originally published Jan 12, 2015

MartinLogan Neolith Introduction

In the 1970s, Gayle Martin Sanders and Ron Logan Sutherland met in a high-end audio store that Sanders managed in Lawrence, Kansas. While both were fans of electrostatic speakers, none of the existing models had hit the mainstream with any success. They were convinced that they could do better. The pair felt they could overcome some of the technical challenges plaguing electrostatic speakers and produce a speaker that could reproduce all genres of music well—not just the niche genres electrostatics were famous for.

After a series of failures, the team that Sanders had assembled began experimenting with new aerospace materials. The breakthrough of those newer materials along with a horizontally curved panel (a design Sanders envisioned) led to the development of a concept that they exhibited for the first time at the 1982 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.

MartinLogan's original electrostatic loudspeaker, the Monolith, was launched in 1983.



A year later, that concept gave birth to the Monolith, the first full-range electrostatic loudspeaker developed by MartinLogan, the company that now bore the middle names of both founders. Since the early 1980s, MartinLogan has become a household name in high end audio. Unlike the towering design of the original Monolith, MartinLogan’s subsequent hybrid electrostatic speakers have become smaller in both size and amplification requirements.

Check out our recently added YouTube Video Overview and Review from our visit to MartinLogan's Corporate Headquarters in Lawrence Kansas.

MartinLogan Neolith YouTube Overview and Review



The Neolith: Sources of Inspiration and Innovation

Like all legendary audio companies, MartinLogan is proud of its heritage. As the company’s 30th anniversary approached, they wanted to do something truly special to commemorate that milestone. MartinLogan reached out to dealers and customers to see what they envisioned in a cost-no-object speaker. At the same time, designers and engineers looked back on the company’s product history and began to focus back on both the iconic simplicity of the original Monolith and the performance of the acclaimed Statement Evolution 2. After nearly three years of development, the Neolith (aka, the new Monolith) was born. The Neolith was unveiled for the first time at the 2014 Munich High End show as a testament to MartinLogan’s audio legacy as well as its drive and ability to construct the best electrostatic speaker in the company’s 30+ year history.

The MartinLogan Neolith has the largest electrostatic transducer in the company's rich history



While the Neolith is very much familiar, it’s also radically unique. The hybrid design features a massive 22x48-inch CLS Stat electrostatic transducer which acts as a midrange/high frequency driver. For those keeping track, that represents a radiating surface that’s 35% larger than the Statement Evolution 2, and the largest electrostatic panel that the iconic company has ever produced. Below the electrostatic panel is an enormous 15-inch rear-firing ported woofer and 12-inch front firing sealed mid-bass woofer. Altogether, this system is rated to deliver accurate, authoritative bass down to 23Hz. In other words, excepting the lowest organ notes, subwoofers need not apply.

What is very atypical and even novel with the Neolith is its design: it’s fully passive. No, that’s not a misprint. Unlike all other MartinLogan electrostatic speakers which have active components, the Neolith is fully passive from top to bottom. If you look at the Neolith you won’t get that impression. It has a power cord like all MartinLogan electrostatics, but on the Neolith, the power cord serves only a single purpose—to charge the electrostatic panel, nothing more. MartinLogan deliberately made the Neolith a passive design so that audiophile customers could pair whatever high-performance solid state or tube amplifiers they wanted for single or bi-amping the Neolith.

The Neolith's power cord simply polarizes the electrostatic panel. Otherwise, the Neolith is a fully passive speaker allowing audiophiles to use any amplifier of their choice to power the Neolith



In keeping with MartinLogan’s signature look, the Neolith has MartinLogan’s proprietary curvilinear electrostatic transducer. Like other MartinLogan electrostatic speakers, the Neolith controls the dispersion of the audible signal on a 30 degree horizontal axis. In contrast to dynamic speakers or other speaker technologies that have a very wide horizontal dispersion, MartinLogan deliberately controls the dispersion by design to increase the listening area while also minimizing acoustic interactions with a listening room's side walls, floor, and ceiling.

The Neolith is made from a super-dense phenolic resin polymer. It’s the only speaker in the MartinLogan lineup to use this polymer. I asked MartinLogan why they chose this material over some others. MartinLogan said that phenolic resin polymer was an ideal choice vs. aluminum and other rigid options. The polymer’s combination of structural rigidity and vibration absorption helps minimize cabinet vibrations that result from the reactive forces of the powerful woofers.

The Neolith is finished in automotive-grade paint (more on that later) from top to bottom. There are no wood veneer choices. There are, however, seven stock color finishes— from bold to reserved—available for the Neolith. At the same time, customers aren’t limited to just those stock colors. Customers who want the Neolith in custom colors can work with their local MartinLogan dealer to have a pair fully paint-matched with whatever color they want.

The Neolith comes in seven standard color options but can also be custom-color matched to any color.



I won’t go into all the other premium quality components in the Neolith, but there are two features that I feel are worth mentioning: the bass attenuation jumpers and the speaker distance jumpers. Because of the size of the Neolith, placement of the speakers in small to medium-sized rooms is going to present a challenge in getting the bass and the crossover points between the electrostatic panel and the midrange right. To address this, MartinLogan’s engineering team included two jumpers. The first is a low bass output compensation option.

You set the low bass output options via manual jumpers on each speaker’s rear panel. By moving the jumpers you can attenuate the bass at 0dB, -4dB, or -8dB to fine-tune it to your room. I asked why jumpers were used instead of dial or something else and the gist of the response I got was because jumpers are cool, old-school, and requires the audiophile to make a conscious decision to put the jumper into that setting. Fair enough.

Detail view of the Neolith's jumpers—located on the rear of the speaker. Low bass was set to zero and distance was set to 4 meters.



On the same panel and below the low bass output jumpers you set a second jumper for distance. Your distance options include 3, 4 or 5+ meters. I asked MartinLogan what exactly the distance jumper accomplishes and I got a detailed response from Joe Voijko, MartinLogan’s Senior Acoustic Engineer. Joe said that the distance jumper is used to optimize the electrostatic panel to the front woofer crossover. The optimum crossover and jumper position varies with the listener’s distance to the speaker. Joe went on to elaborate that the jumper addresses the directionality of the frequencies. The lower frequencies from the panel are not as directional as the upper frequencies. Because of physics, Joe said that these lower frequency sound waves experience a floor bounce. At three meters the timing difference between the direct and reflected is long enough that the panel can play down to 250Hz. Once you get to 5 meters, the timing difference is reduced. Partial cancellation of the sound waves occurs in such a way that the lower frequencies produced by the panel need augmentation by the front woofer. Thus, the distance jumper sets the front woofer low pass filter to produce a good listener response based on the listening distance.

I cannot emphasize how important these options are to dial a speaker into your room properly. Such options become even more critical if your preamp doesn’t feature room correction. I’ve experienced the benefit of such a design from other high-end manufacturers and these options make a radical difference in a speaker’s performance in different rooms and placement scenarios. I applaud MartinLogan for including both the bass management and crossover options for audiophile customers and dealers to fine-tune the speaker to the target room.

Jump to: Introduction MartinLogan Neolith Build & Sound Quality Tests MartinLogan Neolith Conclusion