MartinLogan Masterpiece Series | Review and Comparison

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For those of you who may not be familiar with electrostatic loudspeakers, they have actually been around for over 65 years when the Quad electrostatic was introduced. Unlike conventional speakers, in simple terms, electrostatics use a super thin diaphragm that sits in between charged panels that cause the diaphragm to move. The advantages are the diaphragm is far lighter than any other type of speaker material and you have a whole lot more surface area. The disadvantages historically were that electrostatic panels could not really produce deep bass and most designs had limited dispersion which historically made these speakers better for dedicated listening rooms where you can sit right in the sweet spot. Also, all of the early electrostatics were very limited in the volume output they could produce.

Over the years, MartinLogan has become the clear leader in electrostatic speaker technology with constant innovations in their speaker technology to overcome the inherent disadvantages of electrostatic speakers. I thought it would be fun to go over the best sellers in their Masterpiece series. Today, I will go over the Renaissance ESL 15A, the Expression ESL 13A, the Impression ESL 11A, and the Classic ESL 9. First I am going discuss the technology they all share and then get into the differences between the models and give you some insight as to which might work best for your system.

The magic of these electrostatic speakers is that there is a super thin transparent film suspended between two charged perforated metal stators. An amplifier's signal, when applied to the stators, creates a strong electrostatic field that moves the diaphragm back and forth, exciting the air and transmitting sound.. You can imagine that this gives them an incredible advantage in speed and accuracy of starting and stopping vs. large cone drivers, with the transducer changing direction more than 40,000 times per second.

The pure, clean sound of electrostatic speakers has been the dream of music lovers for decades. The MartinLogan Masterpiece series represents the pinnacle of this type of speaker system. The combination of all of their three decades of audio engineering results in a line of products whose performance is even better than the sum of all their high tech. They certainly achieve MartinLogan’s goal of truth in sound! MartinLogan speakers are owned by many of the experts here at Audio Advice, giving our team the hands on experience to help you find the best match for your system, room and budget. While the larger models in the line do need a pretty good sized room to perform their best, we can work with you to see which model will fit best in your room.