meddesigner
New member
My quest for a new speaker system has lead me to look at the Martin Logan Eletromotion ESL. I have been listening to them at my local Best Buy with source material I am very familiar with but am concerned about a few things I am hearing and wanted to get some input. Since all Best Buy has is A/V receivers this is what we had to listen to along with a carousel disc player. Also note that I am only interested in two channel performance as I am not interested in home theater.
My frustration with this process is Best Buy is not the place to buy speakers like this. You can tell absolutely nothing about the product and I would think Martin Logan would want to showcase their speakers in a better light. Unfortunately, we no longer have a local dealer I care for. If your not going to spend 20K on speakers and electronics then forget it. I checked on the ML web site and I have no dealer anywhere near me and those that are in a 250 mile radius are non-stocking dealers that appear to work out of their homes. Any advice you can give will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the help in advance -
Richard in Nashville
- The first thing I took away was they appear to be very placement sensitive. We messed around with it a bit but I never obtained what I felt was a good solid image. In fact, on a source I am very familiar with, the vocal appeared to be panned to far to the right. I checked on my current home system and all was well. While at the store i had them check if the A/V receiver was applying any type of processing applied or of the settings could be affecting this. The rep said it was flat and on “pure direct” but we could never fix this. The issue is not in the recording so I am leaning toward placement. Thoughts?
- At times I felt the system was overly bright have with other Martin Logan systems. The last time I seriously considered a ML system was in the early 90’s with the Sequel II’s and then the Quests. I held off and considered a pair or Aerius i’s in the late 90’s. I ended up with Magnepan 1.6’s and keep those to about three years ago. Thoughts on brightness and it’s relation to not only placement, but the A/V receivers being used?
- What type of amplification would you use. My option are to use an Aragon 8002 or purchase a McIntosh MC275 Mk V. I was going to get a set of Magnepan 1.7’s but just do not want door sized speakers in my room anymore. The Martin Logan size wise is a comfortable fit. Plus, with an addition of a low frequency driver, it appears it will give better low end than the Magnepan would. How would one compare the Eletromotion ESL or any MArtin Logan to the imaging of the Magnepan.
- Is there any other speaker in the ML line you would suggest I consider new or pre-owned?
My frustration with this process is Best Buy is not the place to buy speakers like this. You can tell absolutely nothing about the product and I would think Martin Logan would want to showcase their speakers in a better light. Unfortunately, we no longer have a local dealer I care for. If your not going to spend 20K on speakers and electronics then forget it. I checked on the ML web site and I have no dealer anywhere near me and those that are in a 250 mile radius are non-stocking dealers that appear to work out of their homes. Any advice you can give will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the help in advance -
Richard in Nashville