Martin Logan ElectroMotion ESL

dragon1952

Does anyone have any direct experience with these as compared to the ML Source's? Would they be worth spending another $800 say if money wasn't really a hinderance or are they pretty close? I know the panel is about 6 in taller but the wood cabinet is much smaller and they weigh quite a bit less as a result.

Joey_V

The ESL panel is much larger than the source. I have not heard side by side since they are different generations, but I would bet the ESL is better sounding and worth the 600$ delta.

The question is how much is that 600$ to you.

polkfarmboy

My first Speakers were the Source SE and the diff between the sound is night and day. When I would stand up anget out thechair thestage was collapsed big time. The electromotion have a nice big dispersion to them and have a much more seamless and less transparent crossover between woofer and panel.

The bass did not dig as deep as my Source but those cabinets were huge on the Source and were well made. The Electromotion have great bass and its more akin to sounding like my Vista in the way you get a full Martin Logan experience out of them unlike the Source speakers.


Audioadvisor has them shipped for sixteen hundred a pair shipped if you dont mind refurbs. Thats a bargain when you think that the Martin Logan source was voted best high endentry level speaker when it was over 3k.

dragon1952

Those AA refurbs were the ones I got. They only had 3 pairs of them so I made a management decision and grabbed them shortly after posting here. Thanks for the info though ;^ )

dragon1952

Joey_V wrote: »

The ESL panel is much larger than the source. I have not heard side by side since they are different generations, but I would bet the ESL is better sounding and worth the 600$ delta.

The question is how much is that 600$ to you.

Eh.....what's $600 now days. Actually it will be closer to $800 depending on how much I get for the Source's.I got a great deal on those though so I'm not real worried about it.
But to tell you the truth, I've been thrilled with the Source's so if these are any better at all then I'll be ecstatic.

audiocr381ve

I'll be picking up a pair of these in the next couple of days myself.

audiocr381ve

dragon1952 wrote: »

Those AA refurbs were the ones I got. They only had 3 pairs of them so I made a management decision and grabbed them shortly after posting here. Thanks for the info though ;^ )

I think you may have bought the last pair

dragon1952

I had a hell of a time finding them on the site because the email they sent me disappeared and they didn't show up under their 'Factory Refreshed' category. I forgot how I finally found them but I can't find them again so they must be gone.

B Run

I had those for a while and liked them a lot! You'll be glad you got them and they do sound much better than the Source.

audiocr381ve

Make sure to let us know how you like em'! I heard them at a Magnolia Best Buy a few days ago and they must have been set up wrong because they sounded like crap. They were playing through some Arcam gear but I'm convinced something was set up wrong. The sales associate swapped hot speaker cables with out turning off the amp which scared me too

Joey_V

It's the set up, ML don't sound like crap. Lower end stats have a muted midrange but not crap.

audiocr381ve

Joey_V wrote: »

It's the set up, ML don't sound like crap. Lower end stats have a muted midrange but not crap.

I also heard the Summits and those sounded a lot better.

dragon1952

I've got them running in right now and just listening in the background for now. From my experience with the Sources these do take some effort to set up properly. Distance from side and back walls is crucial and ideally they should be in a uniformly shaped and enclosed room. I can't believe they could sound anywhere near their potential in a room full of other gear and not set up optimally.

leftwinger57

I never heard these but from most reviews these speakers get raves. I do know a little bit of the theory and that the mylar film kind of acts like a diaphragm to the large tall screen if we are talking about the same model. I've also heard that these speakers could be a maintenance nightmare if not looked after. Any truth to all this after all these are not box speakers where just minor care and feeding is needed.

Joey_V

I had the Martin Logan Summits for about 4 years in 2005.... it was one of the best 4 years in my audiophile life. No maintenance needed, just kept the cabinet clean and never even had to vacuum or wash the panels. They performed great. I sold it to another audiophile who kept it until this year and wanted to sell it back to me, it just kept going strong. It is now with its 4th owner.