The scenario is only 48 inches tall but they play like the big boys

Nary one that I can find

The scenario as with all Martin Logan products, I find the sound to be superior to box speakers. However, I use a Bohlender-Graebener 220i planar for front center because BG planars deliver more fidelity in the vocal range.
I also employ a Velodyne spl-1200r sub as the MLs are a little light in the pants with frequencies below 60htz.
If the gear upstream is not quality the Scenarios will rat it out. To preclude that I swapped out my Yammy v-2600 130-watt receiver for NAD M15/M25 160watt separates. Into those I input either a HI-def Dish sat receiver or a Samsung Blu-ray BD-P1200 second gen DVD player via optical audio cable. I also input a solid Pioneer CD player.
I have a vaulted ceiling so I treated the room with bass traps and sound deflectors.
And wal-la what else is there to say.

Similar Products Used:

Kef, Bohlender-Graebener, Polk, B&W

Amazing performance to its specialized fields. Must listen to it if you can afford, other wise you will not like the other stuff you have at you doors.

not ment for rock, tecno,heavy metals and distortion emitters as the sound will come out to be numbed for the listeners, you must go for klipsch in that sence.

These Speakers Pair has opened my ears to enter into the jazz world, Specialized for classical and instrumental, even a slight pin drop and glass break is felt. Guitar and tympanic plus the vocal performance appears to be realistic, as if they are playing in front of you. Due to its hybrid performance they are doing their best of both the worlds. Amazing performance to its specialize fields.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 803, 604, new model 683

Excellent for classicals, vocal, jazz, drum,stereo and home theater .
Filters the purity of sound quality.

Only specialise in classicals
No good for rock, tecno, boom box and distortion emitters.

Paid a lot more due to lack of availability in my country, purchased it for a private party who was selling it .
These are the speakers that have opened my ears to vast varieties of music that I did not appreciated before. Martinlogan Scenario gives the ultimate details of tiny bit of sound.From a pin drop to a blast . My taste has now changed from rock to classical which I never used to listen before. Best for Acoustic , Jazz, Classicals etc.

ML gives a live performance stage in front of the listener,the depth of guitar, drum ,tympanic, flute, vocals, each string vibrate the sweet part of your receptors to make you addicted to it. After listening to it, you are not able to hear your older series of speakers as they will never soud this good.(So if you cant afford it, dont listen to this)

I compared it to Magneplanners 3.6, which i was a fan before, but ML showed me the true live performance which MAGNEPAN did not come any closer to it .
If you are a rock,Tecno,Rap listener, dont think of buying any of the ML series as they will not do any good for you. For that you need to have a separate speakers pair.

I bought krell FPB 200watts specially for ML Scenario as my previous yamaha, and denon was not able to play these power hungary ML electrostatic spk, but now I am using LUXMAN 80 watts tube and mosfet hybrid integrated amp as they sound more clear and sweeter on them.

Similar Products Used:

Martinlogan Prodogy, B&W N803S

Open and detailed sound. Soundstage is very wide. Jazz and classical music sounds incredibly live. Best speaker design for voice.

Reveals weaknesses in your stereo system. Bass response needs a good subwoofer to support it.

Bought these as a replacement for a pair of B&W CDM7SEs. I thought the B&Ws were good, the Scenarios are great! Much greater resolution, depth and detail. I guess it is part of the electrostatic design. Auditioned these with the new Mosaics and Claritys by Martin Logan. The Mosaics though good still did not have the open and airy sound of the Scenarios. The Scenarios sounded very similar to the Claritys in detail and open soundstage. The Scenarios definitely have a small sweet spot. It is almost eerie to sit down and hear the singer literally sound like they are in front of you. Standing up reduces the high frequencies somewhat. If you are looking for highly detailed and open speakers, you should give this a demo. And at the price I paid, I feel they are a steal.

Similar Products Used:

B&W CDM7SE, Klipsch Heresy II, Klipsch KG2, Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble II.

Imaging, realism, build quality, looks and value for money.

At around US$2,000 it would be criminal to find fault with these.

The ML Scenario offers a compact taste of the qualities of ESL technologies. Extremely spacious and natural presentation, with none of the usual unnatural spittiness of box speakers with dome tweeters. The fact that the ESL panel handles all frequencies from 500Hz up enables an almost seamless presentation that retains much of the dynamic contrasts that are filtered out through a conventional dynamic speaker and its x-over. Bass is surprisingly well extended, and tight and punchy. The ressst of the frequency range can only be described as MAGIC! Very few products let you just sit back, smile and enjoy listening to music, without picking faults in your system. But this is one of them. Mind you, don't think you can compromise on the quality af all that preceeds them, because they are very revealing.

Similar Products Used:

Acoustat

Realistic scale, soundstage, detail recovery and stunning appearance.

None really, but could be revealing of poor quality sources.

This is a remarkable product. It's ability to create a sense of spaciousness and natural perspective to recreated sound is quite amazing at the asking price.

Very revealing midrange and surprisingly good bass extension to its rated 45Hz (sounded even deeper in my room). Excellent imaging and soundstaging from the sweet spot.

Bright tonal shading (may be less obvious with a good tubed amp, but I would stay away from low end solid state.) Lean in upper bass to lower midrange transition. Expensive at full list (about $3500 Cdn)given the relatively small listening window.

This review is to replace an earlier one that I wrote, but asked to be withdrawn because a significant portion was accidentally deleted during posting. I picked these up to use in a second system mainly because I have always wanted to own electrostatics. The system is modest and consists of an Antique Sound lab AQ-1003DT integrated tube amp and Denon DCD-425 cd player with Kimper PBJ interconnects and Linn LK-2 speaker cable. The room is large (50'x12'x8') but I listen in a 20'x 12' section with the speakers placed 2' in front of the long wall. I found the sweet spot to be very small but was able to minimize this by elevating the speakers on paving stones (2 each at the front and back), spiking them with inexpensive spikes purchased from a local stero store and tilting them back. I also found that playing with the toe-in is critical and ended up angling them so that I was on axis with the inner 1/3rd of the electrostatic driver. In a nutshell my impressions were (using well recorded jazz, R&B, pop and classical music): 1. Very clear and open midrange, but a little reticient in the upper bass to lower midrange transition. 2. Smooth highs that were not harsh but a little bright and lacking a little refinement on top. 3. Extended bass (this surprised me based on some of the previous reviews)to the point where a sub-woofer was not mandatory. However, I did try the system connected to my sunfire true subwoofer and gained some extension and warmth with the subwoofer crossover set to about 30Hz and the level set quite low. 4. Very good soundstage width and depth when postioned appropriately, but image height was low (due to the size of the electrostatic element)and a lot of the magic was lost when I stood up. Compared to my upstairs setup the system lacked a little warmth and refinement at the extremes and was less dynamic. Overall though, I was quite impressed at the quality of sound that I got from this modest, untweaked system. Please note that the value rating is based on the full list price.

Similar Products Used:

B&W CDM1SE & 805s, Totem Mite & Model-1s, Gershman (various), Living Voice, Verity Audio (various), Magnepan 1.6QRs.

Transparent

Little bass below 70 hz

I use them for surrounds in all Martin Logan system and they are great. Very tranparent and natural sounding. I used them as front spkrs and they are quite good there too. Subwoofer is mandatory for good bass below 70 hz but make sure the sub is up to the quality of the Scenario. Should be used in small to medium room if you want to play them loud. Fine spkr and MUCH better than most box spkrs at twice the price.

Similar Products Used:

Dunlavy, Def Tech

smooth highs

NO dynamics on orchestral music, little to no bass, extremely directive, rubber-like timbres,

Listening to these speakers was a big deception for me !
:.(
Having listened to several contestants in the $2,000
category (and beyond !), I was hoping that the smooth highs
of the electrostatic technology was available at a sensible price and volume.

Boy I was wrong !

After listening to chamber music (Chostakovich Quartet N°8 by the Borodine Q), solo piano (Beethoven 32 variations by Radu Lupu) and pop (The Weeper's Circus, Bjork "Hunter", etc.) I was shocked to hear that this speaker is quite unable to reproduce the sound of large orchestras !

Indeed, listening to Brahm's first piano concerto (Eugene Jochum directing Emil Gilels) : the whole dynamics were gone !

The powerful introduction sounded terrible with all ruber-like timbre (believe me the speaker was already out of its box :-D !) and certainly NO dynamics. Just to make sure (I hear this recording on all the systems above), I switched to Bruckner's 9th by Gunter Wand...

And there too same problem : the orchestra shrinks like a "peau de chagrin" !

Although it does have smooth highs, you should stay away from this speaker for several reasons :

1- Timbres : it sounds ok with pop and vocals, but a violin, a cello, a piano sounds as if it was made with rubber !

2- These speakers are incredibly directive. The moment you stand up (or move 50 cm), a veil has been drawn and all the depth is gone. The room size is not an issue here, we were in a fairly large room (W 5.0 x D 4.0 x H 2.5 all in meters). Same goes for room brightness, there was no echo to a hand clap. The rear wall was a solid 1m from the speaker panel too.

4- it is very expensive, and frankly even at $500, I wouldn't get near it ! I was stunned by the salesman (Presence Audio Conseil in Paris) who admitted never having sold any in a hifi system ! These usually serve as surround speakers in a 5.1 installation he added.


5- There's hardly any bass ! I wouldn't mind if emotionally these speakers would convey something, but one should admit that even a moderately prices electrodynamic speaker with lesser dimensions can do better !


Now, having listened to the Aerius i (on the same system, cables included) I know that electrostatics can sound nice, but certainly not with the Scenario... I just can't believe the manufacturer has found somebody who listened carefully to these and actually liked it !
(see http://www.martinlogan.com/scenario_review.html)

Save your time, audition something serious, worthwhile to be called a speaker !


In the same price range the Nautilus 805 are incredibly
realistic for all kind of music except large orchestras.
That's where the Elektra is king !
The size of the stage makes you feel dizzy with symphonic orchestras ! But this speakers is very demanding on the rest of the gear (recordings for a start !)

The Psychee is the best overall compromise in my opinion !
A bit less emotion on vocals or instruments but nice bass extension and very good symbiosis with the YBA amp !
(but then again, try matching for yourself)

Of course all 3 of us came to the same conclusion on the Scenario (even though one person is a newcomer in the audiophile world !).


The system we auditioned was composed of :

amplifier : YBA integre DT
CD player : Rega Planet 2000
Cables : MIT Terminator 2 for speakers
and YBA Cristal interconnect

Similar Products Used:

B&W Nautilus 805, Avant-scene Elektra, LEEDH Psyche 2, Thiel 0.5, M.Logan Aerius i

I spent hours comparing this speaker to several others in this price range, and the inescapable conclusion that I have for this speaker (and most other "electrostatic/ribbon/planar" speakers) is that it is rich in detail and resolution-though not warmth or smoothness-so long as that information occurs in the upper octaves. They are bright, sometimes verging on being edgy and sharp, for daily listening. It is easy to be seduced by the clarity-many apparently are. The sound is notable, though it is not natural. The attached low freq. driver on the Scenario makes no difference, really. The damage is done-musically-by the panel.