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CEDIA 2010
Lutron’s Energy-Saving Mission
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Sep 22, 2010
As part of a suite of energy saving products aimed at saving up to as much as 60 percent of home energy usage, Lutron is introducing a plug-in appliance module that will integrate with the company’s current RadioRA2 lighting control system. The new module turns off standby power to electronic appliances when not in use, which Lutron says can save up to 10 percent of a home’s electricity usage. Installation is simple: plug the appliance into the module, and then plug the module into the wall. After installed and programmed into a RadioRA2 system, appliance control can be incorporated into whole-house scenes, such as “Goodnight” and “Away”. Scheduled to be available in December of this year, the module will have a list price of $149.
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Magic Magnetic Mount
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Sep 07, 2007
Sonance took great pleasure in touting their lifestyle approach to in-wall/in-ceiling/on-wall/the-wall-is-the-speaker speakers. One of the coolest of the new speakers was a model that used a circular mounting plate that could be mounted on the surface of a wall or flush with the wall. The speaker itself attached to the mounting plate using an array of very powerful magnets, and the wiring is routed through the wall plate. When in place, the speaker almost looks like a light fixture.
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CES 2012
Make Mine a Double
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Jan 13, 2012
How do you know when you've had too much?
CEDIA 2013
Make Room for Roomie Remote on Your iPhone
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Sep 26, 2013
How would you like to have an instant home theater/home automation system just by downloading an app? That’s essentially the situation with Roomie Remote, an iOS app (with an iOS7 update coming in the next couple of days) that, according to the company is “the last remote you’ll ever need.”

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Audio Video News
March Madness on Your Computer or in HD
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Mar 08, 2006
Can't watch the NCAA March Madness tournament in the cozy confines of your living room because your kids are watching their favorite episode of SpongeBob Squarepants (again)? Or maybe you need a way to watch the games at the office and still look like you're doing real work. The NCAA feels your pain.
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CES 2011
MartinLogan
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Jan 11, 2011
Tower Speaker Reviews
MartinLogan ElectroMotion ESL Speaker System
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Oct 31, 2011

Performance
Value
Build Quality
Price: $5,600 (updated 3/10/15)
At A Glance: CLS Xstat electrostatic transducer • Folded Motion XT tweeter • Dipolar panels

I hate MartinLogan.

That’s right. I hate MartinLogan with a passion that borders on the obsessive. And there’s more to it than the fact that the company’s headquarters in Lawrence, Kansas, are just a hop, skip, and a third-and-long TD pass away from KU. (As a graduate of Mizzou, I say, “Pluck the Jayhawks.”) What gets me is that every time I see those tall, translucent, slightly curved, hard-to-believe-they-actually-work panels that are the hallmark of a MartinLogan electrostatic speaker, I want a pair.

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CES 2014
MartinLogan Makes Some Wireless Noise with Crescendo
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Jan 09, 2014
At CEDIA2013, MartinLogan teased us with a sneak peak at a prototype AirPlay/Bluetooth speaker that was absolutely beautiful and sure to sound fantastic thanks, in large part, to its use of MartinLogan’s amazing Folded Motion tweeters. The new Crescendo wireless stereo speaker has burst out of its prototype cocoon and become an official product that includes AirPlay and Bluetooth connectivity. The remote control, normally an item manufacturers tend to overlook, included with the Crescendo is made from extruded aluminum and is extremely well designed with rubberized button caps that are easy to find and use without looking at the remote. Twin Folded Motion tweeters flank the central 5x7-inch woofer. The tweeters are also positioned to fire away from one another to the sides of the room, a design that helps to dramatically widen the stereo soundstage of the Crescendo, and it includes a subwoofer output. The gorgeous sound machine will be available in “early 2014” for $899. Of all the small speaker systems I’ve heard so far at CES2014, the MartinLogan Crescendo is unquestionably at the top of the tall stack.
Tower Speaker Reviews
MartinLogan Motion 40 Loudspeaker
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Sep 17, 2012

Performance
Build Quality
Value
Price: $950 At a Glance: Folded Motion tweeter • Custom five-way biwire/biamp binding posts • Aluminum cone drivers

For the first 20 years or so, MartinLogan was just a geeky, tweaky speaker company that made electrostatic speakers—that’s just as in Stephen Hawking is just a physicist—with a few very serious (and very hexagonal) subwoofers in the lineup to take over the job of reproducing the lowest bass frequencies that even the best electrostatic panels simply don’t have the wherewithal to generate on their own. During that time, admission to the MartinLogan electrostatic club was never cheap. That, as you can imagine, put the dynamic, open, and airy sound that is a signature aspect of an electrostatic speaker out of reach for lots of people.

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Surround Sound System ReviewsSubwoofer ReviewsTower Speaker Reviews
MartinLogan Motion 40 Speaker System
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Feb 12, 2013

MartinLogan Motion 40 Speaker System
Performance
Build Quality
Value
 

Dynamo 1000 Subwoofer
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value
Price: $4,550 (updated 3/10/15)
At A Glance: Folded Motion tweeters • Dual 6.5-inch aluminum cone woofers • Custom five-way bi-wire tool-less binding posts

A couple of years ago, I took a tour of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory in Waterbury, Vermont. Whilst there, I heard the tour guide refer to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream as super-premium. I was intrigued because: 1) I’m thinking about using it as a nickname for myself; 2) I’d never heard the term used in reference to ice cream before; and 3) I wondered if there were additional levels of premium-ness. (Ultra-super premium? Super-duper premium? Maximum-ultra-super-duper premium?) I was disappointed to discover that, although the FDA sets standards for the use of nutrient descriptors. Less air and more butter fat promotes higher premium-ness—all the way up, I assume, to the heart-valve-clogging, airless, 100-percent pure, frozen-block-of-butter-fat variety.

In the case of loudspeakers, it’s the opposite. More air and less fat—no one likes tubby bass—results in super-smooth, premium sound.

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