Martin Logan Motion 60XT, best value ?


They seem to pack a lot of a speaker for the $...
Ribbon tweeter, nice aluminium 6.5in mid, 2 x 8 in woofers, polypropylene capacitors...

Who owns a pair ? And did some of you compare those with pricier speakers ?
techno_dude

Showing 4 responses by caphill

I did hear these speakers before and they were awful. They are big so you get the best value per $ as far as speaker footprints. If you like to go with Martin Logan I suggest you look for their electrostatic planar/hybrid speakers. That's what Martin Logan is good at, they specialize in designing and building electrostats, not conventional cabinetry speakers. 

There are far better performing and sounding speakers than the Motion 60XT that are in similar price range as the Motion 60XT or even cheaper than the Motion 60XT. I suggest you look into KEF R series, Monitor Audio Gold series, B&W new 700 series S2 (702 S2), Wharfedale Jade series, Elac, Focal Aria.series, entry level Sonus Faber (can't remember their new entry level series, they are the ones replaced the discontinued Veneer series, which was their entry level series). 
These speakers will outperform the Motion 60XT. 
I think so. Are you going to use them for listening to stereo music or home theater (surround sound movies)? 

However, those Martin Logan electrostatic planar/hybrid speakers are pretty awesome but not my cup of tea but lot of people really love them but they cost more than the Motion 60XT. Well, actually the entry level and smallest Martin Logan ESL Electromotion electrostatic planar/hybrid retail for $2500/pair brand new in black ash color or $3k/pair in piano gloss color. 
These speakers will be better than the Motion 60XT. 
The cabinet bracing of the Motion 60XT is awful, the material that the cabinet is made of is awful. They also dictate how the speakers will sound and perform. 
Yup. The internal cabinet bracing isn’t well designed and built. Those big boxy cabinets of the Motion 60XT also allows internal standing wave inside the speaker cabinet that creates cabinet resonances or coloration. That was pretty much what I was hearing when listening to these Motion 60XT at the hifi store. It would have been fine if it was well braced internally but unfortunately these speakers aren’t.

If you want to go with Martin Logan you should look into their electrostatic planar / hybrid speakers. They are pretty awesome. They throw big soundstage and sounding very vivid especially with vocals due to a non-cabinet design.
They aren’t for everyone though. Either you really love them or you don’t. They aren’t my cup of tea however. It’s all about personal preferences. But these ML electrostats planar speakers require good quality high power or high current amplification from your amplifier in order to do these speakers justice. These electrostats planars need high current amplifier in order to properly disperse the sound throughout their planars. The bigger the planars are the more power hungry they get. 
I wouldn’t recommend running these off an AV receiver or incompetent amplifier.