Premiered At London Audio Specialist, KJ West One, April 15-16 2016
Audiophile products distributor Absolute Sounds ran a two day series of presentations at the prestigious West End audio store KJ West One, both for press and public. Absolute Sounds audio technology chief Pedro Jorge Luis has been keeping an eye on the more recent developments at ML now that ML Chief Audio Technologist Joe Voijko, a 20 year veteran of the company, has really got his teeth into high end hybrid moving coil /electrostatic loudspeaker design. Two important developments were brought to our attention, the recently introduced, part active Renaissance Series and new to the UK, the massive and purely passive Neolith flagship weighing nearly 400lb each, where most of this mass is down to the bass section!
Renaissance
There are four Renaissance systems in the pipeline with somewhat different sizes and powers, and here the ESL 15A was featured. These are part active, with room compensated dual 12 inch bass drivers, one front and one back, with 500W amplification for each, with on- board 24bit DSP processing for the bass, while they are also readied for Anthem room correction software. The first introduced ESL 15A is priced at £25,000 and claims 22Hz to 21kHz +,- 3dB response. It has a high 92dB/W sensitivity and this suggests that these speakers are designed to play loud when needed, even to 110dB. New generation, higher performance electrostatic panels are fitted with improved step-up transformer. They also include:
‘PoweredForce Forward bass technology uses an advanced crossover topology with phase-timed woofers to minimize destructive reflected energy by virtually eliminating front-wall bass reflections’
This is an established and successful ML technology to better match the otherwise omnidirectional radiation from the bass to the inherent dipolar sound radiation from the ‘open’ electrostatic panels. In this series there will also be a ESL 10 at £10k and an ESL 12 at £15k. (Save for the Classic 9 passive). The technology and bass amplifier powers are the same, just the woofers and bass enclosures change size.
There are four Renaissance systems in the pipeline with somewhat different sizes and powers, and here the ESL 15A was featured. These are part active, with room compensated dual 12 inch bass drivers, one front and one back, with 500W amplification for each, with on- board 24bit DSP processing for the bass, while they are also readied for Anthem room correction software. The first introduced ESL 15A is priced at £25,000 and claims 22Hz to 21kHz +,- 3dB response. It has a high 92dB/W sensitivity and this suggests that these speakers are designed to play loud when needed, even to 110dB. New generation, higher performance electrostatic panels are fitted with improved step-up transformer. They also include:
‘PoweredForce Forward bass technology uses an advanced crossover topology with phase-timed woofers to minimize destructive reflected energy by virtually eliminating front-wall bass reflections’
This is an established and successful ML technology to better match the otherwise omnidirectional radiation from the bass to the inherent dipolar sound radiation from the ‘open’ electrostatic panels. In this series there will also be a ESL 10 at £10k and an ESL 12 at £15k. (Save for the Classic 9 passive). The technology and bass amplifier powers are the same, just the woofers and bass enclosures change size.
ESL15A Renaissance
For this demo we had Constellation Inspiration amplification using a Brinkmann Bardo LP turntable with the Brinkmann 10.5 arm fitted with the new version of the Kiseki Blue moving coil. Here the fine sounding phono stage was the Trilogy 906e. CD replay was by Metronome here ‘Le Player’ and this system also featured the latest Gen 5 cables from Transparent throughout.
Sound Quality
Under both difficult and unfamiliar room conditions , the Martin Logan ESL 15A showed prodigious bass for its size, crisp and tuneful with enough dynamic ability to keep up with the low mass and super fast electrostatic mid treble. The sound was a clear step ahead for hybrid electrostatics in this sector while the potential for computer calibrated low frequency management takes care of bass matching to the room.
Martin Logan Neolith
The £75,000 Neolith was first shown at Munich 2014 and then at CES 2015 and 2016 but historic images or comments cannot prepare you for its sheer scale and presence in the solid. While other brands perhaps seemed to be crowding out the high end ML designs Pedro was determined to check out the Neolith at CES 2016 and as a result was strongly minded to recommend that a pair be delivered to the UK for assessment. The evident potential rapidly led to this special presentation at KJ, this demo run with huge Constellation Centaur II double mono amplification partnered by the Virgo 3 preamp. LP was assigned to a Techdas Airforce 3 turntable fitted with a Graham Elite arm, here swinging a Koetsu Azuli cartridge. Digital replay came from a Metronome Calypso player driving the matching Metronome Nausicaa DAC. All cables were Transparent Gen 5, these the next level up, as appropriate for this reference system listed at several hundred thousand pounds.
Sound Quality
Under both difficult and unfamiliar room conditions , the Martin Logan ESL 15A showed prodigious bass for its size, crisp and tuneful with enough dynamic ability to keep up with the low mass and super fast electrostatic mid treble. The sound was a clear step ahead for hybrid electrostatics in this sector while the potential for computer calibrated low frequency management takes care of bass matching to the room.
Martin Logan Neolith
The £75,000 Neolith was first shown at Munich 2014 and then at CES 2015 and 2016 but historic images or comments cannot prepare you for its sheer scale and presence in the solid. While other brands perhaps seemed to be crowding out the high end ML designs Pedro was determined to check out the Neolith at CES 2016 and as a result was strongly minded to recommend that a pair be delivered to the UK for assessment. The evident potential rapidly led to this special presentation at KJ, this demo run with huge Constellation Centaur II double mono amplification partnered by the Virgo 3 preamp. LP was assigned to a Techdas Airforce 3 turntable fitted with a Graham Elite arm, here swinging a Koetsu Azuli cartridge. Digital replay came from a Metronome Calypso player driving the matching Metronome Nausicaa DAC. All cables were Transparent Gen 5, these the next level up, as appropriate for this reference system listed at several hundred thousand pounds.
Martin Logan Neolith demonstration at KJ West One
Neolith claims to play dynamically, and without apparent effort. From what I heard that must be true because the dynamics were effortless, and delivered with terrific punch and dramatic attack but not with any sense of strain or hardness. These electrostatic panels sounded the best yet, with hardly any inherent signature, and much less so than the equivalent signatures from most moving coil speakers. Voijko’s new toroidal approach to the vital signal transformer has had a big effect. With this new found scale and dynamic expression in the mid treble could the passive bass section keep up? It most certainly did with the super power passive crossover to the dipolar bass array, here a 12 inch carbon fibre cone type at the front sealed enclosure with a phase controlled 15 inch alloy cone piston driver at the back. Here the larger section is vented but at low Q factor and with adjustable acoustic projection to help match the upper panel. Maximum power input is over 1,000W which should give an equivalent (allowing for the non spherical directivity) maximum level at over 115dB at the listener location, quite extraordinary. The bass matched the mid and treble for dynamics with body shakingly percussive and tuneful bass lines.
The structure is made of a beautifully lacquered and shaped high density structural grade of phenolic resin, while the new curvilinear high power electrostatic panel is 0.56 m wide and 1.2 m high. This diaphragm need hardly move at all over its frequency range and will have exceedingly low distortion as a result. There are three settings for bass level to suit location and room characteristics. If you need to know, crated they each measure 1 x 1 x 2 metres and weigh 273 Kg!
The structure is made of a beautifully lacquered and shaped high density structural grade of phenolic resin, while the new curvilinear high power electrostatic panel is 0.56 m wide and 1.2 m high. This diaphragm need hardly move at all over its frequency range and will have exceedingly low distortion as a result. There are three settings for bass level to suit location and room characteristics. If you need to know, crated they each measure 1 x 1 x 2 metres and weigh 273 Kg!
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