Anyone else own Flatline 175 ribbon speakers?


The Flatline 175's are six foot tall, ribbon/ dynamic hybrid speakers marketed by Immedia of Berkeley about ten years ago. They cost $4000 when new and only about 30 pairs were sold. My pair is about the last one made and I think it is a fine speaker and I would like to find other owners to exchange info with. I can put you in touch with the maker, who can help you keep them in top condition. If interested, let me know.
rpfef
I've owned my pair of FlatLine Design speakers since 1993. However, I recently blew out the midrange and woofers. This is the second go-round of replacing these drivers. The first time, I replaced the woofer with 10" Scanspeaks and Peerless 6" midranges. Great sound! The Scanspeak models previously used have been discontinued.The peerless may have been discontinued as well, but I'm mostly concerned with the woofer replacement. The closest Scanspeak model is rated as an 8 ohm with a power handling rating of 100W. Can anyone help me with replacement drivers?
I don't own a pair but a dealer near me (Wilson Audio of New Orleans) almost always has used pairs available in his store. I think they are a great speaker and still hold their own decades later. Just listened to a pair against the Magnepan 1.6QR & 20.1. I'm surprised they've held up so well for Wilson's many clients that have bought and traded them back in over the years. It was in Stereophile's Class B recommended components back in 1994. It's a greatly overlooked speaker design, one of the few that sounds quick like a planar speaker but smooth on the top & still dynamic in the bottom. The different drives types merge together seamlessly. Martin Logan should take a page from the FlatLine Design Notebook. ML never effectively integrated a dynamic driver with their electrostatic panels.

I think it uses the Bohlender Graebener RD75 Planar Transducer that is still available at Parts Express.
Very good looking hybrid. I currently have a pair of the Flatline Design Model 175 speakers. They did not really come alive until I went from 75W pc to 250Wpc amps. Great ribbon but the dynamic section could be somewhat better IMO. Any information you have would be helpful. Thanks!
Do you still own these speakers? I just came across a used pair for sale in a hole in the wall audio store. I did not have a lot of time to audition them, but they were hooked up to a REGA 25 turntable, Carey amp, and sounded pretty nice.
Would be interested in hearing your impressions of them, and what a reasonable price to pay for them on the used market would be.
Thanks.
Tad
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