Greatness for LESS 🤯 Martin Logan Motion XT B100 Review

you guys asked for this one so let's dive into the new Martin Logan motion XT B100 bookshelf speakers and find out are they as good as the F-100 Towers we just reviewed [Music] the entire motion line from Martin Logan has been completely reimagined for 2023 and before you ask the new Martin Logan series sounds nothing like past motion speakers so comparisons to older models aren't exactly relevant the motion xtb 100 is the largest bookshelf speaker in the line actually it's the only true XT branded bookshelf and it features the larger one and a quarter inch by two and a half inch fmt Tweeter seen on the F-100 and it's mated to a six and a half inch Kevlar mid-range driver throw in a rather large rear-facing port and the B100 is good for a reported frequency response of 45 Hertz to 25 kilohertz with a sensitivity of 93 DB and an impedance of 4 Ohms the B100 like its Big Brother the F-100 requires a solid amplifier or receiver capable of handling 4 ohm loads now in our testing we use the Sony 7000es and the anthem MRX 740 AV receivers for home theater and for two channel Duty rely on the Yamaha 2000a and the Audio Lab 7000a all of which drove the Logan's brilliantly now given the b100s near 800 per speaker asking price the Audio Lab 7000a or the new Sony 5000 es receiver are The Logical pairings I personally prefer the bookshelves with these two components but I'll say it once again for you guys in the back you need an amplifier capable of driving a 4 ohm load build quality and design is excellent and is totally in line with the f-100s we recently reviewed ours features a real wood Walnut veneer which is a nice touch though the copper accents around the woofers and the new horn-shaped waveguide gonna give me clips reference Premiere Vibes sorry Martin Logan gloss black and satin white round out the b100s Finish options there is nothing and I mean nothing about the build that you need to be concerned about construction it's on par with speakers costing way more and this is evident in its performance and its measurements now given that the b100s have a rear-facing port I was Keen to see see just how much boundary reinforcement think bass boost that I could get by placing them closer to our wall before having to pull them out into the room placing the speakers six inches off the wall it is possible to boost the bass frequencies by about 3 DB starting at 150 Hertz close to the wall the bass response is closer to what Martin Logan States in their specs of 45 Hertz but pull the speakers out 12 inches or more and that lowers the bass boost putting the base more in line with the rest of the speaker's response this is the placement I prefer though the roll-off starts sooner at around 50 hertz if you do this regardless of the placement from about 200 Hertz on up this speaker is very room friendly and consistent toe-in does sure up Center focus but it also gives a slight boost to the high frequencies so my advice put the speakers about a foot off your front wall space them about seven to eight feet apart tow them in slightly but not directly at you and enjoy and doing a quick sweep 20 to 20 revealed a very and I mean very linear response this is one of the most consistent speakers this side of the perlicit s4b and of course Martin Logan's own F-100 like the F-100 the B100 doesn't appear to roll off much in the highs until well after 10 kilohertz so detail retrieval is high with this speaker and may even seem more apparent than the f-100s which is likely due to the b100s almost complete lack of bass the drop in bass hits pretty hard around 50 hertz meaning for full range playback a subwoofer is a must compared to the sonus fiber Lumina 2's Clips rp600m Mark II's or the Bowers and Wilkins 705 S3 they all had an easier time hitting that 40 Hertz Mark while the difference between 40 and 50 hertz may not seem all that great in the real world it is and it is something that I bet you notice without the help of a sub the B100 sound more forward and lean because they lack grounding so rock music like Metallica or Perfect Circle sound as if members of the band went missing so regardless if you're eyeing these for a two-channel or a home theater setup I am telling you you really need a good subwoofer which may affect your overall budget because a poorly built sub will muddy the speakers otherwise Stellar neutrality I use the Bowers and Wilkins ASW 610 in our test which proved to be a good match but this is where I would suggest you start subwoofers like Martin Logan's own Dynamo 1100x with its built-in in-room optimization would probably be even better the b100s mid-range is so good it is clear nuanced and not the least bit colored either by Design or by the cabinet resulting in performers and instruments having clear contrast from one another the treble is a similar story it is possible some of you may find the speaker to lean towards the brighter end of the spectrum unlike the Polk r200 or Q acoustic concept 50s the B100 doesn't roll off much if any until way after 10 kilohertz the fact that the treble isn't boosted at least not in its in-room response means you are going to get all of the detail retrieval and presence of a BMW or shown as fobber but with none of the artificial boosts that may become fatiguing at higher volumes still the Logans here are less forgiving of more sibilant recordings like Alanis morissets Havoc so if your musical tastes lean more towards compressed or modern pop recordings you may want to peep the Polk r200s instead the b100s are Imaging Champions they are focal level good as far as I am concerned earned with respect to not only scale but the placement of instruments and sounds in a three-dimensional space in some ways the b100s are just a hair better than the f-100s in this regard at least to me dynamically provided you have an amp comfortable with a 4 ohm speaker the b100s are unflappable at virtually all volumes and can start and stop on a dime as for low level listening these are good when driven correctly but not quite Best in Class in other words don't expect Klipsch 8000f Mark II performance or efficiency compared to a handful of my favorite bookshelf speakers on the market right now the Sonos fobber Lumina 2's Polk r200 Clips rp600m Mark II and the Bowers and Wilkins 705 S3 the b100s may be the best of the bunch approaching 3 400 a pair the Bowers and Wilkins 705 S3 are more expensive and I do prefer their look and finish that said the b100s are every bit the BMWs equal for half the cost if you don't like a mild boost in the highs the b100s are actually the better option the 705s play a little bit lower on their own but both require a sub for full range playback making the Martin Logan's the better overall value in comparison now the sonus farmer Lumina 2 is a very similar speaker to the B100 equally stylish and built to a similar standard the Luminous have a touch more base and a slight boost in the treble if the b100s are too rich for your budget the Lumina twos is the first place that I would steer you because at roughly twelve hundred dollars a pair they're very hard to beat but of all the speakers in our comparison the Klipsch rp600m Mark II has the most in common with the B100 all things considered the B100 is the better speaker but for less than 750 for the pair the 600 amps pack quite the punch and in many ways are comparable especially when it comes to Clarity and spaciousness the 600s have more bass though it's not quite as tight as the b100s but they are more amplifier friendly which can be a savings when it comes to system building the Polk r200s much like the r700s is the speaker you may want to check out if you need one that is going to play well nice with all types of content be it music or movies I prefer the overall sound of the Martin Logan but I cannot argue with the sheer value for money the pulks continue to represent but if you were intrigued by our Martin Logan motion XT F-100 tower speaker review but either don't have the funds or the room for the towers the B100 is definitely worth considering on their own the b100s are incredibly neutral and precise equal to the F-100 so long as we're completely ignoring bass I still prefer the f-100s because for my taste no sub is required which streamlines things quite a bit but it is possible to get F-100 levels of performance out of the B100 when you pair it with the right sub so if you're on the market for a high quality great sounding bookshelf speaker for less than two grand a pair say hello to one of the best options available right now in the new Martin Logan motion xtb 100 I love it so that's it that is now my review of Martin Logan's brand new motion XT B100 bookshelf loudspeaker but before we go what do you got to say about them okay well before I get into my thoughts we have some comparisons that I feel like you've left off you know you can't compare these things to everything well according to the people in the comments that is not unacceptable answer all right you must know every single comparison you must have heard every single speaker dating back to the beginning of time okay and no just exactly how they compare and should I upgrade okay so hit me with it number one one of our favorites um the project speaker box the S5 II I think is the model uh the projects are around 850 a pair okay and their frequency response is 55 to 20 000. mm-hmm hurts okay so that's all I'm going to give you okay so I didn't forget about the project speaker box 5 S2 I did go over their measurements when I was writing this review they are very similar the project has even less bass in room at least the presence of bass in room compared to the Logan's um also the high frequencies of the project are equally linear in that they don't really roll off um quite the same way that a typical soft Dome Tweeter would but they don't have that boost like sonus Faber that said I found that at really really high volumes or higher volumes I'm going to say in excess of about 85 90 DB which I'm willing to bet a lot of people that have the speaker box aren't really listening that loud they're probably using these in a smaller space but if you do get to volumes that loud the Tweeter on the speaker box is nowhere near as refined as what you're going to find on the B100 now is the B100 worth what double a pair of speaker box 5 twos that I I can't decide for you um it's similar in it's very similar an argument with say the Polk r200s or even the Klipsch 600m Mark II do you get twice the performance with the B100 I think that you do you definitely get twice to build quality and twice the appearance and pride of ownership for your money with the B100 they are phenomenal phenomenally built and looking speakers but all that said can you achieve similar levels of happiness with say the speaker box 5s2 absolutely okay fair enough next on the list is the Arundel 1961 bookshelves those are about eight hundred dollars a pair they have a five and a 5.5 inch woofer okay they go 75 to 20 000. well right off the bat they have no base even less than the Martin Logan so again we are talking about a subwoofer satellite speaker combination here they are also a forum speaker so they are going to be just as kind of demanding of amplifiers or receivers as the Martin Logan's they are smaller they are smaller so for those of you with space concerns uh they may be a better fit they are not ported so they do work pretty much the exact same right up against the wall as they do kind of pulled out but as we discussed in this review Martin Logan's really do okay um put pushed up against a wall in fact it's a way to get a little bit more bass out of them I I still think the Martin Logan's are better but they're twice as expensive so they should be again the Arnold it's still a great speaker but I prefer the Martin Logan me too okay okay uh next up the wharfdale Evo 4.1s they run about 800 a pair they have a smaller woofer at five inches and an AMT Tweeter they go 58 to 22 000 Hertz okay again similar-ish frequency response they have a front Port if I'm not mistaken kind of a slot port on the bottom makes them very room friendly I will say this I really loved those speakers in fact wharfdale prior to this particular series of Martin Logan's uh was probably the only brand that I trusted with an AMT Tweeter but all that said I think the am the fmt Tweeter here in the Martin Logan's is a little bit more refined in that larger size does matter and it kind of brings the high frequencies of the B100 actually more in line with like the Elysian line than the Evo line to be perfectly honest because I do remember at higher volumes with the Evo that that Tweeter could get just that little bit of tis like tizzy I call it tizzy because it's it's not shrill the way like a dome Tweeter is it's more of a it's got a z in it um and that that could happen but apart from that there's still really great speakers so you have to really decide for yourself like do you want to spend twice as much to get you know improvements yes but probably not night and day ones so that's entirely going to be up to you guys and for the like three of you who are going to ask about the Dentons they're nothing like the Martin Logan oh God no no no no no there's no comparison to make here there's no comparison you if you want the Dentons you want you are a person who likes a completely different sounding speaker completely yes okay moving on okay focal Cora 806 these are on Matt's sale right now um at like under 600 a pair really yeah I think they're probably on their way out if I had to guess okay I'll put a link in the description so if you're interested in these um you can pick them up at less than 600 a pair the focalcora 806 is that's that's really hard to pass up they're not as linear they're not as neutral uh as the b100s they're also not built as well even though they look crazy stylish um again similar thing do you want to spend twice as much or in this case almost three times as much to get a better speaker that's going to be entirely up to you because the 806s are no slouch they are more amplifier friendly they're probably going to come across a little bit more Dynamic and for low level listening they may actually be a better fit for a lot of you um they are pretty room friendly if memory serves so again B100 would still be my pick but understand that you're going to spend three times as much money to get it uh is it three times the speaker uh for me I think it is but you have to kind of experience both of them to understand how it can be because the build quality uh lack of resonance and all of that with the B100 is just exceptional just know that you're kind of sinking your money into things that you can't really see very good answers okay my turn um I really like the b100s I mean I've been super impressed with the Martin Logan motion Series in general um granted I had no experience with the brand really prior okay um but I'm I'm into it I'm really into it I think that the bookshelves sound fantastic and yes they sound good for home theater and stereo yes now as far as the quality I think these are super well made um for sure they think they look more expensive than their asking price I think the styling is on point and while I can see your reference to the the Klipsch RP vibes those speakers cannot touch the Martin Logan's when it comes to style and finish no when you see them next to each other you do realize that there is quite a difference in Finish options here they kind of give me a little bit of tanoi Vibes like those gold all the gold ring around the gold fives yeah one of the things that really impressed me about the speaker was its dispersion for a bookshelf I was just amazed at how it was just throwing sound all over the place and there were a lot of times where I actually thought our in-ceiling speakers were on yeah uh but then I realized we weren't using a receiver so that was very impressive yeah um okay so now if I'm buying into the motion line as much as I like the bookshelves I would get the towers the f-100s yeah yeah and much like your thoughts that you said in In the comparison between the two since these do need a subwoofer and because we have the space for the towers the f-100s just make more sense I also think that the F-100 speaker was a little better overall when it came to dialogue Clarity okay the b100s they're not bad but I did find myself asking the dreaded what did they say question more than I can recall doing with the towers okay maybe you can explain why that might be okay maybe maybe I'm making that up in my head but no no I mean look one thing that one thing that does happen is we do hear a little bit differently day to day week to week that I mean that's that is something that happens that is a phenomenon um I have no rational explanation as to why these two would differ from the mid-range on up because in our room placed in the same spot like I say in the review from about 200 Hertz on up these speakers are identical they're almost near as makes no difference they will throw the same frequency response the difference between these two speakers really comes down to the low mid bass and bass which in the presence of more bass you could see dialogue becoming less clear and that would be the case with the tower but this is we're talking about the opposite so I honestly I'm not saying that you didn't hear what you heard I just I don't have an explanation to help you out or any of you okay that's fine so those are all my thoughts okay um and just one more time for those of you who own previous motion speakers okay that are still going to ask how does this or that compare to your older motion speakers can you just give them again one more tell them one more time I mean guys look the motion Line's been around for a while and admittedly it has been a while since I've heard the previous generations the previous generations were always good value for money but what Martin Logan in my opinion has built here with the new motion XT line specifically is something that truly competes with speakers that I've heard at far far far higher price points and I'm talking it competes in terms of sound and build and that's not something that I would have said about the previous motion designs I would have said that they are yet another option in a sea of options and you may prefer them but I wouldn't be surprised if you also go with something else I think existing motion owners demoing the XT line are going to be rather surprised I also think that anyone that's currently on the market for speakers that are in the two to eight thousand dollar price range from bookshelves to Towers that get an opportunity to sit in front of a pair of xt's properly set up are going to be amazed at what you're able to achieve or what Martin Logan has achieved for potentially maybe half as much as other speakers you may have been budgeting for or looking at would I upgrade yes I personally and this is just me being kind of a design nut I would upgrade on looks alone because I never found the original motion series to be all that attractive I think the new ones are very are very pretty so I would upgrade on looks alone the fact that I believe that you're getting demonstrably better sound quality is just the icing on the cake really um so yeah as far as making a direct comparison though I can't really help you with that okay all right well that's it I think we're done all right guys that is now our review of the Martin Logan motion XT B100 bookshelf speaker what did you guys think let us know down in the comments below my question of the day for you very simple probably saw it coming and that is of the 2xt models that we've reviewed the F-100 Tower or the B100 which one would you get knowing knowing knowing that you need a subwoofer for the B100 which one would you get which one do you think is the better buy sound off down in the comments below if you like this video please do give it a thumbs up like And subscribe go ahead and ring that Bell so that you're notified when new videos come out if you see any of the links to Christy left for you down below know that that is a great way that you have continued to show your support for this Channel and the work that we do here and both of us thank you all very very much for doing that follow me on Instagram at recoveringaudiofile and that's it for us today so remember the only person who has to like the sound of your system is you so happy listening everybody thank you so much for watching we'll see on the next video bye

Channel: Andrew Robinson

Views: 88,720

Keywords: martin logan sound, motion xt b100, martinlogan xt b100 review, martin logan b100, Martin Logan Motion XT B100 Review, Martin logan motion xt b100, martin logan review, martin logan speaker review, martin logan speakers review, martin logan xt motion, martin logan speakers home theater, martin logan bookshelf speakers, martin logan motion speakers, martin logan andrew robinson, martin logan speakers, xt b100 vs xt f100, martin logan speakers vs klipsch, Martin logan xt b100

Id: mJiqHCn2SV0

Length: 22min 18sec (1338 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 05 2023