These speakers are great as standalone speakers. Their bass digs decently deep with great resolve on the tweeter. The soundstage is good with very good separation of instruments and vocals. Present a great a center image. I will say if you have good subs already at your disposal, opt for the XT B100 bookshelves from Martin Logan’s. Doing a direct AB between these two, it was very apparent how the motion XT tweeter shines over the motion tweeter in these. The B100s have a very transparent sound, much better depth and a greater sense of scale surprisingly. They completely disappear and the sounds seems like it’s coming from a large canvas. A true marvel at their price. Just remember, they do not have solid bass and should be used with a sub, preferably crossing over at 80-100hz depending on your room and subs. Used a denon x4800h bi-amped for both speakers. If you have the space, B100 with good subs 100%!

These speakers have so much depth in the sound stage. Vocals come through clean and very highly believable without distortion on most of my CD collection and even poorly recorded CDs sound better with these speakers. The midrange is measured very well and the bass is tight and you can feel it when they are cranked up. I can listen to the F20s all day and not notice any ear fatigue. As far as looks, the piano black is a beautiful mirror finish and the black stainless outriggers not only look cool but are so easy to adjust with a twist if the hand...no tools required. Also, they are bottom ported so if you are limited on space these can be placed closer to the wall than most other tower speakers (i keep mine about 16" from the wall) I do highly recommend these and i think they are worth every penny. I cannot think of anything I dislike so all i can say is go for it if your considering these tower speakers

wow is all I can say, I upgraded my 24 yr old Boston Acoustic speaker system with these new Marti Logans and it's lke being in a theater, these floors with a center and 4 in walls, along with a subwoofer has me back into watching action driven movies again!!

I recently decided it is time to upgrade my good old Infinity Beta 50 floor standing loudspeakers in a quest for fresher sound. I have been admiring my brother in law’s B&W speakers but aside from being way outside of my price range, they are also a much older model that was discontinued years ago. I’ve listened to a few other brands at the local BestBuy and finally narrowed it down to these MartinLogan Motion F20s based on their performance, price and build quality. Received them well wrapped and packed on a pallet. These speakers are heavy, despite being smaller than my previous Beta 50s. Make sure you open the boxes from the bottom as clearly printed on the box. There is a reason for that - the box of accessories, that includes the feet is packed at the bottom of the box. So you can install them first and then get the speakers upright. I am impressed with the level of detail and care Martin Logan put into the build and packing of these speakers, even though they are manufactured in China. They also include a very nice fitted fabric cover with the Motion by Martin Logan printed on the front. Moving on from the esthetics to the more technical aspects. They are rated at 4 Ohms with a very good sensitivity of 92db which is usually found in much more expensive speakers. The frequency response is equally impressive ranging from a low 35 Hz for great bass reproduction to 25 KHz for even greater trebles coming from the updated folded motion tweeters. For now I have these connected to the equally stylish dual-amp capable binding posts to a Yamaha RX-A820 that can handle them fine at moderate volume without overheating, but it may be a different story when it gets hot in the summer. Most of the time on this setup is spent watching movies and sports, and they sound sharp and clear vocals with very tight bass and a wide field of sound that’s suitable for multiple listening positions. Even at a lower volume they articulate all sounds beautifully, including plenty of mid-range frequencies despite the slightly smaller single mid-range driver. I actually prefer the bass reflex down-firing ported box that makes it less relevant where to place these speakers in relation to the surrounding walls. Stereo music listening is phenomenal, especially in higher definition from either an HD streaming service or in my case from the good-old DVD-Audio DTS format that is more of a collectible item now. I have a few excellent classical collections as well as some great classics like Fleetwood Mac, Peter Gabriel and several Eagles albums. These ML F20’s have renewed my interest in listening to music out loud instead of the more popular, always on the run earbuds. All in all if you have a decent budget, a quality AV Receiver or Amp and of course a larger room and space for floorstanding speakers, I would highly recommend these.

Martin Logan F20 speakers. I can’t claim to love my movie entertainment any more than I love my vast selection of music. Having the best reproduction of sound has been an ongoing pursuit. I want to have seat shaking sound when tanks rumble by or when rockets launch skyward on the screen and still be able to have accurate representation of individual instruments in a full orchestra or the overtones that separate the sound of a violin from a cello. With so much music and movies accessible at exceptionally high quality via streaming and disks, it’s now possible to recreate a theater or concert venue at home. I’ve been on a quest most of my life to do that very thing. PREVIEW: Yes, these Martin Logan speakers demonstrated an ability to deliver accurate reproduction of every sound. Honestly, I’ve found several competing speakers that are similarly accurate. What separates these Martin Logans from the pack is their ability to cover a range of quiet, even delicate tones or voices and deliver explosive sounds with equal ease. Although I anticipated Martin Logan’s famous capabilities in the upper frequency ranges, I was surprised at their competence handling bass with authority, and especially their very dynamic presentation. It was as if they had two personalities. They are subtle, beautifully delicate with detail layered on top of a rock’n roll’n raucous bad boy slam. The front stage they create is broad and it holds up well even seated off to one side of a room. They make voices easy to understand. My only internal debate concerns what room will they end up in: theater or my large family space? SETUP: From the heavy packaging to the accessory box with the gorgeous outrigger speaker supports, Martin Logan lets you know they think these speakers are special. Sliding the flawless black gloss speakers our of their fabric sock seals the deal. These are special speakers challenging the rest of the $3-5,000 competition. My largest room listening/viewing area is equipped with a Yamaha Aventage RXA860 acting as a pre-amp for a Parasound 5125 multi-channel amp, providing an honest 125w/channel into 8 Ohms, and 185w/channel into 4 Ohms, which is the load these Martin Logans most often present to an amp. Later on during my early listening tests I moved them to my smaller (14’ square) theater room where I use a Yamaha Aventage RXA2070. This less demanding space allows the 140w/ch available power to easily drive the F20s. These are demanding speakers which will over-stress AVRs that don’t have robust power supplies or aren’t stable with 4ohm speakers. [Such AVRs will have stickers advising you of problems with 4 ohm speakers.] With these two amplifiers, the Motion F20s will play loud, louder than the previous speakers that occupied these locations. Phono purists might be disappointed that I rely on Apple Music (up to 24-bit/192kHz) music streaming exclusively but that also means I can listen to Dolby Atmos-powered Spatial Audio. Movie sources include the highest quality audio streaming but more often I use the UHD or Blu-ray disk formats because I really do prefer best available audio/video quality. [Because I knew I would be listening to multi-channel music and movies, I added Martin Logan’s Motion 50XTi center channel speaker from their previous line-up. That deserves its own review, but, I can say it is equally impressive.]] LISTENING to MUSIC: I started with popular music from my youth, because it is so familiar to me. The Doors, “Spanish Caravan”, John Lennon’s voice on “Girl”, and the harmonies of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young all have strong bass and drum accompaniment and very natural, recognizable male voices. Music was fun to listen to, but before I used room equalization on both of my AVRs, there were times when the upper bass stepped forward more than I remember. It didn’t keep me from increasing the volume on Van Morrison’s “In the Afternoon”. Here Morrison’s voice sounded like he was sitting on a stool in a club, very intimately sharing a memory. I also sampled selections from Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” because it features the orchestra’s a wide variety of instruments which all get are properly presented with the Motion F20s detailed and lightning fast transient response. I came forward in time and played a mix. Starting With Paramore’s “Big Man, Little Dignity:, Hayley Williams’s voice stays smooth and intimate. Miley Cyrus sounded raucous with her new recordings, especially the live recordings. Alicia Keyes “Butterflyz” and Alison Krauss “When you Say Nothing At All” were delivered with delicacy and proper attention to the variety of instruments and musicians on hand. Of course I had to invite song birds Arian Grande, Adele, Mariah and even Sam Smith to the audition. All of them easily filled the room with music that never fell short of realistic in quality, accuracy and volume. These speakers have no bad habits. Billie Eilish’s thundering bass accompaniment never sounded more present. LISTENING TO MOVIE SOUND-TRACKS: I have this internal debate about what I want in my speakers. I’ve typically put my money on speakers that are completely neutral, with a ruler flat frequency response. This too often has meant I must sacrifice dynamics, the widest range of the loudest to the quietest sounds. My very accurate speakers often sound strained when forced to cover a broad volume range. If dialog is fine, the explosive scenes must be limited. These Martin Logan F20s toss out that limitation. These F20s challenge you to play your most dynamic movie sound tracks and enjoy the entire range of sounds. Almost every Jurassic Park movie, Star Trek movies, the Mummy series, Star Wars all want to be played on a sound system that can soar to the extremes while staying loud but no harsh in any way. I sampled scenes from each of these and these movies haven’t sounded better. The newest Top Gun sequel could convince the neighborhood to run to their windows for a flyby. It demands to be be played at realistic volumes, and the F20s don’t disappoint. I also remembered to play my favorite streaming soundtrack, “The Politician”, and the wonderful “River” by Joni Mitchell sung by Ben Platt. I have never heard it sound better, more real, more “right there in the room” like the entire episode (and series) which was recorded wonderfully. QUIBBLES? You definitely want to use your AVR’s or pre-amp’s auto-equalization. Those systems in my two Yamaha’s nicely corrected what I interpreted as an over-active bass response that starts in the lowest frequency range and has the potential of muddying male voices. Well, I’m probably the only person trying to dial back the bass region of these wonderful speakers. Some owners will see this as an opportunity to delay buying subwoofers. Another fault, which you likely will NOT see as a problem, is these speakers really love to be played at volume. I find they come into best tonal balance at louder volumes in larger spaces. Don’t get me wrong, I usually listen at normal even softer volumes, but the Martin Logan’s create an urge to surge the volumes. SUMMARY: These Martin Logan’s fill my large family room better than any speakers I’ve ever owned, and with less sense of strain. I strongly urge that new owners match these with an AVR or Amp that has an equalizer, better yet, AUTO-equalizer feature to get the best performance. Many end users will want to ensure the bass equalization brings the Martin Logans into a balance for YOUR unique room size and layout. After doing this for my room, that upper bass sounded authoritative but balanced. The lower bass is outstanding. The treble always sounded natural, and I preferred a towed-in orientation of my speakers. Many buyers will wonder if they should have spent extra for the bigger Martin Logan Motion Series. I can’t imagine needing larger unless you have a massive living space. Highly Recommended.