Martin Logan Impression ESL 11A Floorstanding Speaker (Pair)

IMPRESSION ESL 11A

The goal of the loudspeaker is to disappear into its audio performance. Remove the loudspeaker’s effect and you reveal the pure emotional impact of the performance, with nothing between your audio and your ears.

The Impressionist masterpieces removed the barrier between art and emotion, enhancing the potent feelings their art inspired placing emphasis on immediacy and movement. The Impression ESL 11A achieves this effect with an unprecedented level of audio transparency and realism.

The Immediacy of Exceptional Audio

The Impression ESL 11A is part of the Masterpiece Series. It features a dual 8-inch woofer system, with ARC-honed performance, for a perfectly blended low-frequency response. The groundbreaking integration of this woofer array and MartinLogan’s signature 11-inch wide XStat CLS transducer, coupled with a powerful dual amplifier section, delivers an expressive and dynamic audio experience. It’s an experience of pure audio pleasure.

Look at the familiar elements of the classic MartinLogan 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. A reinforced electrostatic panel with rigid ClearSpar™ spacers, keeping an exact level of tension on the vacuum-bonded diaphragm without obscuring the beautiful see-through design. Add to these the slender, pointed-arrow design of the new AirFrame™ Bladeconstruction and the result is a powerfully evocative composition creating a harmonious connection between the panel and its woofer cabinet.

Now notice some radical refinements:Inspired by our own breakthrough design, we have reinvented the Impression ESL 11A woofer section, powered by new dual 275-watt Class-D amplifiers, and controlled by a 24-Bit Vojtko™ DSP Engine and ARC™ (Anthem Room Correction).

Using two 8-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 a smart phase-shifting design, we minimize 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 our 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.

For the first time in electrostatic speakers we are introducing the integration of 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 Impression ESL 11A 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.

New Ultra-Rigid AirFrame Blade Design

Impression ESL 11A 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.

Curvilinear Line Source (CLS) Electrostatic Panel

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.

Controlled Dispersion Sound Radiation

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.

New  PoweredForce Forward^™ Bass Technology