Floorstanding loudspeakers — Martin Logan Neolith

Neolith is a MartinLogan passive hybrid electrostatic design that is made to order, hand-delivered and professionally installed. Its electrostatic radiating surface is 35 percent larger than that of the earlier Statement E2, and MartinLogan describes the model as the result of more than 30 years of its electrostatic work. The current list price is USD 119,999.98 per pair.

Key specs that matter

The published bandwidth reaches from 23 Hz to 22,000 Hz within 3 dB. Sensitivity is 90 dB at 2.83 V and 1 m, and nominal impedance is 4 ohms, with a minimum of 0.43 ohm at 20 kHz. Recommended amplifier power spans 20 to 1,300 W per channel. Crossover points are 60 Hz and 250 to 400 Hz. The XStat CLS panel measures 122 x 56 cm, forms a 122 cm line source and offers a radiating area of 6,832 cm2, with 30 degrees of horizontal dispersion. Each speaker weighs 175 kg and measures 189.9 x 76.9 x 87 cm.

Engineering and use context

Neolith pairs a rear-firing 15-inch woofer in a ported enclosure and a front-firing 12-inch mid-bass woofer in a sealed one. The 15-inch driver has a cast basket, an aluminium cone and a vented motor with triple shorting rings and a 4-layer coil. The 12-inch unit uses a cast aluminium alloy frame, a carbon fibre sandwich cone and a 76 mm copper-clad aluminium flat wire voice coil. The frame is made of phenolic resin polymer, a dense substrate chosen for mechanical strength to limit vibration from woofer cone counter forces and to act as a baffle for the panel and woofers. It comes in an automotive gloss finish, while the woofer cabinet is wrapped in leather. MartinLogan builds the panel with MicroPerf stators, ClearSpar spacers and a vacuum-bonding process using an aerospace adhesive, and its horizontal curvature follows the Curvilinear Line Source principle. The high-pass section of the Vojtko crossover uses 1 percent resistors on heat sinks, polypropylene capacitors, air-core inductors and dual toroidal transformers to drive the panel. Jumpers on the low-pass side provide a bass control of 0, minus 4 or minus 8 dB and a distance setting for 3, 4 or 5 metres. LED lighting can be set to on, dim or off, and power draw is 1 W in standby and 15 W at most.

Pairing

MartinLogan rates Neolith as compatible with amplifiers designed for 4, 6 or 8 ohm loads. WBT-0705Ag nextgen 5-way binding posts with fine silver conductors, rated at 30 A continuous and 200 A peak, allow either single-wire or bi-amp connection.

Alternatives

Within its Masterpiece Series, MartinLogan offers the Renaissance ESL 15A, a hybrid electrostatic floorstander that uses 12-inch woofers.