Electrostatic Speakers

I agree with Jcbtubes. I have also owned many electrostats including Quad ESLs, Quad 63s, Acoustat Monitor 3s, Acoustat Model 4s, and 2 different vintages of Soundlab A1s. Although I agree that large electrostats do better in larger room, for some of the reasons outlined by others who have already responded, they have many virtues. They also typically present high impedance loads and hence do very well with OTLs. I ran triod Fourier OTL amps for a while with my Soundlabs and found that they performed better in every way compared to any large solid state amp I had previously used. OTL amps tend to produce more power with higher impediences which makes them ideal for electrostats. You may find that a moderate output OTL will do the job quite nicely. Electrostats have a number of sonic strengths and their share of weaknesses. Many of the aforementioned criticisms are valid, but electrostats can be magical as well. Strongly consider OTLs if you decide to purchase Soundlabs!

I wish to congratulate Duke for his excellent response in putting the pros and cons of stators in the right perspective. I've been using various brands of stators in very different configurations for more than 35 years and have always come back to them, when I was tempted to go astray, because of their midrange rendering, which basically nothing really can come close to in lack of coloration, transient speed, homogenity, sound space and general transparency. Cheers,

Hey if duke says it will work I am sure it will, he has NEVER steered me wrong. Dukes posts are so helpful and detailed, he helped me out with a little basic room treatment and man what a difference-I will never second guess his opinion!

~Tim

i have owned sound lab ultimite 1s , a-3s pristines , dynastats, martin logan cls, quest and so on. stats especilly sound labs offer sound that whips most all high end cone speakers . they are transparent , they sound pure, and full, with gobs of depth. the drawbacks i noticed with soundlabs are macro dynamics are not quite the best. they were plenty loud for me though. they also take up alot of room. the panels can also rattle when pushed to hard. i could live with a-3s or u1s till the end of time though. i would think if you just sit back and enjoy your music then 75 tube watts should be enough. if you blast them then look at another speaker not any stats. good luck and let us know what you get.

I am a huge fan of ribbons and stats. I also love the cones. Most of the points made need not be repeated by me.

I have not heard a speaker that reproduces tonality better than the SoundLabs (some as good, but none better). I also personally know someone that is successfully driving the large SoundLabs with a pair of your OTL's.

If the music you listen to is Classical or Jazz, I do not think you can do better than the SoundLabs. The Piega's, which I sell, would be quite comparable and are easily driven by the 75 watt Tenor OTL's. The Maggie's might be questionable with your amps. If hard rock is more your cup of tea, and "air movement" is what you want, the Wilson's do a great job of that.

Duke: Great job!!!