Top 10 Tower Speakers: $3,000 or Less Page 3
(reviewed as part of a multichannel home-theater setup, SoundandVision.com, July 2014)

Definitive Technology Mythos STS SuperTower: $2,998/pr
(reviewed as part of a multichannel home-theater setup, March 2009)
The Mythos STS, reviewed in 2009, is aging now, and you’ll need to turn to the company’s relatively new Mythos ST-L flagship (at $5,000 for the pair) to benefit from all the latest thinking and technology in the Definitive Technology arsenal. But if you’re on a tighter budget than that, the STS remains an excellent choice for capturing that highly neutral, dynamic Def Tech sound in a slightly smaller powered tower. We measured usable bass down to about 30 Hz in our lab (–3dB at 38 Hz), and reviewer Mark Fleischmann found the STS to be a truthful, revealing speaker that lays bare the quality of the content you send to it.
MartinLogan ElectroMotion ESL: $2,998/pr
(reviewed as part of a multichannel home-theater setup, December 2011)
The ESL is MartinLogan’s least expensive electrostatic speaker; $3,000/pr in the gloss black we tested and an even cheaper $2,500/pr in satin black finish. They come with the usual caveats endemic to the electrostatic breed. You’ve got to plug them into a power outlet, and they deliver little bass from the electrostatic panel—thus requiring a (usually slower and less dynamic) cone driver in the base of the speaker for low-end reinforcement. And, as dipole radiators with sound coming from front and back, they are highly sensitive to placement and work best pulled out from the back wall. But there’s a reason many audiophiles swear by electrostatics: the large radiating panel delivers music with a huge image and the kind of transparency and detail that lets you hear into each note, and when properly positioned, you can walk right into the uber-deep soundstage and never come out. Sure, they can be a pain in the ass to integrate in your environment, but even with this “budget” model, you gotta hear ‘em to believe it.