These days, we try and limit our doom-scrolling as much as possible, lest our brains explode from the pressure of it all. When we’re bored and trying to […]
MartinLogan reQuest Electrostatic Speakers: Getting Better with Age
One of the best used electrostatic loudspeakers if you can find one...
I vividly remember the day I flipped over the copy of Stereophile at the newsstand and saw my first pair of MartinLogan loudspeakers. Having inherited the family stereo in 1983 as my Bar Mitzvah gift, I was already on my audiophile journey but I was not prepared for the MartinLogan Sequel II loudspeakers that would inspire me to make high-end audio my career. The Sequel II were my first high-end speakers but only the beginning of my journey which culminated with the MartinLogan reQuest speakers.
Before I spent almost $5,000 on a pair of reQuests, I spent almost 8 years with the Aerius, Aerius i, and a pair of the original CLS speakers. I was such a huge fan of the company that I called their office in 1987 in Lawrence, Kansas because I had a question about my pair of Sequel II speakers.
Imagine my surprise when MartinLogan founder, Gayle Sanders, took the call and spent an hour on the phone with me. I was 17 years old and in the process of looking at college applications which included the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Israel and GWU would be my final destination but that one hour on the phone cemented my future in high-end audio and my love of electrostatic loudspeakers. I just didn’t know it at the time.
Fast forward to 2019 and the last real high-end audio show in Rockville, Maryland before the COVID-19 pandemic would disrupt the planet.
PR Queen Sue Toscano and I have been friends for many years but she was unaware of my history with MartinLogan and how Gayle Sanders had influenced it back in 1987.
Gayle Sanders sold MartinLogan many years ago and had retired from the audio industry to enjoy the fruits of his 25+ years of hard work and success. Those who know him understood that he would return which he did with Eikon Audio.
Gayle Sanders and I finally met in 2019 and it was a very memorable day for me meeting the man who set everything in motion for me. He was as gracious as I remember him from our only phone call.
Eikon Audio just introduced a new two-way system at Capital Audio Fest 2021 that Gayle and I discuss in our recent podcast.
Now that you know the history, let’s take a look at the MartinLogan reQuest loudspeakers that have been out of production for many years but are one of the best used electrostatic loudspeakers if you can find one.
The reQuests were really large back in 1999 when I bought them and I’m sure most people would recoil with some hesitation if they came across a pair today.
This article originally appeared at ecoustics.com and an intro has been published here with permission.
Read the full article: https://www.ecoustics.com/articles/martinlogan-request-speakers/
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