New Martin Logan comparisons
 

Our local audio club had an event today. Jon is doing a review for Stereophile of some new Martin Logan speakers. He has some ML which are about 10 years old. A few of us got together at his house and did some serious listening and comparison. It was a ton of fun!

A quick summary; they were very good, great detail. The sound stage was good but very picky. Meaning they had to be setup for a particular sweat spot and the imagine didn't seem particularly good in other spots around the room. A little on the bright side and we mostly all agreed that the 200-250 hours of breaking in that Jon had given them was not enough. He is going to give them another 100 hours before doing the formal review.

They were good, but for $25k they would definitely not be my cup of tea.

Martin Logan ES speakers have a reputation for being very directional (even with their curved panels which are supposed to address that issue.) My auditions agree with Randy's assessment regarding having a very small sweet spot and they completely fall apart as you move off center. Some call them "head in a vice" speakers.

That is a great explanation. Many of us made the same observations. They were also rather harsh, but we all pretty much came to the conclusion that the 200-250 hours that Jon had put on the speakers was probably not enough. Changing the toe in on the speaker did help but again, only in a very particular "sweet spot".

It was a very enjoyable experience. But I can honestly say that I would not be interested in this $25,000 speaker...

Former Martin Logan owner experience
 

Unfortunately they have always been that way when listening to 2 channel playback. The rear wall of behind the speakers have to be treated accordingly along with side walls also for them to really bring out the best they offer. I went thru Sequel II's and then Odysseys before selling them and returning to conventional cone driven speakers. Most electrostatic speakers with the exception of Soundlabs lack the dynamics when comparing the two types of loudspeakers. Images beyond description and that trademark open soundstage with space around the instruments.

The gentleman who was running the meeting has Martin Logan speakers that are about 10 years old. The room was about as optimized as you can get. Basically the room was designed for an audio system when the house was built (it was quite amazing actually). Four of the members that were there own Martin Logan's and we all came pretty much to the same conclusion. They all did say that the Martin Logan's are very particular is placement and setup.