By adding a compact electrostatic panel to a center channel speaker, MartinLogan engineers have succeeded in expanding the performance dynamics of the most important speaker in your home theater system. Your center channel speaker needs to be able to reproduce the finest high frequency details. The midrange must be expansive; to reproduce every whisper of dialogue. Deep bass adds impact to the front-stage effects that anchor the action to your screen. The EM-ESL C accomplishes all this, and more.
The EM-ESL C has a shallow height CLS (Curvilinear Line Source) XStat electrostatic panel wrapped around the front of the speaker enclosure. The gentle horizontal curve of the panel enhances the output of its deceptively compact 114-square-inch radiating area, extending mid-range dispersion patterns and blending the performance seamlessly with your front-stage ElectroMotion loudspeakers.
Just behind the electrostatic panel, in a specially designed housing, sits MartinLogan’s exclusive Folded Motion Tweeter. The low-mass diaphragm of the Folded Motion Tweeter minimizes distortion, and its short excursion length reinforces its lightning fast high frequency response. The 1 x 1.4-inch Folded Motion Tweeter in the EM-ESL C has a total diaphragm area of 9.2-inches, with the ability to reproduce precise details; one of the most important jobs of a center channel speaker.
The New CenterForce™System
Designing a high performance electrostatic center channel speaker sized to fit into A/V furniture was no easy task. Adding a dual woofer system seemed impossible! But MartinLogan’s skilled audio engineers found a novel solution, and they call it CenterForce.
Instead of taking up space by positioning the woofers on each side of the electrostatic panel, they’ve designed a central slot inside the cabinet for the woofers. Now, the dual woofers reside in a well-braced enclosure located behind the tweeter and electrostatic panel.
This new CenterForce solution allows the speaker to be more compact, and encourages the woofers to produce a generous amount of well-blended deep bass. The CenterForce system in the EM-ESL Cfeatures two custom-designed 5.25-inch aluminum cone woofers. Rigid and yet lightweight, this material reduces flexure while minimizing response time. Their efficient construction optimizes suspension and magnetic flux field, further reducing potential sources of distortion. The EM-ESL Cgrounds its performance in accurate, musical bass response.
This is a center channel speaker that delivers a full-range performance, by combining an electrostatic panel with a Folded Motion Tweeter, bolstered by the CenterForce bass system. The compact EM-ESL Cgoes where you want it, and does what you need, for your high performance ElectroMotion home theater system.
CLSTM XStat Transducer
One of MartinLogan’s original breakthroughs, CLSTM (Curvilinear Line Source) technology, has been an essential ingredient of every electrostatic loudspeaker we’ve produced—and the ElectroMotion ESL is no exception. Proprietary manufacturing methods enable construction of electrostatic panels as cylindrical sections. Their gentle horizontal curvature solves the problem of obtaining good high-frequency dispersion from a large radiating surface without compromising overall sound quality or reliability.
Controlled Dispersion Sound Radiation
Another key attribute of the ElectroMotion ESL is its naturally dipolar radiation pattern. A true dipole, The EM-ESL radiates sound with equal intensity from the front and back of its diaphragm, but the outputs are in opposite phase. As a result, sound waves rippling out toward the sides meet at the speaker’s edge and cancel. That and the relatively large size of the ElectroMotion ESL’s electrostatic panel cause output at the sides to be very low relative to that of a conventional loudspeaker, which in turn minimizes side-wall reflections that tend to muddle sonic detail and stereo imaging. While the reduction in output to the sides contributes to the astonishing clarity for which electrostats are revered, the energy reflected off the wall behind the speaker opens up and deepens the sound.
Superb Bass Integration
To seamlessly blend audio output from the high- and mid-frequency electrostatic panel to the low-frequency woofer the ElectroMotion ESL features a proprietary VojtkoTM topology filter utilizing custom air core coil and low DCR steel laminate inductors, polyester film capacitors in series, and low DF electrolytic capacitors in parallel.
Specifications…
- Frequency Response: 66–23,000 Hz ±3dB
- Recommended Amplifier Power: 20—300 watts per channel
- Horizontal Dispersion: 30°
- Vertical Dispersion: 6.375″ (16cm) line source
- Sensitivity: 89 dB/2.83 volts/meter
- Impedance: 4 Ohms Compatible with 4, 6, or 8 Ohm rated amplifiers.
- Crossover Frequency: 600, 3400 Hz
- High Frequency Transducer:
- One 1″ x 1.4″ (2.6cm x 3.6cm) Folded Motion Transducer with 5.25″ x 1.75″ (13.3cm x 4.4cm) diaphragm.
- Mid Frequency Transducer:
- XStat™ CLS™ electrostaic transducer.
- Panel Dimensions: Two 6.375″ x 9″ (16.2 x 22.8cm)
- Low Frequency Transducer:
- Two 5.25″ (13.3 cm) high excursion, high-rigidity aluminum cone with extended throw driver assembly, non-resonance asymmetrical chamber format.
- Custom 5-way tool-less binding posts
- Weight: 14.5 kg
- Dimensions (W x H x D):193 x 579 x 409 mm
Check out the brochure for more information – Martin Logan ElectroMotion ESL C
