Lenehan ML II Reference Limited Edition

[petieboy]

Hi John,

 

Wow can`t believe this is my first post here. Have been reading some posts regarding the ML2 LE which I have ordered from Mike.  Mine will be something similar to Bill I think. Pretty much Mikes whole shabazzle. Is that even a word? lol.  I currently have ML3R which I upgraded from my original ML1`s. 

Will be selling the ML3`s now to upgrade to the ML2 LE.  Never thought I would upgrade from a reference floor-stander back to stand mount.

Anyway I am familiar with your Yamaha. I used to own a few Yamies. Have you upgraded yet?  Thought I would let you know I have a NAD S200 Silverline with matching preamp sitting around if you are interested in hearing them. If you are willing to wear the postage cost(I am in Adelaide) then I am happy to send and if interested in buying we could work out a price. If no then simply send back. They are quite a bit better than the Yamaha plus good power. If unfamiliar then see Audioreview here

http://www.audioreview.com/cat/amplification/amplifiers/nad/s-200/prd_116022_1583crx.aspx

All 20 comments are pretty much on the mark. I used to have these amps hooked up to my ML1`s and it was indeed a nice match. You can even ask Mike. He is familiar with the highly regarded NAD S200 as well. Also used them on the ML3`s which was very good also. These NAD`s are not typical NAD and are great bang for buck. Similar sound to Yamie but clearly a step up in every aspect. I upgraded amps last year. Not necessarily trying to make a sale here as I am actually happy to keep them as spare but I have been thinking lately of putting them up for sale lately.

I enjoyed reading your comments on the ML2 LE. Well done on the purchase. I love Mikes speakers and really look forward to getting my ML2`s!

How is your pair coming along?

 

Pete

[A J]

One bloke talking to another bloke about his nads says casually .........

How is your pair coming along?

Pete

[Audiobugged]

One bloke talking to another bloke about his nads says casually .........

 

 

How'd you know they're blokes?

[petieboy]

:P

[Rob181]

One bloke talking to another bloke about his nads says casually .........

 

 Go nads...Rob

[sir sanders zingmore]

We could be talking about his nads but on the other hand it could be his Manly Mahi Mahi

[Lenehan Audio]

Hi John,

 

Wow can`t believe this is my first post here. Have been reading some posts regarding the ML2 LE which I have ordered from Mike.  Mine will be something similar to Bill I think. Pretty much Mikes whole shabazzle. Is that even a word? lol.  I currently have ML3R which I upgraded from my original ML1`s. 

Will be selling the ML3`s now to upgrade to the ML2 LE.  Never thought I would upgrade from a reference floor-stander back to stand mount.

Anyway I am familiar with your Yamaha. I used to own a few Yamies. Have you upgraded yet?  Thought I would let you know I have a NAD S200 Silverline with matching preamp sitting around if you are interested in hearing them. If you are willing to wear the postage cost(I am in Adelaide) then I am happy to send and if interested in buying we could work out a price. If no then simply send back. They are quite a bit better than the Yamaha plus good power. If unfamiliar then see Audioreview here

http://www.audioreview.com/cat/amplification/amplifiers/nad/s-200/prd_116022_1583crx.aspx

All 20 comments are pretty much on the mark. I used to have these amps hooked up to my ML1`s and it was indeed a nice match. You can even ask Mike. He is familiar with the highly regarded NAD S200 as well. Also used them on the ML3`s which was very good also. These NAD`s are not typical NAD and are great bang for buck. Similar sound to Yamie but clearly a step up in every aspect. I upgraded amps last year. Not necessarily trying to make a sale here as I am actually happy to keep them as spare but I have been thinking lately of putting them up for sale lately.

I enjoyed reading your comments on the ML2 LE. Well done on the purchase. I love Mikes speakers and really look forward to getting my ML2`s!

How is your pair coming along?

 

Pete

Hi pete       yup in fact I've sent my S200 down to Sydney where I'm setting up my system ! I guess I'm like the motor mechanic that drives round in an old jalopy.

 

Not that the system is too rough though, I'll be running ML2Reference (the Candie red ones I used at the Sydney Show ) an old PDX with Russian oil caps , Rflex and Rtek cables and yes the venerable  NAD S200.  A standard S200 is an excellent thing , 380watts per channel and all. After breathing on them I reckon they'll be the kill of the century.

Ohh yeah I nearly forgot ! 18 months ago I swapped a pair of Rtek cables for a brand new Lenovo laptop , In anticipation of finally getting a system away from the factory I slammed all my CD's on it which took about 3 days using DB Poweramp >>>>  yay good on Ya Mike , so then I put it on the top of the car to take it over to Clays so he could breath on it for me ( I'm an IT imbicile )  WAIT  WAIT for it >> you know what's coming >>>>>>>>>>>>> GONE  either smashed to pieces on the road or someone got a great Laptop with some scrath's.  Would anyone have a loaded and cocked 50 cal Desert Eagle handy ?

 

                                                                                                                                                                            Regards   Poor Ole Mike

[Phantom]

 Go nads...Rob

 

They are better in pairs

[Guest Muon]

Ah, Mike....that's a bummer with the laptop

 

Done the same with something lesser...a mobile phone.

[acg]

Hi pete       yup in fact I've sent my S200 down to Sydney where I'm setting up my system ! I guess I'm like the motor mechanic that drives round in an old jalopy.

 

Not that the system is too rough though, I'll be running ML2Reference (the Candie red ones I used at the Sydney Show ) an old PDX with Russian oil caps , Rflex and Rtek cables and yes the venerable  NAD S200.  A standard S200 is an excellent thing , 380watts per channel and all. After breathing on them I reckon they'll be the kill of the century.

Ohh yeah I nearly forgot ! 18 months ago I swapped a pair of Rtek cables for a brand new Lenovo laptop , In anticipation of finally getting a system away from the factory I slammed all my CD's on it which took about 3 days using DB Poweramp >>>>  yay good on Ya Mike , so then I put it on the top of the car to take it over to Clays so he could breath on it for me ( I'm an IT imbicile )  WAIT  WAIT for it >> you know what's coming >>>>>>>>>>>>> GONE  either smashed to pieces on the road or someone got a great Laptop with some scrath's.  Would anyone have a loaded and cocked 50 cal Desert Eagle handy ?

 

                                                                                                                                                                            Regards   Poor Ole Mike

 

A Desert Eagle weighs near as much as a ML2R Mike.  Perhaps if you just slap your hand to your forehead and say 'dohhh' like Homer Simpson. 

 

Don't despair Mike, if you like I'll trade you a laptop for a pair of ML2LE's?  How about for a pair of MLanything?  No?  Was worth a try.

 

Had you backed up your music collection?

 

Anthony

[Lenehan Audio]

A Desert Eagle weighs near as much as a ML2R Mike.  Perhaps if you just slap your hand to your forehead and say 'dohhh' like Homer Simpson. 

 

Don't despair Mike, if you like I'll trade you a laptop for a pair of ML2LE's?  How about for a pair of MLanything?  No?  Was worth a try.

 

Had you backed up your music collection?

 

Anthony

Hi Anthony     yeah all backed up ! I shake my head at least once a day re this.  All I've got now is this old Pentium11 thing.

 

About 25years ago a dude gave me a Holland and Holland side by side double barrel elephant rifle in 460 Weatherby Magnum ! just to have a shot or two. Well he didn't tell me to go the front trigger first (which is the left barrel) so of course I went to the back of the trigger guard  !! WHICH IS BOTH BARRELS !! apparently my body was lifted off the ground by about 6inches and I rolled down the shooting mound. 

 

I haven't fired a Desert Eagle but it wont do that to me.  Why get up in the morning if one cant be extreme ?             Regards MIke Lenehan 

[acg]

Hi Anthony     yeah all backed up ! I shake my head at least once a day re this.  All I've got now is this old Pentium11 thing.

 

About 25years ago a dude gave me a Holland and Holland side by side double barrel elephant rifle in 460 Weatherby Magnum ! just to have a shot or two. Well he didn't tell me to go the front trigger first (which is the left barrel) so of course I went to the back of the trigger guard  !! WHICH IS BOTH BARRELS !! apparently my body was lifted off the ground by about 6inches and I rolled down the shooting mound. 

 

I haven't fired a Desert Eagle but it wont do that to me.  Why get up in the morning if one cant be extreme ?             Regards MIke Lenehan 

 

Yowsers! 460 Weatherby Magnum!  I spent most of my teenage years hoping to try one of those out.  I remember one of my mates had this old single shot shotgun that would 'automatically' open the breach every time we put solids through it!  That thing was light and kicked like a mule, but nothing like a 460.

 

Anthony

[Assisi]

Hi Peter, I have not looked at the thread that I started about my ML II Reference Limited Edition speakers for a little while but noticed to night some recent posts.  My apologies for not responding more quickly.

When I got my speakers I knew how good they were because I had heard them at Mike’s place.  I assumed that the rest of my system whilst not as good as the speakers would be okay.  I thought that the Yamaha amplifier would be reasonably up to the task.  Well it wasn’t and I realised that very quickly even though initially I thought everything was fine.  I now know how wrong I was.  I have learnt a lot over the last few months.

 

The Yamaha is fine for AV but not stereo at this level.  When I realised that things were not as good as they should be, I bought a new amplifier.  A BMC C1 which is more like a power amplifier with a volume control.  More importantly for me it has 2x balanced inputs.  It was a significant improvement over my Yamaha Z11 AV receiver which is a great piece of equipment but not up to it in two channel mode for the speakers.  I am very pleased with the BMC.

 

A friend who has good ear for good quality HiFi and what should happening much better than I do listened to the system with the BMC.  He was very surprised at how poor the sound image and stage was.  Initially he blamed the speakers.  He had not heard them previously and did not know what they could do.  He thought that they were virtually a waste of money.  I knew that was not the case and that there was some other factor.

 

I started to consider the DAC which is fed by a networked NAS.  The network connection between the NAS and the DAC was 15m. Whilst I could not see that the distance was a problem maybe it was a problem.  I moved the NAS to be 2m from the DAC and used Cat6 cable instead of Cat5.  Problem disappeared immediately.  Image and stage were much better but not perfect.  I now use Cat 7 cables.  Are they better than Cat6?  Maybe.  It is possible that the distance itself was not the issue but that I damaged the 15m Cat5 cable when I installed it.  I did pull the cable quite hard through a tight hole.  I have been told that anything more than a 2kg strain on Cat5 can be problem. 

 

My friend with the good ear is now very impressed with the speakers.  He builds speakers as hobby.

 

As both the amplifier and the DAC have balanced connections I bought some reasonable quality balanced leads.  I could hear a marginal improvement over the RCA interconnects that I had been using.  One of the balanced leads turned out to be faulty in construction and on occasions created a hum.  I took them back and I am still waiting for new ones.  Whilst I wait for replacements, the shop has lent me much better leads.  I can hear a definite improvement.  I am not sure whether I can afford them.  They are Crystal Cable micro diamond. They are very nice.

 

As well as the balanced leads I have played around with power leads and very a good quality power filter.  I think that my fiddle with power has made a difference.  I cannot say that the expense was worth it but every little bit helps.  I know that Mike at the moment is a bit excited about power leads and possible improvement.  For me power is a work in progress.

 

I have also played around with various isolation devices and boxes for the amplifier.  There may be a possible improvement.  I am not sure.  It may just be placebo effect.

My system sound image was now very good but I wanted better.  One wall in my room was a glass window and the other was brick with a plaster back wall.  The glass window has a heavy drape which I can close.  So that I could replicate the drape I have temporarily hung a heavy blanket from an exposed ceiling beam on the brick wall side.  The image and sound stage are now better still.  I am contemplating a permanent solution.  Initially the speakers were 30cm from the back wall and almost straight ahead.  Now they are 1m from the back wall and 15 degrees off axis.  That moving has been very beneficial.  In the future I will consider more acoustic improvements.  There are so many options.

 

 

The speakers have over 1,000 hours of running time.  In fact I would suggest to anybody who has bought MLII LEs don’t get too excited until at least 800 hours of run in.  My system is now starting to be a real pleasure to listen to.  I do wonder what else I can do to fine tune it even more.  I consider my speakers from Mike are worth every cent I paid.  It is glorious to be able listen to such high quality sound. 

 

Cheers

 

John

[Soundscape]

We could be talking about his nads but on the other hand it could be his Manly Mahi Mahi

Or perhaps his Minnie Ha-Ha

Edited May 19, 2013 by rehabitat

[cazzesman]

For the uninitiated here on SNA, would any ML disciples hazard a step by step improvement ladder on the ML2 Ref.   Obviously each Limited Edition is different.   Some add a little of this and subtract a little of that to get what they want within a budget. 

So if the bench mark is the ML2 Ref at $6,900 with the following specs...............

 

Composite 18 to 36mm HDF laminated to 4mm sprung steel plate. Plus additional 4mm steel plate composite baffle.
Differential Cancellation bracing utilising 25mm hardwood dowel, 13mm steel rod and 18mm Birch Plywood.

Crossover: Full hardwire hand build, all joints are high Pressure low contact area cold weld sealed with Teflon amalgamated wrap.
12awg aircored inductors, low tension hand-wound double stabilised.
Duelund VSF copper foil capacitors in low and high pass crossover filters.
Duelund Carbon Phenolic 15 watt resistors throughout.
Proprietary integration of enclosure substrate steel plate with Crossover network groundplanes.

Tweeter: 1 inch chambered textile dome.
Mid-bass driver: 6.5 inch Nomex Diaphram.
Wiring: Handbuilt 25mm and 13mm RibbonTek flat ribbon wire with proprietary dialectric.
Input connection: Eichmann cablepods................................

 

Where do you start if you have a $8,000, $9,000 or $10,000 budget?    What would you add to the Reference model, that would noticeable improve the performance, step by step?

Anyone prepared to have go at the Improvement ladder by tweak.   Obviously the $ is hypothetical but I am just interesting to hear what someone might add firstly to the Ref if they had another $1,000, $2,000 or $3,000 to add.

 

Much the same as buying a base model car and then adding extras to it until the budget is reached.

 

Regards Cazzesman

[cazzesman]

Bhobba,

 

Being a past/current (?) owner, I was wondering if you thought the NAD c390DD was capable of realistically driving the ML2 Ref or your new LE with conviction.   I understand you would opt for something higher up the food chain, but as I have a 390 I am interested in your views.

 

Regards Cazzesman

[DoggieHowser]

I am not familiar with the cost of the options but if I had to hazard a guess:

In decreasing order of importance:

CAST

HD3

copper and brass bracing

Star grounding

[Rob181]

I am not familiar with the cost of the options but if I had to hazard a guess:

In decreasing order of importance:

CAST

HD3

copper and brass bracing

Star grounding

 

And Bybees...the difference these make is amazing...as Mario says...trust your ears...Rob

[DoggieHowser]

Ah forgot about that. I have the Bybees at the end of my ribbontek speaker cables.

And while they are important, you can add them afterwards on the ends of yr speaker cables instead of integrating it in the speaker itself. I'd put the Bybees above the star ground.

[kdoot]

Hi Cazzesman

 

I reckon that my ML2 Reference on the limited edition stands would sound better overall than a pair of ML2 LE (HD3, copper plate, upgraded crossover, bracing tweaks) on any typical set of stands. And the toppers still make an important contribution too. So my advice would be that the stands and maybe toppers should be prioritised over the other upgrades in terms of BFYB, if you have a constrained budget.

[DoggieHowser]

Hi Cazzesman

 

I reckon that my ML2 Reference on the limited edition stands would sound better overall than a pair of ML2 LE (HD3, copper plate, upgraded crossover, bracing tweaks) on any typical set of stands. And the toppers still make an important contribution too. So my advice would be that the stands and maybe toppers should be prioritised over the other upgrades in terms of BFYB, if you have a constrained budget.

 

I guess I see it a bit differently because those two can be added later whereas the stuff built in can't. especially the HD3 inventory which is dwindling ever lower in stock in Mike's stash.

[Cafad]

I guess I see it a bit differently because those two can be added later whereas the stuff built in can't. especially the HD3 inventory which is dwindling ever lower in stock in Mike's stash.

 

Does it exist overseas?  Can we smuggle it in from somewhere?

[DoggieHowser]

Does it exist overseas?  Can we smuggle it in from somewhere?

 

Mike said he thinks NZ still makes them but there's a minimum order quantity requirement that doesn't quite make sense for his operation. 

[cazzesman]

Thanks for the feedback folks.

 

Some other Questions.

 

What is CAST

What makes the LE stands so special?  Is is just the weight and lack of vibration through them?

Are people using a sub with the ML2 Ref to go lower than the rated 35?    If so what is recommended to keep up with the ML2.   I have a SVS SB12-NSD.

 

Regards Cazzesman

Edited June 1, 2013 by cazzesman

[DoggieHowser]

CAST is the higher range from Dueland. Up from the VSF used in the Reference.

I don't think a sub is necessary. Unless you have a much bigger rooom than Mike's. I don't think adding a sub to a stereo setup is trivial and unless its seamless and well done, you may end up trading off more than what you gain.

The stands provide a much better tighter bass response.

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