Electrostat - M-L; Quad or Soundlab - reliable

I've used stats for over 30 years, including Quads, Soundlabs, and Acoustats. Generalizing can be a misleading, as each has had reliabilty hits and misses, sometimes varying by model- and as Duke wisely points out, sometimes even for the same model. If you love stats, resign yourself to higher maintenance. It goes with the turf. Newer generations of Quads and Soundlabs have improved reliability- if you can afford them, go that route. Older ones can be a bear, unless you learn to get parts and work on them yourself. It's easier than you think to repair or replace old quad panels. Do your research specifically for the model you want, and for the time when it was made. You can improve your odds that way. And keep a good pair of cone speakers as backup. You'll need them some day. And they'll remind you how good your stats really are.

HJS,

Very true and i would suggest looking at the quad ESl 57, the modded ones by PK and others. They are tons ahead of the original and can be driven to some unbelievable levels without issue.

In the past i was also fond of both soundlab and acoustat, it's been awhile since i have heard them, but i did get to hear the modded ESL57 a few weeks ago and they were actually pretty good and powerful , yes ... powerful!!!!

I would not buy a standard ESL57 unless you had intended to mod them !!!

Regards,

I'm not so enamored of the Acoustats. Mine caught fire and almost took the house down. There was a short in the transformer in the left one which was repaired, and the right one shorted out about 7 months later. I sold them at that point.

Stringreen: What model did you have? Mine were powered up for almost 12 years 24-7 and never had a problem.

I've owned every former model ML produced: Aerius I's, SL3's, Requests, Monolith III's, and now Vista's, and I've yet to experience a single reliability over close to 20 years of use. I'm perplexed by the "reliability issue" posed by the author.