Has anyone heard martin logan electrostat speakers?

[Mackenzie]

Well I am able to get a great deal on both the martin logan source elctrostatics, or the prefaces, which arent electrostatic. Has anyone heard or tried the source line, or the prefaces? You can audition them at your local best buy magnolia section. When I first heard the source electrostatics, they sounded a little muffled, but that could have been poor placement, or lack of power. I am going to go back and audition them again, but I wanted to see if anyone on here has heard them, and what they thought about them.

[Audiophiliac]

'stats are awesome! You have to set them up right. They need plenty of room behind them since they are dipoles. But they really have a sound that you cannot duplicate with other speakers. If you can make them work in your room, do it. They need good gear in front of them though.

[Mackenzie]

well I auditioned the martin logan sources again, and fell in love. I've never heard anything like that. The accuracy, and midrange was unmatched.. I will be getting them for sure.. I can get them for 500 each brand new, which is a steal... Can't wait

[Audiophiliac]

That is a steal! I would get them even if I was not going to use them. Sell them for a pretty profit.

[joyride]

I really thought they seemed a little tough on the highs. To me they were sharp, kinda like a hard dome tweeter. The mids were buttery smooth though, with a perfect transition between the lows and highs. There are several female vocalist that are a must on those. The stage width was also very good. They seemed to be transparent, with sound much wider than the driver location. However, the depth was not as good as I would have liked. They were slightly shallow.

However, for that price it will be hard to beat! They are very good speakers, I think i am just overly picky

[Audiophiliac]

The soundstage can be HUGE with the larger ESL panels. But even the smaller ones can project a wide and deep stage. But you really have to play with positioning and room treatment. More often than not, I think ML speakers are placed way to close to the rear wall and/or have zero acoustic treatments behind them to achieve what they are capable of.

When we had them in our showroom (this was way back when the Prodigy and Odyssey were current), we had the best sound when they were at least 4' from the rear wall. The closer you get to the wall, the more the stage collapsed and the whole presentation kind of got muddied up. Nature of a large dipole diaphragm.

Nevertheless, I have not spent much time with the Source or Purity. If I were to buy Martin Logans, I would either get something larger like a Spire or Summit, or go old school and get some Prodigy or CLSii. They have 2 new ESL models to be released this week at CES. AS well as the Motion series which replaces the ATF series (Preface, Encore, etc)

[eyesofra]

I listened to just the one in pic above ( ML source ) just last weekend while hunting for a new pair of speakers for my Oppo BDP83SE+ Primare i30 amp combo .

The source is he cheapest in their line of excellent electrostatics.
The first things that u realize is utter transparency that can be a little unforgiving with less then perfect recording .The shop owner who sells many other hi-end stuffs made a point that the entry version are apparently designed with space in mind and he has a pair tucked away in corners of his room in his second stereo driven by a HK receiver....and he thinks they're great ! Well didnt't get the chance to listen to that setup though.....lol

Lack of distortion and extremely low xover point makes them sound just brilliant ! The source has its xover point at 400Hz IIRC !

[Mackenzie]

Cant wait