Customer Ratings & Reviews

product is about to be discontinued but sales person not able to tell me when & the open box speaker was not working properly when we purchased and had to return & then reorder item to be shipped at full price not discounted and was not available immediately

I bought these from best buy in chesterfield, mo. I was blown away from the sound of these speakers when i was in the magnolia room. I knew at that moment I needed to biy these speakers for my theater room.

These speakers have an awesome sound and put you in the middle of the action

Be aware. First let me state that I've never had any complaints about the service of Best buy, but unfortunately this changed dramatically with this speakers. I saw a good deal online for an open box in a store 1.30 hours away and after reading the description of the open box item decided to buy them online and picked them up at the store. (Longmont CO). The condition online was stated as excellent and good, unfortunately when I was able to open the package at home, the labels were condition good and satisfactory, meaning one of the speakers was missing parts, and was unable to try them on my system. I went to my local Best buy to try to get the missing parts and the only option that I had was to return the speakers, they gave me the phone number of the online customer service/repairs and after a lengthy conversation with the representative and supervisor the only option given to me was to return the speakers. Sorry for the rant, but just be prepared to inspect/try any open box item before buying it

Versatile speaker and aesthetically pleasing......

When it came time for me pull the trigger on a new theater setup, I choose the MartinLogan EM-ESL towers easily. After auditioning a parade of speakers from Def Tech, Sonas Faber, Bowers and Wilkins and Energy, nothing could match the tonal highs and imaging of the EM-ESL's. Clarity, especially vocals, are unreal. Movement, response, tonal imaging and pure rendering are everything I would want in an exceptional loudspeaker. The built-in woofers do a good job enhancing low frequency response, but these speakers are a tad bass shy. A good subwoofer (I went with two Dynamo 700s) will greatly enhance the listening experience. I was worried these speakers would lend themselves to music more than my 7.2 surround sound theater system, but I was sorely wrong. When matched with their complementing set (EM-C2 center channel and FX2 surrounds (I also went with a pair of FX2 surrounds for front highs) the movement and clarity is unmatched. As always, there is no perfect product, let alone speaker. The soundstage could be better, so the listening area is relatively small. If you don't sit dead center on the aligned towers, you will clearly miss audio from one tower and the other tower closer to you will overpower you. Imaging will be become quite distinct and directional. For a theater, this is a drawback because not every seat is going to be dead center. Additionally, your room must be able to accommodate some demanding setup, these speakers are quite fickle about placement. They need to be about 2ft minimum off the wall and as far away from a side wall as possible. They still make great use of whatever space you put them in, but they will sound 10x better once setup correctly. I also LOVE these speakers come with nice black nylon mesh covers embossed with the MartinLogan logo. While they aren't super durable, they will provide exceptional dust protection and is a nice feature. The fact I love these speakers as much as I do, despite their setup and placement compromises, shows just how truly exceptional they are. Pull the trigger, you won't be disappointed.

These are my first electrostatic speakers, but I did listen to the top end models in the show room. Simply put, the higher end models get louder with good clarity- just like with most other speakers. These speakers, pair with a Marantz 5008 amp, produce the perfect top end volume for movies and music- for my taste. There was a day when I wanted to be able to blast my stereo to live concert levels, but not so much any more. Don't get me wrong, these speaker can get loud- enough to make your ear ring if you listen too long. but the best quality sound is right in the middle. Movies a loud and full, and with the Marantz 700w subwoofer, the room rumbles and booms with low end sounds. To me it sounds like a good movie theater when it's at a good loud level.

Though I do not have an ear of an "audiophile", I know what sounds good to me, and the precise clarity, crispness of these speakers is amazing. This is my first ever true home theater speaker system. But what really drew my attention to this speaker is how this sound could eminate from this weird design called Electro-static. The weird XStat grill really amazed me. So I have this pair of speakers paired up with their Electro-motion center channel speaker C2 which is made for these, along with the Dynamo 700 sub-woofer. To the average person they would say $2k is a lot but for high-end sound it's a great price. Playing TV, Blu-ray Discs or DVD or music streaming from my iPod, it sounds sweet. And yes I did break them all in at the required minimum of 72 hours, so now I can crank them up. And best of all, you don't really need that much power to run them. I use the Marantz SR7005 audio/video receiver to power these.

I'm a 60 yr old audio nut, have had many speakers in my life and have auditioned too many to count from 2k a pair to 10k a pair. The ESL are so different than Box Speakers. Clarity, imaginging and sound stage are all top notch. Placement of these speakers takes some trial and error, but once you get them dialed in they are incredible on any Genre you throw at them. Bass response is good but Martin Logan Dynamo 700 Sub makes the bass response perfect. Voices, keyboards, guitars, brass, and strings are life like and transparent.. Your ears will thank you! You must demo these at home to really appreciate what they can do, store demo's do not even come close to doing them justice. Best Speakers I have ever heard at this price.

These speakers sound like nothing else on the market. Do your research, and you will find how pure the sound is from electrostatic speakers, and why audiophiles love them. They look stunning in any room, and work great not only for music but as R-L channels in a home theater setup. I use them for both. As others have mentioned, these speakers WILL exploit any weaknesses in your system. In other words, don't hook them up to your $250 receiver and expect them to sound great. Great speakers need a great amplifier and clean source... otherwise its like throwing 6 feet of rope to someone who is 10 feet away... it's just a waste. The other thing that should be mentioned; These speakers have a very distinct (and unfortunately rather small) sweet spot. When you're sitting in your primary viewing/listening position, nothing can touch them for sound quality/clarity. However, if you stand up/walk off to the side, they get muddy. This is the downfall to this type of speaker. Of course all speakers do this to some point, due to the room, reflections, distances, positions of the drivers, etc.... but the ESLs are affected more as you move away from the "sweet spot".

The Martin Logan speakers are without doubt the best imaging and most clear speakers I've ever listened to. I am amazed at the clarity of femaie voices, Doobie Brothers and Eagles harmonies, and acoustical guitars. Paired with the Martin Logan 700w subwoofer, these speakers handle everything I've thrown at them from Beethoven to 5 Finger Death Punch, Patsy Cline to Lita Ford with aplomb. That said, they need a lot of amplifier horsepower. Martin Logan states 20-300 watts, but I wouldn't drive them with less than 200w. I'm using a Carver M1.0t (200w/channel), and I'd hate to use less. To get the best imaging, speaker placement is critical. One inch can change things immensely. Martin Logan's instructions in the manual are clear and spot on. I have been thoroughly enjoying working my way through my CD collection, and for many selections, it's like I heard them for the first time. Now if only my turntable would get back from the restorer...

I originally looked at these and like other people,I thought they were kind of bright. I ended up going with Mirage OMD 15's 1st. Sent those back and got Def Tech 8060's. They sounded nice but I didn't like how they look and they had sort of an edgy sound. I broke all these speakers in ,but never cranked them anyhow. Went back to BB and listened to the Logan's again,I wanted to pull them out and place them a little better.Wow! What a difference that made. They had a new pair of open box,I bought those. 1 was defective,took it back and got another demo unit. They look like new. I have no idea how many hours are on them,but they sound incredible. I love when friends come over and go up to the speaker and say,where is the sound coming from. LOL Also,you might have to adjust the rake of the speaker with the screw in feet. Makes a big difference. These speakers just took music to a new level compared to my old Paradigm monitor 7's.

I've had these for about 10 days now and am soooo glad I purchased them. I traveled around auditioning speakers for 3 months, including speakers costing 300% - 500% more expensive than the motion ESL's. These sounded just as good as all of them. I would say that they are a little light in the low end, but that's what subwoofers are for. My friends have come over and been blown away with the "concert in your living room". I splurged and went with the Motif center, depth i sub, and FX2's for rears. I have a Yamaha RX-A3010 receiver powering it all, with no Amp. It sounds awesome with 150 watts of clean Yamaha power... especially the SACD's I'm playing through my Oppo disc player. This surround system is one of the best investments I've ever made in my life... but I LOVE music.

I just got the New Electromotion ESL and man am I impressed, these thing are just unbelieveable for the price of $2000 bucks but there are draw backs. You cant bi amp and you cant use spade connectors which I love using...for now though I have hooked them up and only heard a few songs but from what I heard I can tell that the sweet spot is much bigger than the sources being that the new ESL has the Xstat panel and also it is 34 inches vs 28 inches on the source or puritys. Now my only other concern was the height as it's only one inch bigger than the sources which when I stood up there was a very big downgrade to the sound. This is not the case with these speakers.

I bought a pair of these a couple of years ago now. I use them as part of my AV setup, and I love them. Great highs, nice non-directional spacious sound, and the bass is incredible, no way can I turn it up on my receiver. If, however, you pay more than 2 grand for the pair, you're just not shopping correctly.

If you love to play or hear somebody playing acoustic instruments, this speaker is definitely for you. It has amazingly fine, detailed and realistic sound with highly precise and focused sound stage. However, if you are a bass lover, the bass is only down to 40Hz. You will need a good quality subwoofer. Bottom line, this speaker really improves the overall sound quality even it can be driven by a regular receiver and I can't find better sounding speaker at this price including magnepan that also has a rave review.

Speakers sound great but on occasions, make a static type snapping sound. They are big and a bit awkward to move. Don't throw away the box as they will be needed if you need to ship it back to MartinLogan for any repairs.

I heard these in the store and fell in love immediately. Let me put it this way, I came in to buy $500ish full setup, and ended up buying these after I heard them ($4K total setup with Parasound amp and preamp).

Great sounding speakers once broken in. Very fussy about room placement. Able to show just how good (or poor) of quality your upstream components are. Doesn't need a "monster" amp to sound good.

I would not trade it for any other system. Well worth the money.