Electrostat - M-L; Quad or Soundlab - reliable

I'll throw in another vote for Soundlab reliability. Mine are the latest PX panels and they have never had an issue.

To follow on Brian's comment - I've listened to Quads, Martin Logans, Innersound and Soundlabs. To my ears, the nicest ones to listen to were the Soundlabs by far. Once you have heard them all I think the decision is pretty easy to make.

I will go along with that 100% Rick_hopkins;I am a soundlab m2 owner no issues to report,bias is checked on a regular basis and they are not power up when not being used.

Add me to the Acoustat fan club. My model 2s have never had anything done to them but replace the socks. They have great transparency, soundstage and that sense of music coming from nowhere that all electrostatics tend toward. They can be beamy and the bass can overwhelm you if you have things set up wrong. They also like power, lots.
I am fortunate that I have a very long room and have mine setup in a close listening seating arrangement. The soundstage is very wide and deep. The bass is full, but controlled.
I used to drive them with a Hafler 220, now I am using a vintage Adcom GFA555 and with a tube Dynaco Pas preamp. This gives it a very full, powerful and slightly warmish tone.
I would like to put better caps and wire in the Acoustats. Anyone here with some documentation, would be a great help.

cheers

e

I have never heard of panels being replaced on a 7 year basis like tubes as stated by a previous poster - this sounds perposterous!! I had sound labs and never had a problem with the panels, but the power supplies did act up and fail, One speaker had the bias adjustment fail and the other had 100% power supply failure. I did buy them used and they were abused by the previous owner- i suspect they had been in a flood or something because the transformers were way rusty. I did get about 7 years out of them and all in all was very happy to have owned one of the very best speakers anywhere for a a while- all good things end at some point.

one point i would like to make, is always buy these from a dealer that is "johnny on the spot" when it comes to service. The dealer I bought from was very lame and totally useless when it came to service and support and he was also kind of a liar. Repairs are very expensive and a pita and panels are not cheap and shipping charges will kill you on those things. I dont know what some have been smoking?