For Sale or Trade: Martin Logan Electromotion ESL's

dragon1952

Every 6 or 7 years I tend to change things up a bit and I’ve decided to give stand mounts a try in my smallish man cave.
These are in excellent condition and I do have the original boxes and packing materials, although the bottoms of the boxes might need a little reinforcement prior to shipping.
I would guess these are worth about $1600 in trade value, shipped and Paypal’d.
$1350 for local pickup in Salem, OR. They currently sell for $2799 a pair.

I would consider anything that I could easily resell or use that is audio related, except for expensive cabling. Even guitars or basses maybe?
Would entertain offers.

These do require an electrical outlet each for the transformer that charges the panels.

maxward

Apparently, there’s a very contagious downsize virus in the Salem, Oregon area. Good luck with your sale!

jbreezy5

At this price a steal, folks.

I paid full price for mine; completely worth it.

GLWTS

dragon1952

maxward wrote: »

Apparently, there’s a very contagious downsize virus in the Salem, Oregon area. Good luck with your sale!

Ha ha....In the past few months I have replaced every single component in my system as well as most of the cabling. It all started with just wanting to get out of tubes and separates for a SS integrated and then
kind of snowballed out of control

dragon1952

Trade pending.

dragon1952

jbreezy5 wrote: »

At this price a steal, folks.

I paid full price for mine; completely worth it.

GLWTS

I got an email one day in 2015 from Audio Advisor offering a special price on these for $1599 shipped.
I think retail at the time was $1999 or maybe $2199, I can't remember exactly.

dragon1952

These have been TRADED to a very nice guy on USAudioMart.

maxward

Congrats! That was quick.

Clipdat

Hope you got something fun in return.

smartie_panta

dragon1952 wrote: »

These have been TRADED to a very nice guy on USAudioMart.

If I may be so bold, what did you trade them for? Just curious.

jbreezy5

dragon1952 wrote: »

jbreezy5 wrote: »

At this price a steal, folks.

I paid full price for mine; completely worth it.

GLWTS

I got an email one day in 2015 from Audio Advisor offering a special price on these for $1599 shipped.
I think retail at the time was $1999 or maybe $2199, I can't remember exactly.

Glad you got a great deal!

Even at current retail I still like them better than anything I can name at similar pricepoints.

jbreezy5

Clipdat wrote: »

Hope you got something fun in return.

smartie_panta wrote: »

dragon1952 wrote: »

These have been TRADED to a very nice guy on USAudioMart.

If I may be so bold, what did you trade them for? Just curious.

Maybe:



J/k, but they are bookies. 😉

smartie_panta

Looks like an even swap, haha!

dragon1952

jbreezy5 wrote: »

dragon1952 wrote: »

jbreezy5 wrote: »

At this price a steal, folks.

I paid full price for mine; completely worth it.

GLWTS

I got an email one day in 2015 from Audio Advisor offering a special price on these for $1599 shipped.
I think retail at the time was $1999 or maybe $2199, I can't remember exactly.

Glad you got a great deal!

Even at current retail I still like them better than anything I can name at similar pricepoints.

There is really something about them when it comes to soundstage and imaging, which I already miss. I've had them quite a while and was looking for something 'dreamier/creamier' in the tenor sax range and something better suited to the size of my room, and hopefully better for lower volume listening. I found that to get all of the detail I had to crank the ML's pretty loud which made the mids a little 'shouty'.

dragon1952

smartie_panta wrote: »

dragon1952 wrote: »

These have been TRADED to a very nice guy on USAudioMart.

If I may be so bold, what did you trade them for? Just curious.

I had several interesting choices including an older pair of B&W 805's and a Parasound A21 (not + version). I don't have a need for a power amp so I'd just resell the A21, and I was tempted by the B&W's to compare with my new Focal Aria 906's, which I'm not really sold on yet. But then he mentioned a Hegel H200 integrated. I'll compare it to my Krell Vanguard and sell whichever one that
comes in 2nd. I figured either one of the integrated's will sell a lot easier than the ML's which are such a niche market item.
I'm hoping I like the Krell better as it's WAY nicer looking. The Hegel is kind of butt-ugly IMO.

jbreezy5

dragon1952 wrote: »

jbreezy5 wrote: »

dragon1952 wrote: »

jbreezy5 wrote: »

At this price a steal, folks.

I paid full price for mine; completely worth it.

GLWTS

I got an email one day in 2015 from Audio Advisor offering a special price on these for $1599 shipped.
I think retail at the time was $1999 or maybe $2199, I can't remember exactly.

Glad you got a great deal!

Even at current retail I still like them better than anything I can name at similar pricepoints.

There is really something about them when it comes to soundstage and imaging, which I already miss. I've had them quite a while and was looking for something 'dreamier/creamier' in the tenor sax range and something better suited to the size of my room, and hopefully better for lower volume listening. I found that to get all of the detail I had to crank the ML's pretty loud which made the mids a little 'shouty'.

May I suggest you try a few things before you decide to trade?

I have found that I had to experiment with the ESLs more than any other speaker I’ve owned to get the sound dialed in. I’m in an extremely small listening space, which yours appears to be also, but also looks like you have room symmetry, and I assume, you are seated in the center of an equilateral triangle. If so, you’re already in better shape than me (my listening position slightly favors the left channel).

1) Use something to elevate the rear feet until the electrostatic panel is near, or at, 90 degrees to the floor/ceiling when looking from the side. This should help improve mid/high-frequency response in the room.

2) Experiment with the sound-proofing in your room (if it’s not static); since the ESLs are di-polar, you may get improved response with less foam absorbing the rear back-wave, and substituting something more diffusive like plants (fake, or real), and fine/textured blinds on the window.

3) Try some foam corner bass traps to improve bass definition, like these:



4) Lastly, and what most audiophiles will scoff at, introduce EQ to your system. I was experiencing significant mid/high-frequency roll-off above 1kHz. Once corrected, I no longer have to go as loud to feel like I’m getting the midrange…the sound is much more balanced. If I take out the EQ, the sound seems quite veiled in comparison.

If you’re going all solid state, and aren’t afraid of an extra ADC/DAC process you can get a DBX Driverack PA+ and calibration 🎤 for a joke of $$$ (in audiophile terms) on the used market.

It does a great job and you can manually tweak 31-bands of frequency response post-calibration to get the sound you want. This can be done for each channel independently.

Here’s some photos:









It does use balanced connections, so you may have to get some xlr-to-rca adapters to use RCAs.

I’m currently using a BSR analog EQ with spectrum analyzer, that honestly, is working very well for me despite only giving 10 frequency bands of adjustment.

The reason I’m using this instead of the Driverack, is I want my TubeDac sonics unaffected by the extra conversion process; otherwise, I would use that…and I may eventually anyway.

Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy the end result.

Cheers!

dragon1952

Thanks but they are already gone. I did a lot of experimenting with the foam and speaker placement and always came back to how they look in the picture. Didn't try any EQ though.
Actually it doesn't look like it but there are textured blinds on that window, they are just a really pale blue color and the sun was out.

jbreezy5

My mistake, I misinterpreted the variety of gear you mentioned to mean still negotiating.

Best regards going forward.

[P.S. correction to my earlier post, the Driverack PA+ allows 28 bands of frequency response adjustment, not 31.]