Electrostatic vs. Boxed vs. Ribbon?

I have spent most of my adult life listening to electrostatic speakers. I fell in love with the Achostats? in the mid sixties but could not afford them.In the mid seventies i got a pair of esl quads which I loved and stil keep in my office.By the end of the seventies I bought a Pair of dayton wrights great when they worked.In the mid eighties I bought the martin logan monolith I,and replaced these with the ML Prodigies when they came out.Through the years I spent a fortune on tweeks trying to get these speakers to sound right for orchestral music.I listen primarily to classica lmusic.Last year I finaly gave up and got the JM Utopias and I have been happy ever since.
Good luck
ramy

I own the Infinity Renaissance 80's which have the Emit ribbon tweeters and the Emin ribbon midranges. They sound delightful. They do need about 150w/channel. (The Renaissance 90's need much more power.) They are absolutely transparent. Yet, the sweet spot is very narrow. They are very room dependent. I recently moved and didn't recognize their sound in my new place. I had to change speaker cable and speaker placement considerably to 'dial them in'.

I also own Final 0.4 electrostatics. They need lots of power. They are very amplifier dependent. I hooked them up to a Krell KSA 100. They sounded horrible (as Ezmeralda said 'like nails on a blackboard'). But, I have them powered by a Carver Lightstar Reference and they sound as sweet and as mellow as can be. They are also speaker cable dependent.

As to which I like better, Renaissance 80 ribbons or Final 0.4 esl's, I can't say. They both sound great. I suppose it depends on what type of music I'm listening to. It's an adventure.

Seems strange no one has mentioned Apogee. Ramy, I think your generalizations of the four groups is well...generally right. As has been pointed out their are always cross dressers.

I don't quite agree with the idea ribbons have a small sweet spot. the first time I heard an Apogee, I couldn't even tell what I was listening to came from the speakers the stage they project is so holographic. That goes for the big Apogees.