If you like the way electrostatic speakers sound, the combo is excellent. The Mac supplies them with all the clean power they are hungy for, and then some.
Thanks Stu Pitt I had a chance to audition the ML Vantage/Krell combo at my local Tweeter and they sounded great to my ear.They also had a pair of Focal Profile 918 paird with krell ...and I found the focals were far from ehat I want to hear in a good sounding speaker....just my opinion...or my sinuses are messed up thanks again
Adrian, I myself am a former MartinLogan user. I think the older panels have a much warmer, more tonally correct sound to them. However, there are some that will argue against me on this. To my ears, the vantage sounded slightly bright and forced. The McIntosh should balance it out.
But, IMHO it is not always wise to correct speaker issues with amp issues (ie match a bright speaker with a warm amp)
if I were you, I would try to find an ascent i, and listen to that and see if you still prefer the vantage. If you prefer music that is vocally driven, I can almost bet you will prefer the ascent i.
FWIW, the ascent i, odessey, and prodigy all share the same basic panel design. The new xstat panels are the ones that to my ears have a slightly off sound. but, you may not agree. your ears are different than mine.
Thanks Gavin! I will give it a listen again and make sure they are not on hte bright side.I was thinking of a different combination I might like:Magnepan 1.6QR/Bryston 4b sst and a Rel sub....don't know about the player yet...I can take sugestions from you guys... thanks again
The Vantage is pretty nice. They do need to be broken in and initially sound a bit high. Also, MLs need to be placed correctly and you need to be able to put them about 3 - 5 feet away from the back wall. The biggest fault is that if you listen to them and love them, you will probably also hear the Summit and want to spend too much money. The next fault is that you need powerful equipment to make them sing.
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