Martin-Logan direct?

[Dusty Chalk]

Anyone know what the link is for Martin-Logan's cheap direct speaker? By direct, I mean I think they sell it directly.

[Yikes]

I've owned Logans (CLS IIz) and I've sold logans, and I've toured the factory. I have never heard of them selling directly to consumers. That doesn't mean that they don't or won't. Mr. Sanders sold the company a few months ago so who knows what the new owners will do.

[Dusty Chalk]

It was recently, like within the last couple of months. It might have been something they just started experimenting with just before they sold, or right after. And I believe it was only their entry level electrostatic model -- sort of "develop a taste for the electrostatic sound -- your first taste is freecheap...-ish".

[Dusty Chalk]

I found it! It wasn't Martin-Logan, it was Magnepan, and the link is here. And it's planar, not electrostatic.

[grawk]

Amazingly, martin logan speakers are sold by costco (as is the amazing denon 4706 receiver...)

[Yikes]

The new owners of Martin-Logan must be major whores. They also don?t know much about the high-end audio business. Many times over the years high-end companies have in an effort to grow and increase sales/profits expanded their dealer network by adding larger mid-fi chains to their dealer networks. However every time this has backfired and dramatically reduced sales.

In 1988 Adcom was king of the entry level High-End electronics industry. They had quality small independent dealers in every major area. Then the Pro Buying Group (Tweeter) became a dealer. Then almost over night nearly every Audio Shop that had the knowledge, experience, and ability to properly demo and sell high performance separates dropped the Adcom line. Without the small dealers to promote the line Adcom withered on the vine.

Eventually Tweeter dropped the line because it wasn?t selling. Tweeter moved on to B&K. For many dealers B&K had replaced Adcom, therefore B&K?s popularity had increased. B&K was doing very well, but the evil Tweeter seduced them. The opening order is huge and they assumed that this would continue. The same cycle happened again.

Tweeter (Pro Buying group) gets a good product line.

Independent Audio dealers drop the line.

Sales drop due to the missing knowledgeable sales and demos at the small dealers.

Tweeter drops the line due to lack of demand.

What dealer is going to show and promote speakers that can be purchased cheaper at Costco? Martin-Logan started the death march when they signed Tweeter as a dealer. Now they have changed it to a death run.

Bye-bye Martin-Logan.

[Dusty Chalk]

That would be too bad. I hope this is an exception (I'm not going to say I hope you're wrong, because your analysis seems correct).

[bhd812]

That would be too bad. I hope this is an exception (I'm not going to say I hope you're wrong, because your analysis seems correct).

Tweeter almost killed Sonus Faber also...and really put a hurt on MIRAGE to.

KRell is fucking up the same way now cause they are selling their gear thru ABT

[kevin gilmore]

Billy as usual you don't have a clue.

ABT sells krell locally only, and has only a single store front. They are the only master reference

krell dealer within about 100 miles. They also sell the entire line of JMLab speakers including the

Grand Utopia (about $85k). They also sell the qualia projector. Basically they sell lots and lots

of very expensive and exclusive products. None of which are advertised on their website. They

have specific salesman that are the only ones allowed to demo and sell this kind of merchandise.

They are no threat to the rest of the krell dealer chain, or any other manufacturer.

And yes they sell a BUNCH of krell. They keep at least 6 of the fpb850cx monoblocks in stock

at all times for immediate delivery. ($37,500 a pair)

[Yikes]

I don?t know about ABT, but Tweeter does sell the KAV line. If you walk into just about any tweeter and talk to a salesperson about the Krell equipment they?ll show you the KAV, but if you inquire about the better Krell equipment they will lower their voice and tell you that they can get any of it. They say they don?t show it but that they can get it.

I don?t know if this is universally true, but it definitely happens in New England. With this happening Krell is IMHO on the downward slope. They have further (Performance wise) to fall than my previous examples. It is very difficult to segregate the various lines to different tier dealers.

Bringing on dealers such as Tweeter in any capacity is likely to seriously erode Krells performance/quality reputation in the marketplace. However I don?t really see any company sitting in the wings ready to swoop in and steal their segment of the market. Levinson has become a non-factor.

Kevin the Class A line is being discontinued. Replaced by the Evolution line. The top amp in the class A line is the FPB 750Mcx

http://www.krellonline.com/krell_component.php?id=38&page=fpbMonaural

I?m a long time fan of Krell. I have sold millions of dollars worth of Krell, and I?ve personally owned:

KSA-100

KSA-300S

FPB-300

FPB-600

KRC-3 (Twice)

KPS-30i

KPS-20il

KCT

Reference KPE

KAV-250a

I know many of the employees and count some of them amongst my friends. I?m hoping that Krell is the exception that proves my rule about Tweeter and High End Audio.

[kevin gilmore]

I'm well aware of the new krell evolution stuff as i have one on order.

I too know many people at the factory.

The KAV stuff was always supposed to be entry level mass market krell.

Whether or not that has actually happened is hard to tell. Compared

to other stuff in that category especially some of the japanese stuff

it is hard to tell which is better and by how much. Some companies

like parasound design in the usa and manufacture overseas to get the

cost down. Krell's attempt at that failed pretty bad.

Clearly what happened to levinson is an example of how the high end

is disappearing and how quickly. Without harmann international to

swoop in and buy levinson, they would be out of business. All their

new stuff is less than half the price of the old stuff. The number of

baby boomers willing to spend $100k on an audio system or $200k

on a home theater system is pretty slim. For those people with

huge wads of cash laying around, it is still hard to get them to spend

on systems like that because the music business is dying.

When its all about how many hours of noise you can cram into your

ipod who is going to be interested in krell.

I'll continue to buy krell. And I'll continue to buy Wilson. I'm in

the minority i'm sure.

[bhd812]

Billy as usual you don't have a clue.

ABT sells krell locally only, and has only a single store front. They are the only master reference

krell dealer within about 100 miles. They also sell the entire line of JMLab speakers including the

Grand Utopia (about $85k). They also sell the qualia projector. Basically they sell lots and lots

of very expensive and exclusive products. None of which are advertised on their website. They

have specific salesman that are the only ones allowed to demo and sell this kind of merchandise.

They are no threat to the rest of the krell dealer chain, or any other manufacturer.

And yes they sell a BUNCH of krell. They keep at least 6 of the fpb850cx monoblocks in stock

at all times for immediate delivery. ($37,500 a pair)

Actually not...

I went with a friend cause he wanted to demo B&O's big costly speakers and we demo'd both the Krell and the B&0 stuff the same day. I carried in a few reference discs with me and demo'd the B&0 stuff when I had to tell the salsemen the channels where wrongly set..then I had to prove it to them in another setup using Duke Ellingtons blues in orbit track 7 where the stand up bass comes from the right speaker and not the left..

My friend was laughing at the time and asked what kind of place demo's $20k speakers and has the channels wrongly set?

then we went over to the Krell section..oh boy this get better..

first off the room (if you can call it that) the Krell setup was in has no wall on the back and left of the room, its open to the main corridor in the huge ass abt store...I asked the salemen that was going to demo the Krell stuff if there was anyway to close the walls off cause their was way tomuch noise coming in from the open walls (it was bad...worse then the worest headphone meet you can think of), but of course he said theirs no way to do it..great way to start a demo off huh?

so the Krell speakers were placed rite up against the back wall with a huge entertainment stand in between, I asked the salesmen if he could place the speakers out alittle so the middle stand wouldnt block the center image..he says no cause the cable for the speaker wire was not long enough at the time but they were working on it...nice!

Kevin would you like me to go on about how one of the channels went out? or how one of the rca's were not plugged in and I had to tell the salesmen and show him he had static and a cutting out in the KRELL sound setup at abt?

nice..

oh btw, This abt is the same place I had to wait for an ipod video and complain and cancel my order then on the way home picked up one nice and easy at circuit city..

at abt they dont know shit buddy, and they are hurting Krell hardcore!