Article: $249 MartinLogan Motion 4i Review

[Paul R]

5 hours ago, gmgraves said:

Looks good; especially for the money. But, 15 WPC is a little anemic for most purposes. I’d say that 25 WPC would be adequate though. I think that the best value in tube Chi-Fi is the Yaqin MC-100b. 100 WPC, full dual-mono, about $700.

 

Yes, that sounds better, but was over the price range specified. That little 15w monster will put out a lot of sound through those particular  ML Motion speakers. 

[Paul R]

6 hours ago, gmgraves said:

Of course the MMG and the Point Sevens are better, overall, but neither work very well as desktop speakers,  or speakers for small bookshelf systems, which was the point of the review, I suspect. The MMG is, in my opinion, probably the best speakers under $1k that there are, but they require a lot of power as do the Point Sevens.

I thought that the MiniMaggies were the worst Maggie’s I’ve heard, especially for the price. But the Motion 4i is 70 - 23,000 +/- 3dB. That’s pretty flat over the speaker’s range. 

 

For some reason, I thought they were flat only to 90hz. That makes a difference!

 

[fas42]

Yes, if it gets down to 60, 70Hz all's good ... what usually happens with cheaper speakers is that they hook it up to a gutless amplifier; which falls into a heap when asked to deliver solid bass energy - "Must be the speaker", they say ...

 

You could shock a few people by grabbing a tiny, lightweight speaker, mass loading it solidly, and driving it with a Krell-like amp ... "Where dat bass come from?!!", would be the exclamation.

[gmgraves]

On 7/3/2019 at 2:06 PM, k-man said:

Any other amps out there that also "deliver the audiophile-like experience without the audiophile price"?

 

Actually I just meant to ask anything that will pair well with these 4i's for no more than $400? 

I think the Napa Acoustics 208A is $399 (at least it used to be. Their website is blank right now!). But if you go on alibaba.com you can get that same 25 WPC hybrid amp (dual triode front end, solid-state output) directly from China for far less than Napa sells it for.

[jhwalker]

I have a 5.1 system with 4 of these, a matching center, and an (ancient) M+K sub.  Sounds wonderful

[4est]

On 7/3/2019 at 10:47 PM, fas42 said:

Perhaps surprising to many people what 15 watts can do - the Philips HT all in one only used 15W chip amps, with nothing special specs; the speakers were nothing special in sensitivity. But the system could still do realistic sound level piano pieces, mainly because the system held together at max gain. Also helped by having a separate, powered subwoofer.

 

On a modern, compressed recording the SPLs were intense enough to cause ringing in the ears after 5 mins or so ...

Why would this be surprising to anyone who understands how power works- especially if a subwoofer is involved? IME for that matter, ringing ears is often a byproduct of distortion, and not something to get excited about. Then again, it seems pretty clear that you likely have never heard beyond a middling system or you'd not make these crazy proclamations.

[gmgraves]

On 7/4/2019 at 12:38 AM, Paul R said:

 

Not a chance Frank. Lack of energy below say, 110hz generally makes for terrible sound with many different kinds of music. At any volume level. 

 

Well, maybe it can improve rap.

 

 

Broken, non-functioning amplifiers are the only thing that can improve rap

[gmgraves]

On 7/5/2019 at 4:42 PM, jhwalker said:

I have a 5.1 system with 4 of these, a matching center, and an (ancient) M+K sub.  Sounds wonderful

Four of what, the Motion 4i speakers or the Napa Acoustic 208A amp? 

[Blake]

On 7/5/2019 at 5:42 PM, jhwalker said:

I have a 5.1 system with 4 of these, a matching center, and an (ancient) M+K sub.  Sounds wonderful

 

Those old M&K subs are absolutely bomb proof!  I have a M&K VX-100 in my home theatre set up that has been powered on and running almost continuously (I bet it has only been turned on and off less than 5 times?) for about 20 years.

 

What a great investment.  Nice, tight bass as well.

 

Back to desktop speakers, I just picked up these Scansonic MK-5's.  Seemed like a great price.  We shall see how they perform.

 

https://www.underwoodhifi.com/products/scansonic