They are excellent speakers for $2000. The base is a little bit shy. But a smooth treble and midrange makes these guys shining among others. They look good too.

I have owned the Aerius for about 3 years, driving them with an Audio Research Classic 60. I think they are a tremendous value at $2K, replacing my Vandersteen 2C's. Although they aren't quite as extended as the higher end ML's, the integration with the bass and the panels is excellent. I didn't find them to be particularly difficult to place. Mine sit about 3.5 feet from the rear wall. Note, they do not mate particularly well with the Logos which tends to be a bit bright compared with the Aerius.Very fast, but somewhat limited in impact from bass (the tradeoff we all make with electrostatics).
A pretty cool speaker for those interested in exotics, but should be matched with a good amp to perform their best.

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 can 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.

aerius is an excellent speaker with tube amp and subwop. It is an exact speaker which means one better have a good cd player and amplifier. My speaker is five years old, and it has gone through dramatic changes whenever amp., preamp, cables are changed. I have not heard any better sound system,unless over $100,000 is spent.

I've owned a pair of Aerius-i speakers for a little over a year. To get the best out of them, you have to be willing to work with them. For these speakers, I've found that the key — as in real estate — is "location, location, location." I started out by following the placement suggestions in the Martin-Logan owner's manual, but that led to a lot of frustration. In my room, at least — a small rectangular room — as long as I followed the owner's manual, no matter where I moved the speakers, they sounded wrong in some way: a midbass hump, a midrange hardness, or, most surprising, a lack of depth in imaging. All reviews of these speakers praise their holographic imaging qualities, but so far I hadn't heard what the reviewers were raving about. Then I came across a column in Stereophile that referred me to the Cardas web site for some suggestions on speaker placement. I logged on, followed the links, and found a mathematical formula for placing the speakers. The formula led to placement farther in from the side walls and MUCH farther from the rear wall than the distances recommended in the owner's manual. But what the heck, I figured I had nothing to lose. So I moved the speakers (about a third of the way into the listening room) — and, Eureka, they bloomed. That palpable, 3-D image came to life. Midrange hardness disappeared (except on sub-par recordings — these are not forgiving speakers). And the bass took on a surprising fullness and solidity. I don't know if this placement scheme will work for you, but it has worked wonders for the Aerius speakers in my room. (If you want to check out the math, visit www.cardas.com and follow links to Insights, then Room Setup.)
It's true, the speakers still lack the deepest bass. Some day I'd like to try a Hsu subwoofer to see if it helps. But given everything else these speakers do right, I'm happy with them.
For the record, I mainly listen to classical music, and my associated equipment includes a C-J PV-10L preamp, Classe Seventy amp, and JVC 1050-TN CD player serving as transport for a Sonic Frontiers DAC.

Before buying Martin Logan Aerius i, I have also considered Alon II, Thiel 1.5, B&W 803, and JBL 250Ti (note that they are about the same prices). Martin Logan Aerius i gave me the highest satisfaction for playing jazz and classical guiter music: they sound transparent and detailed. The sound in the mid-hi/hi range is pleasant and not bright at all when listening with phono or high-quality CD players. Might lack the extreme low bass and wide soundstage to play rock music (e.g. Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms) or symphony orchestra (Mahler No. 2) in a large room, as mentioned by other reviewers.
But this is the fun part - I knew my single Mcintosh MC225 has not explored the full potential of the speakers, so I bought another MC225 and upgraded the speakers cable to drive them in bi-wire mode (don't forget to change from the 4-ohm terminals to 8-ohms). The music becomes more lively and less muddy in the bass. It sounds more musical and "full" than what I heard in the shop using a Krell KSA-150 amp. Aerius i is probably more suitable in smaller rooms with good placement and sufficient but not too much power.

Aerius is highly recommended for a US$3000-5000 system, along with the speakers that I mentioned above. I give it 4 stars and will definitely try the more expensive models after moving to a larger place. Good luck to all ML owners!

I am curious as to how Kevin an Audiophile from N.Y. can recommend the B&W 804's over Martin Logan's or Magnepan when the speaker is not even available yet. Kevin's post is dated May 21, 1998 yet the speaker was still not available as of January 20, 1999.
This would seriously damage any crediability Kevin has as to his reviews. I thought the Martin Logan Aerius has a wonderful transparancy and soundstage, but the bass did not integrate as well as I would have liked still it was tight and fast, but I believe Magnepan has the Martins beat on price and performance. At the $2000 and under Magnepan would be the clear winner for an audiophile, but the Martins is still a very respectable speaker in it's own right.

3.5 stars

Incredible bargain for the money. They present a wide and deep soundstage. Singers stand before you and you can hear them moving up and down, left and right on the stage. Sound is open and gorgeous. These are not the killer speakers the Watt/Puppy's are, but they cost about 12-15% what a pair of Watt/Puppy's cost and give you about 95-98% of the realistic sound. Only negative was the bass was not as deep and rich as I would like, but it was excellent for the price. I did not notice any crossover problem from electrostatic to dynamic drivers. Sound was very coherent.
These speakers, with NAD CD player and NAD integrated amp, put NHT 3.3 and Definitive Technology BP2000 (with Audio Research front end and amplification) to shame. Snell D's, with Cal Audio front end and Mark Levinson amplification, was close but no cigar.

For the money, I have not heard anything close to them.

My system took about 2 years to put together.Just 2 months ago I finally purchased a Martin Logan home theatre with al krell electronics including their fpb 300 and suround processor.My mains are requests with Logos. The sides and rear are elevated aerius i's.You might ask why I might bother to even begin to seriously evaluate my surround channels.To be relistic to the average audiophile all critical listening was done with an audio research vt-100 and krell fpb-200.These suberb hybrids absorb power like crazy, taking up to 3 times the specified power handling to insane volumes with only 6% total harmonic distortion in the woofer and 3.65 in the panel. These speakers placed at about 6.5 feet apart produce a tight and coherent image which couples with asounstage which is in a word scary with the lights dimmed. Depth is right up their with those unmusical but accurate megabuck traansducers. Bass is limited at about 35hz.
Sorry for being so unemotional about the sound but anyway here's my 2 cents. If you find another speaker (not by ml) that surpasses this speaker in the midrange,transients and overall goosebump factor musicality on this earth for the price I dare thee to e-mail me and inform thee.

The best value in speakers today. They can be driven by a wide variety ofgood/great amplifiers (Pass Aleph 3, Krell KSA 100, Classe CA-100, Forte 4A)
all yield great results. Because they are hybrids, they are much easier to
place in rooms (only require 2-3 ft' to back and side walls), unlike full
range panel speakers which are much harder to place (need more room, and
suffer from bass cancellations). The problem with other hybrids I have
encountered in the past is the bass driver does not ususally integrate
well with the panel, and you end up with good bass and good mid/highs,
but the coherence is absent. They are atractive, and have a small
footprint which makes them popular with the rest of the family.
They sound open and clear, and image very wide both in terms of side to
side and front to back. The only weaknesses are an absence of bass below
40 Hz. and a slightly constricted sense of dynamic contrast. The larger
brothers, the ML SL3 has bass down to 30 Hz, and is more dynamic, but
does not work as well in small rooms (my case) and I feel the coherence
is somewhat less than the Aerius as well. Because the sound propagates
differently (and dynamic drivers drop off faster at distance than do
force over area drivers) I reccomend that you sit between 6.5 and 9.5
feet away from them for the best sense of coherence. They need lots
of room to breath, and insist that the salesperson that is demoing them
for you moves other speakers well out of the way. After listening for
a bit I doubt that you won't be well impressed.