SETUP
MartinLogan sent the flagship suite, including the top-of- the-range Motion 12s up front alongside the Motion 8 center and bookshelf-type Motion 4s at the surrounds. (The family includes smaller editions of the tower, center, and bookshelf, generally identical save for bass extension. But only the Motion 12 features the dipole-ish midranges previously described.) The Dynamo 1000, a conventional 12-inch cone subwoofer, completed the system. MartinLogan's slim towers and their curvy mates required nothing in the way of installation beyond plugging in my usual heavy banana plugs - except that their clever, wire-guiding push connectors didn't clamp to bananas very solidly, so I reverted to plain wire. An extended period of placement experimentation followed, since my initial trials sounded decidedly off: lifeless up top and a bit dry and "hooty" in the vocal regions. Over an extended period of break-in (more than 50 hours), I honed in on where they wanted to be: quite far out from the front wall (fully 4 feet from wall to baffle), and tilted well back to aim both tweeter and midrange directly toward my seated-ear height.