Product Description
This kind of illusion is the goal of any loudspeaker, especially a center channel speaker—the most important speaker in a multi-channel audio system. It is tasked with reproducing the most important audio information for imaging and realism: cinematic dialogue, anchoring effects, and a large portion of the front sound stage. It is fitting, then, that we introduce our new Masterpiece Series center channel loudspeaker, the MartinLogan Illusion ESL C 34A speaker.
Masters of the Illusionist school of art perfected trompe-l’oeil, employing painting techniques that mimicked actual objects so vividly that “Illusionism” blurred the boundaries between art and reality.
A Masterful Cinematic Experience
There are no illusions about the performance of the MartinLogan Illusion ESL C 34A speaker. It is the ultimate high performance floorstanding electrostatic center channel loudspeaker. Its classic MartinLogan electrostatic panel and Folded Motion XT Tweeters are uniquely integrated to powered woofer section—new technology joined with proven innovation producing a truly innovate center channel loudspeaker.
The Ultimate Center Channel Loudspeaker
This ambitious new center channel blurs the line between performance and reality by combining the unflinching accuracy of a 34-inch wide XStat™ CLS™ electrostatic transducer with the detailed imaging capability of dual Folded Motion XT tweeters. Additionally, four laser-engineered 6.5-inch aluminum cone woofers, driven by 250 watts of clean amplification with on-board Anthem Room Correction (ARC) technology, anchor the image to your screen and deliver massive cinematic impact.
The MartinLogan Illusion ESL C 34A speaker is timbre-matched to our flagship Masterpiece Series speakers to create a white-knuckle home theater experience of skidding car chases, blitzing battle scenes, or even intimately whispered dialogue within a seamlessly coherent surround-sound environment, making the Illusion ESL C34A the perfect center of your Masterpiece home theater.
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. Using ARC Technology to ensure seamless low frequency performance in a center channel speaker is incredibly important to the overall realism of the surround-sound system. 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. When you engage ARC to control the low-frequency curve in relation to the combined output of the ESL panel and the Folded Motion XT Tweeters (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 bass technology and the advanced room correction capabilities of ARC, along with the unique synthesis of the ESL, Folded Motion XT, and bass sections, the MartinLogan Illusion ESL C 34A speaker destroys the “illusion of playback.” Like other speakers in the Masterpiece Series, it presents an utterly natural and transparent performance, with realistic imaging detail on top of well-blended, wide-spectrum performance and intense, accurate bass, even at lifelike listening levels.
The Illusion ESL C34A is, really, a home theater Masterpiece.
