It´s now about 5 weeks since I finally laid my hand on these beauties. Sure they looks odd (at least my friends think so) but they do sound good. The bass is reasonably deep and I have not managed to hear any problems due to the hybrid construction some other people have reported about. One thing is for sure, these speakers are NOT for everyones taste. If you listen mainly to Rock, Pop music or stuff with more drive I would NOT recommend these. I would say that they have a´ marvellous midrange, a´very good treble and descent bass. Sorry to say, the loss in dynamic range and the narrow soundpicture tends to irritate me sometimes. All in all I give these speakers 4 stars. (actually 3,5 stars)
Btw, the speaker bindinng terminals are not up to the standard I would have expected them to be and the same I think about the feet (and spikes !, Uhh!) that comes with the speakers. Have replaced the with Sorbothane feet.

My Equip:

Cambridge CD 6 Cd player
ROKSAN Caspian integrated amp (will soon upgrade with an extra power amp)
IXOS 1002 Interconnects (will soon be replaced with SUPRA EFF ISL & PPX)
Kimber 4 PR speaker cable (biwired)

Sennheiser HD 580 headphones
Musical Fidelity X-Cans headphone amp

Incredibly smooth, musical, detailed sound, period.

Nothing yet.

Well, I'm just a music lover who's been wanting to have an audio system that delivers "music" in my living room. I didn't think it was too much to ask. The truth turned out, however, to be otherwise. I've spent a great deal of my time(which is perfectly O.K. because I enjoy every single minute of it) and my money(which is not O.K. because I'm not Bill Gates) in order to find the just right system to my "own" ears.
To make the long story short, with these mid-west farmer's daughters, I am a happy camper. By now, you've probably noticed I'm staying away from the usual jargons that audiophiles love to use, such as image this, transparency that and etc. I'm kind of sick of that BS now. For anyone who's considering having a "music" system, buy these and start enjoying the music. And for those of you who just wish to talk about all the hi-end audio terms, well, keep talkin'.

By the way, the rest of my music rigs (anyone care?):
-Linn Ikemi cd player
-Rega Planar 25 turntable/RB 600 arm/a few different models of needles(Roksan/Goldring/Rega....)
-BAT VK40 pre-amp
-Plinius SA-100 MK3 power amp
-A bunch of cables(XLO/Kimber/Harmonic Technologies/Nordost....)

Similar Products Used:

Nope.(since it's my first electrostatic speakers)

soundstage, midrange, clarity, honest reproduction.

placement takes time, imaging "sweet spot" small, shows the flaws in every recording you own (if they have any)

picking speakers is like picking friends. no one can do it for you and there are always trade off's. for me, nothing beats electrostats. after owning these speakers for over a year every box speaker under 5k sounds completely dead or strangly colored. too warm, too bright...only really expensive box speakers are flat enough (and time aligned) to compete. if i were going to upgrade, it would be with the odyssey's or prodigy's, both outragously good speakers. the placement of electrostats is fidgity...it took me over three months to get them just so, and they are thin at first. but its all worth it. i use them in my home theater as well and they work very very well. i have paradigm monitor 9's in the back and a paragigm 350 cc. a 12" velodyne fills out the bottom end nicely.

if you want a uniquely accurate musical experience without a second mortgage, step off the band wagon. buy a pair of electrostatic speakers. you will not regret it.

Similar Products Used:

paradigm, paradigm reference, polk audio, cerwin vega, advent, bose, acoustic research

Small sweet spot, have to be placed just so.

I've had these for about 4 weeks now and took both the salesman's and ML's own advice and played them for well over 50 hours with good cables before writing this review. At about 50 hours on the head they changed into markedly different speakers,and I haven't looked back since.

I am NOT an audiophile, and won't try to bombast any readers with nit-picky details about this and that. I'll simply state that these are the best speakers I've ever owned - period. Here's what I hear:

- Accurate reproduction of the source material - good and bad. Yes, crappy recordings still sound crappy. But as I've read in other reviews here, I too have heard subtle details in high-quality recordings that I have never heard through my own or my friends' speakers.

- Nice, tight highs and (after break-in, folks) wonderful bass that is actually distinguishable from the booming confusion that most people are used to these days. No, if the bass is a background instrument in the recording, your neighbors down the block won't hear it. But you will - exactly the way it was laid down on the track. However, if the bass is way up front on the recording, you'll actually hear the strings vibrating. Again, exactly as it was laid down.

- A nice, wide soundstage extending literally from wall to wall. I'll say here that it did take me a couple of weeks of messing around with different positions to get there, but once I found the right spot I knew it - 33 inches from each side wall to the center of the front grille (over the woofer); 39 inches from the back wall to the outside rail, and 36 to the inside rail (they're toed in).

If you decide to try the Aerius i, just remember that you MUST break them in before jumping to any conclusions. Any less than 50 hours and you really haven't heard them. Also, don't get them unless you intend to bi-wire or bi-amp them. And don't try to drive them with a weenie amplifier. Finally, they sell the ETC spikes (which simply add to the enjoyment of these speakers) for $200 on the ML web site, but I found a full set (8) when I unpacked mine.

detail

none really... see below

I've always had a thing for panel speakers. About 10 years
ago I bought some Maggi SMGa's which were great for what
they were. I had my mind set on some electrostat's some
day. That day came in late December 2000.
I had listened to the Aerius i a few times and liked what
I heard... they have a clarity that a box speaker just
can't match. You can hear some details that cone speakers
just muffle. Doing A-B comparisons with similarly priced
box speakers tend to reveal that voices out of many box
speakers sound muffled. Things like fret noises and
supporting guitar riffs pop out... when they are barely
heard from other speakers.
One song I auditioned, Van Morison's "Into the Mystic"
(off Moondance) has a guitar riff that could not
even be heard on the B&W 804's that I happened to be
comparing them to. One last point... they can play very
very loud without distortion. I have them in a fairly
small room (about 12x18) and they work well in the space
and don't take up too much room.

Now for the bad news... the sound can be a little "thin."
My theory is that this is because most of the sound below
400 Hz is coming out of a cone about 8" off the floor. In
some respects this is like taking a bookshelf speaker and
putting it on the floor.

In summary, I would buy them again in a minute. They
sound better than anything in their price rage (by the way,
those B&W Naut. 804's cost almost 50% more). They offer
a clarity and detail that really is fantastic.

One additional note: I decided to assemble a home theater
system after buying the Aerius i's and spent some time
researching what the other speaker components would be.
I wasn't a customer for the other Martin Logan theater
speakers both because of their cost and size. I wound
up with a Sunfire Sig. sub. and Mission 78 series for
surrounds and center. Specifically the 780 for surround
and the 78c for center. The Missions are really impressive
in their own right. I've done some A-B comparisons with
the Aerius i and the little 780's hold their own. Seems
like a waste using them for surrounds. :-) On well recorded
DTS material (unfortunately not much of that around) the
ensemble really shines and I don't feel that mixing the box
speakers with the Aerius was really much of a compromise.
(In fact, Martin Logan uses a dome tweeter in their center
channel anyway.) I was startled to hear some of the same
details coming from the Missions that the B&Ws lost.
Fine little speakers...

I have lived with these speakers for almost 6 months now. All I can say is that these speakers are very good. There are several complains in this board regarding some of the so called "deficiencies" of this speaker. These can be summarized as follow: 1) Weak bass; and
2) Integration problem between the panel and the woofer.
I have to admit that the Aerius i is very picky about its upstream source. You have to drive this speaker with amps that are "bossy", "dominant" type. In another word, amps that have very high damping factor, very stable with low impedance (less than 2 Ohms) and capable of high voltage output (for reference you can see a review written in www.soundstage.com regarding the Innersound Eros speaker system). To name a few of these amps: Bryston B60, 3BST, SimAudio Moon I5, W3, or W5, Krell 300i, Krell FPBxxx, etc. Once you pair with the right electronics, I beleive that the bass will be more than adequate for most listeners. With the right electronics, the Aerius i produces a very tight bass, very good imaging, deep soundstage and wonderful midrange. If you want more bass than this, then pairs it with a good subwoofer such as Velodyne HGS10 or FSR12, etc. NOTE: With the Krell 300i, this combination might be a bit tilted on the top end, but it is still a very good match for the Aerius i.
On the integration issue, you have to remember that this speaker will not sound good in a very large room. I beleive that 17x20(feet) is about the upper limit. In a smaller room, with careful placement, you will not find any problem with the integration issue. If you have a larger room then you should buy the SL3 or some of the bigger brothers of the Aerius i.
With all the good things that I say about this speaker, it does not mean that this speaker does not have any weaknesses. This speaker is not for rock, or rap music. These speakers are for vocal, strings, etc. With vocal, there is nothing that can surpass this speaker except for its sibling or other electrostatic, or ribbon, etc. To be honest with you, with rock or rap music, a normal "Circuit City" type of speaker such as Bose, Cerwin Vega or AR will sound much better than the Aerius i.
I can recommend you one budget system that be built around these speakers. The proposed system can beat many much more expensive system out there. Try this:
Source: Adcom CD GCD750 or Rega Planet
Amplifier: Bryston B60 or SimAudio Moon I5
Cable: Kimber 8TC or WireWorld Eclipse III
My system consists of : Adcom GCD750, Adcom GFP750, SimAudio Moon W5, Aerius I, and Polaris III cable throughout. Good luck and happy listening. I would give this speaker 4.5 stars, except that there is no .5. I think that AudioReview should make a rating system with finer resolution such as 1 to 10.

Style, detail

Highs, bass integration

Compared the Martin Logans directly with the Magnepan in the same room. The Martin Logans sounded very bright compared to the Maggies and lacked the coherence in the low end compared to the Maggies.

On the bright side the Martin's would play fairly loud and easily won the style award.

Similar Products Used:

Magnepan 1.6

Excellent build & sound quality

None

I have complete MLs for my home theater system. Aerius i's for front, Aerius for rears, and Cinema for center. The sound quality is absolutely amazing. One thing that I love about these speakers is mid-range. So detailed. Although bass is lacking, they are supported by Sunfire True Subwoofer. All these speakers are fed by Bryston 9B-ST 5 channel amp & Lexicon DC-1 Preamp/processor with XLO Reference Type 5 speaker cables. A suggestion for a ML speaker buyer: Don't get their typical light oak or black oak color. Be adventurous! Try natural or dark cherry, dark oak, walnut, or mahogany finishes. I chose natural cherry. It's SO cool looking!

wonderful, see through, you are there sound; never sounds harsh even at close range and high volumes.

Obtrusive physically

Do this: get a classe integrated or used pre/power, some MIT 350/750 cables, a reasonable turntable setup like the NAD with a Grado cartridge, put on some 70's classic rock like Styx or Pink Floyd, and turn it up (in a medium to small room). I did this when I auditioned these at home and I was ROCKED. The openness and enveloping-ness was OUTSTANDING, you probably can't get this type of sound with a dynamic speaker at $2 or $3K. Who says, only suitable for folk/classical? But: it is true that the more ooomph the better; classe is fairly cost effective in this regard. Maybe NAD would work too. MIT cables seemed to provide quite a bit better soundstaging and bass than say Kimber 8TC.

Similar Products Used:

Also listened to Maggies (1.6).

Tonal clarity is perfect. By far the best i have ever listened to. Vocals are exceptionally good. Tight bass. IMHO good integration between woofer and ESL-panel. Extremely beautifull in light oak.

Bassfanatics will need a sub.

I bought a pre-owned pair of Aerius i's about 6 months ago. I was looking for a pair of SL3's because of a great review in a danish magazine (High Fidelity). Unfortunately, there is no dealer i Denmark. Luckily i found a pre-owned pair of Aerius's. I auditioned them, and was amazed by the amazing clarity and insight into the soundstage. Even though the setup was far from perfect, i loved these speakers at once. Being used to a pair of B&W CDM 2 this was a major step up the ladder towards high fidelity and musicality.

I drive the speakers with a danish amplifier called Holfi Power 8 (100 W in 8 ohms). This amp is a no global feedback design (Zero-Feedback). It's wonderfull with these speakers. Preamp is Holfi Pre 8. I use a Musical Fidelity X-Ray CD as a primary source. Connections are Supra EFF-ISL between components, and i use Dali speakercables. Secondary source is a STD 305M turntable with SMEIII with Denon DL110 pickup with Holfi Ellipse RIAA.
Placement is critical regarding bassperformance and imaging. My listening room is 4.3 m wide and 6.5 m long. Speakers are placed 2.2 m apart with 1.1 m clearance to rear wall and side walls. I use a little bit of toe-in. Listening distance is about 2.7 m. I think, that rearfiring linesources perform best when placed towards the shortest wall.
In this setup imaging is good, soundstage is wide and deeeeeeep. Tonal clarity is world class. This speaker make me listen to music instead of finding faults somewhere else in the chain. I have a sub, but normally it isn't turned on. Basically the sub isn't good enough for hifi, but it delivers oooomph when needed (connected to the TV or listening to Pink Floyd or Roger Waters). I think a servocontrolled sub would be perfect here.
I prefer female vocals (Lisa Ekdahl, Sinead O'Conner, Mary Back) and male vocals (Michael Ruff, Aske Bentzon), but play very different kinds of music like Andreas Vollenweider, Pink Floyd, Hanns Theesink, Nicolai Gromin, Chris Minh Doky etc.
Next in line for replacement is my speakercables. I would like a pair of Kimber Monocle X or XL's, but time will tell. I Denmark, the price of an new pair would be about 3600$. IMHO these speakers outperform even Sonus Faber Extrema. These would cost around 8000$ in DK. I paid about 2400$. I think this is a bargain. Find a good shop, and try these speakers. I am sure mine are here to stay.