Anyone listened to ML Vantage?

The spire looks nice. I just think the price/performance ratio of the martin logans has gotten worse with every model. Think about it the requests were the same or less the the ascents, the ascents less then the vantage. Its hard to truely say ml is developing smaller products that are better, or just speakers that dont cost as much to produce for larger somes of money with catchy names like micro perf and x-stat. Im not bad mouthing Logans, I love them. I do personally think the downsizing of the panels has serious negative effect. If this was true what would be the need to make the summitts panels bigger then the vantage to sound better? Because panel size makes a huge difference. I say give us ascent i size speakers with the newer technologies for $1k more then the $4300 ascent i MSRP, and a prodigy size panel with the new technologies with 1.5k-2k rize in price, then I could see ML is definately moving forward with performance with a fair mark up. Just my opinion. And I do need to got here the new logans for more time then Ive heard to have a valid opinion, but this sure seams fishy and a way from the popular martin logan company to make some profit. I will say since there new line of speakers you dont hear as much "buzz" as you used to. And little to no reviews, seams interesting.

Sorry for the bad spelling, typed in a hurry.

Well, since initially I was the '1st responder' to this thread, I feel obligated to add my .02...

I once owned the Summits (a GREAT speaker) but needed some cash for other home projects - so went down a step to the Vantages. I have owned these now for about 6 mos. and can honestly say I don't feel like I am giving up ANYTHING to the Summits. The Vantages are fabulous speakers. From the mids on up, I really don't think there is much of a discernable difference between the two - with one possible caveat. If you are in a huge room (say bigger than 20'x 30') the Summits WILL play a bit louder, with more ease. But considering that the Summits are TWICE the price, the law of diminishing returns really rears it's head pretty quickly here. There obviously isn't any where near a 50% improvement in sound.

Regarding panel size - yes, I think prior to the new 'X-Stat' models, the larger you went, the better they tended to sound, but the newer panels are MUCH more efficient, play louder, and as advertised, actually have a larger radiating area per sq. inch than the older, larger panels. I speak from some experience as I have owned Sequel II's, Aerius I's, ReQuests, Odysseys, Prodigys, Summits and now the Vantages. In fact, I actually feel that the narrower panel images better, with less 'venetian blind' effect and freq. changes with-slight-head-movements that used to occur with the larger panels.

Getting back to the Summits vs. Vantage - as an added bonus, the Vantages actually 'gel' better in the bass (in MY room) than the Summits did. Despite more controls on the bass units on the Summits, I could never completely eliminate a bass hump in the 80 hz-ish range, no matter what I tried. The Vantages might not go ultimately as deep, but they are faster and cleaner, again, in my room - go figure.

The new Vantage and Summits are really bass heavy. The mids have a lot less body than the older Logans. I personally loved my Aerius i, but didn't like my Vantage much, and could never get them to sound right, in two different rooms (one pretty large), a couple different tube amps, different high quality sources + preamps... just never sounded natural to me. I'm guess if you love serious low end bass or are into home theatre, you'll love these. Resale was pretty easy tho, so that's a plus, and of course, they look amazing. Just my two cents.

When I sold my Ascent i's to a gentleman who owned vantages. he said he wasnt sure which he preferred. he ended up moving the vantages to the rear and left the ascent i's as the mains. I found this interesting and helped me move out of the martin logan era I was in.