MartinLogan Motion 5.1-Channel Surround System (TPV 91)

Tiny Hot Rods

FEATURES 

Motion 2, 4, and 8 highlights:

• Motion speakers feature Folded Motion Technology tweeters whose designs are patterned after the pioneering work done by Dr. Oskar Heil on what he called the “Heil Air Motion Transformer.” The driver offers excellent efficiency and terrific transient speed, giving it a “fast,” “responsive” character.
• Motion 2 and 6 models feature poly cone mid-bass drivers while Motion 4 and 8 models feature paper cone mid-bass drivers—all with “rigid structured dustcaps designed to reduce cone break-up modes.” Mid-bass drivers for the Motion 2, 4, 6, and 8 also feature stamped steel basket assemblies.
• High quality crossover components are used for all Motion models, including: “custom air core coil and low DCR steel laminate inductors (and) polyester film capacitors in series and low DF electrolytic capacitors in parallel.”
  
• The Motion 4 model features an innovative Folded Motion Cascading Bass Port that, says MartinLogan, “allows a long tuned port, which is folded over itself (think of a trombone's tuning arm) to be compacted and squeezed into the Motion 4.” The port is said to result in “detailed low bass that can play at high volumes with minimum distortion.” Crossovers also provide “Overall system thermal/current protection.”
  
• All Motion models feature gently curved enclosures made—in the case of the Motion 2, 4, 6, and 8—of a molded material and finished in high-gloss, piano black. Enclosures for Motion 2, 6, and 8 models are sealed, while the Motion 4 enclosure is ported.
  
• Motion 2, 4, 6, and 8 can be used on stands or tabletops, but also come with clever wall-mount brackets that allow a variety of positioning options.
  
• All Motion models incorporate high-quality push-type speaker connection posts that can easily be adapted for use with speaker wires that have banana plug-type connectors.

Dynamo 700 highlights:

• 10-inch high-excursion, poly cone woofer.
• Sealed enclosure, which offers user selectable downward-firing or forward-firing configurations. Enclosure incorporates clever, press-fit “ETC (Energy Transfer Coupler)” floor spikes.
• Built-in 300-watt amplifier with “IME (Inverse Mathematical Equalizer) Filter” said to yield “extremely accurate low-frequency response—far superior to that provided by the simple second-order high-Q filters typically found in subwoofers in this price range.”
  
• Incorporates variable controls for volume level and crossover (low pass filter) settings, plus toggle switches for phase and crossover enable/LFE bypass settings.
• “Wireless ready” design incorporates built-in receiver for use with the optional MartinLogan SWT-1 Subwoofer Wireless Transmitter.

SONIC CHARACTER

Folded Motion tweeters are without a doubt the main technical “calling cards” of MartinLogan’s Motion speakers, as they gives the speakers a fast, clear, open, and well-detailed sound with a just-right amount of treble ambience and “air.” These sonic qualities, typically associated with much more expensive speakers, go a long way toward helping the Motion series speakers “play above their pay grade.”

But, there’s much more to this system than just those Folded Motion tweeters (cool though they are). As MartinLogan has learned through years of experience in building high-quality hybrid electrostatic speakers, it is not always easy to blend the sound of fast, ultra-responsive, high performance tweeters with the sound of conventional piston-type drivers. But in the Motion models, MartinLogan has done a beautiful job of marrying its Folded Motion tweeters with conventional pistonic mid-bass drivers, so that the transition between the drivers is almost perfectly seamless and potential textural discontinuities are held to an absolute minimum.