Capital Audiofest (CAF) 2016 Show Report
Martin Logan
Report By Kemper Holt

  Dennis Churn of Martin Logan presided over this large room which debuted the new Expression ESL 13A hybrid electrostatic speakers ($14,995 per pair). The Expressions feature a 13" wide electrostatic panel which crosses over to a pair of 10" aluminum coned woofers at 300 Hz, each woofer has a dedicated 300 Watt amp and a 24-bit Vojtko DSP engine processor. Martin Logan is continuing to make advancements in mating planar panels to cone woofers, and this 13A is another step in the right direction.

I played excerpts from my CAF compilation disc and enjoyed the results. The system was transparent, open, had good deep low bass (Chris Jones' "No Sanctuary Here"), voices were perfectly imaged, and the sound stage was wide and deep. The big room let the MLs breathe, and Bart Andeer from Resolution Acoustics helped out with numerous treatments keeping reflections and boom in check. The supporting cast included a McIntosh CD Drive, Berkeley Audio DAC, Audio Research 27 preamp, AR 150 SE amp, and AudioQuest cables completed the system.

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