At $6495/pair, the MartinLogan Masterpiece Classic ESL 9 is an incredible bargain.

Having listened to several generations of ESL speakers over the past 15 to 20 years, I found the new Expression ESL 13A speakers to be a significant step forward.

f either you can’t put your Logans exactly where you need to for optimum sound, or you completely lack speaker set up skills, go with the 11s. If you are a speaker setup Jedi, save the extra bucks and go for the 9s. You’ll do whatever you want to do. That’s free will. Either way, these are amazing speakers for the money. But I’m giving them an Exceptional Value Award for 2018. They rock.

Having listened to several generations of ESL speakers over the past 15 to 20 years, I found the new Expression ESL 13A speakers to be a significant step forward.

Whether or not you decide to use the optional PBK system, the Impression ESL 11A is one of the hidden secrets in the MartinLogan line-up. Some will miss this on the way to bigger speakers, but they shouldn’t. It’s a powerful, dynamic, musical fun maker with the usual MartinLogan characteristics of good imagery and great detail, but adds to that a relatively small footprint, and terrific integration between cones and panel. Factor in the benefit of subtle DSP room compensation and this electrostatic hybrid design comes extremely highly recommended!

These Are Excellent Speakers That Come At A High Price. But If You Want Something In The Outer Limits Of What’s Possible In Speaker Technology, Then These Are Relatively Inexpensive Within Their Peer Group.

Yes, I've drunk the Kool-Aid for years. But even though I'm pre-primed to like electrostatic-panel speakers, I'd never found a one-stop solution I could live with. Now that a MartinLogan active subwoofer endowed with ARC-2 has been successfully mated to an XStat panel, anyone serious about big, full, accurate sound reproduction can start here. Unconditionally recommended.

As in all judgments like this, we’re dealing with matters of taste and I must emphasize that these new Impressions are very much in line with the trend of speaker sound these last twenty years, the kind of sound that a lot audiophiles, not to mention speaker designers, seem to like. There is no gainsaying the fact that all the typical ML virtues are here in abundance. So if you’re tempted—and there is a great deal to like about these speakers assuming the tonal balance appeals to you—an audition is mandated.

The MartinLogan Expression ESL13A is a game changer.