MartinLogan Masterpiece Classic ESL 9

The MartinLogan Masterpiece Classic ESL 9 is a perfect blend of high-end form and function. 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. 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, lifeli...