Quad ESL owners question

having studied percussion instruments in my teen years and became a member of my high school band, i actually played bass drums and also, occasionally snare drums.

there is nothing boxy about a snare drum, bass drum or tom tom, there is a particular timbre of each of the aforementioned instruments, but in either case it does not remind me of the vabinet of a loud speaker.

anyway, if a wood cabinet resonates at a a specified frequency or depending upon the design, resonates at more than one frequency, the timbre of certain instruments may be affected.

i am interested in natural timbre. that is the reason i prefer panel speakers.

Hi Isanchez, my post, "Yes, electrostats (or any dipole for that matter?) are bad bad bad bad bad for any other type of music particualy rock, progressive, symphonic, punk, be bop jazz, straight ahead jazz, electronic, dance, orchestral etc, well you get the idea. I am not even sure why they make these things. Thankfully I like Ann Murry, Carpenters, and churches without organs music."

Was in response to Shadornes assertion that electrostatics are, "the acoustic ambience of a panel that radiates forwards and backwards (nice for chamber, church or low level classical music)-"

I usually disagree with every one, so this was my attempt at conformity. You really should ask Shadorne about this.

My response was a bit tongue in cheek response to Shadornes remark, and I am sure he understood it. It really is difficult to make a sweeping statement like he did, for any technology.

As to my experience with electrostats as you can see by my username Acoustat6, guess what I listen to?

I started my audio life with the usual suspects in the 70s, box speakers and in 1984 I purchase my first pair of Acoustat 3s. I then a couple of years later found a used pair of the Acoustat 6 which I continue to listen to, till this day. I have also owned a pair of Super Quads with the bank of RTR electrostatic tweeters and KEF woofers. I have also owned Magnepans. And I have heard many of the usual suspects in boxes, horns and single drivers etc..

Personally I liked many of them and appreciate many of each technologies attributes. I am sure I could have gone in any direction. But i bought the big Acoustats and have stuck with them for better and worse. It is a mrriage as I have owned the sixes for over 25 years. So yes I do indeed like electrostatics. Hence my reply to Shadornes remark.

I also like dipoles. My DIY subwoofer system consists of 32 eight inch Eminence drivers in sealed enclosures. There are eight forward and eight rear facing drivers per side in a stereo pair. It is a linesource configuration. They use a pair of stereo amps. Each woofer tower has its own amp with the "left" channel driving the front bank and the "right" channel driving the rear bank.

You may view them here, http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/10047418LsbjGLlsDK?start=0

Bob

Bob,

Your system is totally awesome. However, I'd say that the shear size of your speakers is indicative of what I was alluding to when I generalized that good panels have great ambience, midrange second to none but are less well suited to higher SPL's. Perhaps that is partly why the bigger panels (Apogees, Sound Labs, Acoustats etc.) are BIG.

Bob; did you consider anything larger than 8 inch drivers for the subs; I have soundlab m2's and anything more than 10 inches for the sub seems to be "slow" and can't keep pace with the panels;just wondering if you experimented with different size drivers;they look awesome !!!

Hello Bob,

It seems I should have read all the posts more carefully before jumping in.

In my experience, whether planar speakers can play convincingly the genres of music you mentioned depends on the rest of the system and the size of the room. For instance, I couldn't listen to rock until I added the Spectron* Monoblocks. I recently added the Joule Electra Marianne Electra Memorial preamp and the sound I'm getting, in terms of slam and impact, is usually not associated to planar speakers.

I assembled my entire system around the Maggies 3.6r. My goal, and my reference, has always been real (live) music, so I need to hear, see and feel the music. In my current system, I get all this while having control and finesse in the music presentation. On the other hand, I've also heard the Maggies in other systems and they couldn't really play loud or have impact. So I personally think it all depends on each one's goals and music tastes.

Best,

iSanchez

*
2,400 Watts at 8 Ohms
3,200 Watts at 4 Ohms
5,600 Watts at 2 Ohms
Headroom of 7,000 watts over 500 msec
Peak voltage: 240 volts
Stability - up to 0.1 Ohm
THD: <.01% from 1W to 600W @ 8O ( in the listening range)
Output impedance: @ 1kHz .036 Ohms
Output impedance: @ 20kHz .19 Ohms
Bandwidth: 200 kHz (less)