Martin logan motion fx speakers series#

The curves also serve a purpose they allow Motion compact bookshelves to mount at two different angles with the included wall bracket (or with aftermarket using 1/4 x 20' threaded insert). Tower models feature a real-wood veneer finish and a stylish aesthetic certain to blend with any decor.

Martin logan motion fx speakers series#

Flawless high-gloss, piano black finishes and subtle curves, along with our signature perforated grille, give Motion Series speakers an elegant and timeless look. I used the Krell’s home theater bypass mode so that it drove the EM-ESLs sans subwoofer in stereo the sub, center and surrounds kicked in only for surround sound.Martin Logan Motion FX Compact Surround Speaker Open Box (Each)īoth compact and powerful, the Motion 2 & 4 compact bookshelf, Motion 6 & 8 compact center channel and Motion FX dedicated surround channel speakers feature a high-resolution Folded Motion Tweeter, beautiful curvy aesthetics and a perfect blend of performance and functionality rarely seen in speakers at this price.Ĭomplementing Motion's sonic accuracy is elegant yet understated styling.

I drove the EM-ESLs with my Krell S-300i integrated amp and the EM-C2 and EM-FX2s with my AudioControl Savoy multichannel amp. The Dynamo 1000 went into my “subwoofer sweet spot,” the place in my room where a single sub sounds best from my listening chair. The EM-FX2s went on 30-inch-high stands on the sides of the room, with the speakers directly to my right and left sides. I placed the EM-C2 on a couple of short stands and used big blobs of Blu-Tak to point it up a bit. I also removed the absorptive foam that I usually place on that wall to improve the room’s acoustics dipolar and bipolar speakers tend to sound best in a live room without absorptive treatment on the walls. To get the best, most spacious sound from them, I placed them so that each panel was 40 inches out from the wall behind it. But it all worked in the end.Įlectrostatic panels are dipolar they emit sound forward and backward. I found the spring-loaded speaker terminals annoying, making for a difficult connection with bare wire and a less-than-secure-feeling connection with banana plugs. The power supply charges the conductive transparent diaphragm inside the electrostatic panel. There’s one big difference between the EM-ESL and most other speakers: Each one has a power supply that has to be plugged into the wall. The $119 SWT-1 wireless kit converts the Dynamo 1000 to wireless for those who can’t or don’t want to run a line-level cable from their receiver to their sub. When I saw the Dynamo 1000 next to the EM-ESLs, my first thought was that the tiny sub might need the EM-ESLs’ help in the bass more than they need its help. The $999 Dynamo 1000 is a compact cube containing a 12-inch woofer driven by a 500-watt amp. Yet just to be sure I’d get enough bottom, MartinLogan also sent along a Dynamo 1000 subwoofer to help out. The EM-ESL puts out decent bass on its own, with rated response down to 42 Hz. The EM-FX2, designed primarily for wall-mounting, has a 6.5-inch woofer that fires straight out and two tweeters that fire at 45° angles to the woofer in order to create more diffuse, natural-sounding surround effects. The EM-C2 combines one tweeter with dual 5.25-inch woofers. To expand your pair of EM-ESLs into a 5.1 or 7.1 system, MartinLogan offers the $799 EM-C2 center speaker and the $649 each EM-FX2 surround speaker, both of which incorporate a larger version of the Folded Motion tweeter originally used on the company’s Motion series speakers. You can use the EM-ESL as a stereo pair, of course.

Snazzy new spring-loaded terminals allow connection of bare speaker wires or banana plugs. A port on the bottom reinforces the bass. Below 500 Hz, a fiber-cone woofer takes over. The core of the design is a transparent electrostatic panel that reproduces midrange and treble. With the exterior presenting no easy reason to dismiss the EM-ESL, we’re left to actually having to listen to the thing and see if it’s any good.Īlthough the EM-ESL looks exotic, it’s actually a fairly basic two-way speaker. Nope - it uses a real electrostatic panel and a decent-looking 8-inch woofer. So what’s wrong with it? Nothing you can see from the surface. Yeah, that’s still expensive, but in the context of the company’s other electrostatic speakers, the EM-ESL looks like a bargain.

The EM-ESL, though, costs just $2,195 per pair. Even though the company recently launched a line of affordable conventional speakers, I still think of MartinLogan as a maker of large electrostatic speakers costing many thousands of dollars. “But is it a real MartinLogan?” I wondered to myself as I read the press release for the ElectroMotion ESL tower speaker that had come through my e-mail.