MartinLogan Classic ESL 9 Walnut, ea floorstanding speaker

The MartinLogan Masterpiece Classic ESL 9 is a perfect blend of high-end form and function. Impressive detail and an expansive soundstage When MartinLogan demonstrated a pair of Masterpiece Classic ESL 9 speakers at Crutchfield HQ, I made sure to look around the room. As I expected, I saw telltale signs that our veteran writers and Advisors were impressed: they exchanged significant looks, arched a single eyebrow, or mouthed "wow" to a neighbor. Nobody spoke out loud, which was good - I wanted my ears to focus on the crystalline detail, musical bass, and room-spanning soundstage the Classics were producing. Efficient, elegant electrostatic panel design If you're used to traditional woofers and tweeters, welcome to something different, and very cool. Instead of domes and cones, this speaker uses an electrostatic panel to reproduce treble and midrange. It's an ultra-thin diaphragm that's suspended between two electrically charged perforated steel plates. The diaphragm's light weight allows it to move back and forth between the plates thousands of times a second, creating incredibly detailed, lifelike sound. The ESL 9's curved panel is a perfect blend of high-end form and function. Efficient MicroPerf technology exposes more of the electrostatic diaphragm surface, allowing the speaker to create a wide soundstage from a relatively narrow panel. Ultra-rigid AirFrame Blade construction - precision manufactured from an aerospace-grade extruded aluminum alloy - reduces vibrations and enhances imaging, sonic detail, and accuracy. Refined woofer array Previous speakers in the ESL line have offered powerful bass, but MartinLogan made some important tweaks to the Classic ESL 9. The speaker's cabinet houses two 8" laser-engineered low-distortion aluminum cone woofers in an opposing array - one facing forward and one rear-firing. It's a balanced design that greatly reduces cabinet vibrations that can occur when both woofers face forward. The first time I heard MartinLogan elect