I wish you could give 10 stars because that is how much I would give this Martin Logan center channel.
I tend to typically be disappointed with center channels as they never seem to have enough oomph for the vocals. Most of the time I have turn up the volume on the center channel to get a good mix with all three front speakers. This was the first I did not have to do that. From the start I could easily and clearly hear all the dialogue from the movies I was watching.
My favorite part was that at low volume or even high volume the speaker was always clear and full sounding. At low volumes you could hear everything and at high volume I never got distortion or clipping.
This is truly an amazing sounding speaker, it is definitely pretty large and have a good amount of weight.
They are beautifully designed and have a very premium look and feel.
Everything I threw at the speaker sounded amazing I never once struggled understanding any dialogue and the presence it gives is pretty amazing it’s a pretty wide sound from this speaker and it really helps makes you feel like your in the middle of the movie you are watching. Highly highly recommend

I was absolutely ecstatic when I got the opportunity to review the new MartinLogan Motion XTs. I am a cinephile, audiophile, technophile type person, and have been a long time fan of MartinLogan’s products.
I am borrowing some parts of this review from my other reviews of the rest of the Motion XT line. But it is relevant here and may help others who are reading this.
I’d like to first start off by outlining the equipment I used to test these speakers. I’d like to note, none of the equipment I own is what I’d consider to be “optimal” to get the absolute best performance out of these speakers in all situations. For my listening/theatre room, the equipment I used is more than ample to produce a stellar listening experience none the less. I simply want to also point out this is an area of extreme subjectivity and one that is argued over by experts (and otherwise) in the industry. What “sounds good” to one audiophile does not always sound “good” to another. This is even more disparaging between casual listeners and casual consumers:
Denon AVR-X4700H without a separate amp, single wired with bridge (125 watts RMS in 2 ch modes)
Epson Cinema 3200 4k Projector w/ grey 100″ static screen
I’d like to also point out that the impedance on the C100s are 5ohms (lower the better) which essentially means, it requires more power to deliver optimal sound but the result is less distortion and better sound. Your standard speakers are typically 8ohms, so at 50% greater impedance, these are truly special/high end speakers. My Denon AVR-X4700H claims to be 4ohms capable, however, what this really means (for anyone else looking for a similar setup) is the power draw changes, which technically speaking will register a 4 ohms certification, but in reality, it’s just making the receiver work harder, get hotter, and risk burning out the receiver. This receiver is NOT a true 4ohms amp and should be used in it’s 8ohms configuration (which is how I operated it). Anyone wanting to learn more should do their own ample research on this topic. Optimal amp to get a true 4ohms at clean, stable power should be used to maximize these speakers. The C100 had no issue what so ever operating at the 8ohms delivered via my Denon. I never have to turn the volume up much over 50% for these to blow the roof off my basement, so for my purposes, additional amplification is not necessarily needed.
I’m going to limit this review to just home theatre/movies. I am not a fan of using center channels or rears when listening to music. Despite some albums not being in spatial audio, I prefer 2 channel audio for that type of content. I also imagine anyone using this center will be using it mainly for movies/TV and not audio. The center channel is also THE MOST IMPORTANT speaker in a home theatre setup. This is where most of the audio comes from, and everything else is just supporting audio or ambiance.
Setup of this thing is a little different that others. MartinLogan allows the owner to choose the orientation of the speaker, which is either “default right side up” or “upsidedown” which alters the direction of how the audio is thrown. They include the MartinLogan logo which is to be place in the proper orientation once the direction is chosen. I chose the default orientation with the logo at the bottom. They also include feet which are stuck to the bottom using 3M tape. The feet are not adjustable as they are on the Motion F100 floors and this is meant to be placed on an already level shelf, table, rack, etc..
Normally, on every home theatre setup I’ve ever done in the past 30 years, I ALWAYS boost the center channel db to + 4 or 5 over the rest of the speakers in the setup. These were no different to start. I chose a +5 as my typical and started sampling Alita Battle Angel. I immediately went back in and turned it down to +2, which is where I currently still have it. This is the first time I’ve ever gotten close to even on a center channel with the rest of the lineup. The clarity this center produces is outstanding. Vocal tracks are crisp, clear, and flawless. I am debating dropping it again down to +1. I tried this at 0 and felt it was still a little too muddled out for my taste. I really like hearing the vocal tracks over booms, and other ambient effects. The horn tweeter offers a range of both harshness (for necessary things, such as, well, horns, or sharper sounds like gun shots, knife swipes, or other “sharp” things. It also lends itself to offer a very warm and smoother sound for lesser more mid range sounds that still require a tweeter. It’s pretty remarkable how dynamic this is with a horn based tweeter. Switching to Jurassic Park the experience was no different. All vocal tracks were stellar while also allowing for the large, boomy bass needed for things like the T-Rex chasing after the Jeep in that infamous scene, shine through loud and clear. This center is huge, it sits at around 25″ left to right and 8″ high. You need to ensure you have a shelf big enough to accommodate this, or if it sits on top, the TV or projector screen is mounted high enough so this does not cover the screen. I’d recommend, whenever possible, to NOT put a center in a cabinet enclosed, and rather sit it on top to give it enough room to breath and fire it’s woofer from the back without impedance.
I am absolutely in love with this center channel (as well as the entire Motion XT line up). This is the BEST center channel I have ever listened to in year of being around custom theatre setups, and high end audio/theatre equipment. MartinLogan has knocked it out of the park with this center and at the asking price, it is a phenomenal bang for the buck if you can swing the cost.
Thank you MartinLogan for the opportunity and experience. I will be raving about this for a very, very long time. You’ve made a new super fan out of me, and I am so very grateful.

Paired with other ML Motion XT speakers including F100, B100, MP10 multipurpose and dynamo X800 subs, Marantz Cinema 50 and Epson LS800 projector. XT C100 is easy to hear and matches well with the F100s. Our C100 is low below the projector and it does help to present the speaker upside down to raise the appearance of the sound coming from the screen.

This review is part of a Martin Logan Speakers set I have got. As you well known, center speakers are designed to improve the chats and dialogues of the movie, being a key part and critical component of any home theater system. The majority of all the chatting, and dialogues will come out from this speaker. Music performance will be not relevant for this purpose. With that in mind, I tested this speaker with a couple of movies that have a lot of action sequences and at the same time many dialogues in between.
But first, lets start by the quality and appearance of the speaker. It feels and looks really high end as it is supposed to be. Robust enclosure (and this is very important because you want to isolate the negative sound that comes naturally from the back of the speaker efficiently without affecting the displacing performance of the speaker movement), heavy (big magnets, 34pounds) and powerful (rated 150watts rms at 5ohms impedance, which is a lot), that means that will require 5.5 amps at maximum sound volume. Something that you want to have in consideration for the speaker wire you want to use. Martin Logan design the enclosure in a way that you can choose the orientation so you can flip it upside down to angle the sound up toward your listening position if placing it on a lower shelf. The look is stylish, angled, elegant with a nice grill design and black glossy finish cabinet that you will feel proud to have in your living as part of the rest of the furniture. Mine is Gloss Black, shiny, modern and very stylish. Setup is simple, the speaker comes with an accessory box that includes the “feet” that stuck to the cabinet using tape. A very nice and useful black soft bag to cover it, and the QR code to download the instruction manual, which I always recommend to read it in order to familiarize better with any product you get. In this case, just go to page 13, there you will see the specifications which will help you to understand what amplifier and cables you might need depending on the power that you amp is capable to deliver.
The frequency response is surprisingly wide for a center speaker, 42Hz – 25kHz, practically like a high end regular speaker. The packaging reflects the level of quality and care Martin Logan invests on their products, it was really well packaged. It took me some quite time to unpack it, but while I was doing it I realized, that I was in front of a really high end product.
My old man used to say, about high end sound equipment, “the heavier, the better”, and even if nowadays the design of modern Sound equipment’s has reduce significantly the size and weight of the components like transformers, magnets and big capacitors, that statement is still valid today.
For the test, I have an old school Yamaha 200watts at 4 ohms per channel amplifier, signal noise ratio of 97db, 0,008THD, for the center channel 100watts at 6 ohms, setting up the volume level to 4 to begin with. So, I was watching the remake of “The Godfather 3” and even if this is not a “loud” movie, I was able to hear clearly the chatting of the crowd very distinctively while the main characters were talking in the main scene. This is the level of detail that makes a great sound effect. Watching Thor Ragnarok was very pleasant, even with the explosions, screaming, yelling, lasers, the clarity of dialogues were outstanding and sounded completely independent of the rest of the speaker set. The tweeter is very distinctive to discriminate the voices sounding. But you have to take in consideration, that this center speaker, with the right amplifier really got to the point, which is to centralized the vocal and midrange frequencies efficiently. But something else that surprise me as well, was that I move to different sections of the living room, left, right and I received the this bath of clarity and atmospheric sound involvement, which is something that I wasn’t expecting.
I am very pleased with the performance of this center speaker and extremely happy to have the full set to enjoy my listening experience even more.