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Electrostatic pros and cons.

I recently saw a feature on the program, "how it's made" on electrostatic speakers and it piqued my interest in them. I was wondering the pros and cons of them, their placement, space needs, sound, etc. Any advice would be appreciated.









128x128giantsalami
inna
5,245 posts
 
There was that place called Hi-Fi Farm that sold some big electrostatic speakers made in the Netherlands. They were bigger than the biggest SoundLabs, don't know better or not. Retail was about $100k, I saw their demo for I think $40k.
Hybrid speakers like Avant Garde Duo, Rogers, Martin Logan etc. is never a good idea. You don't want hybrids because you will never achieve the proper integration, not that you will fully achieve it with the Trio. I guess, overall best dynamic speakers are still the best speakers. And best tube amps are best amps. What else is new ?
audiokinesis
1,872 posts
 

@erik_squires , I use measurements every time I design a speaker, which is fairly often. Sometimes there is a discrepancy between my observations and the measurements, and in those cases I try to find the explanations. I remember my first attempt at designing a speaker using decent measuring equipment, and the closer I got to "flat" the worse it sounded. My measurements were accurate, yet there was more going on than what my measurements were telling me.

Often a particular measurement doesn’t tell enough of the story, but attempting to understand "enough of the story" is inevitably a descent into the technical.

Of course I could be wrong at any point along the way.

Duke

clio09
2,978 posts
 
You don't want hybrids because you will never achieve the proper integration

I can say that hasn't been my experience.
clio09
2,978 posts
 
@bdp24: Yes that was him and those were the speakers. IIRC Sean told me he worked on the Beveridge 4.

In addition to being on the side walls the speakers were positioned equidistant from the front and back walls. You could sit on either side of the room and listen to the speakers.
erik_squires
5,268 posts
 
Cone woofers and electrostatics can work together wonderfully.

The issue is the room, EQ and levels. Fix that and you can have a mind-blowing ESL experience. :)

Also, fixing that is sometimes very hard! :)
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