MartinLogan ESL vs. Salk Song Tower or Ascend Seirra Tower

[Kruz]

Hello,

On my continued quest to listen to as many speakers as I can in my budget of $2 to $3k (for the front 2) I recently listened to the MartinLogan ESL's and was really blow away. I loved how clear they sounded with a ton of detail. I have also listened to the B&W CM9s and didn't like how the highs felt too high (is this called being too bright?).

Anyways I was hoping to hear from someone who has listened to the ESL's and compare them to either the Salk songtowers or Ascend's Sierra towers. Thanks!

 

[Pyrrho]

You might also want to audition Magnepan speakers. The MG 1.7 is well within your budget:

http://www.magnepan.com/model_MG_16

 

[SubSolar]

Never heard the Salks or Ascends although they always get great reviews and I'm sure they are among the best bang for the buck for monkey coffin speakers. Problem is they're still monkey coffins. Funny thing is that I bought some B&W CM9's and were happy with them until about 4 months later when I heard the Martin Logan ESL's at Best Buy and were blown away as you were. Within a month I bought ML Theos and love them. Also recently heard a friend's Magnepan 1.6's and they also sounded great, similar to ML. Honestly if you love electrostat/panel sound it's tough to go back to traditional speakers. They just sound muffled, like you have cotton in your ears.

 

[ImcLoud]

I don't have experoence with the salks but I do with the esls and the ascends and I would take the ascends. The low end is night and day and they are everbiy as detailed through the mids and highs, you need to listen to them for your self...

 

[Kruz]

Thank you for the suggestion but the wife factor gets in between me putting these in the living room. I'm surprised she liked the look of the ESL's to be honest.

You might also want to audition Magnepan speakers. The MG 1.7 is well within your budget:

http://www.magnepan.com/model_MG_16

 

[Kruz]

Thank you for this comparison. I actually found one person who lives in my city and is selling a pair of the ascends with the ribbon tweeter. I'm hoping to get to listen to them this weekend and then compare against the ESL's right after with the same listening CD.

I don't have experoence with the salks but I do with the esls and the ascends and I would take the ascends. The low end is night and day and they are everbiy as detailed through the mids and highs, you need to listen to them for your self...

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I don't think dipole, bipolar, open baffle, electrostatic, ML, Magnepan, etc., speakers sound any better than "monkey coffin box" speakers.

Too much audio religion. If they sound good, they are good.

 

[ImcLoud]

I don't think dipole, bipolar, open baffle, electrostatic, ML, Magnepan, etc., speakers sound any better than "monkey coffin box" speakers.

Too much audio religion. If they sound good, they are good.

I wouldn't say either sound better as a rule, but I have heard some pretty impressive Maggies, Natural Sound outside of Boston had a set of 3.7s with a pair of little rel subs that sounded really really nice, then a set of 20.7s with a pair of jl subs that sounded amazing {But cost was around $35K, lol}... I'm sure it took them hours and hours to get them 2 rooms setup perfect but they did sound good... Now can you put together a cabinet speaker that sounds as good for the same or less, sure you can... Its just personal preference as is most of what we talk about here...

 

[canelli]

"I have also listened to the B&W CM9s and didn't like how the highs felt too high (is this called being too bright?)."

From my limited experience with B&W speakers I have owned, they are finicky to setup. I found the CM9s to come in to their own when the back of the speaker is 30" or more away from the wall with a slight toe-in. I have read that the CM9s can have a tendency for the mid-bass to get a touch "wooly". I am not sure what exactly that means, but a dedicated sub did make the CM9s sound appreciably better.

Before I had a room to setup the CM9s any which way, I was considering replacing them. I never felt completely satisfied. Now, I am happy with the difference in sound, but I have the space to move them around.

A combination I would consider is the Kef R series (300 or above) with a dedicated sub(s). Kef will allow you to do an in home trial which I highly recommend.

I considered Salk, but I am not going to buy a speaker without listening to it first.

Also, don't under estimate the benefit of an in home trial.

Good Luck -

 

[Alex2507]

Swerd, please just tell them already.

 

[Pyrrho]

Thank you for the suggestion but the wife factor gets in between me putting these in the living room. I'm surprised she liked the look of the ESL's to be honest.

Your approach is wrong. Take her with you to listen to speakers, with music she likes. My wife does not like the look of my speakers that are currently in the living room:

Stage

But she likes how they sound, so she is okay with them there.

 

[Irvrobinson]

I don't think dipole, bipolar, open baffle, electrostatic, ML, Magnepan, etc., speakers sound any better than "monkey coffin box" speakers.

Too much audio religion. If they sound good, they are good.

Exactly. If speakers reproduce a recording I made myself accurately, so I know what the live sound was like, I don't care what the design is, they're great speakers. This is why I stopped being such a Peter Aczel fan-boy. The Orions are very, very good, but so are some box speakers.

I'm still fascinated by the SoundLab ESLs. I just heard a pair a week ago, and they tempt me, but in some ways they are not as accurate as the Salon2s, to my ears.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Exactly. If speakers reproduce a recording I made myself accurately, so I know what the live sound was like, I don't care what the design is, they're great speakers. This is why I stopped being such a Peter Aczel fan-boy. The Orions are very, very good, but so are some box speakers.

I'm still fascinated by the SoundLab ESLs. I just heard a pair a week ago, and they tempt me, but in some ways they are not as accurate as the Salon2s, to my ears.

I think it's kind of "disrespectful" when people call speakers "monkey coffins" just because they think they prefer a certain speaker type.

I don't think these "box" speakers (Salon2, 800D2, 207/2, etc.) look anything like coffins.

I know DenPureSound used to call these open baffle type speakers "Window Screens".

I like the Orion3 and ML and Magnepan. But they have nothing over "box" speakers IMO.

Different strokes for different folks.

 

[Alex2507]

I think it's kind of "disrespectful" when people call speakers "monkey coffins"

You're tellin' me ...

 

[Daniel K]

If you like details ,you can also find some beryllium tweeter speaker to hear like JMlab.Full of details, different with ESL speaker.

 

[ImcLoud]

Your approach is wrong. Take her with you to listen to speakers, with music she likes. My wife does not like the look of my speakers that are currently in the living room:

Stage

But she likes how they sound, so she is okay with them there.

My wife comes and listens with me, she likes music too... She hates ugly speakers though, I would love to have a set of 3.7's and she said "absolutely not" she heard them and liked the sound but stuck by "absolutely not", lol..

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

My wife comes and listens with me, she likes music too... She hates ugly speakers though, I would love to have a set of 3.7's and she said "absolutely not" she heard them and liked the sound but stuck by "absolutely not", lol..

Apparently she does not think the 3.7s are unequivocally the best sounding speakers.

They didn't utterly enamor her.

 

[Kruz]

Thought I would update this after listening to the Ascend Sierra towers with RAAL tweater yesterday. I felt really lucky to have a chance to listen to my own music at the person's house selling them.

First impressions was the build quality is very very good on these. Everything looks so neat and put together and the veneer looks very very clean. I also like the size of these. I'm a fan of big imposing towers and these fit the bill. The pair I saw was the (espresso?) brown which I wasn't a huge fan of but that is just personal taste. They also definitely look much better with the grills off.

Sound wise female vocals sound amazing. I listened to both florence and lana del rey and there was something so airy, clean and liquid about the vocals. Very impressed with that. I was also impressed with how low these got. My wife like the will.i.am song Scream and Shout and I had to check the seller's sub was off when this track came one. Anyone who wants to run a strictly 2.0 system with these would be happy in my humble opinion.

On the downside I wasn't as blown away as when the martinlogan esl's first were played for me. Other than the vocals there wasn't the "holy **** this sounds amazing" moment. I'm not very well versed in this but it came to what was between the bass and the highs (mids?). It was like something was missing. But to clarify the ascends were in someone's small apartment with a kitche to the right side of the speakers with my own music and the esl's were in a hifi shop with a treated room and a cherry picked recording. I wonder if placement and room treatment caused this.

Overall this made me realize I really really like a ribbon tweeter and after doing some research the esl's are out because they require 3 to 5 feet from the back wall (I can provide 2 max and that is pushing it). The ascends are definitely still in the running and the next step is to continue listening to more speakers in town with the same CD. This isn't the most detailed of reviews and i'm pretty new to writing my thoughts down on this but I was hoping to add back to this group which has given me so much great advice so far!

 

[fuzz092888]

That makes sense and thanks for sharing. The room could definitely have influenced what you heard since the room can be up including and possibly exceeding 50% of what you're hearing, especially the lower the frequencies get. However, there can be suck outs and hot spots just about anywhere in the frequency range.

 

[GranteedEV]

On the downside I wasn't as blown away as when the martinlogan esl's first were played for me. Other than the vocals there wasn't the "holy **** this sounds amazing" moment. I'm not very well versed in this but it came to what was between the bass and the highs (mids?). It was like something was missing.

Not suggesting one thing or the other, but that "wow" moment may be related to a poor speaker balance that sounds good on some source material and in turn horrible on other source material. More neutral speakers may not blow you away, but they also may be the most honest window to the recording itself.