Martin Logan Expression ESL 13A Electrostatic Speakers (pair)

Audio is both real, and imagined. There is the fact of the sound. And there is the feeling that the sound arouses within us.

This feeling is the inspiration behind the new Expression ESL 13A. Like the Expressionist masterpieces, this artful presentation of audio is focused solely on intensifying your emotional experience. It’s a virtually transparent audio performance that transports you to a new landscape of the senses.

The Art of Emotion in Audio
The Expression ESL 13A is part of the Masterpiece Series. It features a dual 10-inch woofer system with ARC-honed performance, for perfectly blended low-frequency response. The groundbreaking integration of this woofer array with Martin Logan’s signature 13-inch wide XStat CLS Transducer, coupled with a powerful dual amplifier section, delivers an expressive and dynamic audio experience, with less coloration. It reveals the pure emotional impact of your audio.

Look at the familiar elements of the classic Martin Logan electrostatic loudspeaker: Advanced MicroPerf stator technology, which allows for almost twice the exposed electrostatic diaphragm surface as a traditional electrostatic panel of the same size. The panel is reinforced with rigid ClearSpar™ spacers, keeping an exact level of tension on the vacuum-bonded diaphragm without obscuring the beautiful see-through design. Add the slender, pointed-arrow design of the new AirFrame™ Blade construction; a powerfully evocative composition creating a harmonious connection between the panel and its woofer cabinet.

Now notice some radical refinements: Inspired by MartinLogan’s own breakthrough design, they have reinvented the Expression ESL 13A woofer section, powered by new dual 300-watt Class-D amplifiers, and controlled by a 24-Bit Vojtko™ DSP Engine and ARC™ (Anthem Room Correction).

Using two 10-inch laser-engineered low-distortion aluminum cone woofers in independently enclosed compact chambers, exclusive PoweredForce Forward™ bass alignment technology controls the interaction between the rear-firing woofer and the wall behind that woofer. With smart phase-shifting logic, MartinLogan minimizes the effect that wall has on bass information that might bounce back into the listening room. This uniform frequency response results in realistic bass effects you can feel. It’s one more way MartinLogan innovation improves your listening experience in any room.

Achieving the Laboratory Standard in Your Own Room
In the lab, MartinLogan engineers strive for transparency. Outside the lab, there’s one wildcard their engineers can never account for: Your listening room. The unique size and shape of your listening space (and the size and shape of its contents) can make bass waves do unpredictable things, greatly affecting a speaker’s overall performance.

The Expression ESL 13A integrates exclusive Anthem Room Correction (ARC) technology. By engaging ARC to control the low-frequency curve in relation to the output of the ESL panel (as seen in this graph), you will experience performance on par with MartinLogan’s audio test lab.

ARC measures low-frequency sound output in your room and compares it to optimal response curves that account for spatial anomalies. The advanced algorithms of ARC then effectively remove the anomalies, leaving only the ideal standard: realistically blended, natural-sounding bass performance in your listening space.

By minimizing room interactions with PoweredForce Forward bass technology and the advanced room correction capabilities of ARC, along with its unique synthesis of the ESL and bass sections, the Expression ESL 13A produces perfectly-etched imaging and focus; optimum natural reproduction of sound at lifelike listening levels; and agile, full-range operation in open air.

Clearly, it is this level of ultimate performance that separates the merely excellent from a true masterpiece.