Our second announcement coming out of this week's Munich High End Show comes from MartinLogan. Although the company seems to be withholding a lot of juicy info, they are at the event, showing off the Neolith, a brand new hybrid electrostatic speaker.
What we do know about the Neolith is that it's supposed to combine the performance of the company's Statement Evolution 2 with the simplicity of 1983's Monolith loudspeaker. In the official announcement, MartinLogan made sure to remind us that the Monolith was the speaker that truly pumped up the category of electrostatic technology, thanks to a gossamer thin transparent diaphragm. The Neolith builds on that, with a low-mass curvilinear design that's coupled with new crossover engineering and dynamic driver research.
Inside, the Neolith has a 22-by-48-inch electrostatic transducer with MartinLogan's largest electrostatic radiating surface to date -- a whopping 35 percent larger than the Statement e2. Other features include a 15-inch rear-firing ported woofer and a 12-inch front-firing sealed mid-bass woofer, which boasts bass down to 23Hz.
Promising a three-dimensional soundstage, the Neolith also has a passive design to single wire or bi-amp the speaker with audiophile-quality solid state or tube amplifiers.
"Neolith's hybrid system delivers living sound -- perfectly rendered as it was originally performed with the distinct energy and personality of every voice and every instrument," says the announcement.
MartinLogan says that the handcrafted Neolith will be available "in a variety of custom luxury paint finishes," but doesn't actually say what those will be. Apparently, all of the details on the colors, pricing and availability will be coming at a later date.
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