MartinLogan OPEN BOX Motion 35XTi
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If an item doesn't meet your expectations, you may return or exchange it in its original condition and packaging within 30 days for a full refund, minus shipping fees. Items shipped back in like new condition through standard shipping carriers will only incur a flat fee of $15 to return. If the items were initially shipped through free scheduled delivery via motor freight (commonly referred to as LTL), returning them will result in return shipping fees starting at $150. These items include but are not limited to, oversized items such as TVs, certain subwoofers, floorstanding speakers, furniture, and most items weighing over 75 pounds. Return fees will also apply for exchanges. We want to treat your system as if it is our own and want you to be completely satisfied with your purchase.
Please see the instructions below. We only accept returns for any product purchased directly from our website. If merchandise is not returned in its original condition or is missing packaging, manuals, accessories or other parts, or the resale value of the product has been impaired, a partial refund will be given and calculated on a case-by-case basis.
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Turntables With a Broken Stylus: All turntables ship out with the stylus intact. If you return a turntable or phono cartridge with a broken or missing stylus you will be subject to a return fee. Please be careful when setting up your turntable and contact us with any questions.
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Overview
The High Notes
Motion Tweeter Technology
State of the Art Components
Huge and Effortless Soundstage
Company & Product Overview
When Gayle Martin Sanders and Ron Logan Sutherland formed Martin Login in 1980, they probably had no idea how successful their start-up would eventually become over the next 40 years. From their dream of producing more natural sound through the use of high technology, they have grown to be one of the most coveted speaker brands around. Their “see-thru” electrostatic panels have amazed listeners for years with effortless sound that is totally free of any coloration.
While electrostatic speakers offer incredible sound, they are out of the reach of many music lovers as it just simply costs a good deal of money to make one that sounds great that will also last for years. As Martin Logan became more successful, they wanted to create a line of speakers with that color free electrostatic sound, but at a price point that was more affordable.
In 2010, Martin Logan came up with the solution in their Motion series of speakers. These used a new tweeter they developed that offered most of the advantages of an electrostatic speaker, without the price tag. Martin Logan recently revealed a new Motion series at a few select dealers in August of 2019 (Audio Advice being one of the first).
The subject of today’s review is the new Motion 35XTi.
Design & Build Quality
The 35XTi is a medium-sized bookshelf speaker. These are some of the prettiest speakers we have seen at this price level. Fit and finish is top-notch with a beautiful black high gloss paint option, matte white, or red walnut. The cloth grill includes a small MartinLogan logo which looks pretty cool to us.
The cabinet is not a perfect rectangle which does two things. First, it just looks sleek, but more importantly, the non-parallel cabinet walls help reduce cabinet resonance. It costs more to make a non-square speaker and you’ll see this tech trick used in a lot of higher performance speakers.
While you can put the 35XTi on a bookshelf, you’ll get the best performance if you stand mount them. They are about 13 ½” tall, by 7 ½” wide, and almost 12” deep. And at close to 20 pounds each, you’ll need a substantial speaker stand or table.
When you rotate around to the rear of the speaker, you’ll see some ultra-high quality dual binding posts for bi-wiring and a very solid connector should you choose to just single wire them.
Many other reviewers have noted they feel the 35XTi just looks amazingly well built for the money and we have to wholeheartedly agree!
Features & Technology
One of the big deals that makes the 35XTi sound so great is the Motion tweeter. The 35XT uses their largest Motion tweeter. So just what is a Motion tweeter? Imagine a roughly 2 ½’ high by 4” wide piece of super lightweight piece of a very thin film. This is etched with conductive material, then folded up like an accordion. It is put in a neodymium magnetic field and the current causes the accordion-like film to squeeze in and out, reproducing the high frequencies.
You get the benefit of a very lightweight electrostatic driver with a lot of space and cost savings. Plus the surface area of the one XT Motion tweeter in the 35XTi has roughly the same surface area as 10 conventional dome tweeters! The end result of this design is a tweeter that is super low mass with far less distortion than a conventional driver. The speed at which the Motion tweeter can respond to audio changes is much faster than a conventional tweeter as well.
Martin Logan couples this great XT tweeter with a 6 ½” aluminum cone woofer. They spent a great deal of time designing a woofer with a long excursion and low distortion. The rear-ported cabinet uses a low turbulence port. Both the woofer and tweeter are decoupled from the ¾” MDF cabinet with a solid aluminum panel. Once again, this is something you see in much more expensive speakers.
Great speaker drivers without a crossover (the circuitry that sends the highs to the tweeter and lows to the woofer) at the same level is like putting ketchup on a great steak. Martin Logan chose very high-quality polypropylene and low-DF electrolytic capacitors coupled with custom-wound inductors. While this sounds like a mouthful, it means they spared no expense to make sure the crossover quality matched that of the drivers.
The high-quality crossover and output power of the Motion tweeter and aluminum cone woofer enabled this speaker to come out with a very high-efficiency rating for a modest-sized bookshelf speaker. The Motion 35XTi is rated at 92 dB sensitivity which means they are very dynamic and able to bring real-life to your music.
As you can tell, this is not your ordinary bookshelf speaker. Every single component of its design has qualities you normally see in much more expensive speakers.
Performance
If you pair up the Motion 35XTi with a good set of speaker stands and a decent amplifier, it's pretty easy to hear why the earlier 35XT won the Absolute Sound Editor’s Choice Award for 2017, 2018, and 2019. The new 35XTi is continuing that winning tradition with most reviewers saying they just make you want to keep playing all kinds of music, which is a very good thing!
These just sound far better than most $1400 a pair or so speakers normally sound. We paired them up with a Cambridge CXA61 integrated amp and a Rega P3 table for our listening tests.
First, they have one of the sweetest top end presentations you will find. The design of the Motion XT tweeter allows for a very controlled dispersion pattern. Not only do you get blazing fast and clean highs that are never harsh, but a huge, wide soundstage with pinpoint accuracy. Of course, you need to spend a little time on set up to achieve this, but the result is well worth the effort. When you hear a cymbal sound so accurate and feel like it is right in front of you, that is when you start grinning ear to ear and think, this is really some speaker for the money.
The bass tones reach fairly low for a modest bookshelf. Martin Logan specs them out a 50 Hz plus or minus 3 dB which is very impressive for a box this size. We love the fact they went for a fast and tight bass character rather than a big boomy bass type sound. You can listen to these for hours without any fatigue and just get really drawn into the music.
When you start to push them hard, they respond very well with a great sense of dynamics for a bookshelf speaker. Do they fill up the room like a $15,000 Logan? No, but for what these cost, they do about as well as anything we have heard.
After spinning all kinds of different music, the thing that really strikes you is how well they present a natural soundstage with this totally effortless quality. If you appreciate shutting your eyes and imagining a small jazz band is in front of you, these will certainly make you smile!
Overall Recommendation
The Motion 35XTi is one heck of a bookshelf speaker. We have loved them at Audio Advice since their introduction. They can be the cornerstone of a great system for two-channel audio, and should you want to use them for home theater, MartinLogan has a perfectly matched center channel to go with them.
