settlement problems, the best bet is a good quality tube amp. It'll be much easier to set them up with VTL MB125 "big balls" tube mono amps or you should go for some 250 W/ch SS monster to be able to drive them(seriously the're "too heavy" for SS in general and most successful setups I'vseen with MLs are with tube power-amplifier(s)). In this case tubes will be much cheaper sweeter and reasonable.
Happy Listening!