How wonderful to be able to watch a video about Martin Logan which is longer than a couple of minutes. From the first time I listened to a ML speaker, they have been around: the Sequel II, Summit, ESL 11A and today the ESL 13A. Although many have explained to me why an electrostat never can sound right, I enjoy them on a daily basis. Please make a sequel to this video, covering the more recent ML developments. And what about creating a sort of encyclopedia on RUclips of all the brilliant people and brands that changed audio through the years…
I too own the 13A. The previous generation did not have a seamless sounding crossover from panel to woofers but with the 13A and the ARC I get almost linear frequency response. What does the rest of your system consist of? ML does almost zero advertising of their ESL speakers in The Absolute Sound or Stereophile nor are they featured at shows. People cannot express interest in something that is not in their consciousness. It seems ML under the new owners want the ESL to fail. They will discontinue the ESL speakers and then blame the public for lack of interest and sales plummeting. Their focus is and has been elsewhere for at least the past 4 years. I wrote to them and received a reprehensible reply saying they are doing what’s best for where the market is now. The declining sales remains solely THEIR responsibility for not supporting the product; marketing 101. Theirs is a transparent self fulfilling prophecy.
@@mahasidha9 I hope you are not right about the ESL's, but I am afraid you are. That would be very, very disappointing to loose (another) series of wonderful products. I have played my Martin Logans with all sorts of amps through the years: YBA (very nice), Pass, Devialet, Mark Levinson and since half a year the Daniel Hertz (by Mark Levinson the person) Maria 350. The Maria will never leave me for it is glorious!
@ That is high praise indeed. Do you have a turntable set up? My wife has 1,500 LPs that I cleaned meticulously and now zero surface noise. I only worry if a panel fails they will continue to support the repair; $5,000 each; ouch.
Only streaming here, but to perfection IMHO with the AudioPhool MusicStreamer 2.1. Even sold the CD player. I skipped the turn table completely. Those panels… I had covers made to protect them. But if that helps, no idea.
Bought QuestZ in 1998. Still have original panels. Recently modified slightly to bypass the bass crossover and run a second amplifier directly to bass woofers with active crossover. Allows tuning the crossover point between panel and woofers. Really wakes up the bass performance and addresses lean sound of original. Lets amp #1 to focus on driving the panels.
I bought a pair of CLS from Joe Sammut and Nelson Pass in the early nineties and wore them out! New panels from ML added another fifteen years of pleasure.
Martin Logan ESL15A here , it will be really hard to get any other speaker after owning this for past four years. Hope you do another video about the new Renaissance series and who knows maybe they’re coming out with something even your glass line been out since 2016
I listened to a lot of ML speakers at a dealer back around 2000. It was excellent for simpler music, but it struggled with complex music. It seemed to stumble over itself, not being able to separate the levels of music. Maybe they are better today.
Agreed, good certain things, interesting that he mentioned Joni Mitchell being one of the 1st test tracks, that type of thing is relatively easy to reproduce well, mulitracked prog rock/metal etc is much harder.
I always liked the clean, simple look of the original CLS. I wonder why the necessity of producing a hybrid. Didn't Alastair Robertson-Aikman of SME use a doubled up pair of Quad ESL63's braced with steel in his listening room at Steyning without subwoofers? The purist in me says there must be a way
Physics, unfortunately, is the problem. Dipoles roll off at 6 db per octave below a frequency set by the baffle width (that's why KLH set up the 9 to be used as two connected panels per channel). That rolloff frequency is 200-250 hz for a typical panel. The designer can compensate for this by mechanical or electronic EQ, but that just means that the panel has to move even farther (4x to 8x) to do 50 hz or 40 Hz in a situation where we have severe excursion limits. You can make a wider panel, but then dispersion and power response suffer. Or you could make a dipole woofer with cones. It would appear, from listening to a few of these, that the issue with mating cone woofers to electrostats is partly the use of mismatched radiation patterns. So some designers think that by using cones where cones are good (low frequencies where they are stiff and capable of relatively huge excursion) in a dipole arrangement, you can solve the problem. Very few of these have been done, but we've heard a few and the results are promising.
Next we need a video from Janszen and how he has made a new Hybrid KLH 9 replacement to replace his fathers original design. the Nine.Five ,where over the years he has improved the design of the panels to make them more reliable.
Thank you for an excellent history on MartinLogan. I was interested in high end audio back in the 80’s & eagerly attended the first LA Audio show. It was dizzyingly mesmerizing with so much audios & sounds bouncing, booming on every floor. I was delirious, overwhelmed & exhausted. Then I found the Optimal Enchantment room. We have to wait in line for it was no more than 10 people allowed in at each session. The room featured ML CLS, Audio Research & Oracle Delphi with Koetsu Rosewood playing Joni Mitchell “Blue”. It was jaw dropping! The purity, clarity & richness of her voice was “there” as if she’s performing in front of us. The CLSes completely disappeared. A knucklehead yelled, “where’s the bass?” Kodo was then played. The speed, the various drum skins felt, to me, amazingly natural & musical. (I was never a boomy bass fan). I came out of the room rejuvenated & enlightened. To this day, the ML CLS left an everlasting impression & reference for music reproduction. I hope Absolute Sound will feature other venerable audio companies who have enriched our musical senses & wonderment for the possibilities. Excellent video. ✌🏼& 🎼
Bought my CLS II in 1990-91, partnered with Audio Research amps they are still amazing.
Cool ride in the memory lane of truly innovative company that impacted many of us. Me included.
How wonderful to be able to watch a video about Martin Logan which is longer than a couple of minutes.
From the first time I listened to a ML speaker, they have been around: the Sequel II, Summit, ESL 11A and today the ESL 13A.
Although many have explained to me why an electrostat never can sound right, I enjoy them on a daily basis.
Please make a sequel to this video, covering the more recent ML developments.
And what about creating a sort of encyclopedia on RUclips of all the brilliant people and brands that changed audio through the years…
I too own the 13A. The previous generation did not have a seamless sounding crossover from panel to woofers but with the 13A and the ARC I get almost linear frequency response. What does the rest of your system consist of? ML does almost zero advertising of their ESL speakers in The Absolute Sound or Stereophile nor are they featured at shows. People cannot express interest in something that is not in their consciousness. It seems ML under the new owners want the ESL to fail. They will discontinue the ESL speakers and then blame the public for lack of interest and sales plummeting. Their focus is and has been elsewhere for at least the past 4 years. I wrote to them and received a reprehensible reply saying they are doing what’s best for where the market is now. The declining sales remains solely THEIR responsibility for not supporting the product; marketing 101. Theirs is a transparent self fulfilling prophecy.
@@mahasidha9 I hope you are not right about the ESL's, but I am afraid you are. That would be very, very disappointing to loose (another) series of wonderful products.
I have played my Martin Logans with all sorts of amps through the years: YBA (very nice), Pass, Devialet, Mark Levinson and since half a year the Daniel Hertz (by Mark Levinson the person) Maria 350. The Maria will never leave me for it is glorious!
@ That is high praise indeed. Do you have a turntable set up? My wife has 1,500 LPs that I cleaned meticulously and now zero surface noise. I only worry if a panel fails they will continue to support the repair; $5,000 each; ouch.
Only streaming here, but to perfection IMHO with the AudioPhool MusicStreamer 2.1. Even sold the CD player. I skipped the turn table completely.
Those panels… I had covers made to protect them. But if that helps, no idea.
Great history lesson! Really liked the Helen of Troy reference!
enjoyed learning about the product, and the commitment involved to realize such a beautiful and useful object.
Bought QuestZ in 1998. Still have original panels. Recently modified slightly to bypass the bass crossover and run a second amplifier directly to bass woofers with active crossover. Allows tuning the crossover point between panel and woofers. Really wakes up the bass performance and addresses lean sound of original. Lets amp #1 to focus on driving the panels.
I owned a pair of ML. I loved them - Tom, (Professor Tom ) - 😊thanks for sharing the history of ML; very nice review
I bought a pair of CLS from Joe Sammut and Nelson Pass in the early nineties and wore them out! New panels from ML added another fifteen years of pleasure.
Martin Logan ESL15A here , it will be really hard to get any other speaker after owning this for past four years.
Hope you do another video about the new Renaissance series and who knows maybe they’re coming out with something even your glass line been out since 2016
Martin Logan: Canadian owned continues to make panel spkrs in the U.S., subwoofers in Canada and the balance of the product line in China
I listened to a lot of ML speakers at a dealer back around 2000. It was excellent for simpler music, but it struggled with complex music. It seemed to stumble over itself, not being able to separate the levels of music. Maybe they are better today.
They are IMHO, try the 11A or 13A for exemple.
Agreed, good certain things, interesting that he mentioned Joni Mitchell being one of the 1st test tracks, that type of thing is relatively easy to reproduce well, mulitracked prog rock/metal etc is much harder.
Still listening to Sequels I bought used in the early 90's.
I always liked the clean, simple look of the original CLS. I wonder why the necessity of producing a hybrid. Didn't Alastair Robertson-Aikman of SME use a doubled up pair of Quad ESL63's braced with steel in his listening room at Steyning without subwoofers? The purist in me says there must be a way
Physics, unfortunately, is the problem. Dipoles roll off at 6 db per octave below a frequency set by the baffle width (that's why KLH set up the 9 to be used as two connected panels per channel). That rolloff frequency is 200-250 hz for a typical panel. The designer can compensate for this by mechanical or electronic EQ, but that just means that the panel has to move even farther (4x to 8x) to do 50 hz or 40 Hz in a situation where we have severe excursion limits. You can make a wider panel, but then dispersion and power response suffer. Or you could make a dipole woofer with cones. It would appear, from listening to a few of these, that the issue with mating cone woofers to electrostats is partly the use of mismatched radiation patterns. So some designers think that by using cones where cones are good (low frequencies where they are stiff and capable of relatively huge excursion) in a dipole arrangement, you can solve the problem. Very few of these have been done, but we've heard a few and the results are promising.
Yes, but I think Alistair Roberts Aikman of SME mainly listened to Opera so for that purpose I'm sure sure they would be fine, but still very limited.
I had Infinity Servo-Stats in the late '70s. Even tri-amped them and also experimentd with hybridization with Tympani mid panels
I have a love-hate relation to electrostats. The biggst challenge imho is to find the right amplifier making them sing. I finally came to 6c33 pse
Hard to drive 20.7s
magnetic line array
Not electrostatics
Less maintenance
Coda v3 800w@4ohm
My first am ML Speaker was a Sequel 2 (in the 90s) and now I still own and listen to ML Ethos. Some new models ahead?
Next we need a video from Janszen and how he has made a new Hybrid KLH 9 replacement to replace his fathers original design. the Nine.Five ,where over the years he has improved the design of the panels to make them more reliable.
We talked to David recently and we will get a pair when the design is finished.
I believe that Daquist took the external design from Quad.
Thank you for an excellent history on MartinLogan. I was interested in high end audio back in the 80’s & eagerly attended the first LA Audio show. It was dizzyingly mesmerizing with so much audios & sounds bouncing, booming on every floor. I was delirious, overwhelmed & exhausted. Then I found the Optimal Enchantment room. We have to wait in line for it was no more than 10 people allowed in at each session. The room featured ML CLS, Audio Research & Oracle Delphi with Koetsu Rosewood playing Joni Mitchell “Blue”. It was jaw dropping! The purity, clarity & richness of her voice was “there” as if she’s performing in front of us. The CLSes completely disappeared. A knucklehead yelled, “where’s the bass?” Kodo was then played. The speed, the various drum skins felt, to me, amazingly natural & musical. (I was never a boomy bass fan). I came out of the room rejuvenated & enlightened. To this day, the ML CLS left an everlasting impression & reference for music reproduction. I hope Absolute Sound will feature other venerable audio companies who have enriched our musical senses & wonderment for the possibilities. Excellent video. ✌🏼& 🎼
Injecting ac into a dc speaker 🔊
Well, the AC is converted to DC. Just as with an amp or a DAC or a turntable.