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!
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- 21 posts total
- 21 posts total