Best Electrostatic loudspeaker?

Tekunda -

As you have observed, there is a wide range of opinions on the Martin-Logans, with some people loving them and some coming down on them pretty hard. This may sound strange, but I don't think the speakers are at fault - and I'd like to offer a possible explanation.

With the Martin Logan hybrids, you have to get the model that's voiced for your size room because the tonal balance of the speaker is dependent on the room size (and also listening distance). And it's the dealer's job to see to it that the speakers match the customer's room. Let me explain why this is so critical:

Sound pressure level falls off more rapidly with distance from a point source (the woofer) than from a line source (which the electrostatic panel approximates). Mathematically, sound pressure level falls off with the square of distance from a true point source, and linearly with distance from a true line source. So if we had a hybrid voiced to be flat at 1 meter, back at 10 meters the output from the panel would be 10 dB louder than from the woofer (assuming anechoic conditions and a true line source and point source - if you'd like me to go through this in more detail I will). In the real world the reverberant field fills things in a bit, but I once measured a hybrid electrostat that had the woofer up by 1 dB at 1 meter, then was flat at 3 meters, and then the panel was up by 4 dB back at 8 meters. So you see, listening distance and room size would have a very significant impact on how the system sounded.

The hybrid systems from InnerSound and Sound Lab have provisions for fine-tuning the relative level of panel and woofer, and so they work well in a wide variety of rooms. With the Martins and their wide selection, the idea is to get the speaker that's voiced for that size room. Note that another line source/point source hybrid that gets strongly opinionated reviews (pro and con) is the Newform R645, which also lacks level adjustments.

I'd be willing to bet that most of the strongly negative consumer reviews of the Martin hybrids arise from using too small a speaker for the room (resulting in weak bass/bright or thin sound) or too big a speaker for the room (resulting in thickened, sluggish bass and/or dull, lifeless sound). In support of this theory, note that people pretty much agree on what Maggies, or Sound Labs, or Quads, or even Martin CLS's sound like. But people don't generally agree on what the Martin hybrids sound like because their tonal balance is significantly more room-dependent.

Duke- I love your posts!! I always learn so much, thanks for joining our humble online group of audio dorks!! ~Tim

Excellent post Duke! Thanks! You've helped me to understand my (highly ambivalent) experiences with various types of ML hybrids in various rooms far better now, by expaining the obvious! Cheers,

Thank you very much for your kind words, Tireguy and Detlof!

I am shocked that Roger Sanders name has not come up he is by far the most knowledgable guy out there on the planet he even had a cook book relating to building stats and By the way He was the one who developed the curvilinear panel for Martin Logan ,but to his shock he realized that it was wrong for 3 reasons. If you go to sanders sound systems he has a short video and explains this very accurately.
Rogers new speaker #10 just received The Absolute Sounds
Golden Ear award .I am in the process of buying it this speaker not only has the best warranty in the business
but comes with it's own 360w amp just for the Bass with Cables , and a Very good digital Xover which is many times better than the passive junk in most other speakers and having a 48db slope guarantees the excellent transmission line Bass is Totally Seamless ! also with the digital Xover you can tune your speaker exactly the way you want for all rooms are different sonicly and you can tune in more Bass or less as well as mids who else does this ? and The SPL levels without strain even with 1,000 wpc Brystons No Sweat
and the musicality is incredible even under show conditions Fantastic. As far as sweet spot all speakers have a sweetspot less than 4ft based on the = triangle principle.
Being a stat you have the rear wave for any ambiance you will need .Since they come with a 30 day money back and they pay shipping both ways what would you have to loose ?
This is exactly why I am buying them, Maggis or ML donot offer all this and these sound at least as good as the big ML or Maggis with better bass and dynamics and not the size of a refrigerator as in a soundlab which BTW is still a very good speaker .If you havn't heard the new 10c then you have not heard them. Give them a good listen before making any call that is what any informed Audiophile would do ,checkem out .