CES 2016

Boldly proclaiming that its new the Renaissance ESL 15 A ($24,995/pair) combines a 45" x 15" electrostatic transducer with dual 12" aluminum-cone woofers, dual 500W woofer amplifiers, bass and mid-bass level controls, and Anthem room correction, MartinLogan proceeded to mate it with excellent Constellation Audio amplifiers and MIT cabling. Winning the award as the only room at CES to play me Reference Recordings' rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov's Dance of the Tumblers, MartinLogan loudspeakers once again left me wanting for the image weight I usually experience from speakers of this size. Volume and weight, I felt, were instead reserved for the woofers, which seemed to go overboard in compensation.