Martin Logan Renaissance ESL 15A Hybrid Electrostatic Speakers - Gloss Black - Complete Kit

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General:
The Renaissance ESL 15A was introduced as the flagship speaker from Martin Logan in 2016. MSRP on these beauties was a whopping $25,000 when new.

They have the best technology that Martin Logan has to offer.

Martin Logan is known for incredible speakers that combine the best of electrostatic and dynamic driver technology. The Renaissance ESL 15A encompasses all of these elements.

They provide the transparency and intimacy of an electrostatic loudspeaker such as a Quad ESL... but give you low-frequency response typical of a box speaker. In fact, they will outperform many box speakers in that regard thanks to their dual powered 15" drivers.

The amplifiers at the bottom of each cabinet are rated for 500W of class D power, sure to give all of the bass output you'll need. In testing they sounded super transparent and rich. 

This particular pair will come with their original, boxes, manual, spike feet, and microphone, making this a rare complete set as it arrived new.

Shipping:
These speakers are exempt from any Free Shipping promotions.

These speakers will be carefully wrapped and packed to ship via truck freight with full insurance within the lower 48 US States for a flat $1,200. This amount will automatically be added during your checkout.

We can safely pack these speakers to ship worldwide, just contact us for a quote. Local pickup welcome and we can also arrange a local courier depending on distance. Please contact us for details. 

SkyFi Cosmetic Notes:
Flaws include a minor scratch at the front of the electrostatic panel. Swirl marks on glossy black finish. Overall good shape.

More from Martin Logan on the built-in Anthem Room Correction:
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 an electrostatic speaker 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 Renaissance ESL 15A produces perfectly-etched imaging and focus; optimum natural reproduction of sound at lifelike listening levels; and agile, full-range operation in open air.

More from Martin Logan:
What makes a masterpiece? Is the “Mona Lisa” just a picture of a woman smiling, or is there more to it? We consider something a masterpiece when uncommon skill and artistry shapes familiar elements in an unexpected way, revealing an essential truth.

For MartinLogan, the essential truth revealed by our skill and artistry is audio realism. Fittingly, our next generation of electrostatic loudspeakers debuts with the new Renaissance ESL 15A. Three decades of audio design and engineering innovation, distilled into a startling fresh loudspeaker ideal.

A Masterpiece of Design & Engineering
Befitting a loudspeaker of this name, MartinLogan has combined decades of innovations, and more, to reinterpret the uniquely detailed electrostatic loudspeaker. This is a flagship audio achievement for the 21st Century.

The _pièce de résistance_ is the integration of MartinLogan’s award-winning 15-inch wide Curvilinear Line Source (CLS™) XStat™ electrostatic (ESL) transducer with its robust woofer section, the revolutionary melding of design and engineering.

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. The panel is reinforced with rigid ClearSpar™ spacers, keeping an exact level of tension on the vacuum-bonded diaphragm without obscuring the beautiful see-through design.

Add the slender, pointed-arrow design of the new AirFrame™ Blade construction; 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 Renaissance ESL 15A woofer section, powered by new dual 500-watt Class-D amplifiers, and controlled by a 24-Bit Vojtko™ DSP Engine and ARC™ (Anthem Room Correction).

Using two 12-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 smart phase-shifting logic, 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.

New Ultra-Rigid AirFrame Blade Design
Expression ESL 15A 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
PoweredForce Forward bass technology combines two MartinLogan audio innovations: PoweredForce, which allows small enclosures to accurately produce massive amounts of bass, and ForceForward, which significantly reduces performance-robbing front-wall bass reflections.

PoweredForce Forward bass technology uses an advanced crossover topology with phase-timed woofers to minimize destructive reflected energy. By virtually eliminating front-wall bass reflections and working in tandem with the panel, PoweredForce Forward Bass Technology gives you more placement flexibility, and enhances the true audio realism of your sound source.

Turning unused space into better bass:
The depth of Masterpiece Series speaker cabinets was carefully chosen to maximize benefits of both PoweredForce and ForceForward technologies, providing powerful bass with extreme detail. Combined with Anthem Room Correction (ARC™), these advanced bass technologies provide a level of low-frequency precision that is truly unique.
Masterpiece Series speaker cabinet dimensions create an ideal relationship between the woofers, cabinet volume, and amplifiers in their PoweredForce woofer systems. By providing ample internal volume for the woofers (two sealed enclosures—one per woofer) along with powerful amplification, Masterpiece Series speakers with powered woofer systems are capable of reaching the lowest registers with authority while preserving bass detail.

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). For an added level of control powered Masterpiece Series speakers incorporate two level controls (at 75Hz and 200Hz) to allow for fine tuning of bass integration.

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

New More Performance, Versatility, and Safety, with WBT Binding Posts
Connect your electronics safely and securely using 5-Way audiophile WBT Binding Posts. Their pure copper connection plate is highly conductive and free from “eddy current” effects. These posts are insulated for shock protection, and fully damped against vibrations. They give you plenty of room for large-gauge professional speaker connections.

New Powerful Dual 500-Watt Class-D Amplification with 24-Bit Vojtko™ DSP Engine
The performance of Renaissance ESL 15A has been reconsidered from the ground up. Taking full advantage of innovations like PoweredForce Forward and ARC Technology, and the integration of the electrostatic panel with the woofer array, required daring thinking about power and efficiency. Our new dual 500-watt amplifiers produce clean power, in a small space, more efficiently than ever before. They enable the effortless delivery of exhilarating dynamic impact, with plenty of overhead. Superior, reliable Class-D technology means there’s virtually no energy lost between the amplifiers and the woofers.

MartinLogan’s dedicated in-house design and engineering team created an extremely precise 24-bit Vojtko Digital Signal Processing (DSP) engine to work in conjunction with these powerful new amplifiers. It gives these speakers the ability to deliver detailed low-frequency performance reaching down to 22Hz. Advanced DSP allows complete control and performance optimization over the low pass filters, woofer equalization and limiting functions, all of which are mapped mathematically in the digital domain. Complete control of the signal, along with instant response, huge amounts of clean power, and efficient, integrated performance, paints an original picture of lifelike audio performance.

Precision-Built Advanced-Topology Vojtko Crossover
Vojtko Voiced, the advanced crossover and electronics in Renaissance ESL 15A add enhanced mid-range clarity to this artful composition. Carefully hand-built using only the finest polypropylene capacitors and air-core coils, the crossover employs MartinLogan’s proprietary Vojtko topology for vanishingly low distortion and seamless driver/ESL integration. This precision-tuned network preserves even the most microscopic sonic nuances while handling the full dynamics of any source.

We’ve also considered the signal you will feed your loudspeakers, and have engineered Renaissance ESL 15A to work well with practically any type of electronics. MartinLogan’s state-of-the-art toroidal transformer and electrical interface engineering ensure an absolutely transparent link from amplifier to electrostatic panel and woofer array. This produces sound of unparalleled purity, precision, clarity, and openness — the next best thing to no speaker at all.

Ownership:
Single Owner

Connections:
IEC Power, Speaker Binding posts,

General Sound:
Big beautiful musical sound with little fatigue.

Cosmetic Condition:
8/10 = Very Good. Excellent front faceplate, one minor flaw on chassis side or top. See our detailed rating description here.

Working Condition:
Working perfectly and tested in our lab and listening room.

Included:
Everything like when it arrived new

Packing:
Original Manufacturers Packing

Original MSRP:
$25,000.00

Specs:
General / Acoustic
Frequency Response: 22 – 21,000 Hz ±3 dB
Sensitivity: 92 dB @ 2.83 V / 1 m
Impedance: 4 Ω nominal (min. ~0.52 Ω at 20 kHz)
Recommended Amplifier Power: 20 – 700 W per channel
Horizontal Dispersion: 30°
Vertical Dispersion: 46″ (116.9 cm) line source
Crossover Frequency: 300 Hz

Transducers / Drivers
High‑Frequency (Electrostatic Panel):
• Type: XStat™ CLS™ electrostatic transducer
• Panel Dimensions: 46″ × 15″ (117 × 38 cm)
• Radiating Area: 690 in² (4,446 cm²)
Low‑Frequency (Woofers):
• Two 12″ (30.5 cm) PoweredForce Forward™ woofers
• Cast basket, high excursion aluminum cones, extended-throw drive
• Each in asymmetrical non-resonant chambers

Amplification & Electronics
Woofer Amplifier: 2 × 500 W (continuous) into 4 Ω, 1,000 W peak
DSP / Crossover: 24‑bit Vojtko™ DSP engine integrating crossover, woofer EQ, limiting
Room Correction: Anthem Room Correction (ARC™) ready
Audio Controls:
- Bass: ±10 dB below 75 Hz
- Mid-Bass: –2 dB / 0 dB / +2 dB
- Light: On / Dim / Off
- Signal Inputs:
- WBT‑0703Cu NextGen™ 5‑way binding posts
- AC Power
- RJ45 (for ARC)
- mini USB (for ARC)
Power / Consumption
Idle: < 0.5 W / channel
Max: ~ 900 W

Dimensions - Each Speaker:
(H × W × D): 69.8″ × 15.75″ × 28.9″ (177.3 × 40 × 63.3 cm)

Weight - Each Speaker:
140 lbs.

Approximate Age:
2016

Recommended Cables:
Kimber Kable - Speaker Cables - Better

Kimber Kable - Power Cords - Better

Kimber Kable - Power Cords - Best

Testing Process:
Our speaker evaluation process starts with a visual inspection of all drivers. We are looking for damaged or deteriorating woofer surrounds, dented tweeter domes, and cone damage. We also inspect the speaker connection points for loose or broken connectors.

After the initial visual inspection we connect the speakers to a reference amplifier with our preferred test tracks. With the speakers placed with proper distance we listen to each driver to make sure that they are producing the intended frequencies with no signs of distortion or rattle.

During listening tests with test tracks we check for proper stereo imaging and bass response at various listening levels. If there are any audible signs of issues, the speakers are taken to the bench where we perform a frequency sweep to isolate the issue so that it can be resolved by component repair or replacement.

Our subwoofer evaluation process starts with a visual inspection of all drivers. We are looking for damaged or deteriorating woofer surrounds, cone damage, or rubbing voice coils. We also inspect the input connections for damage.

After the initial visual inspection we connect the sub at our bench and perform a sine wave sweep from about 200 Hz down to around 10 Hz. During this sweep we are listening for excessive rattle or other signs of improper function.

If the sweep passes we then increase the input level to evaluate how the woofer performs at high output levels. If the woofer has built-in crossover adjustments or multiple connection options these features are tested at this time.

We complete the subwoofer evaluation by feeding the unit with an audio signal in conjunction with our house music system to see how it responds to low frequency content in real world conditions while paired with a full range system.