Speaker hunt -> To leave or not Leave Martin Logan Behind

I have a friend with ML speakers. He is spending ALOT of money trying to tame the brightness and etch. I highly recommend you add Rockport speakers to your list to audition. The Atria ii should be in your price range but the Avior ii is the one I would try to find used. It is amazing. My room is slightly smaller than yours and my Avior ii’s sound phenomenal. Good luck in your search! 

Do you have any kind of room treatment , diffusers, absorption ???

I recently took a dive back into Martin Logans as well having had a few pairs in the past. At the time I decided to do so I was running a pair of Tekton Moabs with Krell, Primaluna and Rotel amplification that I'd had for about 6 years when I got the "change/upgrade" bug, I opted for a pair of ML Montis speakers (used but in pristine condition).

I now know that was an enormous mistake. Although the ML's were nice, they did not have the soundstatge, realism, impact or depth of musical character that I had become used to with my Tektons. The ML's were also fairly fussy about setup as has been noted, though I did "dial" the in the best I could.

On the other hand, the Tektons are fast, accurate, truly full range, brilliant at reproduction and, quite frankly, the best spoeakers I've ever heard in my 40+ years of audio/music listening. And I've listened to many of the so called best ovet that time. And they're not nearly as fussy about setup. 

Needless to say, I sold the ML's and am now pursuing either Tekton's Encores or Symphonys.I'll be in Utah at the Tekton's facility this week auditioning to make that choice. 

Open Baffle speaker may satisfy you, also I’ve recently moved to Magico A3’s and those would be up your ally. I found after Martin Lagans open baffles gave me everything I liked about the ML’s but with more dynamics and bass slam. With out losing the detail.

But when I moved to a smaller space and after many different speakers the Magico’s were the ones. They were hands down far better then the Focal Sopra’s I demoed, Which I found to be overly bright and not musical.  I also found the Focal’s did not seem to integrate the drivers that well and I was listening to each drive not the whole speaker. I would recommend either an OB if you wanted to stay in the similar area as the ML’s or look at Magico’s A3-A5’s. The construction Of Magico’s is top notch and they are one of the first speakers I’ve had that I do not notice the cabinet’s sound. It took a long time to find that, every speaker I listened to I could hear the cabinet.

Hey everyone,

Wow — thanks for all the suggestions. My “must audition” list just grew quite a bit.

@kennymacc
Funny enough, I just realized there’s a Focal dealer literally 1 mile from my house — setting up a demo this week.

@mazian 
I’ve read similar feedback about Focal’s tweeter design. My dad and I actually heard them last year, and he experienced some fatigue that lines up with what you’re describing. Looking forward to doing a proper, controlled listen this time around.

@donquichotte 
Appreciate the detailed thoughts. Sonus Faber is definitely moving up my list — I’ve heard enough now that I really need to experience them for myself.

@iseland 
I do have acoustic treatment in place (absorption and diffusion), but I haven’t run ARC yet. That’s probably my next step before making any big moves. The ML 15A are fantastic overall, especially given how wide my musical tastes are, but I do feel like I’m missing a bit of midrange body and dynamic impact.

Horns never really crossed my mind before — I always assumed they might be too forward or lean for heavier genres — but I’m starting to rethink that. Definitely something I’ll explore now.

The good news is I’m lucky to have a ton of great dealers within about a 2-hour drive, so I’ve got plenty of opportunities to hear this gear properly.