The strength of these speakers, as most reviewers seem to agree, fall into three categories: Soundstage, transparency and detail. I have never heard speakers other than ML's which deliver these elements as well, particularly in the midrange area.

In fact, they are so detailed and telling that any source material not recorded well totally sounds like crap.

The ML's are exceedingly finicky with electronics, and will clearly reveal the character of any electronic component in the chain in an almost unbelievable manner. When properly driven, the reQuests do a great job of everything except low bass. unless your musical preferences are limited to material which is low-bass shy. Listening to them unsupplemented with material such as any of the newer Fresh Aire CD's is a disappointment, so my system includes two Velodyne FSR 1500's (15", 250 wpc)to bridge the gap.

Overall sound is great. Beware, however, that you may have to junk any existing electronics and spend some serious dough to get the best out of them. An additional note with respect to my opinion: I hate tube gear, since I occasionally like to listen to something a little more dynamic than chamber music. The technical limitations of such components will become painfully obvious when mated with these speakers.

Soundstage, Transparency, Style

Doen't hurt to pair them up with a Sub-Woofer

I had the ML Arius for 6 months and as anyone will tell you, when you get MLs the only thing you do is go for bigger! Outstanding transparency. You'll read a lot about placement in these reviews. If all you didwas read the manual properly it would take you less then 15 minutes to reach audio nirvana. Interesting thing happened to me the other day. My local Hi-Fi store was showcasing the B&Ws 802s to a customer so I sat in and listened. Ladies & gentlemen, the ML Arius sounded better, let alone my Requests for half the price of the 802s. The Requests need juice. Don't even think of running these bad boys with less then 200 watts. Can you believe, I've shut down my Rotel 1090 rated at 380 watts per channel. How you say. I have a challenge. Play Madonna's Erotica album with the volume at 12 o-clock. If your Rotel amps don't melt by the 7th song then my Requests must be hungrier then yours. Get the Cherry wood trim. They just seem to be more like furniture - high end style and will blend even better then speakers half its size. Martin Logans rule - everyone who ever listens to my get up falls in love with them. There is smething about an eletrostatic hybrid sound thata box speaker cant compete with in the music I listen to. Vocals, acoustic, chamber music there is no competition in the world for any price! Amen brothers.

Overall musicality, imaging and soundstage

none

Two weeks into owning a pair of reQuests and I can agree with all the reviewers that find these speakers thoroughly enjoyable - and that's coming from a died-in-the-wool magnepan owner. I haven't been able to tear myself away from the listening room. I'm finding the greatest strengths are the precise imaging and the breadth (and depth) of the soundstage. Both instruments and voice seem very natural.
Having just replaced my Maggie 3.5R's with the reQuests, I can offer first hand comparisons: The 3.5's never really id it for me, imaging was mediocre and there was virtually no soundstage, they just weren't involving in a muscial sense. The reQuests, on the other hand, make music.
As mentioned in some of the other reviews, positioning in the room seems fairly critical - at least for my room. Using the short formula found in the manual (and many other places), I postioned the reQuests 63" out into the room and about 34" from the side walls, with a toe-in of about 10 degrees (As a new owner, any other suggestions are welcome!)

Associated equipment
ARC SP-9MII preamp
Krell KSA-100 amp
Levinson 36DAC & Esoteric transport
Bi-wiring using Kimber Monocles
ASC wall diffusion panels behind speakers

Similar Products Used:

Magnepan 3.5R's & Magnepan IIa's

Upper midrange

bass if your room is too small

I've owned these speakers for almost a year now and they are quite fine for the price. Requests are cheaper than Magnepan 3.6R's (Finland) which was also one reason why I chose the Request. Why the Maggies are about 5000mk more expensive than M-L's is another story...

My equipment:

-Wadia 850
-Mark Levinson 332
-Cardas Golden Cross speaker wires
-Cardas Golden Cross balanced interconnects

When searching for my next speaker I had a possibility to try M-L's older version, the Quest. Which was a definite overall upgrade from my previous Magnepan SMGb's.

The Quest is softer or more round in the bass section. This is not a very good thing in my listening room which is 'a bit' too small for these speakers. I was told that the bass attenuation is -4dB in the Request as the Quest has -3dB attenuation (Attenuation switch is in the back side of the speaker). I opted to use the attenuated bass instead of flat response.

Positioning of these spekers is for near field listening and the distance between the speakers is about the same as distance from the speaker to the listening point. Also I've found that highs get attenuated maybe too much if the speakers are not aimed straight to the listening position. I tried to position the speakers into my room following the tips provided in Cardas web site as much as possible and it worked quite well for my room.

Stenght of these speakers is in the mid range. I liked the seamless performance from mids to highs. This is something I noticed first when I played some guitar music. Also body resonances of the guitar were clearly there (not with M-L's Aerius wich I also listened breafly). Female voices are handled with good accuracy.
Also piano sounds clean and a transient when the hammer stikes the string is fast. Sometimes I get a feeling that the transient response is a bit round and not the best I've heard.
Ambient cues especially high pitch echoes seemed to die pretty quickly when compared to Magnepan 3.6R if I remember it correctly. And I think even a quasi ribbon Maggie could dig high frequencr ambient details as well as the Request.
Lower mids is something this speaker is not at it's best. Maggie will probably outperform the Request in this area. I couldn't hear some male voices as well as I've heard even in little Maggies.
Bass is different and I'm a bit confused about it as a previous Maggie owner. Well, SMG's didn't have much bass to talk about. I think the bass is quite accurate but in this area I sometimes wish I had the bass of the bigger Maggies. John Patitucci playing acoustic bass sounds ok. String plucks of the acoustic bass are quite fast and sometimes when the bass string hits the instrument greating that 'raspy' (is this the correct word) distortion sounds quite real.
Highs are a bit dark in my opinion. This could be a recording quality factor also but so many CDs sound a bit dark. But when I put Cassandra Wilson's Blue Light Till Dawn CD in the player the highs are back again. This CD is very detailed and transparent recording, I think.
If I played Cris Rea's Best of CD through Maggies the highs were fatiguing but not through the Request. I could be that this electrostat is a bit on the soft side in highs. One reason could also be the Wadia's slightly dropping frequency response towards highs. I could try other interconnects plus update the Levinson to 332.5.
I think I can live with this speaker for loger periods. Nice overall performace from Martin Logan.

Open,transparent,eerie sounstage

Bass does not match the top electrostatic panel

I've just listened to this speaker hooked up with McIntosh equipment and a Meridian CD player and was floored.One of the best I've heard.Open,and it has that musical eerieness,that makes it sound as though the performers are there.The only problem is that the bass sound was a totally different speaker(as it sounded),it was not the same type of sound as the top.You might be better off with the CLS IIz with your own subwoofer choice.

Similar Products Used:

Magneplanar 3.6

Mid range and voices

bass, placement is critical

I just sold my ReQuests after one year of listening to them. When i bought them I ignored all the bad comments reguarding the placement and muddy bass with these speakers. After a year I could no longer stand the inaccurate bass and the room i had them in was way too small so the sound was reflecting off all the walls and driving me nuts. Do not buy these if your room is not huge and/or your not willing to buy acoustic treatments. I am now getting B&W Nautilus 802s which have a more focused sound and very accurate bass.

None -- should you own the same system as myself. (see below)

(2) McIntosh MC-1000
Krell MD-10 CD Transport
Krell Studio D/A
Krell KBL Preamplifier
Krell KPA Phono Stage
Krell KBX Balanced Crossover
Basis 1400 Turntable
Magnum Dynalab Etude FM Tuner
(2) Monster Power HTS5000 Power Conditioners