By Myles B. Astor, Ultimate Audio
Winter 2001

This years' breakthrough product of the year is like one of those rock stars who after twenty years of performing in little, out-of-the-way backwater towns and seedy gin joints, suddenly makes it big. The MartinLogan Prodigy builds on the long history of electrostatics and then takes a huge leap by adding long missing dynamics and low frequency extension to the magical speed, neutrality and resolution of stat panels.

The quest for the ultimate electrostatic speaker began some 80 years ago in the laboratories of C.W. Rice and E.W. Kellogg at Bell Laboratories. Since their invention, many companies, beginning with Janszen (the first electrostatic tweeter) and Quad (the world's first full range electrostatic speaker), followed by the likes of KLH, Koss, Sound Lab, Acoustat, MartinLogan, Dayton-Wright among others, have stepped up to the plate looking to hit a walk off home run with the perfect, full range, electrostatic speaker. It was much though, like trying to hit a knuckleball. Speaker designers faced an uphill battle against a litany of daunting problems: reliability; dynamic limitations; high frequency beaming; wildly fluctuating impedances that ruled out usage with most amplifiers; and limited low frequencies. But the electrostatic speaker's upside, namely speed, resolution, neutrality, midrange, dynamic accents, and purity/lack of distortion, proved too enticing to abandon.

Over the years, technological advances came to the rescue of electrostatic speaker designers. Advances in materials science improved panel reliability. New electrostatics present a stabler loads to amplifiers. Curving the panels reduced high frequency beaming. But despite this progress, electrostatic speaker designers faced two essentially insurmountable problems in building a full range electrostatic speaker: low frequency extension and dynamics.

"Returning from CES armed with orders
from dealers excited about their new speaker
Sanders (Martin) and Sutherland (Logan) not only
combined forces but their middle names
and incorporated the company"

True diehards attempted to augment the low frequency extension of their electrostatic speakers by adding a subwoofer. Janis, Entec, Gradient and several other companies produced subwoofers specifically aimed at the electrostatic market. Blending the vastly disparate driver speeds, not to mention different colorations and dynamic capabilities, proved in the end, too much to overcome.

Birth in the Heartland
MartinLogan's part in the electrostatic story began in the mid-'70s, in the heartland of America, Lawrence, Kansas. Gayle Sanders, an aspiring architecture major and rock and roller then working in an audio retail store, found God in the sound of electrostatics speakers. Sanders rummaged through the Kansas University engineering library stacks for a year, reading everything and anything he could get his hands that dealt with speaker (and electrostatic) design. It was during this period that Sanders met Ron Sutherland in his store. Soon after, the two of them joined forces to design a new electrostatic speaker.

Many years of hard work and failed prototypes later, the Kansas duo was ready to unveil their pride and joy, the Monolith hybrid electrostatic (which remained in the ML product line until this year), at the 1983 CES Show. Attendees were smitten by the Monolith's remarkable sound, not to mention the transparent electrostatic panel! Returning from CES armed with orders from dealers excited about their new speaker, Sanders (Martin) and Sutherland (Logan) not only combined forces but their middle names and incorporated the company. Eventually Ron went his own way and now designs high-end audio electronics.

Sanders meanwhile continued in his quest to design the ultimate hybrid electrostatic speaker, culminating recently with the release of MartinLogan's $70,000, four box, Statement E2 superspeaker. Using technology originally developed for the Statement, Martin-Logan subsequently released the Prodigy, their ultimate "real world," two speaker hybrid electrostatic. About the only things in common between the latest Prodigy and earlier ML's hybrid designs are the trademark curved electrostatic panels and as we've come to expect from MartinLogan drop dead gorgeous looks. A new woofer technology, redesigned electrostatic element and crossover allow the speakers to work in even more types of rooms and with a wider range of amplifiers. The Prodigy is truly a breakthrough in hybrid electrostatic design and after all, isn't that what Ultimate Audio is all about? Products pushing the envelope in sound reproduction. So it's with great pleasure that Ultimate Audio's 2000 Product of the Year award goes to MartinLogan's sensational new Prodigy speaker system.

Ability to Drive
Realizing the speaker's total package requires three to four weeks of patience as the speakers completely settle-in (you can't tell anything about the Prodigys out of the box since the speakers need time to charge). As the speakers break-in, their brightness and thinness is supplanted by a richer and warmer, yet extremely fast and detailed sound. As the woofers loosen up, low frequencies become more extended, dynamic and tighter.

The first thing that struck me about the new Prodigy? They were far easier to drive than the reQuests. While the reQuests were unquestionably a huge step in the right direction, there was no denying the facts: they needed a lot of power. Conrad-johnson's Premier 12 monoblocks proved a match made in heaven at low to medium listening volumes; one was always acutely aware, however, of most amplifiers running out of steam in demanding situations. This was never more painfully obvious than during thunderous climaxes on large scale orchestral works such as Moussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain from the Power of the Orchestra (RCA VCS 2659). When pushed, the music lost its pristine, delicate quality and sounded pinched, thin and rough. Trumpets sounded harsh and splatty. It was only when powered by amplifiers such as Madrigal's No. 336 sporting a beefy 700 watts of power, that the reQuests began to sound the same at all volume levels and with far less dynamic constriction.

"Accompanying the speaker's effortless quality
is a simply extraordinary ability to reproduce
the speed and reduce the smearing of plucked
instruments. If history has taught us anything,
it's that the electrostatic's forte is their settling time
and ability to portray the speed of instruments..."

There's more to the story. The Prodigy's electrostatic element possesses a wider dynamic range than any other electrostatic design and shockingly rivals many conventional cone drivers. And here's where one of the one of breakthroughs in the Prodigy's design really comes into play. The Prodigy actually sounds more dynamic than it has any right to be because of its total combination of macrodynamics and microdynamics. It's clear that one needs large scale dynamics for musical content but without the microdynamics, the music is boring and uninteresting. When considered as a whole, few speakers pack the one, two punch of the Prodigy. This gives the ear more to feast on, combine and interpret as musical dynamics.

Older ML electrostatics and this was true to varying extents in everything from the Aerius to the reQuests shared a common characteristic when confronted by extremely dynamic material. Images moved forward and instruments sounded hard. On something like the wildy dynamic energy produced by the crash of a tam-tam on Amemiya's Summer Prayer (RCA RVC 2154), the reQuests quickly reached a point where it sounded like blatant gain riding.

Changes to the Prodigy's crossover network and electrostatic panel clearly make the speakers decidedly more amplifier friendly. Indeed so friendly that the best of tubes (Premier 12s) and solid-state (Rowland's new Model 12 monoblocks) now drive the speakers effortlessly. According to Gayle Sanders, the Prodigys should be happy with even 50 watt amplifiers. Massed strings are far smoother, richer, yet just as detailed. Upper octaves, despite the speaker dropping to a challenging 1 ohm load (at 20 kHz), are far more open than other electrostatic designs. There's still a trace of compression-but that's true of every speaker I've heard with Summer Prayer. The Prodigy's upper octave delicacy, with the best in upstream equipment, compares favorably with the finest ribbon drivers-just slightly lacking the latters seemingly endless extension.

Accompanying the speaker's effortless quality is a simply extraordinary ability to reproduce the speed and reduce the smearing of plucked instruments. If history has taught us anything, it's that the electrostatic's forte is their settling time and ability to portray the speed of instruments, their subtle delicacy and low level resolution. The Prodigy extends the electrostatic hegemony even further. On Picaflor (Titantic Mn-5), the Prodigys just go to town, sounding cleaner than ever, revealing previously unheard of nuances on the mandolin and guitar. You can hear each individual note clearly as well as the continuous decay of the previous note.

Blending
The speed of the newly developed 10-inch Scan Speak woofer coupled with the ForceForward bass technology goes a long ways toward achieving the best blending of a conventional driver and electrostatic available to date. Usually, there's a difference in dynamic capabilities, speed or colorations. In the Prodigys, they're reduced to a minimum. Sure some will hear a seam and focus on it-but honestly, all speakers with multiple drivers are a hybrid. Doubt me? Just talk to any full range electrostratic speaker owner! Keep in mind in the Prodigy's case that there's only one crossover point and the speakers are seamless from 250 Hz on up.

Moving the crossover point up about 100 Hz has results in a better blending of the two drivers and reduced the difference in character along the way. It covers up an area where the dipoles really shame the dynamic bass drivers in addition to allowing ML to avoid the low frequency resonance point of the stat panels. In the end, the biggest difference between the two drivers is a slight smoothing out of the detail as one drops in frequency and to a lesser extent, macrodynamics.

"The Prodigys, however, are in a league of their
own and set a benchmark for many other speakers.
Their ability to see into the stage and visualize
and locate trumpets, French horns and other
instruments in the back of the stage, is
nothing short of astonishing."

The improvement in dynamics aren't restricted to the electrostatic realm either. The Prodigy finally has real low frequency bass compared to the reQuests, though it's not quite the ultimate in regards to the initial shock wave of the bass drum. But when it comes to cellos, double basses, the Prodigys do a fine job of getting their timbre and quickness straight. Need some proof? Break out a copy of the wonderful Speakers' Corner reissue of Mahler's Symphony #3 with Sir George Solti (Speakers Corner Decca SET 385-6). If you don't own one, shame on you and buy it ASAP! Listen to the gigantic opening movement and how the Prodigys preserve each row of cellos and double basses, no easy feat given the size of the piece.

Transparency and Resolution
The reQuests are remarkably transparent given the proper upstream electronics, cables, front-end and even AC cords. The Prodigys, however, are in a league of their own and set a benchmark for many other speakers. Their ability to see into the stage and visualize and locate trumpets, French horns and other instruments in the back of the stage, is nothing short of astonishing.

Is transparency over-hyped as many naysayers claim? No! These people, unfortunately, are sadly mistaken if their goal is reproducing the original recording and not a set of euphonic colorations and distortions. Transparency is a direct reflection of the system's noise and distortion levels. Removing these distortions allows the music to emerge. Differences in tone between instruments are morereadily identified. Differences between recording venues are instantly recognizable. Differences between singers and the subtlest intonation details never cease to amaze. For instance, the simply astonishing Sara Vaughn recording of Send in the Clowns from the album of the same name (TVC XRCD2 VICJ 60246), only becomes better. The subtlest inflections in her voice, her vibrato and range, her presence and the sense of her singing into the microphone, are all there. In short, the new Prodigys reveal more about the original recordings.

Staging and Imaging
Getting the best imaging and staging from a dipole, not to mention instrumental tonality because of room cancellation effects, is often tricky process. There's often real world tradeoffs between optimal speaker positioning for imaging and bass response. Once positioned however, the reward is in general a spectacular sense of ambience.

Finding a home for the Prodigys because of the new ForceFoward technology is fairly routine. After all is said and done, the Prodigys throw a hugely realistic stage especially in respect to a limitless sense of image height. The stage fully encompassed my listening room's full 19 foot width lacking only a hair in depth. On the best recordings such as Bill Evans at The Montreux Jazz Festival (Classic Records V6-8762) or Mahler's Symphony #3, instruments are literally six feet to either side of the speaker. In contrast to old MLs, the stage is set a little back of the panels and images do not hang on the stats now. I was able to extract fairly good focus out the Prodigys though being a dipolar design, it's not quite up to the standards set by the finest in box/front firing speakers that I've had in such as the WATT/Puppy 5.1s or the Vienna Acoustic Mahlers.

Beating the Odds
In the long history of electrostatic design, the Prodigys have made the leap to the next level of sound. If it's not love at first listen, it's not the fault of the Prodigys but the upstream components or set-up procedure.

Technical Highlights
Before getting into the underlying design, MartinLogan deserves congratulations for assembling an extremely well written and thorough owners manual! Even a complete novice should be able to set-up the Prodigys if they follow the manual's step-by-step instructions. Now onto the speakers. Many of the Prodigy's innovative features have their roots in MartinLogan's $70,000 Statement E2s. These include advances in the speaker's build quality, the design of the electrostatic transducer, the new multitransformer and isolated high-pass/low-pass crossover and the ForceFoward low frequency driver technology. These advances translate into increased efficiency, power handling and bandwidth extension.

Curvilinear Electrostatic Panel
The only, though clearly significant change in the electrostatic panel, is MartinLogan's new ClearSpars technology. MartinLogan now makes the spar separating the front and rear stators from a much denser material. This more rigid coupling makes for better dynamics and power handling as well as increased sensitivity and bandwidth.

Crossover
To minimize magnetic interactions, MartinLogan now isolates the transformer from the filter, and the high pass from low pass crossover (using large coils for the filtering). Point-to-point wiring, low dissipation polypropylene caps and custom wiring inside the speaker result in lower distortion levels, increased bandwidth and power handling. Those familiar with the continued evolution of ML's hybrid designs will note that the crossover point between panel and woofer has steadily crept up. According to Gayle Sanders, the availability of low frequency drivers capable of handling another octave of response allows them to cut off the electrostatic element before its resonance point and better blend the two drivers.

ForceForward
The Prodigy's most innovative feature is the ForceForward bass technology. As for the details. The ForceForward design incorporates two specially designed, dual 10-inch Aluminum (front) and fiber/paper (rear), high rigidity Scan Speak cone drivers, mounted front and rear, in an isolated chamber configuration. Despite the front and rear firing drivers (coincidentally mounted out-of-phase), the Prodigys are not a bipolar design. Stand in back of the speaker and there's no bass. The end result is that the first reflective bass energy off the front wall that leads to cancellation effects and suck outs and peaks is minimized. In short, the bass energy is summed in the front of the speaker and removes all the energy off the wall, enhancing the speaker's transparency. The ForceForward technology thus addresses the common 50 Hz null and 100 Hz peak of many rooms; reduces the trade-off between bass response and imaging/speaker positioning; and reduces cabinet vibrations that muddy the bass. There's also a switch on the back of the speaker for selecting either flat response or ±3 dB at frequencies under 50 Hz.

Speaker Spiking
MartinLogan created their own and one of the few that allow for leveling without compromising rigidity speaker spikes. Similar in concept to Wilson Audio's Puppy Paws in which a heavy duty threaded spike goes through jambnut, the spikes can be used with all ML speakers or any speaker using a standard ? -20 thread.

Binding Posts
The Prodigy's speaker binding posts are a marked improvement over that supplied with other models and the best CE approved connectors I've seen. The binding post's clever design really allows the spade lug to be tightened down without using pliers.