Bought a Aerius speaker a week ago.My Flagship system is Jadis da 60/Sonus FaberGuarnieri, what i find excellent.
But listening to the Aerius with krell Kav 300i, made me forget my reference
system and enjoying alot the aerius VERY GOOD with KRELL
No doubt 5 stars in deed.
Deltec Cables excellent dynamics with them in the system

My highest regards to Greg! It's worth $2000 for the midrange alone! With the right set-up (2 weeks of repositioning) and complimentary components, ML Aerius i's will bring life to a room. Strings, voices, acoustic jazz all sound alive, spacious and detailed. If possible try listening to Sonny Rollins/Way Out West, Bill Evans Trio/Waltz For Debby (Analogue Productions), or Muddy Waters/Folk Singer (MoFi), you'll be amazed at what this speaker is capable of. For those whom crave Marilyn Manson or drum & bass, you might want to take a walk on the other side. This speaker is not for bass-heads!
If you are considering, please remember they need about 100 hours of break-in before taken seriously. It's worth the time. I'll never consider a box speaker for quite sometime.

Audio set-up:
ML Aerius i
Threshold model 400A amplifier
Harmon Kardon AP2500 signature series pre-amp
Arcam Alpha CD player (upgrade in the works)
NAD 533 turntable with Blue Point Special Cartridge
Denon TU460 (OKay!!, it was $50 in new condition!)
MIT T2 Spk cables
Audioquest and Straightwire RCA's

Regards.

These are incredible for the money, they work nice in my small listening room powered by 100w Tubed Monoblocks. Beautiful high's glorious mid-range and exceptional bass quality.

I have my Aeruius for over 3 years now. They are extremely musical in the mid-range, but somewhat reticent in the highs. But my taste runs into vocals and a little bit of jazz and they speakers really shine. But they don;t work well with tubes that are low-powered and loose in the bass. What they need is a resonably high powered solid state with a flat reponse in the treble and good grip in the bass. The ML331 is a good match with its grain-free midrange and tight control in the lows.
Despite their relative lack of clout in the bass, I would rate them as 4 stars. The new i version is slightly improved in the highs, but it seems that they need a rear firing tweeter to open up the sound stage a little bit.

For the past 16 years, I had been happily listening to my Ohm Walsh 5 speakers, blissfully unaware that there was a new speaker in town which would put them in the shade. Like other dedicated listeners, I had periodically visited audio stores and auditioned the latest equipment, but I had heretofore heard nothing significantly better than my Ohms. I had been impressed by Definitive Tech and Thiel, but not enough to trade. But then I heard the Martin-Logan Aerius i and was transported. The sense of musical reality was incredible. It was as though everything I played through them was being heard for the first time. The detail, transparency, and clarity exceeded anything I had ever experienced. The low bass, while not earth-shaking, was tight, musical, and liquid, lending just the right amount of foundation to the music. The reproduction of the soundstage was uncanny, making the musicians literally seem to be in the room with me. Midrange was breathtakingly open and accessible, while treble was sparkling, soaring and seemingly limited only by the content of the recording. And how did they sound when I got them home? Even better! Placement was not a problem in my room, and they do not overpower the decor. They are, in a word, marvelous. I suspect I'll be keeping them even longer than the Ohms, that is, if I live that long myself. Do yourself a favor, and give these speakers a listen. You'll never be satisfied with anything less.

Yes, finally, I have read well written and cohesive reviews on something that actually reflects thier performance and appropriate star rating. I agree with Carl's great review below, he should get a job at Stereophile!! I do feel however that these speakers cannot realize thier FULL potential without alot of effort toward acoustic mods and many placement trials. I always seemed to have 95% of thier capability realized at any one given time, I could improve on midrange, but take a hit on bass or high end. I used them with an modified original class A Cary SLA-70, this amp is stable at 2 ohms, I don't care what other solid staters say in thier reviews. Nothing else even came close the lquidity, detail, emotional communication, palpability and ridiculous sound stage depth. The contributing factors which lead to thier demise was thier undynamic bass (yes I tried large Class A transistor amps) and I moved out of my perfectly symmetrical listening room (extremely critical for these things). Overall I would give them 4.5 stars, 5 if they would port the bass and use something like a Scan-Speak 8555 carbon-fiber, but you could kiss that @$2k retail price away if they did that. Nothing else matched the good things they do at this price range!!!

Some background: This review is made after listening to Legacy Focus and Whisper (Elite DVD and CD Player - forgot model #, with Legacy monoblocks), Martin-Logan Aerius and SL3 (Marantz Receiver and CD Player, forgot amp and DVD player), Hales Revelation 3 and Transcendence 3 (Rotel Amp and CD Player), NHT 2.5i (Rotel Amp and CD Player), 2.9, and 3.3 (Sony 355ES CD Player and Sony TA9000ES amplifier stereo mode), Definitive Technologies BP2000, and BP3000 (Sony 355ES CD Player and Sony TA9000ES amplifier stereo mode), PSB Stratus Silver-i (Rotel Receiver + Amp, Denon DVD Player, and another config which is Bryston amp + Rotel CD Player + forgot what preamp), DynAudio Audience 40 (Krell CD Player and Receiver), Snell (forgot what model, but it's $1400 a pair with McIntosh amp + Sony 5 CD changer player), McIntosh ML4C (Marantz DVD Player with all McIntosh amp/receivers). See my other reviews on these speakers for a perspective of what I want in sound.
All the speakers above I've heard in different places/room/situations/conditions and might affect the judgement of that particular speaker, so take this with a grain of salt, and more importantly, LISTEN to them if you are interested. This is just an OPINION of mine of those speakers I've heard. Full disclosure: I haven't bought any of these speakers, but right now I'm leaning toward the NHT 3.3, since I can buy them (1 year old) at around $2500. All the speakers I've heard will either get 3 to 5 stars, since I don't believe any speakers at this price range is capable of getting 1 star (If they do, how many star is my $10 computer speaker? If it's also 1, I'm sure the speaker reviewed will be a LOT better than my $10 computer speaker). A 5 can only be awarded to live performance, and so far I haven't heard anything that sounded like live performance (meaning you can't distinguish whether an instrument sound came out of a real instrument or a speaker).

A very demanding speaker, so says a lot of people I've met regarding this speakers. Mids and highs are very detailed, more so than regular cone speakers. Doesn't have ANY base in my opinion, and I guess, for $2K, I've expected a full range speaker. Another thing is, it has a VERY narrow sweet spot. Another way of saying it is that it has a narrow soundstage. Soundstage is deep (sitting and standing results in very little sound difference), but move to the left a bit (not even yet in line with the left speaker), and you would hear the sound abruptly changes. If you have a wide room, and placing the speakers on ends, you might be disappointed. Not for me.

I have owned the Aerius i's for 2 years now. By far the best speakers I have had to this point. Exceptional mid range, clear highs, great 'bloom'. I listen mostly to classical music. Push them hard though and the bass gets a bit muddy.However, this by no means takes away from these hybrid electrostatics. If you have a chance listen to these speakers, for the price they are very, very satisfying.

Other Equpment :- Copland CDA-277
- Copland CSA-14
- Nordost Red Dawn interconnect
- Symo LS5 Single Wire (going to upgrade to Red Dawn bi-wire
when have extra money)
- Audioquest BigFeet for CD player
- Kimber Acoustic power conditioner


Speaker : Martin Logan Aerius i

Strong point :
- Fast & transparent
- Good blend from electrostatic part & cone part
- Fast bass
- Excellent soundstaging & depth especially when toe-in
- Elegant design :)

Weakness :
- Rather bass shy (not deep enough with 40 Hz lower limit,
but quick)
- Speaker placement & room acoustic need special attention.
- Small sweetspot with toe in (a dillema)
- Somewhat difficult to drive (Not suitable for small tube
amp)

This is one of the best speaker I have ever heard. If you got
the setup right (speaker placement, listening position & room
acoustic) you will hear an audio nirvana. I also heard that bi-
wiring this speaker will improve the sound.
This speaker is not for everyone so I recommend auditioning first
before you buy. Just make sure you/audio store has the setup right
and experiment different setting.
The final word is that I give this speaker 4 star rating. All of
the strong point in this speaker will make you forget its weaknesses

I was expecting much more from these speakers as i auditioned them at Sound By Singer in Manhattan, NY. A CAL front end/Krell KAV-300i & CAL/conrad-johnson PF-R/MF2100 were used. I was only impressed with vocals' palpability yet they seemed rolled off. Very limited dynamic range and not so articulate bass. I much preferred the Audio Physic Spark which was in the same room driven by conrad-johnson electronics. Although at a higher price they are well worth the extra $500 bucks! Perhaps the i version of the Aerius will be a better contender.