The great thing about attending a consumer audio/video show like Audio Advice Live 25, which took place August 1-3 in Raleigh, North Carolina, is that it can be a fun learning experience for the whole family. Indeed, during my time roaming this year’s show, I saw several families taking in the stereo and home theater demos, some with young children, and even one with an infant.
That infant was in attendance at the JVC/MartinLogan demo, and it was a good thing it was strapped into an inward-facing baby carrier, because about ten seconds into the demo, which kicked off with the intense Ready Player One motorcycle race/King Kong sequence, mom was out of her seat and making a quick beeline for the exit.
As someone whose parents took him to see Jaws, a movie that strangely has a PG rating, like a Disney film, in a theater at age five, I can commiserate. But poor baby nonetheless ended up missing one of the most dynamic, immersive, and loud home theater demos at Audio Advice Live 25.
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MartinLogan Illusion 34A (left) and Renaissance 15A (right) speakers (Image credit: Future)
The demo marked the US debut of MartinLogan’s new lineup of Grotto subwoofers, and a seven-pack was used for the system: three Grotto 15 subs in front and four Grotto 12 subs in back.
MartinLogan also used a full seven-channel electrostatic speaker array for the demo, featuring two Renaissance 15A towers ($29,999/pair) up front for left/right channels, an Ilusion 34A center channel ($9,500), and four ESL X Electromotion surrounds ($4,500/pair). These were paired with four Sistine 4XC ($2,200/each) in-ceiling speakers, a flagship 3-way model with an AMT tweeter. Surround processing was carried out by a Trinnov Altitude 32.
As impressive as the system’s speaker setup was, the JVC DLA-NZ900 projector ($30,000), an 8K model with 150,000:1 native contrast, delivered the best picture quality I saw at the show, and it easily illuminated the 185-inch Stewart Filmscreen 16:9 aspect ratio StudioTek 130 projection screen JVC paired it with. The video source was a Kaleidescape movie player, a standard-issue item for home theater show demos.
Ready, Player One?
Ready Player One cued up on the Kaleidescape movie player (Image credit: Future)
The roar of engines as motorcycles zoomed across the virtual cityscape in Ready Player One was as vivid as I’ve ever heard it in MartinLogan’s demo, with crashes conveyed with deep bass impact by the Grotto subwoofer array. I had seen this same clip used in several other demos at the show, but the MartinLogan system brought it to life in a way that really commanded my attention.
Disney’s Coco was up next, and this intensely colorful animated movie gave the JVC NZ900 projector a chance to strut its stuff. With the projector upconverting Coco to 8K, the picture looked incredibly clean and detailed, and also impressively bright given the enormous 185-inch screen, which was the second largest at Audio Advice Live 25. The NZ900’s rendering of color gave equal weight to both vivid and more subtle hues, and it was clearly helped along by the projector’s powerful native contrast.
What’s a home theater demo these days without Top Gun: Maverick? With Tom Cruise’s Mav in the pilot’s seat for the dangerous final mission, where the squad takes out the enemy’s missile installation after flying through a network of canyons (this sequence always reminds me of a video game, and I mean that in the best way), the airborne trajectory of the fighter jets sounded visceral and was tracked with pinpoint accuracy. This demo was definitely a superior experience to seeing Top Gun: Maverick in my local theater.
As a one-time MartinLogan speaker owner, I’ve always loved the crisp, detailed sound of the company’s hybrid electrostatic models. Getting to hear a Dolby Atmos home theater demo on a system based on its next-to-flagship Renaissance 15A towers was a definite treat and a highlight of Audio Advice Live 25. That baby doesn’t know what it missed.
