The display is your bare bones, digital-alarm-clock-style LCD screen which glows blue, is dimmable based on preference and totally disappears after a time-out period. Notably absent is any Bluetooth wireless audio receiver, which would make use of mobile devices with this speaker much, much easier.įinally, MartinLogan wisely includes a display, which is hidden behind the Motion Vision’s cloth-covered metallic, removable grill. The DSP helps achieve ML’s desired sound signature, but it also supports three sound modes (bass boost, normal and voice), some user-controlled bass level adjustment and an EQ preset that adjusts the speakers sound based on wall-mounted or stand-mounted placement. Under the hood are some proprietary DSP, Dolby Digital and DTS decoders, and virtual surround sound processing. You can use it with the wireless receivers built into the Dynamo Dynamo 1000 and 700 subwoofers. Martin Logan also build’s a wireless subwoofer transmitter into the sound bar. The rear of the sound bar is outfitted with a comprehensive array of connections, including two digital optical inputs, one digital coaxial input, a set of stereo RCA analog inputs and a subwoofer output. That should work out to about 14 watts for each speaker, assuming the power is evenly distributed. Seven amplifiers drive each transducer for a total of 100 watts of power. ML says the crossover point between the tweeters and low-frequency drivers is 3 kHz. A tweeter/driver pair occupies the sound bar’s extreme left and right edges, with the remaining tweeter sandwiched in between two more 4-inch drivers at the center. The three tweeters are mated 4-inch fiber cone drivers. You can read a little more about our experience with ML’s folded motion tweeters in our review of the company’s Motion LX16 bookshelf speakers. According to us, it sounds fantastic, no matter how it is supposed to work. According to ML, the advantage of this design is less distortion and fast response time. These tweeters look and act like an accordion, essentially squeezing air to create sound. The Motion Vision sound bar offers quite a few notable features, but Martin Logan’s real signature stamp on this product is the inclusion of three of its folded motion tweeters. In the box with the sound bar we found a card-style remote control, a wall-mounting template, wall-mounting hardware, power cord, short Toslink (optical) cable and a 3.5 mm headphone to RCA cable. The bass-reflex ports are channeled along the length of the speaker before opening up to flared holes toward the center of the cabinet, indicating the internal volume of the cabinet has been designed to maximize bass response. This may simply be a design choice on the part of ML or it could have functional implications. The rear of the gloss-black cabinet undulates a bit to form a shallow s-shape. Not only did the cabinet bite back a bit, but the resulting sound was a pleasingly dead thunk. This is likely due to superior cabinet construction, which passed our knock test with flying colors. According to ML, the speaker weighs in at 20.5 lbs, which is just the right amount of heft for a speaker measuring roughly 5 x 40 x 6 (H x W x D –in inches). If, like us, you believe the weight of a speaker has direct implications on its quality, then you’ll be pleased with the Motion Vision sound bar. The question is, how does Martin Logan’s (ML) take on the sound bar stack up against its premium pals, and does it earn the extra grand it asks for in comparison to budget bars? We found out. MartinLogan is joined by the likes of Bowers and Wilkins, Yamaha and Definitive Technology, all of which have put some considerable engineering efforts toward making bars that sound so big, you won’t miss all those clunky components and rat’s nest of wires. That all sounds great to us, but $1,500 for a sound bar? Is the woo of a high performance, single-cabinet solution so strong that one would forego a proper home theater rig? You know, $1,500 can net you a respectable 5.1 speaker system and an A/V receiver these days.Īpparently, the answer to our rhetorical question is: yes. The MartinLogan Motion Vision sound bar fits into the latter category, offering high-quality construction, sleek design, ample power, MartinLogan’s custom “Folded Motion” tweeters, lots of DSP and surround sound processing and, according to its maker, some pretty robust bass. Now that sound bars have caught on in a big way, the market has opened up to a more diverse set of options, with prices and features reaching out to both the low-end and high-end extremes. On-shelf EQ preset results in chesty bassīoth sound bar and wireless sub solutions are pricey
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