Home Theater - MartinLogan classic ESL 9 User Manual

H O ME TH EA TE R
It had long been the practice of stereo buffs to connect their
television to a stereo system. The advantage was the use of the
larger speakers and more powerful amplifier of the stereo sys-
tem. Even though the sound was greatly improved, it was still
mono and limited by the broadcast signal.
In the late 1970's and early 1980's two new home movie for-
mats became widely available to the public: VCR and laser disc.
By 1985, both formats had developed into very high quality
audio/video sources. In fact, the sonic performance of some
video formats exceeded audio-only formats. Now, with the-
ater-quality sound available at home, the only element missing
was the "surround sound" presentation found in movie houses.
Fortunately, Dolby and DTS encoded movies (including almost
all films) have the same surround sound information encoded
on home releases as the theatrical release. All that is required
to retrieve this information is a decoder and additional speak-
ers and amps to reproduce it.
Home theater is a complex purchase and we recommend that
you consult your local MartinLogan dealer, as they are well
versed in this subject.
Each piece of a surround system can be purchased separately.
Take your time and buy quality. No one has ever complained
that the movie was too real. The following list and descriptions
will give you only a brief outline of the responsibilities and
demands placed on each speaker.
Front Left and Front Right
If these speakers will be the same two used for your stereo
playback, they should be of very high quality and able to play
loudly (over 102 dB) and reproduce bass below 80 Hz.
Center Channel
This is the most important speaker in a home theater
system, as almost all of the dialogue and a large portion of the
front speaker information is reproduced by the center channel.
It is important that the center speaker be extremely accurate
and mate well the front speakers, and that it is recommended
for use as a center speaker. This is not the place to cut corners.
Surround Speakers
We recommend (along with the film industry) that the sur-
round speakers play down to at least 80 Hz. Surround speakers
contain the information that makes it appear that planes are
flying over your head. Some may suggest that this is the place
to save money and purchase a small, inexpensive speaker. If
you choose to do so, be prepared to upgrade in the future as
discrete multi-channel digital encoding is proliferating rapidly
and the demands on surround speakers have increased.
Subwoofer
With any good surround system you will need one or more
high-quality subwoofers (the .1 in a 5.1 channel surround sys-
tem). Most movie soundtracks contain large amounts of bass
information as part of the special effects. Good subwoofers
will provide a foundation for the rest of the system.
MartinLogan electrostatic speakers as front channels, center channel,
and rear and side surround (effects) channels. MartinLogan subwoofers
as LFE (effects) channel.
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