MartinLogan Vantage vs. MartinLogan Montage

Just for the heck of it I decided to give my Vantages a break for a week. I moved my Montage left and right floor standing speakers from the rear to the front of room in the spot that was previously occupied by the Vantages.

Source Equipment: Pioneer Elite BDP-23FD, PS3 (3D), Media Server feeding an Asus Xonar STX sound card, and Sonos.

Amplification: Pioneer Elite SC-37, Pioneer VSX-33. I am in the market for a new amp because I have sold the Emotiva XPA-2.

Music:
The Montage created a wide sound stage. The sound was well off to the right and left of the speakers with an excellent center image. While listening to 2-channel music the speakers completely disappeared in the room and never really drew any attention to themselves. The bass was plenty and the mid-range was very good. I did have to increase the low pass crossover to 45Hz from 30Hz on the Depth-i to get the low end closer to my liking.

Comparison with the MartinLogan Vantage:
I moved the Montage back to their designated surround duties and listened to the same material again on the MartinLogan Montage.  Right off the bat I noticed that the Montage were more forward sounding and brighter than the Vantage.  The cymbals had a tad bit more sparkle to them on the Montage, but on the Vantage's, to my ears, they were more natural and less fatiguing over time.  The soundstage on the Montage was wide but did not extend vertically as high as the MartinLogan Vantages.  The alarm clocks and bells in Pink Floyd’s “Time” had more height to them on Vantage then the Montage. 

The Vantage retail for $5,600 whereas the Montage retailed for $1,500.  So, it was clearly obvious to me that in this case the extra dollars actually resulted in better sound, even in my modest system.  The MartinLogan Montage overall are very good speakers and hold there own when it comes sound staging and imaging and that is one of the reason’s why I will always keep them.