- Joined
- Feb 23, 2016
- Messages
- 20,689
- Likes
- 37,409
I like ESLs, but my opinion of those M_Ls with a woofer sighted matched your description. I've never liked them. Maybe the ones I heard were not well positioned on the room. Though i heard them in several different places and a few models. Today you could eq it. But those woofers in earlier M_Ls stunk up the sound. I shook my head over those I knew who purchased some.I had a very similar experience and take away from my experience with the Harman speaker shuffler.
In my case it was as a dealer so they were selling me on their science, but as I listened to the three speakers on demo, one was a standout as a real honker. I thought to myself, "Oh dear god, this must be a JBL horn system. How embarassing!" The other two were much closer. I preferred the bass and upper midrange of one and the lowest bass and the highs of the other. Honestly I could be pretty happy with either.
It turned out that the honker was a Martin Logan 10" woofer hybrid electrostat, I don't remember the model, and the other two were the B&W 800 Diamond and the JBL 1400 Array. I had preferred the bass extension and the highs of the B&W but at half the price, the demo worked. I bought a pair of the 1400 Arrays for myself and kept them for several years.
All in all, I found the experience quite humbling. It was a very clear demonstration of our preconceived notions and sighted bias.
Now the CLS was another matter. There were flaws, and things it simply couldn't do. What it could do however was pretty special.