Will a pair of Manley tube amps be a good match for Martin Logan ESL 11A's?

In general its frequently thought tubes are a bad amp for electrostatic speakers.

I never heard this before.  Perhaps this is true for amps with rather  output transformers.  But any speaker that dips down to 2 or even 1 ohm is going to cause a lot of amplifiers, tube or SS some serious pain.

I have run Sound Lab A1's for 13+ years, and these too dip to nearly 1ohm at the higher frequencies.  The 220w Wolcott tube amps drove these speakers incredibly well.  And then I changed to CAT JL-3 amps, 150w rated, which also do not have multiple output taps, and the result is stunning.

Make a call to ML as well as VTL to learn if a particular VTL amp would be a good match for the 11A's.

Two transformers is really uncomfortable for my brain.

Why the two transformer phobia here?

Years ago, I auditioned a pair of Sound Lab U1 speakers with three amps: Atmasphere MA1, CAT JL-2 and Parasound JC1.  First up was the JC1 and the sound was boring.  Had this been the only amp I heard that day, I never would have bothered again with the SL speakers.  Next up was MA1 and the sound was truly beautiful.  Dimensionality and harmonic structures was truly incredible.  The JC1's were absolutely broken in comparison.  Last was the JL-2 which did not have quite the lushness of the MA1 but with the CAT came far greater dynamic contrasts and a bigger bolder presentation.  The choice between the 2 tube amps was not easy, as both had excellent tonal coherency with the MA1 just having a little more presence in the lower mids.  But I went with the CAT as it controlled the SL speakers with incredible authority and I knew I could get some of that MA1 "magic" back with the right preamp and tube rolling efforts.  And ultimately I did with Aesthetix and later Aria preamps.  So the whole notion that transformers are "bad" was clearly disproven to me that day.

I still suspect that the VTL or Manley amps might be outstanding here as they too bring on an outstanding 3D quality that might work beautifully with the ML's.  If you want to consider SS amps that won't break your budget, look for a good deal on a BAT VK 600SE.  I have a pair of these in mono configuration and they are outstanding with the Sound Lab A1s.   But I gotta believe a single VK600SE would be plenty.  The result is not at all like I heard with the JC1's.  Why the obsession with the JC1's in these forums is beyond me!

Oh, and I did hear the RM200 amp several times at a dealer and every time, his system sounded wonderful.  So this too may be an option, but it might run out of steam when you require a louder volume setting or are in a big room.

Again, call VTL, Manley and ML to get the advice on these exact products and not be focused on white papers of other products.

My assessment is that your review samples were hooked up incorrectly. 

No.  The JC1's were not review samples. This was at a dealer for Atmasphere and Parasound products.  The rest of his system was top notch.  The only way to incorrectly connect an amp to speakers would be to reverse the speaker cable polarity; the result is immediately obvious with all instruments conveyed at the outer edges of the speakers rather than within the speakers.  

It would be the only way you would hear something as bad as you relate.

Compared to the Atmasphere and CAT amps at that moment, the JC1's were severely dimensionally flat.  That was just how it was.  The dealer downplayed the result but to me, it was not subtle at all.  Going back and forth between the two tube amps was an incredible experience.  Nobody had any desire to return to the JC1's whose performance was in the mid-fi zone.

I recently purchased a Symphonic Line RG1, a model near the bottom of the SL product line, and this amp is phenomenal with the A1's.  This mid-sized, mid-powered amp portrays space and harmonic structure in a most impressive manner.  Directly comparing the baby SL with the mighty CATs shows me how well engineered the SL amp is.

As for Sound Lab dealers or show demos using JC1's as part of their setup is not surprising.  I heard SL's at a So Cal audio show some years back and the system result was mediocre at best.  I could not believe the midfi gear in that setup.  One of those head-shaking moments.  I wanted to go home and bring my tube preamp for his demo as it would have transformed the result.