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The MartinLogan Classic ESL 9 Floorstanding Speakers is your ticket to a life-changing experience with a masterpiece of audio performance.
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Classic ESL 9 is your ticket to a life-changing experience with a masterpiece of audio performance. This completely passive design features a 9.2-inch (CLS™) XStat™ electrostatic transducer, dual 8-inch aluminum-Cone woofers, and custom 5-way bi-wire tool-less binding posts.
A masterpiece doesn’t just inspire emotions. It changes the way you feel, and it sticks with you long after you’ve left the art gallery or the concert hall. It’s considered a masterpiece precisely because of its ability to alter something inside you. Once you experience it, you’ll never be the same. Enjoying a masterpiece in your own home is something to aspire to.
Consider the Classic ESL 9 your ticket to a life-changing experience with a masterpiece of audio performance. You will never be the same.
MartinLogan unveils the Classic ESL 9, its newest modern Masterpiece. All the familiar elements of MartinLogan’s flagship ESL series are here, with some revolutionary refinements. The heart of this exceptional loudspeaker is its 9.2-inch-wide Curvilinear Line Source (CLS) XStat vacuum-bonded electrostatic transducer. Advanced MicroPerf stator technology reveals more of the diaphragm surface area than any other electrostatic panel in this size class, efficiently increasing the narrow panel’s output. Ultra-rigid AirFrame Blade construction reduces performance-robbing vibrations, its shape creating an expressive alignment with the woofer cabinet. Deep bass is rendered with unflinching accuracy and authority by dual 8-inch low-distortion, high-excursion aluminum cone woofers in a beautifully sculpted enclosure.
Classic ESL 9 XStat panels are joined to their speaker cabinets using MartinLogan’s redesigned AirFrame Blade construction, precision manufactured from an aerospace-grade extruded aluminum alloy. This material, and this exclusive manufacturing process, makes the panels extremely rigid.
The bold, forward-moving styling of this AirFrame Blade rail system, narrow and strong in front, broad and forceful from the side, is a modern design statement. It never obstructs playable surface area or interferes with the panel’s dipole sound radiation pattern. It also provides electrical and acoustical isolation, minimizing intermodulation distortion caused by vibration and resonance. The flowing lines emphasize the groundbreaking integration of the panel itself with the compact woofer and amplifier section. The breathtaking AirFrame Blade design enhances imaging, low-level sonic detail, accuracy, and speaker efficiency.
CLS technology is an essential ingredient of every electrostatic loudspeaker we produce. Through our proprietary manufacturing method, we have built-in the panel’s gentle horizontal curvature. This unique design enhances the high frequency detail produced by the large radiating surface, without compromising overall sound quality. Notice how the gentle modern curve and perforation pattern gives way to the flat grille of the woofer section.
The sound we hear from a loudspeaker is a combination of direct radiation from it to our ears, and reflections off of room surfaces—walls, floor, and ceiling. How our brains integrate this information is far from simple. Depending on the angle of incidence to the ears and the arrival-time difference between direct and reflected sound, reflections can either blur detail and stereo imaging, or enhance the natural impression of depth and openness.
Electrostatic panels, which are true dipole speakers, produce a nearly-ideal controlled dispersion radiation pattern. They send very little sound to the sides, thereby minimizing side-wall reflections, whose short arrival times tend to interfere with the perception of the direct sound. Their strong rear radiation, however, produces a generous amount of natural, ambience-enriching later-arriving mid- and upper register information.
The depth of Masterpiece Series speaker cabinets was carefully chosen to maximize benefits of advanced bass technologies, providing a level of low-frequency precision that is truly unique.
With ForceForward bass technology, the farther apart the woofers are from each other the lower in frequency its beneficial effects extend. MartinLogan’s ForceForward technology has solved a problem (found in nearly all speakers) where low bass frequency soundwaves reflect off the wall behind the speakers and interact with the waves traveling towards the listener. These interactions create non-linearity in those frequencies as they arrive at your ears and bass information suffers from both cancelations and excessiveness that is not accurate to the original sound. By selectively adjusting phasing of output from their opposing woofers, powered Masterpiece Series speakers eliminate problematic bass energy from behind the speakers.
ForceForward also simplifies the task of speaker placement by removing bass energy from behind the speaker and creating a uniform bass launch. This allows Masterpiece Series speaker cabinets to go closer to the wall than previous generations of MartinLogan speakers. As a rule of thumb we recommend placing the rear of the speaker cabinet no closer to the wall than the diameter of its woofer (Renaissance ESL 15A: 12-inches, Expression ESL 13A: 10-inches, and Impression ESL 11A and Classic ESL 9: 8-inches).
Additionally, due to their dipole nature, electrostatic panels perform best when placed at least 2.5-feet or more from the wall—a distance that is ideal for the front of nearly any high-end speaker, regardless of driver technology. The depth of Masterpiece Series cabinets lends itself to providing electrostatic panels with adequate distance from the wall, guaranteeing a richly detailed, three-dimensional soundstage.
Specifications are subject to change without notice
Frequency Response | 34–23,000 Hz ±3dB |
Horizontal Dispersion | 30° |
Vertical Dispersion | 44" (112cm) line source |
High Frequency Transducer | XStat™ CLS™ electrostatic transducer |
» Panel Dimensions | 44" x 9.2" (112 x 23cm) |
» Radiating Area | 405 in² (2,576 cm² ) |
Low Frequency Transducer | Two 8” (20.3 cm) cast basket, high excursion, rigid aluminium cone woofers with extended throw drive assembly, non-resonance asymmetrical chamber format |
Sensitivity | 90 dB/2.83 volts/meter |
Impedance | 4 Ohms, 0.8 at 20kHz Compatible with 4, 6, or 8 Ohm rated amplifiers. |
Recommended Amplifier Power | 20—400 watts per channel |
Crossover Frequency | 380Hz |
Components | Custom-wound audio transformer, air core coils, low DCR steel laminate coils, polyester capacitors |
Signal Inputs | Custom 5-way bi-wire tool-less binding posts |
Power Draw | Max: 2W per channel Standby: <1W per channel |
Weight | 78 lbs. (35.4 kg) |
Dimensions | 59.8" x 10.4" x 25.4 " |
